Olivia - Headshot Photos

Headshot Photos

After a busy day photographing properties for some of my agents, Olivia was booked in for a headshot photoshoot.

Currently in her final year at Salford University, which ironically I went to as well … except my I was studying business and not photography - thats a story for another time.

Olivia is studying media and drama and with Media City on Salford Quays being so close it’s essential to be able to provide a headshot.

Todays shoot took two hours, we had a session in the studio and followed up with a walk around the Leeds Liverpool canal for some natural light images too.

We also curated the 100 images taken down to 27 final images/looks/expression and narrowed those down to 13 absolute faves.

In this shot, hard sunlight comes from behind the subject and is bounced back with a lastolite reflector to add warmth and light to the skin.

FYI - There’s no retouching done here just the standard studio edit.

Studio Headshot

Setting up for studio headshots isn’t too difficult and its quite portable too if required.

Here we’ve used a 50% grey background and a large octagonal softbox to key light Olivias face.

But to balance the light theres two 6 foot by 4 foot reflectors on either side of her bouncing some light back and one below her face bouncing some light back up to reduce the shadows - it creates a really soft look and flatters the skin.

Natural Light Headshot

In this shot the key light is daylight coming through some trees behind the camera, there’s full sunshine in the distance creating a bright and airy feel to the background.

If you look closely in Olivias eyes you can just see the reflector lifting any shadows and softening the skin.

Such a simple set up for a great result.