Headshots against a white background are probably the most popular kind, comprising roughly 85%. So it’s always fun and interesting to receive a request from a company for something different to the norm. And as it was headshot photography in Brighton, it meant I could fit the job in before finishing a 3 day conference job down the road that evening.
Brief
1X2 Network are a gaming company in Brighton and they got in touch to request some team headshots bespoke to them. They wanted their headshots to have a friendly vibe but with a bit of an edge to them. They also wanted them shot against a background which matched the blue of their branding. Not a problem.
Shoot
I have a blue chromakey background (often used like a green screen but for when people are wearing green clothes) so used this for the shoot as a base. To give a bit of an edge, I thought one, large key light just off to one side would light them well but bring some nice shadows for definition. For this I used my 90cm octobox placed to camera right with a 4cm grid added to reduce the light spread. This gave a nice shadow down the right side of their faces but due to its size, ensured its falloff wasn’t too harsh. Nice.
I also had a light for the background to give a halo to the headshots to make the subject pop against the blue. It was also needed because I felt the blue from the client’s branding would have been too dark and not as dynamic if it hadn’t have been lit.
To ensure there was a bit of fill to the shadows under the chin, I placed a reflector on a boom arm to bounce some of the key light back up to the subject.
I shot tethered through Adobe Lightroom with the delicious Canon EF 85mm 1.4L.
Post Production
As the client wanted the blue background to match their branding, they gave me the hexadecimal code for the blue. So in order to adjust the background to match the branding, I used the Replace Color function in Photoshop, selected the richest area of the background and copied in the hexadecimal code. This gave me the adjustments needed to the Hue, Saturation and Lightness. I then escaped from the recolour function, added a new saturation adjustment layer, selected the blue from the image and entered the new HSL amounts. This adjusted the tone of the blue to match the blue of the client’s branding. Obviously, because the background light provides a gradient, the actual blue of the client’s branding only matches the background exactly towards the edge but the adjustments ensure the tones of the blues are a match.
Wrap
It was refreshing to have a headshot photography brief that was a little different. Not only is it good for variety for my portfolio but it keeps things interesting for me. Having to shoot a different setup that requires a slightly different post-production workflow also keeps you on your toes. It shows a breadth of skill and something I think is one of the most important aspects to the customer experience – a can-do attitude. It also keeps the grey matter stimulated.
So while the vast majority of headshot jobs can require the same or similar setup and post-production, it’s imperative to be able to deviate from the ‘standard’ when required. Providing a bespoke and tailored service for each particular client is key to ensuring a customer experience that every client expects.
Here’s a selection from the day:
Thanks to Kim and the team for the Behind the scenes images and for making it a fun shoot on a wet, Thursday morning in November. To find out more about my headshot photography, head to my Business Headshots page.
