Lighting Qs - Help needed

veryrandom

I was recently asked by a good friend/associate if i could do some professional looking head shots for her (she does acting). Iv done head shots for models and make up artists before so this in itself wasnt a problem. However her agent is very specific on the look he wants it to have - the following site was given to me as a template for how he wants the headshots to look - darkish background, pretty natural unposed look. Very un-modelly basically - http://osullivantheactorsagent.com/?cat=5. She has offered to pay me for my troubles so i really want to do a good job for her but i just want some lighting advice on how to achieve that very...natural look via lighting i suppose. I have at my disposal a soft box, and umbrella and obviously a dark backdrop etc.

Any help would be greatly appriciated

It might help if you clarify which headshot on that link you're trying to emulate. There are a lot of them.

ThOnda

It is simple. One softbox in front of the model on her better side, smaller softbox on half power (or reflector) on the other side.
You can do something like this and when you place the main light a bit lower (but still above the eye level of the model), you won't need the reflector from the bottom.

veryrandom

This is the one that he apparently likes the best http://osullivantheactorsagent.com/?p=391 so i guess the best way to emulate that.
But i would be happy with just a good head shot lighting set up

oshead

veryrandom wrote: »

This is the one that he apparently likes the best http://osullivantheactorsagent.com/?p=391 so i guess the best way to emulate that.
But i would be happy with just a good head shot lighting set up

For that shot the Key light is high and above the camera and there are three reflectors below and to the sides of the models face about chest height. It's easy to do with the right equipment. Lastolite do a product called tri-flector. I highly recommend it. It's kinda like a clamshell setup. You can achieve much the same look using two umbrellas, one light above as the key and another below in a 2:1 ratio. A reflector below if you haven't got a second light would suffice.

Hugh_C

There's also a hair/rim light somewhere behind and to the left of the model. Personally I'm not a big fan of that amount of reflectors, it makes the catchlights really fussy, I think you could achieve the same look with just 1.

To the O.P. do a search for Butterfly Lighting, what you're seeing in the example is a variant of that.