NDH head shot standards

ISO 100

f5.6

1/125th

100mm (anywhere between 85 and 135 should be fine. 70 is too wide, 200 is too compressed and far away feeling

shoot RAW files

white balance set to Flash

images will be cropped to 8x10, please leave enough room to crop but also try to fill frame reasonably well.

simple one light set up, at approx 30-45 degree angle from subject. Pointed at close distance into ceiling/white side wall/glass back wall. Usually placed behind my right shoulder but sometimes we are in a flipped office and the light is over my left shoulder.

If room you are shooting in has super low ceiling, get light up into corner as much as you can and have both you and client sit but make sure we can’t see that they are sitting. Don’t point up at tall people or down at short people, bring camera to their level and make sure on plane with nose and eyes.

Rooms I shoot in have glass back wall behind camera where some light escapes. When bouncing light in room with two full walls, bounce light more into side wall and ceiling, and flag off back wall if needed to prevent bounced lighting from looking too flat/straight on. If bounced totally into side wall or ceiling, shadows will be too harsh. find nice balance please.

If bouncing into walls and ceiling just isn’t an option, use the largest softbox or octobox you can squeeze in, as my bounced light source is huge compared to a standard soft box and I don’t want to end up with images that have too much contrast or harsh angle of shadows.

ideally window with a view as backdrop. make this work if at all possible.
use white or gray if no interesting views, so we more can easily photoshop in new background if needed.

capture additional front focused angles through window for photoshop needs. I am often shooting multiple subjects in smaller offices (pictured below), and try to have each subject with slightly different background.

watch out for light reflecting in windows and subject glasses. adjust light height and your angle to the subject and twist subject as needed. Images with lights reflected in subject’s glasses will likely be rejected and will need to be reshot. Circular polarizer may help but I’ve never needed it. In some cases, it may be needed to get a photo with glasses off and hope the hope the expression is close enough to photoshop eyes over the glare. As seen to the right, I would rather photoshop the background than the light in reflecting in glasses….and it doesn’t take 30 frames to get complete coverage.

keep an eye on longer hair and use dryer sheets or a little water to tame down flyaways/whisps.

Offer soft paper towels or blotter paper for subject to dab oily skin. Don’t wipe and scratch skin, dab.

keep an eye out for collapsed collars, bad tie tying jobs, off center pendants, excessive fuzz on jackets, excessive wrinkles on shirts, bad posture, over-staring into lens, etc 

pose subject approx 3 ft from window

have them turn feet and shoulders approx 30 degrees away from camera, nose and chin are always straight at lens.

have them turn feet other direction 30 degrees so we have captures of body angled towards and away from light just in case.

if time permits grab a few frames of different expressions with feet and shoulders squared to the camera, especially for partners/management as additional images may be used for editorial purposes beyond just website roster.

No tilted heads/myspace poses or off-center looks. Make sure your images fit in with our existing image pool please.

No logos, beware of moire on shirts with tight line patterns, suggest borrowing a jacket if someone has only one shirt with them and its not working well.

try to get a confident smirk with no teeth showing, a few nice mid range smiles, and a couple full smile/fake laughs just in case. Should be about ten exposures per subject unless they are having hard time with blinking or not feeling relaxed etc. I don’t need 30 frames of almost the same smile, but please don’t give me just 3 frames to choose from and two of them aren’t posed properly and the last one seems like they were holding onto fake smile too long...

Some subjects may want a shot with and without glasses, hair over shoulder vs in front, jacket and no jacket; still should take less than ten mins per subject. I sometimes have subjects nail their first frame but I shoot additional frames/expressions/angles just to be safe, and they are still in front of camera for less than two minutes. Be thorough, don’t rush, but don’t waste time shooting tons of extra poses we won’t use when you know you have the hero shot or two.

I am more than happy to do the retouching on our final selections, but please try to get as much right in the camera as possible.

Thanks!