Child actor headshot - Venice and Gardena
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Brody's first headshot was shot here in Gardena in 2006 in my old garage. Brody sat at the entrance of the garage facing east. The afternoon light from the west is partially reflected back through the doorway to create a soft, beautiful portrait light like north facing window light. I set up one strobe inside the garage performing a dual use as a hair light and background light. I think I used a yellow gel. The background is an ancient plywood ping pong table whose green paint is mostly peeled off revealing brown wood. It makes a really nice background when placed at least eight feet from the sitter &mdash enough distance to render it completely out of focus.
Also, the 85mm f/1.4 is a very fast lens, meaning it can be used in low light and has an extremely wide aperture whhich creates a razor thin depth of field. A shallow depth of field makes a flattering portrait because many distracting details are soft and blurry. The drawback is that it is extremely difficult to focus. You need to focus on the front eye (if the head is skew to the camera, even slightly, one eye will be a few millimeters closer than the other and the close eye usually needs to be in focus for a headshot). This image is slightly soft, but it is still looks fine when blown up to an 8x10 headshot.
Headshot Info
- Name: Brody
- Hometown: Redondo Beach, CA
- Location: At the doorway of my garage in Gardena
- Headshot type: Child actor headshot
- Lighting: Natural lighting, reflected. One studio strobe used as a hair and background light.
- Lens: Nikkor 85mm f/1.4
- Camera: Nikon D2X
- Camera sensor size: DX
- Aperture: f/2
- Shutter: 1/250 s.
- ISO: 160
More headshots shoots
- Brody — child headshot natural window light, shallow depth of field, additional strobe
- Charissa —business headshot
- Daniela — different focal lengths 85mm, 300mm
- Ally — child model zed card shoot
- Eric — male model portfolio shoot
- Karen, Anton, Jim — actor comp card shoots
- Tutu — three shoots, sixteen years apart, large format, 35mm film and digital