Easy One Light Headshots | Take and Make Great Photography with Gavin Hoey

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The secret to getting the perfect headshot is communication. On the day of your headshot session you, as the photographer, need to focus on the subject and not on your camera or lighting. So keeping things simple but flexible is a smart idea.

That’s where photographer Gavin Hoey can help. In this video, he shares three quick and easy headshot lighting set-ups that only use one light. Along the way, Gavin shares some top tips on how to avoid shiny skin, when and where to use a reflector and perhaps most usefully, what should you do with your subject’s hands!

The three set-ups start with a single Flashpoint XPOLR300 flash before Gavin adds a silver reflector into the mix. But if flash isn’t your thing, Gavin has you covered as his third lighting set-up is all about playing to the strengths of LED or continuous light. That means, shallow depth of field photos and making your subject's eyes look bright and super colorful, all thanks to a single Nanlite FS-200.

This short video is packed full of real-world photography tips aimed at making sure your photography doesn’t get in the way of communication with your subject.

Timestamps and Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:08 Planning your headshot photo session
2:09 How light size and position improve your portraits
3:59 Portraits with consistent color and exposure
4:50 Leaning against a wall headshot photo session
5:35 Overhead or beauty light headshot portraits
7:25 How to pose hands in a headshot portrait
8:17 Headshots that show your subject's vocation
8:53 Tips for using continuous LED light for headshots
10:48 LED lit headshot session with shallow DOF
11:28 Conclusions and Subscribe