business portrait tutorial

[Christopher Steven b]

Could someone recommend either a video tutorial or even a decently descriptive thread pertaining to business portraits [as might end up on a business card e.g.]?

thanks a lot.

[breathless]

Since you've no replies, perhaps a description of your goals will encourage thought on the solution?

[Christopher Steven b]

hey, chris. Yes, a client asked about having a portrait done for his new business card--a standard body-slightly-turned-eyes-aimed-forward shot--and I was hoping for a kind of checklist when shooting as I've never done exactly this sort of thing.

Equipment: 5d, 50mm 1.8, 17-40, 70-200 f/4, 430ex off camera via extended cord, tripod/lightstand.

I was thinking about using the 70-200 and shooting at approx. 135mm @ f/8.

-Where should the axis of my lens point? at around his nose?
-should the axis be horizontal? or slightly downward?
-he's bald(ing) and I am wondering if there are any special considerations here ie. 'reflective highlights' for lack of a better term.
-how do I position him?
-how can I best make use of the limited lighting that I have?

thanks to all who can make any suggestions.

[breathless]

It seems, from your description, you already have a good idea of the image you need, or want.

For a male subject, I tend to position the camera just around the chin, or lower for a tight shot. I prefer the subject looking slightly downward. From there, you may have the subject lean more forward or back. I really like the 7/8ths and 3/4 turn of shoulders on male subjects, and less so of the full mug. But, it would merely take a couple of minutes to do several angles while you have your subject seated, so maybe you can do them all.

Lighting-wise, if this is your standard "real estate agent/attorney" type of headshot, I'd try to soften the light as much as possible. Whether by bouncing off of a white wall, umbrella, or shooting through softbox or a diffusion panel.

I like your technical choices. In fact, I'd choose somewhere between 70 to 135 on full frame and stay around f/8.

Happy shooting.

[Christopher Steven b]

Well--I'm back. Thanks a lot for your suggestions; they were definitely helpful.

Because of the tight space I ended up shooting mostly at 70; and I ended up shooting as low as 5.6 just because of the light source i was using: a large balcony window which provided a lot softer light than my 430ex bounced off of the wall could have.

I've attached one of the photos pretty much SOOC aside from preliminary tweaks.

[Digital_zen]

Congrats on the shoot! Great light! Scary lookin' dood!
One thought, if I may be so bold, the tie is killing it for me,...would this guy hit you with a brick if you toned it down to say maybe a nice gray or tan,maybe even a blue. Careful though he looks like he is just looking for reason and a brick!

[Christopher Steven b]

The tie--yeah, it suddenly became visible for me whilst doing re-touching! I suppose this is the sort of thing that a veteran portrait shooter would have spotted immediately and squashed. On the other hand, this is for a business card and not for a wall.

It's funny that you mention bricks; some commented about his previous portrait [obviously not shot by me] that in it he resembled tie domi--famed hockey bruiser.

Ah. and the image is up for critique <here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=8264926#post8264926)>.