Headshot

This is from my first attempt at taking head shots, and it is also from the first set of images taken in my newly set up home studio.

Obviously, my buddy has red hair and a pale complexion, so my biggest issue was pulling some of the redness out of his face without making him look dead. I initially had a DIY Kino (Peter Hurley-ish) setup on him, but it was making his face turn bright red, so I switched over to a single b800 through a cheapo 95cm octabox.

How did I do? Up to this point, all of my experience has been in shooting sports, and using strobes is new territory for me. Any help or advice is much appreciated!

Canon 60D
Canon 70-200 2.8 @ 130mm

f/5.6
1/125 sec
ISO 160

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His hair looks green to me. Since you have a studio, shoot one gray card or color card with each light setup then you can get great color balance in post processing.

As pointed out the headshot has a slightly greenish color cast. If you use Photoshop you can click the Neutral (grey) eyedropper on the top of his right shoulder to color correct it.

More importantly, I think you key light was positioned incorrectly. Judging by the shadow below his right nostrils and on his right shoulder it was placed to far to the left. The ideal position of your key light should be approx. 2 feet HIGHER than the subject's head and 45 degrees from the tip of his nose. So if he moves his head during poses you should reposition the light to maintain that relationship. I would also add some fill by placing a reflector or another strobe at very low power on his right side to lift some of the shadows.

I was so concerned about the redness in his face that I let the overall color balance get out of whack. How are the greens in this one? The reds started to come back, so I tried to find a happy medium.

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