First time shooting head shots and feeling a little lost

Hi All,

These are some of my first real head shots I have done for a group. After I edited them I realized they all look plain and not interesting. Looking around on the forum I see that I should have posed them differently. I didn't choose the location and I didn't use any flash. All the adjustments were made in LR3 but I don't think I got the "right" color balance.

Please C&C, I'm open to any ideas you have!

Well first of all these are not head shots. A "head shot" is just that, a shot of the head (and a little of the shoulders so the head has a base to sit on.) Secondly, the word "photo-graph" is from two Greek words that mean "light" "writing." So in order for one to like a portrait the light must write a "pretty poem." If the light is just a bunch of "meaningless words" the portrait is a failure. For instance lets look at the second image. The 45° turn of her body is nice, and the head tilt is quite nice, but the lighting is not a poem it is a bunch of meaningless words. We have a huge streak of bright light illuminating her forehead, her nose and a portion of her chin. Then there are those hard shadows streaking across her face. Pretty or meaningless?

Benji

a headshot should be above the bust line. If you would have used at least one flash (or a white board) for some fill light they would have been much more appealing. The harsh shadows on the face just kill it for me.

Thanks Benji, I have never thought about light like that! I will think about that next time I shoot.

I guess I made the mistake of calling them head shots. I didn't mean to call the third one a head shot sorry for not specifying. I just ordered a softbox and I'm very excited to finally be able to use my flash of my camera.