What lenses (and setup) to use for headshots?

S

sd87

New member
Hi, I need to take headshots for a friend and got myself a hold of a 5D mkii for the weekend. I don't have much photography experience, and was wondering if someone could help me for which type of lens and camera settings to use, to accomplish that 'headshot' style. Unfortunately I don't have access to any lighting if thats needed...

The 5D owner also lent me his canon prime 50m 1.4 and canon zoom 24-70mm lenses. Will these lenses work or should I try to get a hold of another one?

Any words of wisdom in how to create great headshots would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
 
Shoot with the 50mm. Don't go above f2.8. Stand about 5 feet away so that you just frame the upper body. Don't shoot at anything wider (lower) than 50mm unless you are planning on a really wide shot (which isn't a headshot). Shoot outdoors on a nice sunny day about an hour or 2 before sunset (2-3 hours before twilight). Use a big sheet of aluminum foil or a large peice of white cardboard to act as a reflector or bounce card and place it at above or at eye level of the subject and aim down to reflect the sun onto your subjects face. Place the sun behind your subject to the right or left and place the bounce card or reflector to the oppose side in front of your subject. Don't frame the sun in the shot or you will get flare. Use a lens hood if you have one and take off any filter that might be on the lens. The other option is to place your subject in a nice shaded area with even lighting and expose for your subjects face. Finally play around with poses and practice...it's really the only way to get better at lighting and posing. Shoot in RAW format and properly white balance in post. Those are a couple of lighting setups you can do without having off camera flashs.
 
Normal lenses when shooting headshots with a full-frame camera are usually between 85mm - 135mm.

85mm at 5 feet to slightly "expand" features for people with flatter faces.

135mm at 7-8 feet to slightly "compress" features for people with prominent faces.


...You can always use a shorter lens at the appropriate distance and then just crop the image down to a head-shot, and never ever shoot closer than 5 feet unless you want to distort a person's features.
 
Put your AF point on an eye. Don't use flash. Use your zoom and shoot from wide to 70 noting that you can always crop later. Wide open you'll bet more bokeh @70, but try stopping down lens as you shoot to see how much DOF you are losing. Don't limit yourself to being too close. Try moving around a little. 8-10 feet can also yield good results.
 
Some great advice guys, I really appreciate your help! I'll be experimenting with both lenses and figuring out what works best.
 
That's good stuff about the reflectors. Maybe get an assistant to hold a reflector and move to where you need it.

The other thing is an eyelight/reflector. You can use a white card above the lens to bounce back little eye reflections. That makes a nice highlight (but may need another assistant!).

Careful not to blow out any background reflections.
 
I use white foam board all the time for reflectors and they work like a charm (super cheap as well)! Another problem I see regularly when shooting outdoors is major shadows under the subjects nose and chin. Just keep an eye out for it ;)
 
Yes longer focal lengths tend to be better, personally I think 100mm and above is fine for a headshot if it's f2.8 or faster. Problem is the bokeh he will get from the 50 1.4 is going to create a much bolder background than the 24-70 can achieve and is a much sharper lens. As far as the pronounced perspective, if he shoots 5 feet away with the 50mm this shouldn't be an issue, if he needs just the head in the shot he can later crop (21MP is a lot of resolution to play around with) and he will be left with a very sharp photo with an effective focal length probably greater than 100mm depending on how much was cropped.

Out of the lens options I still stand by the 50mm.
 
nwstudios said:
Personally for head shots I would not go less than 135mm. Some examples at various focal lengths. http://stepheneastwood.com/tutorials/Tutorials_Lens_Perspective.htm
Click to expand...

^- agreed with this. I would shoot with an 85mm prime at a stretch.

---

Of course, you can shoot with the 50mm, take a few steps further back and crop in later, but you will throw away resolution by cropping. If you're not going to be blowing up the pictures to large sizes, then that shouldn't be too much of a problem, but just be aware of that.

Also, to the people who are saying that you will be able to throw the background out of focus with the 50mm, that is true, but once you step back from the subject and crop loosely, you will start to lose that shallow depth of field, anyway! :)

My suggestion would be to see if you can get your hands on an 85mm or 135mm lens, but if not, then compromise as others are saying by using either of the lenses you have, taking a few steps back from the subject and cropping in later (I would personally be inclined to use the 24-70 at 70mm over the 50mm out of the lenses you have). Try to find something with a nice background, too.

I hope that helps!
 
David_lr said:
Of course, you can shoot with the 50mm, take a few steps further back and crop in later, but you will throw away resolution by cropping. If you're not going to be blowing up the pictures to large sizes, then that shouldn't be too much of a problem, but just be aware of that.

Also, to the people who are saying that you will be able to throw the background out of focus with the 50mm, that is true, but once you step back from the subject and crop loosely, you will start to lose that shallow depth of field, anyway! :)
Click to expand...

Resolution in general is more of a marketing ploy than anything. In the grand scheme of things the difference between 8MP and 21MP is the difference between a 7.5" x 10" 12"x16". Even if the crop was to 8MP there would be more than enough resolution to print an 8x10 headshot at 300 DPI.

In regards to stepping back and cropping effecting DOF, this is not the case. DOF is a direct result of aperture as well as the relation between subject/focus distance and focal length. It's true when you step back your focus distance will be greater but when you crop you will be compensating for this. For instance, you will achieve the same DOF if using a 50mm @ F2.8 from 2.5 feet as you would a 100mm @ F2.8 from 5 feet. When you stand 5 feet back with the 50mm but crop to the framing of the 100mm you are effectively changing the focal length as if you were shooting with a cropped sensor camera with a crop factor of 2X.

That being said, the choice for using the 50mm and cropping over the 24-70 is preferable if you are looking to have the most shallow DOF out of the lens choices. The only question is if it's worth it to loose some resolution in order to achieve the shallow DOF. In most cases I say it is, but obviously we would need to know how the headshot will be used and if squeezing every pixel out of the lens and camera is a priority.
 
This depends what person is saying and how conversation looks like, more zoomed in means more important thing is happening , on 5D you can use 50mm for regular "detached emotionally" conversations, you can go closer with it cause it doesnt distort that bad but its better to zoom to at least 100mm for perspective change when you have only head in the frame and person is saying something important.
*Standing closer with 50mm is not the same as using 100mm from distance, generally flat perspective tells that its close up, so its better to shoot close ups on telephoto than walking closer with 50mm, it will look more natural in editing as well.
Eveything is explained here:
http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/
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