Headshot How To: Mixing flash and ambient light (in low light conditions)

Living in Nashville I get the pleasure of working with a lot of really amazing clients.  One coolest clients I get to work with here in town is the iconic Sound Emporium Studios, which if you haven't heard of them it's definitely worth a google search.  I've been working with the Sound Emporium for a little over 4 years now shooting everything from the rooms themselves to product shots of the gear and even taking headshots for the staff.

In this post I am going to explain my lighting setup for the most recent headshot session I had with the staff.  One of the things that the Sound Emporium prides themselves on is the "vibe" of the studio so I wanted to try to capture that in the photos I took of the staff.  That being said, I didn't want to just shoot a basic white, black or grey background headshot and call it a day.  I needed to add some interest to the image which I did by placing the subjects in front of the recording console in one of the control rooms.  After I placed my subject, I used a simple two light setup and a shutter drag technique to capture the final image.  Keep reading to view the lighting diagram and camera settings...

As you can see by the diagram, I placed my subject just to the right of the recording console and then created my setup from there.  For my key light I used an FJ Westcott Apollo Orb with the Grid attachment as to make sure I didn't have any light hitting anything I didn't want.  

For my backlight I just had a single Yongnuo speedlight with a MagMod grid attachment just to separate my subject form the background that falls to black.  

Directly opposite of my key light, I place a silver reflector just to give a little kick of light on the right side of my subjects face and fill in any really drastic shadows.  

For my camera settings you may be wondering why I was shooting all the way down at 1/8 sec (which is extremely low for a portrait). This technique is called "dragging the shutter" where you I shot at a really low shutter speed to allow the ambient light in the room to be properly exposed while my flash froze my subject so I didn't get any unwanted motion blur.  

If you have any questions please feel free to ask and I will do my best to respond in a timely manner. 

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and if you want to see more be sure to subscribe and also follow us on Instagram @ReadylightMedia and "like" us on Facebook!

Until next time,

Jeff C.