With an idea of the perfect image in your mind, bringing it all together means working with a team of people who are talented and creative. With ideas, tear sheets and inspiration all put together on a mood board, it is quite easy for everyone to envisage the kind of image you are trying to create.

Few things which you need to consider are:

Location

It is ideal to shoot indoors as you can totally control the lighting and secondly there isn’t any wind which may cause havoc with hair being blown everywhere. Plus there isn’t any danger of rain spoiling the shoot as it is expensive with all the work done for make-up, hair & styling.

A great location is very important and you must spend some time doing the recce and finding the right location i.e a modern flat, country park, car park, graffiti walls, etc.

Styling: Make Up & Hair

This can pretty much make or break your makeover photoshoot. A professional stylist can bring a valuable dimension to the table. A good and talented stylist can help our job being a lot easier by styling the subject the right way and creating the look you are after. Styling is one of the most important things on the photo shoot. Some make-up artists also do hair styling, so do look for someone local to work with and build up a good relationship. You will definitely need someone you can trust and rely on every time.

Do allow some time for the styling, depending on the kind of look and styling, it may take around 1 hour for the hair & make-up to be done. The stylists I use take about 1 hour. They know what I’m looking for and I also know how they work. This trust-worthy relationship works well and helps me achieve my images on time every time.

Image on the left lit with 2 x Nikon SB900 & on the right lit with 1 x Nikon SB900.

Clothing & Props

Depending on your budget, it is quite important to have a stylist. A good stylist will have strong relationships with fashion PRs and know the latest trends and fashion. They also know what works well in front of the camera and will bring a variety of clothing & props for the shoots for different looks.

Lighting

This image was shot using a Ringflash.

When shooting on location, you need to have a fairly lightweight & portable kit if you are working on your own. The lighting kit I use is fairly portable and quick to set up. When I’m photographing say at a Beauty & Hair Salon, I make sure that I don’t take over their premises. My kit usually consists of Nikon SB900 & SB800 flashguns along with a Lastolite Ezybox.

As you can see that I’m using a small corner of the salon and have shot images as above. In this set-up, I have 3 x Nikon Speedlights. This 3 light set-up took no more than 10 minutes to set up. It is completely wireless and I am controlling all the flashguns using a Nikon SU-800 commander.

Retouching & Workflow

Lastly, images need to be retouched. You will need Photoshop to retouch your images. It is not necessary to have the latest version of Photoshop. You can quite easily use older versions and get some terrific results. There are also loads of software available at low cost which can retouch very well. One software which I have heard good reviews is Portrait Professional. I personally don’t use it, but have heard very good things about it and is also very affordable.

If you aren’t very efficient in Photoshop, there are many companies and retouchers out there who can retouch your images for very low cost. If you don’t enjoy this part of the process, then best is to outsource it. All you need to do is FTP the images and you’ll get the edited, retouched & colour corrected file back usualy within 24-48 hours.

I hope you enjoyed this post and please feel free to share your experience of Makeover Portrait Photography in the comment box below.

Do you want to tap into the lucrative ‘Lifestyle Portrait’

Photography market?

Are you someone who is interested in making money from digital portrait photography without the added & expensive costs of running a studio?

There is a huge market and demand for headshot photography for business cards, passports, advertising, website, brochures, press kits, model & actor / actresses portfolio, etc. Every business needs this for their staff. This is a simple head & shoulder shot of a person against a plain or coloured background or backdrop. This is called ‘headshot photography’

There is a continuous requirements for headshot photography and they need to be updated every 2 years so it reflects the person’s age, hair style and colour, etc. These shots are needed for publicity & PR, brochures, business cards, website, security badges and so on. Not only businesses require these, but people like actors, actresses & models need them too for their portfolio.

Lets start with what you need to do headshots. The headshots needs to be flattering and designed to enhance their features and minimise flaws. Make-up and hair should ideally be done professionally if these are for model or actor / actresses portfolio. Wardrobe should be thought about before the shoot and you should allow for multiple wardrobe changes.

If the headshots are required for business use or for staff pictures, you don’t need wardrobe changes, however, you will need to work pretty fast as you don’t want to waste time of the staff sitting in front of the camera for long periods of time and costing the company valuable man hours. If you are slow and use too much of their time, you will lose that company as your customer. It is even more important when photographing directors or members of the board. Quite often you will have only about 2-3 minutes per person. They are busy people and you need to work extremely fast.

When doing headshot photography for corporate clients, you will be asked to come over to their office and shoot the images. Here again, you need to cause minimum disruption to their working environment. Don’t take over the office with your light stands, cables, leads & equipment. Keep your kit to a minimal.

PRICING & PRODUCT

Many photographers struggle to price the job correctly as the product required by the company is just digital files. Remember that the copyright always stays with the photographer, you give the rights to reproduce the images for their business use.

The way to cost the job is very easy. Direct costs for headshot photography is very minimal and the major factor is your time. So if you think the job will take 3 hours, then charge 3 hours x hourly rate + any direct costs i.e travel, etc. It is up to you how much mark-up you put on your total costs.

Lets have a look at a ‘real life’ job. The brief was to create headshots for 5 employees. I was to photograph the headshots at their head office.

As you can see from the images of the room I was going to do the headshots in, there wasn’t any plain wall available which I could use as my background. I had a Lastolite background but if I can use a plain wall, there is no need to set up the background up and saves time.

Then I noticed the frosted windows and that is what I was looking for. I only need a little bit of space to do the headshots in. I set up my portable lighting kit which consisted of a Nikon SB900 , a diffused umbrella and a light stand.

I used a Nikon SU800 Commander unit to trigger my remote Nikon SB900 .

The SB900 was set to Group A Channel 1 and so was the SU800 Commander. This is very important, they must be able to ‘talk’ to each other. Pressing the little test button (orange coloured) on the SU800 will trigger the flash and you know that they are set correctly.

The other important factor to consider is the sensor on the flashgun must ‘see’ or ‘receive’ the infra-red light from the SU800. This is very important when shooting outdoors but not indoors. The infra-red light is reflected from the walls even if the sensor on the SB900 or SB800 is away from you. A good discipline is to always keep the flash gun sensor facing you as you can see from the image below. This is why I use a diffused umbrella and also I like the soft diffused light when using a shoot through umbrella.

I use a Lastolite 80cm Umbrella – Translucent White and this works fine for me. What I would recommend is the Lastolite all-in-one lighting kit. This is portable & light weight. As I said earlier on, I need to be really fast to set up and shoot. It takes me less than 2 minutes to set up a lightstand, Nikon SB900 or SB800 and an umbrella. No wires around me and all works really well. The Lastolite Lighting kit is £82.99p from Warehouse Express .

Now to setting up the exposure. I get my subject and do a test shot. The ideal lens for this is either a Nikon 85mm , 105 or a 70-200mm . I use the Nikon 105mm for this kind of shot.

Here is the set up shot. 1/100 f/5 ISO 320. The output of the flash was set to around 1/16. As the flash is pretty close to the subject, I don’t need to fire it all full output. This is critical for fast recycling of the flash gun and you don’t need to wait around a few seconds for the flash to be ready. I’m pretty much firing the shots one after the other.

Here is the final image as shot.

It would have been very easy to make the background completely white by using a second flash gun on the background. But I preferred the light grey graduated colour on the background and kept it that way. I usually take about 8-10 shots of each person in 2 different poses. This will give you enough choice to pick the best few images. You don’t need to give all the images, just the best 3 images per person.

Click the link below to search for any of the items directly from Amazon:

Photography

To recap:

– Keep things very simple

– Be quick to set up

– Don’t take over the office

– Dress smart. No jeans & trainers!

Hope you enjoyed this article post and feel free to write any comments or feedback.

Oz

I loved the D100. It was a superb camera and the whole digital revolution was starting and since then the advances in technology & software has given us the Nikon D300s. This is I would say one of the best DX format Nikon cameras around at the moment.

The D300S is a compact DX format professional SLR that extends the options for photographers who value creative flexibility. Incorporates Nikon’s D-movie with in-camera editing function into a discrete body, letting you switch quickly between capturing superior stills or movie clips in stereo* sound. It boasts a highly sensitive 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor and supports a phenomenal 7fps continuous shooting. CF and SD card slots enhance workflow flexibility,  letting you capture stills on one card and movies on another. Nikon’s acclaimed 51-point AF system offers broad coverage and high sensitivity in low light. Selectable Picture Controls streamline post-production, and the high definition 3-inch LCD screen supports D-movie and two Live View modes. Protected by a tough, yet light, environmentally-sealed magnesium alloy body, the D300S will change the way you approach the craft of photography.

Key Features

12.3 megapixel DX format CMOS image sensor. Self-cleaning sensor unit minimizes the effect of dust.

7fps continuous shooting (8fps when shooting with the optional MB-D10 battery pack).

D-Movie records beautiful, high-definition (HD) movie clips in stereo sound* with start/stop Edit function.

Dual card slots: CF and SD card slots for enhanced workflow flexibility.

ISO 200-3200: extendable up to ISO 6400 (equivalent) and down to ISO 100 (equivalent).

EXPEED image processing engine with 14-bit A/D conversion and 16-bit image processing for superb tonal gradation.

Multi-CAM3500DX 51-point AF system. Individually selectable or configurable in 9-point, 21-point and 51-point coverage settings.

Quick response with approx 0.13 second power-up and 45 millisecond shutter release time lag.

Quiet shooting mode: perfect for discrete photography, the sound of the camera’s mechanisms are noticeably reduced.

Picture Controls streamline in-camera image processing by enabling customization of image parameters before capture, and offer complete control over sharpening, contrast, brightness, hue and saturation in various color modes.

920,000 dot 3-inch VGA LCD monitor with wide, 170- degree viewing angle.

Active D-Lighting enables superior high-contrast images by automatically applying tone compensation at the moment of capture.

Durable, magnesium alloy body: water and dust resistant.

Durable shutter unit tested to 150 000 cycles.

HDMI video output interface enables connection to high-definition video systems.

Intuitive ergonomics with optimized button placement for fast and comfortable handling.

This is now Nikon’s flagship DX-format camera body and delivers an exceptional degree of power from a agile body. The D300S’s Multi CAM 3500DX AF sensor module offers an exceptionally wide area of AF coverage. With 51 points strategically positioned across the frame.

One of the most interesting features is the Scene Recognition System using the precise colour and brightness information from the 1,005-pixel RGB sensor. Scene Recognition System pushes the accuracy levels for autofocus, auto exposure, i-TTL flash control and auto white balance to an unprecedented high. In playback mode, the Face Detection System lets you instantly zoom in on a human face in the LCD monitor.

Video on a DSLR

I’ve written about the video on a dslr before on here . With the D300s you enter a whole new dimension of creativity. You can create HD quality (1,280 x 720 pixels) at 24fps movie. You can also attach an external microphone through the mic terminal. A good quality microphone like the Rode VideoMic Directional Stereo Microphone is a professional grade shotgun microphone and sits neatly and safely on the hot shoe.

The sensitivity of the internal and the external microphone can be adjusted to low, medium, high or auto sensitivity level.

Select low for sensitivity in loud & noisy environments and high for quieter environments.

An external microphone also allows you to distance it from any sound generated by the camera  – such as the lens movement during autofocus shooting.

The D-Movie function has undergone various improvements since its launch in 2008 and now comes with an external microphone terminal for clear stereo recordings that add an exciting new element to your movies.

Another way to enhance the dramatic impact of your movies, far beyond the reach of ordinary camcorders, is with the unrivaled line up of NIKKOR lenses – from ultra wide to fisheye to super-telephoto.

There are two modes for the video:

Tripod Mode

Gives you control over the depth of field with a selectable aperture of up to f/16 (in A & M modes).

Hand-held Mode

The D300s can automatically adjust the aperture setting to match changes in the brightness of your scene.

The dual card slots for Compact Flash & SD memory cards is a ‘must-have’ in any pro camera body. Gives so much peace of mind knowing that your images / movies are being backed up in-camera instantly. With more movies shot, the card capacity is getting bigger and I don’t have any problems shooting with a 8GB or bigger CF card.

The battery will give you approx 950 shots depending on how much you use the superb 920k-dot LCD screen for playback function and also video. Using the MB-D10 Multi Power Battery Pack increases the shooting to up to a phenominal 2,950 shots per charge and enables high-speed continuous shooting at a rate of approx 8 frames per second.

For the flash, I would recommend the Nikon SB900 Speedlight . Event though the D300s comes with a pop-up flash, you just can’t beat the SB900. One great little feature of the built-in pop up flash is the ability to trigger wirelessly any SB600/800/900 flashguns as a remote. The built-in Commander Mode for the flash allows you to control up to 2 groups of flashguns.

This is a superb DX-format 12.3 megapixel camera body with approx. 100% viewfinder frame coverage. If I wasn’t using the FX format D series Nikons. I would certainly be using the D300s.

I was proud to be part of this first ever 3-day workshop on weddings & portraits. I was accompanied by my fellow tutor and good friend Julie Oswin and 12 other delegates who were extremely keen to learn new things and techniques. We were also joined by Dave Robbins, Dennis Nicholls & James Banfield from the Nikon UK training team. They provided specialist tips & advice on how to get the best out of your Nikon.

For 3-days we pretty much talked, walked, ate, drank photography and nothing else. It was very intense, long hours but very enjoyable. We had 12 sessions over 3-days covering a wide variety of topics including weddings, portraits, shooting & editing workflow, pricing, products, marketing, business issues, blogs, SEO and much much more. Plus we had 4 practical sessions of photographing lifestyle portraits and a bride & groom in the stunning location of Woburn Abbey. We were at the Abbey, The Sculpture Gallery, Chinese Diary, Stockgrove Country Park and the grounds around the Abbey. The weather couldn’t have been better. We were blessed with sunny & hot weather. The sessions were photographed with a variety of lighting techniques including available ambient with reflectors & diffusers, off-camera flash techniques using the SB900 and the SU800 Commander unit.

We met up on a Sunday Evening for the welcome drink and the evening meal. Each morning we started at 9.00am and finish by 6.00pm. Myself & Julie then did 1 hour mentoring session on an individual basis between 7.00 to 8.00pm. Then the evening meal followed by a quick trip to the bar. The days were long and hectic but great fun.

One very lucky winner was amongst us. The winner of the Nikon / Amateur Photographer contest worth over £3000.00 including a place on this workshop and a Nikon D700 with a 24-70mm lens. Plus each person received a fantastic Gift Voucher worth £100.00 from UK’s leading lab Loxley Colour .

We had a tremendous 3-days of intense training and many thanks to Nikon for hosting such a super event and thanks for inviting me to be one of the tutors.

Oz

Enjoy!

Oz

[media id=9]

More photographer interviews:

Interview with Christian Keenan

Interview with Martin Grahame-Dunn

These little flash guns are portable and extremely easy and quick to set up. Now I don’t need to carry my heavy three-head studio flash kit to any events I attend. In fact, since I started using the Nikon kit I’ve hardly used my studio gear at all! There are no power cables, no sync leads and no light meters to worry about, and the best bit of all is that all remote wireless units can be controlled via the main master flash, which is attached to the camera’s hot shoe.

What this means is that if I wish to power up or down a remote flash I do not need to go up to the unit to do that, since it can be done via the master flash which is on camera. This saves a lot of time if you have more than two remote units. You take a shot, have a look and power up or down the relevant unit from your shooting position.

The setup

The most important factor which the wireless flash adds is its ability to give me directional lighting within my images. I usually shoot with a SU800 commander unit as my Master and a SB900 as my Remote. The Remote flashgun can either be hand held or set up on a light stand and fired through an umbrella. The Nikon CLS system works on infra-red. So it is important to make sure that the sensor on the Remote is facing you so that the pre-flash or the infra-red beam reaches it and triggers the flashgun. This is critical when photographing outdoors.

Setting the Exposure

This is by trial and error. I set the camera & flash in manual mode so I have complete control over how much ambient & flash light is going through my lens. I take a shot, have a look at the back of the camera and adjust the exposure as required.

There are 4 variables when setting the exposure. If you follow the KISS principle of Keep It Simple Stupid, you won’t go wrong. Here how I set my exposure:

I set the ISO to say 400 or any other speed and leave it alone

I set the aperture to f/4 and leave it alone. 95% of my flash photography is done at f/4

I set my shutter speed and don’t it touch it all.

All I’m adjusting now is the output of the flash. If its too much, I cut it down and vice versa. Balancing the flash & ambient light in Manual mode is extremely easy and produces pleasing images and most importantly you get what you want, not what the camera / flash decide to expose!

Wireless Flash Weddings

Time is of the essence at a wedding, and quite often the photographer does not have the time to set up strobes to improve on the available lighting, even if this was possible, there is always the danger of trailing power cables and sync leads in a public location, and these may not be long enough to reach the outdoor location where you are looking to set up your shot. Using the Nikon SB900 makes all these considerations a thing of the past, and I’ve found that I can set my images up quickly and safely. Quite often during the reception I have clamped my remote SB900 guns to a suitable vantage point, such as a door frame, furniture edge or a curtain pole, using a Bogen 175 clamp.

Location Portraits

Shooting on-location allows me to use locations which I couldn’t before with a traditional studio set up. Perfect example is on a hill where the car park could be about 20 minutes from the location where you are shooting. You walk all the way up with heavy equipment and only to find it starts to rain! Using the Nikon Speedlights allows quick and easy set up and also packing up is lightning fast if it starts to rain.

If you would like to read the full story behind this shoot at the London Eye, then download the free e-book at the top of this page and see how these images were shot during a 30 minute ride inside the pod at the London Eye.

Corporate

Shooting in an office environment is quite challenging as the photographer may not have

enough space to work with, while moving the furniture around to create room for a conventional lighting kit may not be an option. When I set up a shoot in an office, I make sure that I don’t come in anyone’s way and no one is inconvenienced by me. I don’t have any need for any power supply and hence don’t have any cables or leads to plug in to power points.

Even though the Nikon SB900 is a small flashgun, it does pack a punch or two. Used correctly and you will achieve results which will amaze you and your clients.

Oz