We went into the studio this weekend to help Stacey get some new beauty headshots for her portfolio. Drawing on inspiration from masters such as Peter Hurley and a touch of Sue Bryce glamour, we had some fantastic results.
I opted to use a clam-shell lighting setup – a tried and trusted approach to fashion and beauty photography. It’s been a set up I’ve wanted to use for a while now but never had the need. A clam-shell setup uses two lights, one directly above pointing down (as a key light) and one directly below pointing up to provide fill light under the chin. Take a closer look of the catch-lights in the eyes and you’ll see what I mean. I’ve used a similar approach using a single light and a reflector but being in a well kitted studio this is the first time I’ve had the luxury of two strobes! The key light was modified using an Elinchrom Rotalux Deep Octa and the fill used a square softbox.
In these pictures I’ve also added a third light – to the right of the frame, pointing back at us, is a Chimera Softbox Strip Light to add a touch of depth and separation. All of these images were shot around F/10 at 1/125, ISO 100 with just a little bit of tiding up in Photoshop.
Stacey is a qualified beautician, and a great beauty MUA. She can be contacted via PureStorm.
