Best Light Modifier For Headshots

Whatever you use this is your main light.

Best light modifier for headshots.

Today business people have needs that extend far beyond traditional business cards. Social media linkedin websites marketing material and more. There s more to headshots than white backgrounds. Umbrellas softboxes brolly boxes and beauty dishes are all important.

It is important to understand what a light modifier is and how it will impact your portrait lighting or headshot photography. Beautiful headshots can be produced with three lights and a reflector. The only drawback is that you can t tilt it so i cheat and just tilt the hot shoe mount and let some light leak out the bottom of the orb when i have the diffusion panel on the front. Softboxes are my modifier of choice when i want a soft directional light and i want to be able to control how much of that light is going to fall on my background.

At f 8 and iso 100 we are maximizing lens detail and the color dynamic range of the camera. The most important light in my opinion is the hair light. The light and modifier i use most often in this situation is a canon 600ex rt speedlite and a speedbox 70 from xp photogear. We are using a gray seamless for this shoot just to give it a slightly different look from the typical white background in a peter hurley headshot.

Hair especially dark hair soaks up an incredible amount of light and doesn t bounce back much. Natural light strobes and constant light. At 1 200th of a second f 8 and iso 100 we took each of the following shots on our canon 5d mark iii equipped with the canon 24 70mm f 2 8 mark ii lens. I can use a medium sized softbox to shoot a great portrait or even a full length shot with just a little light falloff from the shins to the feet.

This modifier is inexpensive and a great value since this kit comes with a light stand and a shoe mount. My standard setup consists of a large soft light source to the left or right of the subject a reflector under the face and another reflector opposite the main light source. I shoot hundreds of headshots per year using this simple setup. As you can see this is a one light one reflector set up that is completely unobtrusive to the subject is quick to rig up and with a large octabox modifier produces a very flattering light.