Natural & Continuous Lighting for Headshots | Back to Basics with Peter Hurley 

Great to hear!

Episode 2 coming 5/25 discusses strobes and speed lights.

Thanks for watching!

Welcome! We have a TON of educational videos on lighting and photography.

Well I recently purchased his LED flex kit

Any idea what tripod he is using?

Forget the lights. Shooting headshots and portraits is about interacting with people. You need to bottle some of Peter's personality and sell that...

There is the Westcott Flex Cine Peter Hurley Bi-Color Studio Kit, BH # WE7664 to consider which is a continuous LED light kit. bhpho.to/39nJffL

The Flex lightingkit is super-compfotable for the models as you can see in our video above. The models exhibit no squinting or eye fatigue at all. The system throws off very little heat and is a dream to use: Westcott Peter Hurley Flex Cine Bi-Color 3-Light Kit (1 x 2') BH #WE7662: bhpho.to/3DSaKsn >Mark

Peter tethers via a Tether Tools cable and uses Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. >Mark

Peter’s using Capture One Pro to tether. I’ve used it for years, it’s far and away the best and most reliable tethering software and the RAW quality is amazing.

Have the subjects looking away from the lights (or close their eyes) as long as possible before the shot is taken and try using more diffusion and reflection. Lower the intensity whenever possible. >Mark

No worries... Yes, you may have missed a small bit of information. Mr. Hurley stated that he was using continuous lighting on his subjects (specifically, the 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗰𝗼𝘁𝘁 𝗙𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗖𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝘂𝗿𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗕𝗶-𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗞𝗶𝘁 _(B&H # WE7664)_ in this video), but he was ALSO using two (2) 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗰𝗼𝘁𝘁 𝗙𝗝𝟰𝟬𝟬 𝟰𝟬𝟬𝗪𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗲𝘀 _(B&H # WEFJ400S)_ on the BACKGROUND to make it white, and to control how white the background is rendered. I would recommend to start watching the video at 17:26 (just so you do not miss a bit of the explanation of the light setup), but he specifically begins to mention the background setup at 17:38. That being said, the continuous lights are always on and are lighting the subject, whereas the Westcott FJ400 400Ws Strobes only flash when he presses the shutter button to make the background white, and is being wirelessly controlled via the 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗰𝗼𝘁𝘁 𝗙𝗝-𝗫𝟯 𝗠 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗹 𝗪𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗙𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿 _(B&H # WEFJX3MWFT)_ which you noticed on the camera's hot shoe.

@@BandH ohh amazing!! See I sort of figured thats what it was!! Lol wow I missed that detail 3 times geesh going back to watch all his videos again... lol I plan to shoot in a controlled lit space mostly in the evenings. But my unit has one floor to ceiling windo that space across the whole space.. which im gunna need to experiment with if i can set my back drops infront when needed i should get natural fill. But lol need my note pad to take more notes. Thank u so much for these videos. Him n jerry ghionis are spectacular to learn from n making this very exciting to experiment 😀 THANKKK YOUUUUU

try a defuser, that will defiantly help with the brightness, and the harsh shadows.

Lighting Stands and Accessories: bhpho.to/3ia1W8O Light Modifiers: bhpho.to/3vJLcte >Mark

Use one of these: Seaport i-Visor Support Platform B&H # SEIV1202 bhpho.to/3yJU43Y >Mark< Designed to Hold a Laptop or Monitor For the Seaport Digital i-Visor Tripod Compatible with 1/4"-20 Reversible Mount Compatible with 3/8"-16 Reversible Mount Supports up to 44 lb Cast Magnesium Build

Peter's table is a home-made affair that is not sold as a complete unit. >Mark

The simple answer is, if you are shooting RAW, it speeds up your workflow from needing to adjust white balance during post-processing on each image, and if you shoot JPEG, it is imperative to prevent destructive editing and creating artifacts in your image during post-processing. It is (sort of) the photographer's version of the carpenter's motto, _"measure twice, cut once."_ It is typically recommended to get as many settings correct in the camera so you reduce the amount of time spent in front of your computer for post-processing. White balance is a main camera setting that determines the way the camera interprets color based on the color temperature of your lighting. Setting your white balance properly ensures neutral white items actually appears white to your camera under the current lighting, eliminating color casts or overly warm/cool images. If you shoot RAW, then yes, you can adjust your white balance during post-processing, but it is a better habit (especially for professional photographers) to properly set your white balance before shooting. If your lighting is consistent, and if your white balance is set properly, then you do not need to adjust your white balance during post-processing. Also, for the professionals who shoot RAW + JPEG (or the few who only shoot JPEG), if you use the JPEG images to immediately upload to social media, setting your white balance in-camera is even more important as adjusting JPEG images is a destructive process and you can throw away data that would have been unnecessary to do if the white balance was initially set properly. In the way Mr. Hurley is using the technique (shooting tethered) in the above video around the 4:11 time stamp you eluded to above, to further reduce his post-processing, he set his white balance to the color temperature of his lights, he took his test shot, then he tweaked both his color temperature and saturation while looking at his subject in front of him in the same lighting and adjusted it until he was happy. The post-processing software can then use those same settings on all images taken of that model in that lighting situation, and he does not need to worry about adjusting color at all for all those images as it has already been done to his liking.

You can find posing tables on our website. bhphoto.com Here is one table we sell that is similar to what Peter is using in the video: bhpho.to/3Ul6wln

@@BandH Awesome thank you guys for your answer, much appreciated !

If you are looking for a gray background, just use white and the light falloff will render it gray. I have my subject about 6 feet away.

Connect an external USB microphone/headset to the computer. Please e-mail us for details: askbh@bandh.com >Mark

I'm going to guess and say - camera's set to 5600k (Manually ) for consistency. AWD introduces variations between shots.

@@Snailmale7 Thanks

Peter is using the editing software Capture One.

Peter is very well thought out in all his intentions and executions. He carefully plans his shots to prevent shadows. >Mark

Unsolicited thoughts: 1. Lighting Your slighlty side-on lighting is a variation of the same thing he has been using w/c is [Clam shell] but different in application such as [short] and [broad] lighting while his is leaning toward a [profile]. 2. Landscape Popular cropping styles are bust, close-up and ½body while his is something i would call as extreme close-up. Difference is with xcu, is that your eyes would focus mostly on the feel and emotions seen through facial expressions and also facial features of the subject while the other crops could add details through body language such as shoulders, arms, etc. PS: he discussed these on his video tutorial, i think it was The Art of Headshots or something.

He wanted flat, beauty light so he had Marina face the windows directly. if he had turned her 45° like you said, to get broad or short lighting that would be a different style, just not what he wanted to do in this case. Short lighting, sometimes called Rembrandt lighting is very dramatic. Usually for something other than a headshot. Broad lighting sometimes makes people's faces look wider and adds weight so that's usually not a good thing.

@@janusa2971 thank you for your helpful comments.

@@jerseyshoredroneservices225 thank you for your helpful comment.

Good for you

Good for you

Consider that lighting, like your camera and lenses, is an investment that will pay dividends over time. Here is an excellent kit and value: Smith-Victor Edge360 Bi-Color LED 3-Light Boom Kit - B&H # SM401708: bhpho.to/3tSXe3g >Mark< 2 x Edge360 18" Bi-Color LED Lights 1 Edge360 13" Bi-Color LED Light 2 x 8' Light Stands 1 x 10' Light Stand 1 x 6' Boom, Light Stand Bag 3 x Padded Carry Cases for Lights 3 x 100 to 240 VAC Adapters Color: 3200 to 5600K, CRI: 95 100° Beam Spread, 0 to 100% Dimming

You can use rectangular soft boxes w Godox 200-600W strobes to create a similar look. These youtubers have to get so frustrated with comments like yours.

@@wendystumbaugh695 we do sorry