From the course: On-the-Spot Business Headshots

Using minimal gear for outdoor headshots

From the course: On-the-Spot Business Headshots

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Using minimal gear for outdoor headshots

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- So in this chapter, we're going to talk about doing outdoor headshots with a little bit of gear. We don't have zero gear, or close to zero gear, and we don't have upgraded gear, but sometimes in the middle, you're starting to grow your variety of different equipment that you own. And these are light modifiers. We're going to be using mostly reflectors today, but they are going to help you a little bit more than our DIY $10-reflector that we made ourselves earlier in the class. So, the first thing that I want to talk about, is the lens that I'm going to be using. I used this lens very early on in my headshot career, and it was a great lens. The reason why I loved it, is because it was a fixed focal length, which made it extra, extra crisp. This is the Cannon EF 85 F/1.8 lens. It's got a really nice price point around $420, last time I checked. So this is a very good middle grade lens. You always do want to have an extra battery on site so that you can easily switch in and out, and not have to completely like drop everything and run and go get another battery from somewhere else as well. So that's going to be the gear that I do for the camera itself. So now I'm going to talk a little bit about the light modifiers that I'm going to be using. So for this, I'm going to be using the Photoflex MultiDisc. This is a seven in one reflector, which means it comes with seven different types of surfaces, so that you can exactly match the temperature of the ambient light, or the light that's coming from your scenario that you're in. That's why I really, really like this one. And then we have a second MultiDisc that we're also going to be using. So those are the two reflectors. And then we have our stands here. So I brought these two stands out to just point something out to you because whenever I am looking to purchase a reflector arm, what I want to do is I want to look for this type of joint. And the reason why I want to look for this type of joint, is because when I'm looking to bounce the light from the reflector back onto my person, that I'm photographing, I need to be able to keep my eyeballs on that person, and I need to be able to rotate 360 degrees the reflector that I have in. That's what this allows. So this little joint right here, this double-balled joint, allows me to go in any possible direction that I would need, very fast, and very easily as well. Let me show you the alternative. This is going to be some, an alternative that you have, you can see that you have to unscrew, one to rotate the bar left and right. You have another screw to tilt it that way. Then you have an additional screw to rotate the reflector, and make sure it's on. This one is going to be a little bit more sturdy for you, this one is not. But just throw a sandbag on this one, and you're fine, alright? So that's going to be the difference between the two stands. Now I'm just going to go ahead and place this onto one of my reflector stands. The lens here is going to be placed in the shade for the most part. So I'm going to stick with the silver side of this reflector for shooting with the lens here. So I've got the first reflector set up. I'm going to go ahead and set up the second reflector, and then we're going to start shooting the lens here.

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