Blog – Washington DC Photographer Paul Ryan Bohman

Last week I had the opportunity to create some headshots and portraits of a good friend of mine. I set up a neutral gray background, positioned my studio lights, and set her in motion so that the camera could capture her natural good looks. First, a few technical notes. As with all photo sessions, there are tried and true methods of creating headshots, and that’s what I started with. The main light is a gridded beauty dish above and to the camera left, with a large gridded softbox positioned horizontally below and to the camera right as fill. In this case, the fill is almost as strong as the main light, but the softbox does not create the specular highlights on her skin that the beauty dish does (on the camera left side of her face). This combination of crisp light from the beauty dish and diffuse light from the softbox gives a nice touch that is neither too hard nor too soft, but "just right" if you’re looking for a middle ground between the two.

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