How to achieve the Peter Hurley look

[gng11]

I've been a bit perplexed, and I wanna know if anybody could give me some tips as to how to achieve the Peter Hurley style of photographing headshots. I'm extremely low on budget (and zero money to spend on additional gear, already have a Nikon D40 to start with) and going to do some headshots in the future and I just feel that's the style I am going for. Some examples here:

http://peterhurley.com/photography/a...eading-ladies/

Thanks!

[Wahl]

I watched a video on his site where you see his lighting setup. Copy that or go with daylight and a white/silver bounce...it doesnt have to be so difficult or complicated.

- Wahl

[gng11]

Ah, thanks... I do have a reflector though, no lights unfortunately. I reside in the often rainy fall seasons Vancouver, BC... so its hard to get good and bright daylight. Do I need higher ISO and aperture to compensate for this?

[L33t]

What camera do you use? More ISO gives you more noise, but perhaps you use high end cameras, this give you less noises.

f/2.8 should do the job for you, but still you need lighting to compensate

f/2.8, lighting, and ISO 100-200 is fairy for low lights, I don't think you will get any good pictures without flash

[Wahl]

I don't agree....Daylight is wonderful to work with...what you see is what you get...so to speak. No "beeps" and other noises to distract the model...

Get right in front of a large window, as large as possible. Use a silk if the sun is out. Use a 85mm or 100mm, the model between 1 - 2 meters from you. Have a neutral background behind the model. If the models is female use the bounce underneath her chin to soften wrinkles etc.

L33t is right about camera and iso. I use 5d and can easily shoot on 400-800iso...it off course depends on what the end result is printed on, is it for web etc.

[gng11]

I use a Nikon D40, entry level 6.0 MP DSLR. Minimum f stop is f3.0 on the lens. And I only have a 18-135mm zoom lens. Unfortunately that is all I can use with besides a reflector... no money to spend on additional gear. At least not yet... but I think it might work with 400 ISO, not that bad....

[jaycereed73]

Up until last week I had NO clue who Peter Hurley was! I am a wedding photographer and was realy only interested in that field. Last week an aspiring actor came to me to ask if I did head shots. I reluctantly said yes. She and I continued to talk and she mentioned Peter Hurley. Clueless on what headshots were,clueless on what to charge,clueless on the style that was needed for a good headshot, I visited Peters website. I relized that a good headshot is a good portrait.

I pride myself in being able to "See Light", how it reflects on objects and people. That is what you have to do..."See" The light.

Look at Peters website, and look for the diferences between the Women and the Men. The women are shot in a way that the light is full ( I don't know if that is the right phrase) to enhance their beauty. You can see how he lights the subject. Just look really close.

The Men are shot by using dramatic lighting. Not too dramatic but enough to see the diference. By looking at his Men, you can see he uses a bounce, from the right or the left of his subject.

Study his pictures, they are Great but the same. Aparently there aren't a lot of headshot photographers who shot like him, so he has a identifiable shot.

I know I just said this but study his pictures and practice, practice, practice. Even with a d40 you shoud be able to get some decent results.
1. Max iso 400
2. Tripod
3. bonce the light
4. Slow your shutter down( If your meter is telling you 125 of a secound drop down two stops)
5. Pose, give direction.
6. Look at various fashion magazines, look at how others pose and light
7. Develop your own Identifiable style. Apply what you've learned from others and make it your own.

Good Luck!

[cefex]

look at the shape of the pupils & catchlights in their eyes and you'll get some sort of idea of the lighting.

The pupil appears as a square black box and the catchlights appear as 3-4 white rectangles surrounding the box. The catchlights are really beautiful and give the eyes life - I usually face my clients towards a large window for beautiful catchlights.

I use natural light so I'm not familiar with lighting setups so I can't pick it myself but if someone else can identify it it may help.

[HuBBa]

Looks like something like 3-4 stripboxes or reflectorscreens, 2 to the side, one below one & on the top. This will create a very even and soft light with almost no harsh shadows. You can clearly see the square reflections. (almost like a "big mans ringflash" =)

Shoot close with a low-aperture for the DOF which might be even further enhanced post. Quite easy to get this DOF with say a 80mm F4 on a Mamiya or RZ (or hasselblad). example of this http://www.imaginara.se/EXP13.jpg (totally different light setup though . Shot with a Mamiya 645 AFD with Fuji Realla film at F4. You can get similar DOF of course with a full frame on a DSLR but i just prefere the medium format for that.

But watching the video you can see he's using 4 tungsten striplights or lightbanks similar to http://www.profoto.com/products/prof...ls/striplights and shoots with a Hasselblad.

The key technique here is large light source close to the subject to create soft shadows and even light, and the strip will provide a nice elongated highlight.

[Jstake]

Hi,(first post)

He's using kinoflos.

2 4' Banks on the left and right and 2 2' Banks Top and Bottom... basically a square ring flash.

The flash trigger must be firing a background light.

[phurley]

Jstake got it! Appreciate you guys looking at the work and talking about it. I spotted the thread and thought I'd chime in. I used to shoot with my back to a big southern facing window and always loved that light. I would diffuse it on sunny days with a sheet or something like that and then I moved to a studio without windows and had to come up with something. I really didn't know anything about lighting because I never took a photography class, still fly by the seat of my pants, but Perry Ogden was using kinos in the adjacent studio a few years back and they looked interesting, so I tried them out and they've got their ups and downs, but it seemed to give me the light I was looking for. They are fairly expensive, but you can make your own if you want out of standard florescent lighting. Downfall is that they don't put out too much light and the light they do put out can be too much for people with sensitive eyes. I light the background with Alien Bees, those things are cheap and amazing! I'd recommend them for sure. If you've got a nice big window I'd start there first. Natural light is always great.

[HuBBa]

Welcome to Retouch Pro Peter!

Very nice to see the guy behind the look give us the right answer. I was wondering, have you looked into using other lightbanks (such as the profoto or similar) to get the flash power instead (since you did mention the light output of the kinoflo was a bit low)?

Of course, if the kino's work, why fix it

/Henrik

[phurley]

I thought about that and was considering trying it, but I guess I'd have to rent them first and my setup is working, so I guess I'm just sticking with it. My kit includes kino, profoto, lumedyne and alien bees. I try about everything and use all of them. Really just stick to the kinos with the headshots. I like the softness out of the photek softlighter for almost everything else. It's great! Only thing that I feel gives the light the softness I'm looking for other than natural light or the kinos. Worth taking a look at it.

[TreesOfMyTime]

I have to say that this thread shows a great example the power potential of the site. Thanks to Peter Hurley for his sharing comments!

[ejsaenz]

A good site to use for inexpensive lighting tips is:
http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/

They've got all sorts of DIY lighting ideas there and many are inexpensive and can be made with hardware store items.

It's awesome that a pro like Peter Hurley can take the time and help out a few newbies and fans of his work. thumbs up!

[gng11]

WOW, I never thought the guy behind the camera and the style would be posting here. I've been away from this site (and this thread) for a couple of months now, and it's surprising to me how this has turned into one of the hottest threads at the moment. Thanks and my appreciation to Peter for jumping in.... I've got lots to catch up on. . How about a reflector against a large window? Anything similar to the aforementioned effect?? That's all the equipment I have right now. Thanks!

[Sweetlight]

All of you have very valid ideas and it's great that the self-admitted amateur has the chance to hear from such a varied level of experienced shooters and their varied lighting techniques.
In the beginning of my career I did high-end commercial work and some sets would be scattered with lights, reflectors, scrims and cookies and it was very pleasing to create images this way with a capable hand but the same instructor who taught me lighting also taught me that there is only one sun and nature that reflects it and challenged me to take my lighting knowledge and create it a bit more simply. I have thousands of dollars worth of Broncolor lights that I rarely use now.
Just before graduating I blindly walked into a photo shoot here in Daytona being shot by David Chan who is a master of light and has shot for Playboy for years. This lead to a relationship that took me under his guidance as an assistant then later to freelance shooting for the same. David is where the one sun idea sunk in.
Back then we shot Nikon F3's (which I adored and still use occasionally). I would say that 90% of the time we used the 85mm, 1.8, shot wide open with gauze on the lens. The only light we used was the sun and a gold PhotoFlex reflector and my so called "style" was really born. With my namesake, the "sweetlight" of morning and evening and that gold reflector there is not enough lights in the world to duplicate. It has a feel to it that I feel can't be duplicated, you can get close but not quite there.
My best friend shoots with a multitude of lights and creates stunning images, I mean this guy sticks lights where I don't even understand but creates images that are clean and simple. Okay enough rambling.
Shoot your F.3 lens, wide open and throw that background out of focus. Reflectors are expensive but you can make your own cheaply. Find some gold and silver remnants at the cloth store and attach it to some foam core. You can also find remnants of ripstock or parachute type material in white which you can use can create huge soft boxes to create open shadows and softlight. Sorry for the wordiness but I hope I helped a bit too.

[Frank Lopes]

Do you mind explaining in a little more detail this trick?
How do you do it and what are the effects of it?

Since the Nikon F3 shoots film (it is not a digital camera), can the use of gauze on digital cameras create the same effect that you had with the F3 or would one be better off post processing the photo?

Thanks

Originally Posted by Sweetlight

...shot wide open with gauze on the lens...

[Sweetlight]

Sure Frank, sorry for the delay.

True enough the F3 is film which I still shoot sometimes when I am feeling the need to get fixer on my hands in the darkroom.

The gauze can be used on the digital camera but with the power of the Photoshop blur tools I tend to stick to a straight image out of camera then add my soft focus later.

We used to buy 2 neutral density filters (as cheap as possible) knock out the glass and stretch white or black gauze out over the bottom one then screw the top one into it sandwiching the gauze. Black was used for sof focus withougt a lot of flare much like shooting through a window screen. The white which I used the most would give beautiful soft focus with some slight flare and pastelish look. To use the gauze you must shoot at wide open so it throws it far out of focus.

If you look at my Flickr link http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetlight/sets/ you will see some examples under the "Weddings" and "Fashion" sets.

If I did not answer all your questions please let me know.

c

[Frank Lopes]

Now much light did you typically lose by using the gauze?
And did it make a difference (in terms of light loss) using black versus white?

Originally Posted by Sweetlight

...stretch white or black gauze...
c

[Sweetlight]

About 3/4 of a stop for the white and 2 for the black.

[gng11]

Thanks Sweetlight for your tips and input. I've been shooting ever since I started my "teen hood" (I'm in my early 20's now), but official portrait photography is something still uncharted waters to me. I have, however, been an event photographer so that could be considered related experience. I do excel at architectural and landscape photography, so I guess I'll utilise that as my strengths for portraits.

If anybody has something to share that would be much appreciated!!

[Algarve Images]

Just seen this thread, i'll be looking at the Peter Hurley tutorial/video in the morning, i'm really keen to learn about lighting as i'll be investing in a set up soon so that i can experiment and may be one day take a reasonable portrait in different styles, here's my high-key effort below...