ppage Loc: Pittsburg, (San Francisco area)

I am a hobbyist photographer always looking for opportunities to try new things. Our company wanted to do a new org chart with photos for personnel along side their job title and duties. Personnel were asked to get a head shot done or the photo used on their badge would be used. I volunteered to do the head shots for free for the practice. Folks were very appreciative and I got about 50 victims. I had a chronic problem, especially with the ladies and some bald guys with an annoying shine coming from their faces and foreheads. A lot of the photos came out great, some will need some PP to be usable. Here is what I did:
Canon Rebel T5i
85 mm 1.8 lens - handheld
2 flash stands with all manual speed lights with 32" shoot through umbrellas
Hot shoe flash controller firing flashes and adjusting their power.
Stool, dark blue background, (a sheet pinned to the wall)
I positioned the stands pretty close to the subject, pointing at 45 degree angle and down at the subjects. I did the same for each flash so it was a mirrored set up. I was shooting in a large white room with a low white ceiling.

Camera settings:
1/200
f\8
iso 200
hand held
I maintained these general settings and only adjusted the flash power as needed.

This affected the ladies the most. One was sort of freaking out. I take it ladies hate to look shiny. Most of the time the subject was forgiving and appreciated the favor. The bald guys were ok .
about it. One of the women powdered herself up and came back for more tries. I tried lots of things; lowered and raised the stands, moved them out, moved them in, changed angles and so on. Nothing quite seemed to do it. All in all I got reasonable to great shots of everyone eventually. It doesn't feel like I could produce work that I could charge for doing this yet. Would the portrait guys mind giving me some pointers and pointing out my lame brain moves? I'd like to try it again sometime with a better set up.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Sometimes just having your subjects wash their faces (or heads) well with soap to reduce oily skin will do the trick. If not, then powder will help a lot. For women who will be wearing makeup anyway, tell them to go for a matte look to reduce shine.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

A nice large softbox will give you less contrasty light. A large bounce surface would be even better. You can get a collapsable reflector that is pretty large or make one out of beadboard. A good makeup artist will save your butt as well as hours on a computer correcting things like shiny skin.

https://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/bouncing-flash/

https://fstoppers.com/post-production/awesome-video-how-retouch-shiny-skin-1523

https://nofilmschool.com/2015/09/learn-how-make-your-own-dirt-cheap-diy-reflector-out-bead-foam

ppage Loc: Pittsburg, (San Francisco area)

Yes, things improved for one woman after she powdered the areas. Thank-You

ppage Loc: Pittsburg, (San Francisco area)

These are great links . Really good information here. Thank-You! I couldn't help feeling during this shoot with the light stands, umbrellas and two flashes that somehow I was working too hard, lugging all that to the location and back and so forth. Seeing how I may have replaced all that nonsense with one on camera flash is very illuminating. Sorry couldn't help the pun.
I've read so much about always using off camera flash that I never thought to do that. I can see with proper bounce technique the on camera flash can be indistinguishable from off camera flash and it sure would have been a hell of a lot easier! The main positive side of that getup is that all the civilians thought I must be an Uber Photographer when they saw my setup with the stands and umbrellas

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

There is a simple trick to reduce glare from glasses. Have the subject raise the temples (earpieces) a bit, probably not more than 1/2 inch. This tilts the lenses forward, reflecting glare down. It's especially easy for women who can hide the temple shift in their hair. Chrome-domes like me will just have to live with it.

The guy who taught me half a century ago, had a collection of frames of various sizes and shapes; there weren't so many choices back then. No lenses, just the frames. I always keep a couple of pair of old ones around with the lenses removed.

Thomas902 Loc: Washington DC

"...A good makeup artist will save your butt as well as hours on a computer correcting things like shiny skin..."
Gene51 speaks with wisdom here... In fact that's what I do commercially...

Products of note: Anti-Shine by Urban Decay and Mattifier by MAC for bald heads...
Matte powder is the industry standard for killing shine in the T-Zone and all MUA's go to here...
But be warned, use a drape over men's and women's dark suits and sweep excess powder off with a large soft powder brush...

Please advice? Invest in powdered rice blotter paper... comes in easy to use packets...
Source: https://www.sallybeauty.com/blotting-tissue/PLADIO5.html
btw, I give these to the Maid of Honor for bridal clients... and task her with shine control during the ceremony...

If you're not comfortable with personally working on the talent simply demo the product's use and send them into the rest room to use the mirror to kill the sheen on their T-Zone. btw, there is a reason why they call the "Ladies Room" a "Powder Room"

btw, working for free is typically not wise, you will ultimately regret this downstream if you decide to pursue your craft commercially...
At a minimum state (in writing) that you will wave your fee ($X.xx) for being credited as the photographer on the session...
Yes attorneys will work Pro-Bono however that is a different animal entirely... they likely have hidden agendas in doing so...

Hope this helps...
And thank you Gene51 you continue to be an amazing attribute for this portal...

Rongnongno Loc: FL

c

canon Lee

PPAGE: To eliminate glasses glare, TILT the glasses down a bit by raising the temples ( Temples – Long arms on the sides of the frame that extend over the ears to keep the glasses on the wearer’s face), raise the lights about eye level .... Shiny skin tone... Some pancake make, lightly dusted into the cheeks, chin, nose, & for bald spots as well... The level output of the lights should be lowered, to avoid burn out, as well as distance.. Use a larger umbrella ( 60") to smooth out the light and lower the intensity. You may want to use a long soft box. If you really want to do it up, consider using a hair light (not for bald men) with a snoot... as well as pointing a light up onto the backdrop, behind the subject to get a halo effect...
So here is a common set up... Soft box ( or large umbrella 60"), camera right,... reflector board,( Foam core) , camera left,...
behind the subject, set light low to the floor, tilt up and onto the backdrop... For men only, set up a light that will shine on the jaw ( camera left)..this is a "rim" light.... For women a hair light, (camera right, high about the head, and using a "snoot" ( a snoot focuses the light beam to capture hair highlights). Face the shoulders ( and body sitting on a stool) at an angle to the camera and the head facing the camera. Bring a mirror, and disposable combs....
Look into using the CamRanger ( camranger.com), this will allow the subjects to see the shot on a large iPAD, and be able to make corrections in their posing.... http://camranger.com

ppage Loc: Pittsburg, (San Francisco area)

You guys are GREAT. Thanks so much! I feel like I was sort of close but I knew I was not quite there. It will take some practice like anything else.

canon Lee

PPage... You can only get better.... There is a chance for you to experience your creative side....

pixbyjnjphotos Loc: Apache Junction,AZ

I work with a lot of older folks and take all the photos for the ID board posted in the clubhouse at our RV resort during the winter. Consequently, I deal with a lot of glasses glare. I generally have my subjects with glasses look slightly down which works about 90 percent of the time. I hold my fist about six inches below the camera and tell them to tilt their head down to look at my fist. And then have them move their eyes up to look at the camera. Works pretty well for me. I use two light stands with my sb600s, one on each side, and my on camera flash at about 1/8 power for fill. My backdrop is medium to dark blue. The sb600s shoot into silver lined 36 inch umbrellas. I set the stands around 4 feet from subjects, one on each side, and just barely in front of the subjects. I angle the umbrellas to light up the backdrop a bit to eliminate any shadows. I have very little problem with shiny faces with my set up. I tell the ladies to not use any make-up as I can remove blemishes during post processing. To finish the set up, I tether my D7100 to a laptop computer for camera control and then, seeing the result on the computer as soon as I take the photo. If necessary, I can easily make a quick adjustment and retake. I use my 18-140 mm kit lens and I get very sharp photos. I don't remember the camera settings as I vary them from the computer to get the best photo. I read somewhere a while ago that, when taking portrait style photos, to start at f5.6 aperture, 1/200th shutter speed, and ISO 100. Make changes from there to get the desired effects. The sb600s are set for zoom 50 and slightly less than full power. I trigger the sb600s with the Nikon CLS, (camera in commander mode). I usually set up under my car port outside (shaded with no direct sunlight). You must be aware that sunlight coming in doorways and windows can produce a lot of glare on the glasses. Search the UHH for "Carport Studio" and you can see a photo of my setup and a resultant photo. This all works well for me. Have a GREAT DAY!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

You could choose hairy subjects without glasses, or you could check out these links.

https://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/video/articles/2595.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx8T2d5q6bU
https://news.smugmug.com/glare-aware-photographing-portraits-of-people-in-glasses-b0ac1613766e
https://petapixel.com/2017/09/29/5-tips-lighting-bald-people/
https://www.videomaker.com/article/c13/15435-specialty-lighting-for-people

GraveyDave

Corn starch or translucent powder applied with individual cotton squares.
Raise your lights up and pull the glasses up over the ears so the lens tilts down to get rid of glare
The samples were done in less than 3 minutes as there were hundreds of people to shoot. The last thing you need is a lot of pp
I also have a chair that has wheels and swivels so I can move them where I want and therefore need to change the lights very little.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

You're welcome, Thomas!