A Complete Behind-the-Scenes Video of How to Shoot Simple Headshots

Photography Tips

One of the most difficult parts of entering an industry is getting to see how the industry actually works. There are internships and apprenticeships, of course—but those don’t pay well, if at all. How else can you see a professional at work, to really comprehend how the system functions?

For a (mostly) uncut, thoroughly detailed look at a studio photo shoot, this 16-minute video may be able to help:

The video’s host, Daniel Norton, takes audiences through a complete start-to-finish headshot photo shoot. The goal here isn’t to show aspiring photographers how to replicate the shoot—although they could replicate it, as the studio is made up of a single light behind a scrim jim, while Norton shoots with his Nikon 4DS—but rather, the goal is to help anyone who’s never set foot in a studio understand the process in a minute, even monotonous way.

The video is really nicely done, not just because it shows the standard trial-and-error of photography—focus issues, adjusting the lights, moving the model—but also because Norton explains his methodology throughout. It’s a solid substitute for spending months as a photographer’s assistant.