How to Capture Portraits & Headshots When the Subject Wears Glasses

Photography Tips  •  Portrait Photography

Whether you’re working on your portfolio, adding a few new clients, or just taking portrait photos, it’s important to know how to take a great headshot. This type of image is common in portrait photography, and it’s often the bread and butter of a photographer’s businesses. Headshots can be used for social media purposes, revamping the ‘About Us’ section of a website, or for a wide variety of other business and personal uses. In this helpful video, professional lifestyle portrait photographer Erik Valind shows how you can create an incredible headshot anywhere using only two small flashes and two modifiers:

Some of the biggest issues faced with headshot images are contrast, shadows, and the dreaded eyeglass glare. Thankfully these issues can be fixed using three distinct elements: a snoot, white reflector, and a good lighting system. To begin your setup, Valind recommends using the Rogue FlashBender 2 XL Pro Lighting System while setting up your key light. This will help you to bounce the light and focus it exactly where you want it to go.

To avoid shadows from blending into the background, use a second light with a snoot, which will help you to focus the beam of light where you want it to go, without spilling over into other areas of the photo.

The third and final aspect is your fill light, which Valind suggests creating by placing a white reflector close to the subject’s face. This will bounce the main light back into the shadowed side of your image, and help to lift the shadows, eliminate the dramatic contrast, and provide a more alluring overall image.

Avoiding Glare from Glasses

Working in portrait photography, a common setback photographers face is working around eyeglass glare. However, you never want to ask your model to take off their glasses; instead, you have to learn how to learn how to work around it and avoid short lighting. Luckily, this is easily achieved by having your subject turn slightly away from the light.

Try out these techniques and let us know how it goes!