Setup for Corporate Headshots

I mentioned before that I’ve been refreshing my lighting kit, moving from strobes to continuous lighting. This week was my first major shoot with the new gear, doing corporate headshots in Manhattan.

Here’s what I took:

Main camera (Lumix S5 with 85mm f/1.8)

Backup camera (Sony A7C)

Tripod

2 monolights (Amaran 200x and Apurture LS60x)

1 small LED panel

2 backdrops (double-sided, collapsible: white, grey, blue, black)

1 reflector

2 soft boxes (36” for key light)

4 light stands 

1 boom arm (reflector holder)

Extension cords (50’ and 25’)

Spare batteries (for cameras and lights)

Clamps, duck tape, cable ties, small mirror, color checker card

It took a while to choose which monolights to buy. I would have liked to try the Apurture 60c panel but it’s been consistently out of stock. I first got a Nanolite Forza 60 but the wrong one arrived, then I tried the Smallrig 120B but that came without the promised battery adapter. No complaints about the actual lights, but it seemed to make sense to revert to the popular Amaran/Apurture products. The Amaran 200x doesn’t have a battery option but does have plenty of power for my needs. The Apurture LS60x was more expensive than I would have liked but is so well made and includes an adapter for Sony NP-F batteries, so it’s great as a second light and backup for my main light if I don’t have access to a power supply.

The kit isn’t perfect but I have tried to include as much redundancy as possible if any item should fail, while also keeping it light enough for one person to carry. I need to find a good wheeled case for everything, and for headshots an even larger softbox would be nice.

This was the layout. The reflector on the left was low down to reduce shadow. It was a women’s networking event, hence the key light being almost directly in front of the subject (it was actually even closer to the camera than the diagram shows). For guys I would have it more angled to allow more shadow. Most of time I would have the subject angle their right shoulder towards the camera.