Headshot Photo Booth: 700 Shots in 3 Days

The below article is from Yaneck & Sasha Wasio, the founders and owners of WASIO photography, WASIO faces, and WASIO Master Print. They started their professional photography career over 10 years ago in Chicago. In early 2017 they decided to move to San Diego to expand their business to Southern California. WASIO was named Most Talented Photographer of the Year by Magic Lens and Portrait Photographer of the Year by PPSDC. Follow them online at wasiophotography.com and on Instagram at @wasio. We thank WASIO for pulling back the curtain on his latest shoot and contributing to the Insight + Inspiration Guide: Headshot Photography. Our headshot set up is consistent whether we photograph in our studio in San Diego or on location at the client’s office or big conference as part of the WASIO faces Headshot Booth (as shown in the video below).

Tethered Setup with Monitor

For our Headshot Booth we use Tether Tools Tether Table Aero Standard. We attach the Aero table to a light stand with Rock Solid Master Side Arm and Rock Solid Master Clamp, both from Tether Tools. Then for our kiosk stations where people can see their headshots as we shoot we use two Microsoft Surface Pro and Tether Tools AeroTab Universal Tablet System to attach them to light stands. The AeroTabs hold the laptops securely for multiple days without a need to adjust or tightening them. It’s all about reliability. When we are on location photographing for our WASIO faces Headshot Booth we use a 43-inch LG monitor (43UD79-B) to display the tethered headshots as we shoot. This LG monitor is huge (has a WOW factor when people see it) with good colors.

Camera and Lens

When it comes to the camera of choice, we rely on our Canon 5D Mark IV or Canon 1Dx. Our lens choices are Canon 70-200 f2.8L Mark II or Canon 100mm f.28L Macro. They are both very sharp, provide pleasing compression and colors. Since both lenses provide image stabilization it’s important to turn it off when shooting on a tripod. Our camera is tethered to our Dell XPS 15 laptop. We use the Tether Tools TetherPro USB 3.0 cable with TetherBoost Pro USB 3.0 Core Controller. This combo gives us the rock-solid performance with fast file transfer but most importantly reliability especially if we have to tether to Adobe Lightroom.

Color Calibration

To have consistent colors across all our monitors and laptops we use X-Rite i1Studio and i1Display Pro to calibrate all our display devices. You don’t need to have both devices. Choose one based on your needs. Calibrating all our monitors gives us proper colors and brightness. Most monitors and laptops out of the box are too bright for photography needs. Since we have two main workstations, 4 monitors, and 4 working laptops this color consistency is critical for us to provide quality headshots to our clients. We also use X-Rite Passport for color swatches and to set up white balance. For exposure measuring, we use Sekonic meters which are the industry standard at this point.

Lighting and Light Shaping

For lighting, we use two Profoto D2’s as our main lights. They recycle extremely fast, gives very good color consistency, and have a minimal number of misfires even when we shoot headshots for 9 hours straight. These Profoto strobes are almost unbreakable. We often photograph headshot for 8-9 hours straight and these lights never overheat and maybe have had 5 misfires for the whole day. For light shaping, we use a deep Raja softbox from Phottix and a Westcott Rapid Box XXL. These two lights give a nice soft feel with minimal shadows and pleasing colors. Sometimes we run the two lights at the same power but often we vary the powers depending on which direction our subject’s face is pointing. We also use a white reflector from below to open the shadows.

Insight + Inspiration Guide: Headshot Photography

NEW and FREE! The Insight + Inspiration Guide: Headshot Photography features tips and tricks on getting the perfect headshot, working with clients, lighting, post-processing, and more! Download now at www.TetherTools.com/Guide