Jeff Smith's Guide to Head and Shoulders Portrait Photography

some motion to an otherwise static portrait. This technique should only be
used when your subject has long, thick hair, though; the fan has little effect on
short hair, and thin hair tends to look even thinner when blowing. The key here
is the hair and not the fan. You can spend hundreds of dollars on a professional
fan designed for working in photography—but you’d be a terrible busi-
nessperson if you did so. I use one of the commercial floor fans that we have all
around the studio (it’s hot in Fresno in the summer!). Put it in front of the
camera, angle it up toward the subject, and adjust the wind to work with the
length and thickness of the hair.

Backgrounds.

While what is “typical” in a head and shoulders portrait has changed dramati-
cally, many of these images are still taken with a painted canvas background be-
hind the subject. The styles of backgrounds and the materials used are extensive,
so you must be able to change them out quickly to suit your subjects’ tastes. We
use a background roller system—plus I have an assistant available to change to
the backgrounds that won’t fit onto the roller system.

Work with an Assistant.

Working with an assistant can provide many overlooked benefits. With an as-
sistant, you can get through sessions faster—and the faster you can get through
sessions, the more sessions you can do (and the more money in your bank ac-
count). Ideally, you should be able to come into each background area you have
in your studio and have the basic setup complete, so you can fine-tune every-
thing and capture the images.
Behind the camera, you can make hundreds of dollars an hour for your busi-
ness; when you spend your time putting up backgrounds and moving sets, you
are doing minimum-wage work. The same goes for those photographers who
are wasting their lives at their computers. At the computer, you raise your worth
from minimum wage to about $12 an hour—but that still won’t pay the bills!
By hiring someone to do these jobs for you, you can spend your time where it’s
most valuable: behind the camera.
In addition to saving you money, having an assistant—especially one who is
of the opposite sex of the photographer—also makes the client feel more com-
fortable. If, for example, you are a male photographer, a female assistant can
comfortably smooth clothing wrinkles or fix visible bra straps on a female por-
trait client. This also provides a safer climate to work in, considering the litigious
society we live in today. I can’t believe there are still photographers out there
who will meet with clients of the opposite sex in their home, at a remote loca-
tion, or in the studio without anyone else around. It’s crazy! One bogus alle-
gation of wrong doing and you are out of business. Even if you are later
completely cleared of any impropriety, the stigma will follow you.

22 JEFF SMITH’S GUIDE TO HEAD AND SHOULDERS PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

Working with an

assistant can provide

many overlooked

benefits.