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High Volume Headshots With SpotMyPhotos

When I do a high volume headshot shoot I always use SpotMyPhotos to easily distribute my images.  Using the power of AI facial recognition, it automatically creates private galleries for each of the people I photograph and a gallery with all the images for me to give to the event organizer so they have all the shots.  I absolutely adore it.  I’m able to give my clients the option of real time delivery of beautifully retouched images, the un-retouched images, or I can do in-person image selection with each person and can then retouch the images and have them show up in their personalized galleries when I am ready to have them sent out.  Generally I prefer the real time delivery with advanced auto retouching with my Evoto AI presets because it produces such a WOW factor and I can get retouching results that are customized to each of my subjects. So you want to give it a try? Here’s my setup for High Volume Headshots with SpotMyPhotos.

Lighting Setup for High Volume Headshots

The first choice you need to make is your lighting setup. When I am in my studio I normally shoot using one of Peter Hurley’s signature lighting setups. These involve the lights being very tight on the subject and in the frame. After the shoot is done I remove the lights in the frame in photoshop. When doing a high volume shoot with real time delivery I don’t want the lights to show up in the end product the subjects are receiving in their personalized galleries. To accomplish this there are a few workarounds. The first is to change up your lighting setup. Clamshell lighting with a light above the subject and an arc reflector below can work well, but it yields a distinctly different lighting look than Peter’s triangle lighting produces. Another option is to make your triangle a little wider and to shoot a square crop in camera. If you want to do Peter’s traditional tight triangle lighting you can use my Evoto AI presets that make it so you can get rid of the lights in the frame. That’s the way I prefer to do it as most of my clients book me for the distinct lighting pattern the triangle setup generates.

If the subjects are signing up for sessions in advance I give them a link that allows themself to “self-spot” by taking a simple selfie when prompted by the SpotMyPhotos platform so it will recognize them for me.  At the shoot I have a QR code printed up that also takes people to that same self-registration page in case they forgot to do it in advance and can do it while they are waiting in line for their turn.  And if all else fails I can just spot them…right on the spot.

I set my shutter speed to 1/160th, my aperture to 4.5 and my ISO is at 200.  I then adjust the power output of the lights as necessary.  If I have a subject with eyes that are very sensitive to the lights I will increase my ISO and lower the power on the lights.  The closer the lights are to the subject the more painted on the light will feel.  I shoot tethered to my laptop, allowing my RAW images to go straight into Evoto AI from my camera.  If you are shooting direct to JPG be sure to choose a picture style that you like, I tend to choose portrait, but on most cameras you can even create your own custom picture style that will be applied when your camera processes the JPG image for you. The picture style will determine the amount of saturation and contrast the image has.  Dial in the correct White Balance for the room and adjust the tint as necessary on your camera.  This is extremely important if the client is receiving images straight out of the camera in real time.  The headshots I export from Evoto are automatically pulled up into the cloud from my designated hot folder by the SpotMyPhotos uploader and processed in real time.

The WOW Factor!

By the time we are done taking the hand full of photos I ask the subject to check their phone for a text message.  To their astonishment a text message saying they have been spotted has already been delivered and all they have to do is click on the link to retrieve their images. Getting their headshots with SpotMyPhotos is the ultimate WOW factor!