how to take celebrity portraits like tutorial

Celebrity Portraits - how to get an image celebrity like
by Christian Tudor of Academy of Photography
probably as famous as Brad Pitt, George Clooney or the Golum from the Lord Of the Rings
this is just a fun exercise to try to get a celebrity like portrait as Martin Schoeller style of passport image, with an added value of complexity and style despite the simplicity of the image
Images used as samples are portraits by Martin Scholler, so the credit should go to him obviously.
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[@KenCheng]

F1.4 or even F1.2 with strobes is possible if you use ND filter(s) also, I'm pretty sure Martin Schoeller shoots with medium format cameras where you get a lot more shallower depth of field (vs full frame and APS-C), so he could be only shooting at F2.8

[@glapioniii3361]

to get very shallow dof and using studio strobes you can go two ways that i can think of ND filters and TTL HSS

[@SniperTrader2023]

Martin uses Kino Flo's just like Peter Hurley, continuous fluorescent lighting. One could probably use fairly large strip boxes from the front.

[@Samtagri]

Hey, your opening jokes are good!! The tutorials are also nice :)

[@Johnkostercreative]

You're entirely wrong about the lighting. Scholler uses a two bank kino flo system. This is an expensive fluorescent system a four bulb set up on each side of the subject. Peter Hurley uses the same system, with a third bank running horizontal, so that the subject sits in a modified triangle. Can you imitate it with strobes? Of course.

[@guillepunx]

You are right, at least try it with two strip-lights boxes. The setup on the video it's completely wrong...

[@ptflats]

Always learning from you. Thank You

[@xposehu]

As it is said below, you could use an ND filter and go with the strobes, resulting in much stronger catch light in the eyes. (He uses at least 6 lamps/strobes by the way to achieve that result.) Also, shooting a 1.4 50 mm Canon lens (that is really mediocre) wide open is not good choice. Why would you bother. Schoeller's images are focused on the eyes (obviously) but show sharpness on the nose, too. I would use a longer lens (85 mm), at a lower f-stop (say 5.6), get almost everything sharp on the face and add the blur in post. Makes sense...

[@rocksta101]

Awesome! Thanks for taking the time.

[@CForce4]

Christian, thanks for this tutorial, very useful trick..

[@Academy-of-photography]

:)

[@jpec1724]

Thanks for your video

[@butchpouka]

Hi..thank you for a very useful tutorial...i wanna ask however, why can't you use strobe lighting with low aperture value

[@Academy-of-photography]

how to take a celebrity portrait tutorials kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmm5qXieg7N4m7M

[@carlharrison3637]

Thanks Christian, most useful, as always :)

[@eduardocortes-dv4lo]

In stead of kino Flo you can use 2 strip ( 130 cm ) light with grid . Shuter speed: HSS at 1.4 1.8

[@ynnebbenny]

Great ! Thanks.

[@DEEP345]

I think you could have gotten a closer match. better lens and higher exposure

[@Academy-of-photography]

I know there is room for better...

[@AsBi1]

your intro quotes are very interesting

[@Academy-of-photography]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmm5qXieg7N4m7M

[@RViscara]

This is not a lesson this'll is a shot in the dark to copy a image by someone who knows nothing about lighting and ultimately failed in trying to copy another photographers lighting. Ultimate fail

[@IlFranceseBeats]

yeah, this sucks.

[@ookiemand]

perhaps a bit of desaturation too? I wonder how to only desaturate the mid tones and highlights. Thank you for the cool video, and surely you're on your way to become famous. Maybe just add a bit more Italian accent and emotion, that may be adding just that bit of flamboyance :)

[@Academy-of-photography]

food for thought..thanks

[@AlexStreinuPhoto]

He is romanian ;)

[@ookiemand]

Ah, thanks Alex! Sounds logical since to my ears these languages have some common sounds to me :) btw some local tone mapping can give that more gritty look.

[@ookiemand]

Contest: As I'm learning about different RAW processing software, there may be some possibilities. Maybe this can be a youtube contest, take Photo Academy's base RAW shot and see how close you can get to these glamour muck shots? - including the winning processing steps off cause.

[@websitesthatneedanem]

I think reduce colour saturation too....

[@Academy-of-photography]

agree

[@websitesthatneedanem]

Where are you based? :-)

[@Academy-of-photography]

australia

[@aliosha123]

i belive the celebrity photos have the softboxes verry close and more front coz the celebrity sides are more dark also i can swear its way over 2.0 f

[@Academy-of-photography]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmm5qXieg7N4m7M

[@WaelBouyahya]

I would light the background to be whiter and desaturate the skin so the photo will look more as those celebrity photos :)

[@ThePatto56]

Very good, but I think it becomes art, and not photography.

[@MassiveBenny]

Not even in the same ballpark.

[@SEPK09]

TR 9-10 ;)

[@Academy-of-photography]

simon your are too kind! :))

[@Academy-of-photography]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmm5qXieg7N4m7M