Peter Hurley takes so-called "headshots" - portraits against a neutral background - in three studios (New York, Los Angeles and Dallas). He has been doing this for 8 years now and has certainly had all the more or less well-known actors in front of his lens.
I became aware of him because he... fstoppers introduced him some time ago and have now recorded a video session with him. They've been around since Wednesday (?) and I got them straight after Watching the promo video bought. Peter Hurley shares his knowledge and experience for 4 hours.
What fascinates me most is the determination. He has a pretty strange lighting setup that, despite all the variability, allows him to keep the work in post (post-production) as low as possible. The wonderful glow in the eyes, which is otherwise painstakingly retouched using Photoshop, is created automatically.
That being said, I was able to really glean a lot of posing tips for this specific type of portrait photography from the video.
Hi Stefan,
I would be very interested in your impressions of Peter's DVD. Is the $300 worth it?
Thanks and regards
Thomas
Hello Thomas,
That certainly depends on what level you are at. You will certainly only be able to recreate his typical light if you take a lot of this type of portraits. But of course this makes post-processing much easier.
I think it's not his light that's exciting, but rather his approach. Technically clean portraits are not that difficult, there are many instructions for them.
The difficult thing, and this is Hurley's strength, is getting people to make interesting faces.
However, you also have to keep in mind that Hurley primarily has people in front of the camera for whom a top-quality photo has a very clear competitive advantage: whether an actor gets through to the top selection in the casting is largely determined by his photo.
If you want your results, you (and the model) have to be prepared to work for many hours on a photo. Taking pictures, discussing pictures, practicing facial expressions and so on.
It's all hard work. Or to put it another way: "there is no silver bullet." He has no shortcuts or tricks, it's solid work that requires a lot of effort and practice.
If you're willing to put in that much work, this video can help you. However, if you know that you don't plan on spending hours working with the model for a portrait, you will probably get less out of the video.