Head shots?

[julimucca]

I have been taking portraits of my daughters and I know that natural lighting is the best for a good photograph.
My cousin is auditioning for a major play, and wants me to do some head shots for her, and I have no clue on where to begin!
I realy want to do this, but I want to make sure they turn out to her appeal. She wants to take the pictures tomorrow night, but I am not sure how to make the pictures look good without natural light.
Does anyone have any tips for me? I am going to be using her camera, I am not sure what kind it is, but I am pretty sure it is just a normal point and shoot digital 7 or 8 megapixels.
Is there a certain ISO I should have it on, how do I make it so I can highlight her without making the picture look funny. What kind of poses are the best for proffesional head shots? I wish I knew more of what I am doing, but I guess I have to start somewhere right?
Thanks!

[reval8r]

Hi julimucca,
I would first say to stress, it's good to see you have excitement about portrait photography. Head shots are by far the easiest portraits and where I recommend starting. I would also recommend using the camera you are familiar with and have been using. Using a different camera will take away from interacting with the subject and your attention will be given to learning a new camera not your portraiture session. Though you can do a head shot with a point and shoot, I would recommend a DSLR with a medium telephoto lens. With a P&S you will really have to watch out for perspective distortion which will give you the silly looking pictures that you are worried about.

I would suggest using natural light, either early morning or late evening. You can use natural light indoors or outdoors. If indoors use a window, outdoors look for backgrounds that are not distracting. Also, a white poster board will be very handy to use as a reflector to open up shadows on her face. Take both full face and 2/3 face shots. Avoid straight on-camera flash and don't have the subject facing straight into the light source both are unflattering to the subject.
Try to have a light source that is coming in at about a 45 degree angle to her.

With a head shot you don't have to worry about posing, but do have the subject using good posture. It will show even in an H&S portrait.

Mostly, have fun and try to capture the expression.

Larry

[LensBaby]

Cool...another person interested in portraits! The best advice I can give you, if you are using a P&S, is have the person that is posing stay very still, because P&S's have a delay. (when you snap the photo it takes a minute for it to actually take the photo) If you are very interested in doing portraits, I would say a DSLR is better, but I know that is not an option for some people. I have seen some photographers that use P&S's that have awesome photos. There is a member on here by the name of GJtoth and he takes awesome photos and he uses a p&s, so it does not mean that it cannot be done.IT IS POSSIBLE. I think as far as portraits go, you have more flexibility with a dslr, by being able to change your lens for what focal length you want. You also can shoot RAW with a dslr and that is something that is amazing.

As far as lighting, some photographers like natural light, and some light artificial. I am a big strobe person, and I like my strobes. I think the reason with that is whenever I have time to shoot outdoors it is either dark, raining or snowing. lol Just kidding. I think that is just as photograhers like to shoot landscapes, while others do not, and they like portraits. It is a matter of what you like, and what effect you are going for. Check this photographer (Roy Cox) a fellow student friend of mine works with him, and his lighting is stunning. It is artificial lighting, and he has some crazy set ups. I really like his style. Here is his website:

http://www.4-optic.com/