Expert: Don Wood - 1/11/2005

Question
I recently purchased the 20D from Canon.  I have decided to start taking headshots for actors.  What do you think is best?  studio lighting or natural lighting?  Also, can you give me a brief overview of what would be best for each situation?  I am going to buy studio lighting equipt. and start doing it out of my apartment.
Also, do you know of any good books on this subject? Thanks.  P.S.  is this response going to get emailed to me directly?

Answer
You've asked an interesting questions about headshots. Both have pluses and minuses. I suppose it would depend upon the subject, some would demand the natural lighting, some would demand the lighting from the studio. In the studio, you would probably want 3 lights, two for the camera, one for the background. You might even want to expand it to a hairlight with a snood to concentrate the light in a small area. Go to the library, get books that would help you in learning the trade of light placement. Go to art and photo galleries to determine how the artist created his looks, look at picture books and try to determine how the artist/photographer lit his picture. You will be doing this the rest of your life so get used to it.
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Thanks for asking, if I cn help further let me know.
Don