Headshots on the go

Wednesday I got a last minute request to do headshots for new hires at a local ad agency. Normally I don't do headshots, but in this case, it was good business to take care of my client. The job came with a tasty caveat; everyone was going to be busy, so instead of having a schedule in a set location, I would have to go office to office to shoot 45 headshots.

So the problem is this, how to I do a good headshot without having to drag tons of equipment around and have the kit flexible enough to cover a variety of different environments? And the solution is this, all my gear on a Rubbermaid convertible utility cart that I bought to keep my iMac on for shooting tethered in studio.

Only this time instead of a computer, I mounted my lights on it. The way I figured, I would need a key and a fill light and be able to balance the two easily. Depending on how you look at it, its either silly or high tech, to me it was functional:

I got both of my Profoto AcuteB packs on there so I can dial the key and fill in separately. The key runs through the 2'x2' box with softgrid, the fill comes from a 20" Chimera Lantern. The lantern not only gives me a nice fill from the shadow side, but also gives me a lot of bounce from any nearby surface to bring the overall level up. Here's a side view:

I used a bunch of Lowel & Bogen grip clamps to attach the lights to the cart, it wasn't the most rigid thing imaginable, but it was functional. I can't show you the actual shots, but here's the test I did the night before:

I shot this (and the actual shots) at 1/60 sec around f5.6 so I could pick up some ambient from room lights and anything coming through the glass windows of the office building. Here you can see the gold color on Keith's head from the 60 watt light bulb in the lamp.