How I Got the Shot with Maurice Jager

Posted by: on Jul 05, 2017

How I Got the Shot with Maurice Jager
Portrait of a woman

Bio

Maurice Jager is a Dutch headshot and business portrait photographer and Chief Marketing Officer at Headshot Crew.

Connect with him online at https://www.mauricejager.com or on Instagram at @maurice_jager.

Concept

The concept of the shoot was to create an image for promotion of the client. I predominately shoot headshots and corporate portraits for people to use on their social media and personal branding. During the shoot, I pull whatever curveball I can think of to get a genuine expression based on trust and reaction while making it as fun as possible for the person in front of my lens.

Setup and Lighting

I shoot a Canon 5DSr teamed up with a Canon 100mm F2.8 L macro lens, which always sits on my Feisol CT-3472LV tripod. My current go-to lighting for headshots is the Westcott Peter Hurley Flexkit. I set everything up with Manfrotto 1051BAC light stands and attach the Tether Tools Aero Table to one of the light stands and I always make sure to bring my Tether Tools cable to shoot into my Apple MacBook 13”.

Benefits of Shooting Tethered

Because most of my clients have no idea what their face looks like most of the time, I use tethering to show them the results of what I’ve shot in Capture One Pro. Tethering is a vital part of my photoshoots, to coach and educate my clients to achieve the expressions they and I are looking for. My clients are not used to being in front of a camera and showing them the amazing results we get during the shoot works as a confidence builder and helps me to get better shots going forward during the shoot.

Behind the scenes of a portrait shoot

Post-Processing

I shoot straight into Capture One during a shoot and most my post-processing consists of working the white-balance, tint and color balance in Capture One. I’m a firm believer of getting it right in camera. It’s much easier to just stop the shoot for a second, fix a stray hair or straighten a piece of clothing than to have to go do it in post-processing. I always go for the best quality of light, so my lights are tightly set up, so I must go into Photoshop to remove the lights out of the frame. Fortunately, that’s a two second job these days and that’s about all I do to my images.

Collaboration and Team

I’m mostly a one-man operation, so I go in, set up my studio and start shooting people. Sometimes I bring a make-up artist to the shoot, but mostly I give people information upfront about how I expect them to show up during a shoot make-up-wise. In case some retouching needs to be done, I outsource that to a retoucher I work with and he just grabs the files of my Synology and works his magic before placing them back on the drive. For the creation of this video I had help from fellow Headshot Crew member and photography Wijnand Geuze who took care of the videoing and his assistant Myrthe Koppelaar who stepped in as being the model during this video.

How I Got the Shot Second Edition

To download this, and other How I Got the Shot guides, download version 2 of the How I Got the Shot Guide at TetherTools.com. Each educational article features a different image, behind-the-scenes video, as well as a detailed breakdown of how the shot was made.

Headshot Crew Tethering Bundles

Brand new! We’re thrilled to provide tethering bundles featuring gear hand-selected by Tether Tools Pro Peter Hurley and used by fellow Tether Tools Pro and Headshot Crew Chief Marketing Officer Maurice Jager. Check out the full-line www.TetherTools.com.

Peter Hurley SHABANG! Tethering Kit