My assistant has pink hair now, so we did a fun photo session with it. This is another example of just how little you need to make a photo session work. I do recommend props for the hands, but if you can’t or if props just wouldn’t fit the session, then make the hands the props. We have her hands doing different things in these photos and they all vib with the overall set. This doesn’t mean her looks are blank – she’s working different emotes for sure but that all falls into place more often after you figure out what the hands are doing.
Think of it this way; we humans are social creatures, even the less social of us are still defined quite a bit by social standards in some way, shape, or form. What we are doing defines a lot for us and our hands are key in that. Put a shovel in someone’s hands and they will have some since in their brain that they are there to dig holes. Put a broom in someone’s hands and they are there to sweep the floor. Our hands lead us more then we realize so by utilizing the hands in your photo session it can be a lot easier to set the expectations for facial emotes.
Anyway, for this setup, nothing too fancy. It was a basic three light setup. One strobe overhead with an octagon softbox as the key light. One strobe of to the side with a long softbox as a fill light. One strobe in back with beauty dish and a pink gel aimed at the backdrop as a back light.