The Best Portable Headshot Kit

This year, I started doing more headshot work which includes traveling to companies and doing them on location. Since 2018, I had just been doing them at my home office and having people come over, but now that we’ve got a baby and other things going on here with the house remodel, it just made more sense to go on-site.

THE BACKDROP

My go to backdrop is the Westcott X-drop (5x7) size. For me, this size is perfect and all collapses down into a small bag that is about 3’ long and maybe 8” thick. It weighs practically nothing which is what you want for doing on location headshots. Note that in the rear photo shown below, the three top extending legs are removed from them middle anchors for small footprint storage.

The X-Drop set up is streamlined and consists of extending the three lower legs, assembling the three upper legs, attaching the backdrop to the 5 anchor points, then simply extending the top legs to the max height and making quick adjustments to get the wrinkles out. If you have wrinkles present, then that means the legs aren’t situated quite right and it takes just a quick bit of moving them (usually the lower 2 in my experience) to make the wrinkles disappear. All in all, the entire setup process is less than 5 minutes.

ON LOCATION SETUP

When I go on location, this is the gear I bring for headshots. It all fits into a small footprint in the trunk of my Toyota Camry. I end up with 4 bags - 1 for the Magmod and flash gear, 1 for all the stands, 1 for the Xdrop, and then my camera bag. I should probably buy a cart, but I can carry it all in one trip holding everything and using a backpack. For me, to unpack all the gear, set everything up, and get the lighting dialed in takes less than 15 minutes. I’d say it’s actually closer to 10 minutes. If speed and efficiency are important to you, then I think it’s hard to beat this setup.

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I have been using all of these products since I added headshots to my portfolio in 2018 or so. They’ve all stood the test of time thus far and I have no complaints about any of these items.

• Westcott 5x7 gray backdrop ($120)

• Magmod 24” softbox ($189)

• Bogen Tripod ($400)

• 2 Godox AD200s ($300 ea)

• 2 Manfrotto Nanostands ($89 ea)

• 1 Impact 8’ air cushioned light stand -wish I had the taller one - 9.5’ ($58)

• 1 Neweer 32” reflector ($28)

• 1 Yongnuo LED light wand ($142)

I will give a quick note about lightstands. There are a lot of knockoffs out there and I’ve bought some of the cheap junk ones just to try, and they are indeed cheap junk made out of inferior materials and components. I would not recommend buying cheap no name lightstands. Buy good and buy it once vs buying junk and buying many times. I still have those junk light stands but I never use them.

HOME OFFICE SETUP

This is historically how I have had my headshot area set up at my home office. Note that my home office is about 15’ x 17’ with 9’ ceilings and I shoot headshots longways. I will usually tether to my computer and then the client can see their shots in Lightroom in realtime on my 38” Dell Ultrawide (the best monitor investment I’ve ever made). The setup is exactly what I show in the on-location setup above, except I don’t usually use a backlight. For that one above, it was to meet a customer requirement for a '“halo: effect on the backdrop. I don’t normally do that and just shoot the backdrop plain. Sometimes I will add two flashes on the sides to make it pure white though. Also, note that at home I actually use the new Magmod 42” pro softbox as it does give softer light. However, due to its size I usually don’t take it out on location because it is a beast!

OTHER GEAR

In the list above, I shared all the equipment I use for my headshots. As noted, I’ve had all of it for many years now and it has performed flawlessly.

Bogen-Manfrotto: I’ve been a Bogen Manfrotto support user since I started in video in 1999 and still have my original Manfrotto video tripod from back then and it still works like new. Over the years I’ve accumulated a number of Bogen Manfrotto stands and still have all them to this day and they all still work fantastic.

Godox - When I “got serious” about photography in the 2016 time frame, I started with Yongnuo, but I quickly realized that they did not have an easy ecosystem to work with. I then learned about the Godox system and made the switch about a year later. Best decision ever for me. The AD200s provide about 2.5x the power of a single flash and offer a great recycle time compared to a regular flash unit. I also have 4 of their TT600 flashes that I use when I need to get creative.

Magmod - This was the first modifier system I got into when I began doing weddings in 2017. I love the ease of use and portability. The Magsphere is still my goto modifier to this day for nearly everything.

CONCLUSION

In summary, if you’re looking for a backdrop system that is portable, easy to set up and, will provide a quick ROI, the Westcott X-drop is what you want in my opinion. All the other supporting equipment I list above is certainly helpful in taking your headshot game to to the next level. As always, if you have questions, reach out!