Thanks to all of you who've been adding information about what Schoeller shoots with in terms of cameras and lighting etc. I would challenge you though (and it's obviously the point of this series) that if you attempt this sort of challenge for yourself with the work of another photography, push yourself to try and replicate the look by reverse engineering the image by eye, and then using the gear you already have to get as close as you can. You'll get way more value trying to work things out for yourself, training your eye to recognise the lighting, and using your ingenuity to recreate it, than you will by researching and then just copying another photographers techniques and gear choices directly. Good luck.

Really cool! (But i think he uses a different focal length - in my opinion there is distortion on the faces. I think it has a 50 mm look.)

Sending this video to my cousin, he used to assist for Martin. I’ll give an update on his thoughts.

Great video! About a dozen years ago, one of my college Photoshop instructors was one of Schoeller’s editors. I really wish I remembered what he had said he did to the images, especially since he was talking specifically about the Clooney portrait. He even brought in a large mounted print of it to show us the finished product

One point about rules: He chops the subject's head, what is a basic "mistake". But for me this is exactly what makes his close up's bearable. That little space above the head in your version puls my eyes.

Please keep doing more of these videos. It's amazing hearing your thoughts on this topic. Love it!

There is a video on YT where Martin Schoeller shows and explains how to do it. This is the gear he used: Mamiya RZ67 Pro II with a 140mm lens.

Nice video. I've always loved Schoeller's portraits. Just a few things that I think could be tweaked. Positioning the Strip boxes slightly higher (just a couple of inches) than the subject and pointing down will give both the directionality of the light (where the under chin and lower cheeks are a little darker) and the gradation on the background you were going for. I also think Schoeller's tones are a little cooler or more desaturated than the shot you took - which still has some pink in the skin. Third point and this might be guessing, but I think the interior of the softboxes on Schoeller's work are possibly silver, which give a little more crispness to the images by emphasising the specular highlights. All in all though, a really good explanation.

You're correct about the camera placement. He gives his subjects just a little bit of an angle to look down on the camera for a subconscious warm authority from them.

Wow! After a few years, someone finally managed to get VERY close to the result. I always looked and even tried to reproduce these portraits of him, but I never managed to. The sensation it creates is as if the person were inside a house, at the window, looking out onto the street. The side blockers help a lot to create this sensation. Thank you so much for this, Sean. Congratulations and greetings from Brazil (Rio de Janeiro)

You're the few photographers that actually I watch till the end of video and for sure I learn a lot from your contents. Keep going Sean!

There is something going on optically with George’s portrait. Medium format maybe? The proportions are very heroic, bold, definitely not a standard 35mm look. Eyes seem bigger also. Anyway, loved the video, you nailed the lighting! Thanks!

Fascinating. This is why this is such an incredibly valuable channel. Sean you don't think maybe he's using a shorter equivalent focal length? To my eyes, your version looks more compressed where I see the references do seem to really emphasise the centre of the face and are not so flattering. I'm thinking like a 56mm or something.

Thanks Sean...These "forensic lighting" tutorials are filled with great information along with the tidbits of post-processing information.

Hint: You can tell if the lights are continuous or flashes based on the pupil dilation. If the pupils are big, it means a flash was used because a flash does not give time for the pupils to contract. If the pupils are small, it means bright continuous lights were most likely used to keep the pupils small. In this case, the pupils seems not to be widely dilated so it suggests continuous lights of something not too bright like average daytime light in terms of lumens.

Great analysis. But I think he uses 65 mm or 75 mm lens. 85 makes faces too flat in surface.

It's cool to see how you analyzed and reverse engineered the shot and even noticed the slightly different angle at the end. Seeing that minor difference really made me realize what a big effect that has on the feel of the image. That slightly lower angle seems to add that subtle sense of gravitas.

Very good Sean. Love Schoeller's look and this is very close. As a matter of interest I recently did a workshop with Craig Fleming and he created a 'Schoeller' lighting look with a pair of Nanlite Pavotubes positioned in front of the subject, but a bit more spaced apart than your stripboxes. It's a really interesting style of portrait.

Hi Sean, as soon as I saw the portraits I immediately thought that the focal length was 35mm. I see a lot of distortion. I have a 40mm. The rest seems perfect to me

in a Pop Photo interview, Schoeller said he used Mamiya RZ67 with 140mm, which is an equivalent of about 65mm in 35mm. with close/tight framing this shows a bit of perspective distortion in his portraits which is IMO not captured in your attempt. maybe a Sigma 65mm or a Voigtlander 65mm would aid to that, although you will likely lose the DoF effect.

Had fun trying this out today after watching yesterday,

I did this same experiment myself a year or two ago.There’s a great video online somewhere of him shooting race car drivers just as they’re coming off the track. He has a small box tent set up that they sit in for about 1 minute and he shoots them. The set up was strobes, in two thin (like 8inch) strip banks either side (no grids although I also heard he used kinoflows for these at some point) with just enough for them to see him between them and the lens. The tent itself is black so a natural negative fill on the sides and overhead, really close like inches away. He uses a Mamiya RZ67 with a slightly long lens (150 or 180 I think so like 75mm or 90mm equivalent). No backlight that I could see but they were right up against it so I’m guessing the strips were slightly angled maybe in this Clooney shot. He talked about not shooting wide open but just enough so it fell off just past the ears. So yeah man good work, very very very close. Tough to recreate a 6x7 look on a smaller sensor.

I like this series. My first reaction to Schoeller's work is twofold: His camera height is lower OR he has them move their chin forward because every shot seems to have a wider or exaggerated/prominent jawline. I would also not be surprised to learn he uses a 50mm or something else a little wider than the 85 ... Clooney's ears are "set back."

Not to be too particular Sean, but if people looking at the catchlights think that the two strips of light are quite far apart because they HAVEN'T considered the shape of the eye, then once they have taken that into consideration, then the lights would be EVEN FURTHER apart than they initially thought. but this is an excellent video and one that I greatly enjoying as someone with no familiarity with portrait photography!

Very cool, the whole video and to see your process. I definitely think you’re right about the angle, Schoeller’s being slightly lower. I think he’s more level with the lips and looking up into the eyes. Also, he seems to be tweaking saturation and colors a bit as George looks more silver in skin tones overall but still keeps a red glow in the lips. When looking at all 6 photos at the end, there is definitely some coloring differences between yours and his. Great video as always.

This is really great and insightful; especially the Photoshop retouching (which I always struggle with). A similar look can be achieved with a technique called parallel lighting. You take two strip boxes (with continuous lights) and place them facing each other. The subject is then lit by the light that is spilling out of the very edges of the strip boxes. This set-up gives great, dramatic light fall-off and the vertical double catchlights.

this is great. thanks Sean

Hello Sean, I hope you are well. In addition to greeting you, I would like to tell you that today I made my first portraits with the technique that you show in this video and the truth is that I was very satisfied, I think I achieved the effect by 90%, it is a technique that I had never developed and today because of me work I took on the task of applying the technique to a recognized writer from my country. The truth is that I like them even more since I have gone through the editing process following your steps little by little and slowly so as not to make mistakes and I have been happy, the same with the model who is an older lady with wrinkles that give her A special touch. I took my photos with iso 100, f1.8 and 400 speed with a Nikon 750 and an 85mm 1.8. I appreciate your time and teaching. Greetings from Mexicali, Baja California. México.

Great stuff Sean (as usuall), keep it going!

I did this style once years ago. I used bounce boards in front of the subject in place of where you put the strip lights. And I fired my strobes from behind the subject over their shoulders. I used flags to control the light spill on the sides of the their heads and shoulders. I played around a lot with different sizes of bounce boards to give a different look in the subjects eyes.

😭😭😭😭 I’ve been shooting for more than 10 years and I can’t tell you have nice it is to hear the way you describe this process, particularly the way you describe the way that not having the grids would result light flooding in, thanks for your great work!

Enjoyed this Sean. Would love to see you recreate an Andy Gotts style portrait. I think his simple black and white / monochromatic would blend with your style. Be good to see how you capture the personality of the subject as Andy does

Nice video! One thing I would reconsider is the focal length... as it seems to that original is more like 50mm-ish. But I could be wrong.

These are no flash but constant lighting fresh new led panels for every shoot

Amazing job!

Nice video! I had a go at this myself a few years ago. Didn't have any grids on my strip boxes then, and I also put them a bit too far to the sides. You got really close though 👍

Sean Tucker. You are quite amazing. Once my nemesis and now my Hero. :-)

I'm sure I once saw somebody doing something similar to this, but with a single large softbox that they would stand in front of, wearing black obviously, to create two lights out of the one.

I love the thinking process behind the recreations.

In one of the events I attended he was shooting some portraits and noticed for background he uses a white background and a profoto and yes 2 strip boxes with grids and sometimes no grids. Camera he had 2 medium format including a Phase One with the 120mm macro.

Very illuminating.

looking at the final grid 20:03 i feel that Sean’s photo has totally totally different feel…it’s like the others are portraying status or maybe a drawing while Sean’s is of an actual human…

If you check Peter Hurley's headshot work, he uses 3 led panels and flash light behind the subject to fill the background. The Panels are actually very very close to each other. Leaving only the necessary space for the camera. Great video Sean. Love this series as well.

I prefer your portrait. Well done!

In my opinion, his lighting scheme is very close to that used by Martin. However, the focal length you used is too long. There is an obvious distortion of perspective. Martin must have used a normal lens, perhaps a slight wide angle.

Good job on the lighting Sean, but you missed his signature element. He clearly uses a normal FOV lens for his camera platform, then fills the frame with their face. Look at the noses. They are all distorted/enlarged. That's why we ordinarily use 85-100mm lenses to flatter our subject. But he's not going for flattery. He's creating a signature look.

Welcome back. You had us worried about your absence from your channel.

Fantastic video Sean you absolutely got the lighting right 100%

Fabulously done, and lovely insights on how it is done. Perhaps, the old-Hollywood portraits could be included in future series...

It looks like there is an extra light or white surface that lights the whole face from just slightly higher than the forehead and creates a very soft shadow on the neck, on the original. I love this series of videos, help me a lot to be more conscious with light and also camera positioning. Little changes can make a great difference !

Most of the times he’s using Kino Flo 4 foot 2 banks with eggcrates, but sometimes you can see him using chimera’s medium strips with grids. Profoto with standard reflector for the background. There are some videos on KZfaq. You did a really great job on this! I have done this before but sometimes you have someone wearing glasses, which complicates things. My attempt is to ask the model to take off the glasses for some shots to get the eyes/glasses clear for retouching them in photoshop. I once forgot this and it’s really pita to retouch the grid reflection.

That headshot is a standard in the headshot industry. My starting point for that would be parallel continuous lighting, f4, 90mm. Shoot on a tripod with your lens at collar bone. Easy 😊

Amazing recreation. Excellent work to you, and your model.

Thank you for sharing what you were doing and why. I found the whole video amazing and I don't shoot portraits. Your ability to figure out the lighting as you did from the pictures and then replicate the look and feel was magical. I know I need to understand the capabilities of Photoshop better. Your editing of the picture reinforced that need as it was a slap in the face to work on this now. You are an artist and you prove it with every video. Wow!

Great video! another thing which is important and can always been seen on the other portraits from Martin Schneller is that the faces are shot a little bit from the bottom (or the people raise their faces a little) to get that "heroic feeling" and not in the center of the face. But I think in this case its more about the lighting and not posing but it would bring it even closer ...

Hi Sean. Love this series! I loved the Michelle Pfeiffer one and same with this one! I learn a lot with this videos and I consider them a great exercise!. Although I mostly like your "other" videos (more intimate thinking) I really enjoy when you get back to your tutorial/learning photography videos. Thanks for this one!! Cheers from Spain

Outstanding video. I appreciate the time you take to work through the process & explain your thinking. Such a great series of videos that you produce. Thank you.

I'd love to see an updated video of your personal current portrait style to get the most artistic look you like as close to sooc as you can...

Great video -- thank you, Sean. To me, the original of George Clooney looks more like it was shot with a 135mm (or equivalent) lens.

Great job!

Thank you, Sean. Very inspiring and easy to follow.

its the lens!

Constant lights also help in closing down the subjects pupil. So you don't have big black holes in the subject eyes as you get with strobes, and the catch lights are more prominent.

Very interesting, Sean! Terrific result! Thank you. Even your technique to enhance the details was very good... although I'd use a blender highpass layer to give a more HDR-like effect of extra details. Thank you again!

Thank you for this Sean, I really love these videos.

Really great. Very informative - keep them coming. Thank you.

Outstanding tutorial Sean. Thank you!

Love this series - thanks for sharing Sean!

Excellent!

actually you don't need grids, and flash is of because you don't need a lot of power... full open, and close !

Funny, I was just messing with a lighting set up just a randomly, I should have flagged it like ya did here on the sides. Always loved your vids! 😎

I love how you were able to replicate it .

Interesting project for sure. You did well grasshopper.

Been waiting for this ❤

Love you!

Good call on the 85mm. I would use 85mm to 105mm

Love this series Sean!

Fun video! I try to recreate lighting too as a learning exercise. One I had fun with, and you might like to try, is Dan Winters' work, specifically the portraits like Brian Cranston or Keanu Reeves.

I have a faint memory that Schoeller was using CineFlo lights. I have used them myself and with the barndoors you don't need a grid. Looked great and since it is a tube light, the light is consistant from top to bottom even in the reflection of the eyes.

Excellent video

This series is brilliant!!!!

I really enjoy this type of videos.

Awesome…love to recreate that as well…I was only thinking maybe a little bit more contrast overall…but other than that…awesome work!

So excited!

Sean, I believe you got it a bit wrong, I would place strip or soft boxes towards each other and then, if needed, tilt them to the subject but avoided aiming directly to the subject. No grids required. I would use strip boxes if I needed subject's face going to the darkness fast, and soft boxes - if I needed more gradual light-to-shadow effect. I could be wrong, though

@7:00 he’s feathering his softboxes.

I think he shot further back using a 70 or 200mm lens? You can see it in the way the fall off is. Nice portrait never the less.

Hi Sean, I really liked your "Can I Recreate this Famous Portrait" I once saw a behind the scenes with Dan Winters and it looked like he used a large ring flash for his portrature and also worked with flags, maybee you should recreate one of his images. Kind regards/Ola

Great video! I am so sad that Ted decided to actively delete his wordpress site. It could have kept the material available for the long term as a learning site.

Martin used film camera 120mm , ne also used 2 kinoflu light with grids, no more no less

Great video! Thank you for sharing your learning journey. Now I have to try this!

Great work Sean!

Excellent video You know what would be really cool? A mannequin head with shiny black eyeballs so you can see the catchlights when setting up.

Schoellers focal length should be closer to a 105 full frame, I think. I’d try the Sigma 105 2.8 Macro.

Thank you. 🙏🏻

It looks like the light fall off summitry is very strict in Martin's shots especially in the graduation of the fall off. I wonder if vertical shutters would give you the control you need in the catch light.

You can see the grid in the catchlights on Schoeller’s, at least recent ones. Agree with other comments that maybe your focal length is a bit long. Great vid always enjoy your content and perspective

This was great. Thanks!

Very informative! Great video. I'll have to look for the rest!

Having seen your lighting with the grids makes me wonder if Schoeller uses barn doors or flags the lights off. Great tutorial. Thank you for sharing. I learned a lot.