I posted some photos on Facebook recently which went up completely unedited, just a couple hours after being taken, that were lit with a simple $3 torch. Most of the people that I’ve showed the photo don’t quite understand how you can get such great results with such basic gear, but I’m going to show you exactly how it’s done.

I recently went back to a festival I worked at last year and I saw a friend of mine that I took a photo of last year, and I mentioned to him that I’d used that photo many time on my website, but he didn’t seem to understand why. I started listing off all the different elements that the photo has and how I can use it for different tutorials, and then it dawned on me that it’s easy to spot a good photo, but it’s not so easy to understand what makes them great.

In the acting and modelling world, black and white headshots are commonplace in portfolios, and if you want to diversify your own photography portfolio then it would be a good idea to add this skill to it. Headshots are laid back and can be a lot of fun as you play around trying to come up with something creative.