How to Get a Great Headshot in a Planetarium's Low Light

Gather Your Gear: Two Lights and a Stand

You cannot rely on the planetarium's star projector. It’s a mood setter, not a portrait light. The ambient light will be about three stops too dark for a sharp, clean headshot. Your camera will fight you, cranking the ISO so high that your subject’s skin looks like it’s made of digital sand. I once tried to shoot a quick test shot using only the “Milky Way” on the dome; the resulting file was a grainy, blue mess where my client’s features simply vanished. You need to bring your own sun.

Pack two battery-powered LED panels, not speedlights. Why? You need to see the light falling on your subject’s face in real-time, not guess after a flash pop. Get a 5-foot light stand for your main light. A collapsible reflector won’t cut it here—you need controlled, directional light you can position precisely. Your second light can be smaller, even a mini panel on a small stand. And bring gaffer tape. You’ll use it to secure cables to the floor so no one trips in the dark.

Place Your Main Light: The 45-Degree Rule

Set up your main light about four feet from your subject. Now, pull it to the side. The classic portrait lighting position is 45 degrees off the camera axis and 45 degrees up. This isn’t just a rule; it’s geometry that sculpts the face. It creates a small, triangular highlight on the shadow-side cheek, defines the jawline, and adds depth that flat planetarium lighting utterly lacks.

What if your subject wears glasses? This is the first big question. Angle the light higher, so the main catch light appears in the upper part of the lens, not dead center. Have them tilt their chin down a fraction. I watched a brilliant astrophysicist become a pair of glowing white circles in my first frame because I forgot this. We adjusted the light height by eight inches, and his intelligent eyes appeared perfectly.

Add a Fill Light to Soften Shadows

Your main light alone will cast a deep, dramatic shadow on the far side of the face. For a professional headshot, that’s often too harsh. You need to fill that shadow in, but not eliminate it. Place your second light directly opposite the main light, on the other side of the camera. Keep it lower in power—set it to about 1/4 of the brightness of your main light.

The goal is to reveal detail in the shadow, not create a second, competing light source. You should still see a clear shadow, but now you can see the curve of the ear and the fold of the collar. Without this fill, the shadow side can look like a black hole, especially against a dark planetarium backdrop. It’s the difference between looking authoritative and looking like a mysterious silhouette.

Avoid This Common Planetarium Mistake

Do not, under any circumstances, place your subject directly under the dome’s central projector or in front of a bright constellation graphic. You’ll get what I call “speckle face”—tiny points of light scattered across their skin and, worse, glowing in their hair like misplaced glitter. It’s distracting and impossible to edit out cleanly.

Instead, find a dark patch of dome or a solid, dark wall. Your lights will create the only important illumination. The planetarium becomes a beautiful, dark velvet backdrop for your subject. This solves the second big question: how do you get those cool stars in the background? You let them be a soft, out-of-focus backdrop. Use a wide aperture, like f/2.8 or f/4. Your subject is sharp; the stars on the dome become beautiful, creamy bokeh balls in the distance. It’s magic.

Check Your Shot: The Final Preview

Zoom in on your camera’s LCD. I mean, really zoom—to 100%. Check three things. First, the eyes. Are they sharp? Is there a clean catch light from your main light? Second, the collar and shoulders. Is the fill light revealing just enough texture in the jacket? Third, the hairline. Are there any weird, stray projector specks of light you missed? Fixing this now saves an hour of Photoshop later.

Take a test shot and show your client. Their reaction in that dim room tells you everything. I’ve seen people’s posture change instantly when they see a powerful, well-lit portrait of themselves emerge from the darkness—they sit up taller, their smile becomes more genuine. That’s when you know the tech is right and the real session can begin.

Shooting in a planetarium is a thrilling challenge. You’re not fighting the low light; you’re replacing it with something better. Your two LEDs become your personal constellations, designed for one purpose: to make someone look confidently, clearly like themselves, floating against the wonder of the universe. Pack the tape, mind the specks, and watch for the catch light. The stars are just your backdrop.

Related, and worth reading next: Unleash Your Inner Star: Pro Lighting Tips for Headshots.