Corporate Portraits: Formal, Informal and Group
Sometimes it’s good to get out of the county even if it means an early start and a 3:30am alarm takes some warming to!
Having photographed for the company in their Exeter office it was pleasing to be asked to take a trip up to the Nottingham head-office although it meant a busy day and a tight schedule.
The weather gods seemed to be playing fine although a bright sunny day isn’t always good for group-shots. Fantastic greeting upon arrival, a parking slot at the front door and time to recce the locations.
The garden looked good and the sun looked like it might be to the rear of the party by the time they would be ready. Plan A was to shoot sun to the rear and the most powerful studio strobe that I have to add light to the faces. The weather was good enough to get the laptop out and shoot tethered. Although not the easy option this approach means that we can see immediately if the group has been well positioned and no one is out of the focus zone or in shadow. The rest is down to slipping into teacher mode and placing a group whilst avoiding cliché positioning.
Prior to this though there had been some unlit work, the workshop sessions, relaxed and fun work.
Finally the studio was set in a conference room or the conversational style individual portraits. Again shooting straight to the Mac the fully lit shots allow maximum technical control and quality from the session.
Yes, a tiring day but rewarding too, thanks to the team at Browne Jacobsen and Karin for her help.
The trip home via Wolverhampton of course, I’d bought a beauty dish on eBay, hard to find honeycomb and case too!