I have posted the examples below and in part 2 to give an idea of how a very simple and relaxed corporate portrait can be taken on location with minimum fuss but with lots of variety. Both examples use the exact same location and a lighting se tup which did not need to be moved. Using this set up enabled a variety of shots to be taken without taking to much time to reset lights and location. This was a necessity as I was confined to just one room.
Relaxed Corporate Portrait lighting examples
The first image on the left above was set up as follows:
One Bowens Gemini 500 with wafer softbox positioned on camera right close to subject and with a white reflector on the opposite side to provide fill. A second smaller light a Nikon Sb800 was placed on top of my lighting case low down behind the subject aimed up towards the wall behind. This provided a formal set up but with some separation with the background. The pose and lighting is quite standard but was a good starting point to work from. It also allowed the subject to begin to relax and get an idea how things were looking by seeing the image on the back of the camera.
The set up for the second image was a matter of turning the softbox used in the first image around so that it pointed towards the wall behind the subject, raising the level from a dark grey to almost white, no adjustment to the power output was needed. A second Gemini 500 with umbrella was used as the key light placed on camera left and feather slightly so that light would not fall onto the glass partition immediately on the subjects left side. The pose was adopted by the subject and I only asked her to turn slightly more both left and right.
The third image from the left was changed only by moving the subject to a different part of the room where I could use a glass partition wall as background. Using as my key light the soft available daylight through a window behind camera. I left the softbox in place but rotated it again so that this time it was aimed at the glass wall behind the subject. Even though the ambient daylight level was quite high the background remained flat and dark. I wanted to keep the high key level created by the daylight and so used the softbox to create some fall off behind the subject. The pose this time was set up only by asking the subject to stand and lean on one hand toward the camera. Although the pose felt a little awkward to begin with, this soon changed as we chatted and laughed. The pose begin to take a more intuitive and natural feel.
The fourth image was lit in the same way, except this time I asked the subject to sit (a different portion of the wall behind could be used as background now) again leaning on the table with one hand, the subject adopted a version of this position when she sat down and I could see she was comfortable with it and so I asked her to continue but I refined some the shapes and position of her hands. It is always enjoyable to be photographed when you are not aware of having to think to much about posing, allowing subjects to find an intuitive position always works well and means you can continue to keep a dialog flowing.
In total shooting time for one subject was between 20-30 minutes. There were more variations taken but not included in this example.
