I often get asked to produce portraits which are friendly and approachable especially corporate portraits. Traditionally these tended to be be very formal boardroom, desk type shots with very little character.

The need to have web profiles, avatars and press releases has contributed to the style of these portraits changing, however the circumstances under which they are produced has not changed. There is often a limited amount of time to shoot many subjects with a variety of poses and with multiple backgrounds. My preferred method is to use the existing daylight when available and filing shadows with reflectors. This allows a fast turnaround of location background and subject poses. Below are examples of available and artificial light portraits all taken using interior office locations or nearby exterior locations, sometimes with many changes of location. Very often portraits are produced during conferences or between board meetings.

Friendly Approachable Corporate Portraits

Friendly Approachable Corporate Portraits

Currently planning and designing new social media photography service. The growth in social media website’s and services has meant that many people are using image avatars as a way to stand out from the crowd. While the principles of taking the portrait are the same the attention is shifted to making the image have more appeal and personality when seen at smaller size and with a smaller pixel count.

A professional portrait reflecting your personality, saying something about who you are can be very enticing. I will also be posting some advice on how to take your own images for use on website profile pages or social media. I would welcome any feedback or suggestions for this service.

Social Media Avatar Photography

At the beginning of August 2009 I was asked by Cambridgeshire Community Police’s marketing department to photograph portraits for their forthcoming Ad campaign to highlight public awareness and vigilance in the community. All the portraits were taken over the course of a day and were taken of various members of public posed looking at camera from ice cream vendors, community police officers to park wardens and students. The setups were straight forward and all except one used available light. Images and resulting ads are below.

Portraits Cambridgeshire Community Police Advert

Portraits Cambridgeshire Community Police Advert

Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue service training day – All images taken illustrate the service in action and methods of search and rescue for the CAMSAR website and other publicity. It was a very wet start to the day with continual rain making the protection of the camera and lens a priority as well creating well composed images. Everyone was in good humour and seemed not to mind being outside in the continual rain. Much of the day was spent following the various training activities culminating in one of the team groups finding a volunteer missing person. I documented event as they happened and also set up and posed key images.

Search & Rescue Team Briefing

Rescue Team Leaders Check Map

Trained volunteer search technicians are assisted by a central control room providing up to date information from the local constabulary and GPS radio tracking technology.

Cambridge Search and Rescue Incident Control Room

Volunteers undergo training to track a persons movements.

Search Technicians examining foot prints

Lighting for the two person portraits below was provided by off camera flash and the ambient daylight. Two flashes were placed behind and to the right/left of the subject and one overhead of camera position with softbox. Sunlight provided intermittent overhead backlight.

Search & Rescue Team find missing person

2 month Cambridge Mencap photography commission close to completion. Results and insights posted here soon. Currently completing final images for the new Cambridge Mencap marketing campaign with new leaflets and website.

Lots of portraits taken over two days for the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital’s new nursing recruitment brochure. Great job, loads of fun meeting some very nice people. The brief was quite open with guidance to take approachable, happy portraits with neutral backgrounds. I chose to shoot with available light where possible and fill shadows evenly.

Cover Portrait Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospital Nursing Recruitment Brochure

Nursing Recruitment Brochure Portrait

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.