Author Portrait Shoot with Tiffany Calligaris

Tiffany and Shiku at home in Toronto.

Some of my favourite people to photograph are writers...I love collaborating with fellow creators, and love the idea of contributing in a small way to the creative process involved in the publication of their work. When Tiffany Calligaris first contacted me I thought she was reaching out from Argentina where she has spent most of her career, so I was relieved to find her living in Toronto. As the publication date for her newest novel approached she needed to do some updated publicity photos, one of which would be included on the book jacket.

I started off by dropping by her home to check out the background possibilities, because when the goal is several distinctly different shots that really speak to the person's 'brand' it's often worth checking out 'real' places that, ideally, have some relevance to the person, before opting to set something up in studio. Thus, I location scout whenever possible so I can 1) determine if there are suitable spaces to shoot in and decide which ones are the best, and 2) pre-visualize the lighting and set-up. Meeting at the subject's home gives me the additional advantage of being able to view and advise on wardrobe. 

Tiffany's condo is not huge but had a fantastic view, so we thought that would be conducive to an environmental portrait. Added bonus: I discovered that she and her husband have a very cute and very friendly dog, Shiku, who we decided would be a great addition to some of the shots. We also walked several blocks to a spot Tiffany had in mind as a result of her dog walks. It, too, looked perfect to me as the historical architecture was somewhat suggestive of the historical timelines in her books.

The corner I liked in Tiffany's condo, and the street corner I liked for our outdoors shots.

As we were well into the fall season, we had to choose a shoot date sooner rather than later so there would still be leaves on the trees. Unfortunately, fall can be an iffy time weather-wise, and this one seemed particularly unsettled. As the shoot date and back-up weather dates neared, we made a somewhat last minute decision to skip the preferred date and commit to the next day. Of course, I then spent the entire original date looking for signs that I'd picked the wrong day, and the sun did come out once for about five minutes. I was vindicated, though, by an entire morning of sun on shoot day...not for long enough that it shone the whole shoot, but of the two days we did select the better one.

Shooting inside to begin with we started by setting a base exposure for the outside and seeing how Tiffany looked in the position I'd imagined. After the shoot I actually ended up changing my mind about the outside exposure, but while I was shooting I felt I wanted lots of colour and detail in the fall-coloured cityscape. As always, we brought lighting so we'd have control, and compositional possibilities would not be limited by the level or direction of the natural light. We also spent a few minutes trying out a throw rug as a prop, but ultimately decided it was a distraction that didn't really add anything of visual value to the image.

Left: Setting the ambient exposure. Middle: Setting the lighting and colour balance. Right: Trying out a throw rug prop which we ultimately ditched.

Here are two final versions of the selected shot -- the first being the way I envisioned it at the time, and the second a revised version I did, really, to make up for the fact that I had not been able to place a background light behind Tiffany where I wanted to because there wasn't room (we tried). There's more depth and dimension in the revised version.

Left: The first iteration. Right: My revised version which has more depth. Note that the part of the window frame behind Tiffany's head (visible in the test shots above) was removed during retouching; its relative position during shooting was unavoidable, so I planned to remove it later.

We did do a wardrobe and set change while we were inside but time was tight, so we didn't spend a lot of time trying for alternates. Ultimately we needed approximately five final shots and we had to pack everything up to move to the outdoor location, so we did not dally.

One alternative look, inside.

The outdoor location was far enough away that we needed to drive there with the gear. While my assistant and I drove over, Tiffany and her husband Phillip took Shiku for a walk and met us at the agreed spot. My first goal was to capture Tiffany and Shiku walking. Because I knew I wanted to photograph them at a specific spot, we set up a light and had them walk through that spot repeatedly while I locked focus on it.

Once again, I would like to have used slightly more complicated lighting than we were able to. Inside we had no room. Outside, I had the limiting factors of of one assistant (to handle one light) in a high traffic area (way more so than we'd anticipated), and in which we had no permission to shoot, so we had to keep as low a profile as possible. As a result, although the shot looked OK, I felt as if something was missing, until I did a little extra post-production to give it a little zing.

Left: Encroaching cars kept wrecking the shot; there was much more traffic on the shoot day than on the scout day. Right: We got the shot during one of the brief moments during which there were no cars or people in the way.  

The final walking shot.

Thankfully it didn't take long to get this shot as the endless traffic was driving me crazy (no pun intended). So although I'd planned initially to keep shooting here, I grabbed just a few more shots before deciding to move onto the church grounds in the background.

Once I crossed to the same side of the street as my subject we no longer had to deal with the traffic but the sun went behind the increasing clouds, not to be seen again. Between the clouds and the wind it was not warm, and Tiffany was wearing a light little jacket, not actual outerwear. Phillip took Shiku home so we could concentrate on the task at hand, which, for Tiffany, was mostly trying not to look like she was freezing to death.

You would never know Tiffany was freezing.

Tiffany had told me when we met initially that she would welcome my direction during the shoot, as she, like almost all of my subjects, is not a professional model and not especially comfortable in front of the camera. By putting her trust in me, she set the stage for us to successfully create a set of shots in which she looks comfortable, relaxed and confident. I have to applaud her, too, for her commitment, patience and perseverance. It was not easy posing outside in the cold, but you'd never know it from the pictures, and she uttered not a word of complaint. I found out later she'd needed a hot bath to thaw out, and fell asleep right after that!

Tiffany's newest novel Lesath Ever After is scheduled to hit shelves in March 2019.

Whether you are publishing a book, a website, a blog, etc., please get in touch if you want to look great on it!

kathryn@hollinrake.com
hollinrake.com