Same subject, different lighting

CEO of defense technology company Eomax Corp.

As a follow up to my previous post, sometimes it's appropriate to add a little drama to a business profile portrait. Same subject, same studio, different background, different lighting, different processing. (Note: since I posted this I changed the portrait in the previous post so this makes no sense now! Suffice it to say, both men were photographed in a studio-like environment, but in very different styles. This more dramatic style suited this subject way better.)

Some people talk about headshots these days as if they are loaves of Wunderbread -- cheap, pedestrian, and all the same -- or tube socks -- one size fits all. If you are looking for something better than bread, or tube socks, give me a call.

kathryn@hollinrake.com
hollinrake.com

New Portable Corporate Portrait Backdrop

Corporate Backdrop #5

Another success! A couple of posts ago I wrote about developing new fabric backgrounds for shooting corporate portraits on location, or in studio. I am excited to announce the newest iteration, which is, in my opinion, the best one I've designed yet. This portable fabric backdrop allows us to shoot in any room (as long as it's big enough), at any time of day. Available light or lack of it is completely irrelevant, meaning we and our clients enjoy freedom, flexibility and control.

In order to accommodate executives' busy schedules we make ourselves available whenever they need us. Increasingly we find clients requesting something more interesting than a gray background. The obvious choice is a nicely appointed boardroom, maybe showing part of the wall and some window. But this becomes problematic when, for example, the portrait is at 8:00 a.m. on a winter's day, because what's visible through the window is darkness. When we shoot portraits from morning until afternoon the light changes enormously from set-up to tear down. Even if it's a beautiful sunny day, as the sun makes its way across the sky the shadows and shapes change constantly sometimes changing a lovely background to one with a huge distracting shadow or blindingly bright highlight running right through it. 

Left: Environmental background earlier in the day. Right: Later when the light has shifted creating bright highlights and an ugly shadow.

I wanted to bring to corporate portrait shoots an easily portable backdrop with the look of an environmental background minus the pain and lack of control. The new background was designed using as its base a photo of a real background taken at an executive portrait shoot at a corporate office downtown. Using digital photo manipulation and compositing I created out of that image a final image printed on fabric to mimic a distant background while actually being positioned only a couple of feet behind the subject.

The advantages are:

• We may need less space than we'd need to create a similar look with an actual environment.

• We can consistently create a mid-day-in-an-office look at any time of day.

• We can introduce some variation if desired by making it lighter or darker with lighting.

• It looks a little different depending on where each subject is placed in front of it, so groups of portraits don't look unnaturally similar.

• Using this background is more economical than digitally replacing a plain background after the shoot.

A portion of KHPhoto Background #5

As always, my goal is to make the people who hire us look good, and the people we photograph look great! I think about how to 'up our game' all the time, and I care passionately about your success.  I invite you to benefit from our experience. If you or your organization need excellent profile portraits and want to enjoy having them done, please get in touch. I look forward to working with you!

kathryn@hollinrake.com
hollinrake.com