Personal Branding Portrait of a Real Estate Agent

Our first final shot: frame #89

Real estate agent (specifically, an Ecobroker for Green Real Estate) and actress Judy Coffey is another entrepreneur who sometimes uses her home as an office. Once I'd scouted her (actually authentic converted warehouse) loft condo I knew we had the perfect location for an environmental shoot...really stylishly and contemporarily decorated interior, enough space to move around in and allow me and my camera some distance from the subject (her) so we could use a flattering focal length lens, and west facing facing window with lots of light at the right time of day, which we could use or not depending on what worked. 

Here above is the main shot we were going for. But how did we get to this?

Let me show you where we started:

First outfit we tried, no lights yet

If we were doing a moody personal portrait to put in a scrapbook or personal blog or something we could be almost there, but for a professional, branding image that is going to shout to the world how into, and on top of her professional world Judy is, we had a ways to go. 

First off, the sweater is a bit casual, and beige. We had thought something blue might provide a pleasing pop of colour, but we didn't love the texture of the blue jacket available. We loved the delicate silk fabric in the third top below, but thought it likely wouldn't "read" upscale and professional-agent-appropriate but rather look just too loose and cas.

Five different tops we thought might work

So what did we do? (See pics below) We went back to the sweater one more time with light! Nope. Still not happening. We did really like the fourth blouse but it was looking a bit risque. So we tried it again. It was not going to work if Judy had to hold it shut. So we steamed it and styled it and ta-da! It worked. Then we added a bit more lip colour, which we realized almost instantly was actually too much lip colour, so we took it back down, and we were almost ready to really shoot. 

Back to the sweater, again? No, the blouse, but... Whoa...too much lipstick!

Except that we had not yet finessed the props and greenery to my satisfaction. We turned the lily around and around  trying to get just the right amount of green in the shot but it just wasn't the right shape, so we moved it right out of the shot, and moved in a smaller more delicate leafed plant on a small table just behind the dining table. And then proceeded to move it and turn it and move it and turn it until it was in just the right spot for the crop I had, by this point, decided worked best. Then we just needed to add in something where the lily had been so we took a tall, decorative vase of twigs from the corner of the living room and positioned it there. That fit perfectly and filled in the empty space just enough to add texture without being distracting. 

Jude laughs as we figure out what to do with her hands.

Now it was just a matter of settling on the right props (we didn't like the cordless phone so we switched to a cell), hand position, head position, and eyeline, and then getting the right expression...happy, self-possessed, comfortable and ostensibly spontaneous! In some cases there is lots of flexibility in terms of head position, but that said, there is also, quite often, a limited range of positions within which the person looks the "prettiest". In this case, the lighting was set up to look most flattering when Judy looked well off camera axis, so we could capture a somewhat candid looking "moment" at which she looked up to greet a make believe client. If we'd wanted to photograph her looking at the camera we would have changed the angle of the lighting considerably to contour and flatter her face at that angle.

In any case, by the 89th frame we had it (see the pic at the top of this post)! 

Satisfied with the sitting shot we then moved on to the shot I had actually originally wanted to do first: what I had envisioned as sort of an action shot featuring Jude moving toward her client to greet her and shake her hand. Jude and I both burst out laughing at the first test shot:

Jude as a robot or Michael Jackson

 I hadn't moved the lighting yet, so it was way too dramatic, and Jude looked like she was conjuring Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk. After choosing and testing new wardrobe, relighting, and a few more tests with various props, we tried having her walk towards her imaginary client to offer her a cup of tea. That actually looked pretty good, so we checked and locked camera focus, then did a few speed and position tests to determine how fast she needed to walk so that her motion would "read" without too much blur, and at what point she would be in the middle of the frame, in focus, with her swinging arm in a nice position.

We could have shot looser and followed her with focus as she moved, but we would have run the risk of a bunch of uncontrolled variables compromising the overall quality of the shot, for example the lighting looking less optimal, arm swing looking awkward, or background elements either partially appearing or disappearing or looking misplaced within the frame relative to Jude. The challenge is to get multiple elements right at the same time. One way is to shoot hundreds of frames and search through them hoping for a good one. Another, which I prefer with a shoot like this, is to determine what is going to look best and focus on getting that, while still allowing for small variations that may add that little extra spark of unexpected greatness. Furthermore, this was one of those times when shooting a plate made sense (ie. taking a picture of the scene without Jude in it) which is best done with a camera locked in place, and with focus locked, so that if I needed to retouch something like hair flyaways it would be relatively easy. (There were and it was.)

Frame #109, fourth last frame of the day

By the end of our afternoon shoot, the sunlight we had been hoping for was shining in, gloriously bright and unobstructed. It kind of made us want to shoot a more, but we had what we needed and our time was up! 

Personal Branding Portrait Before and After Retouch

Laurie Before and After Retouch and Compositing

This pair of files is from a Lifestyle/Personal Branding shoot of an independent business owner who works occasionally from a home office. We spent about half a day in total, choosing several different spots in her home/work environment to set up in, and shooting in various outfits, and poses. This particular shot was actually one of the very last and was, in a way, sort of a happy accident, as we had started, and concentrated on shooting from a different angle entirely (for which the set was lit and arranged specifically). I basically grabbed this shot without warning, and it worked, mostly. We captured a spontaneous, energetic, authentically happy, expression, and the lighting, although not exactly what I would have wanted, still worked pretty well from this perspective. But, the resulting shot, which Laurie really liked, lacked compositional balance. Basically the large blank white window area to Laurie's right really compromised the success of the overall image. So it needed to be fixed.

I did not actually love the heavy green curtains as a backdrop, but there was nothing to see through the window as it was mid-winter, the sky was cloudy, the trees had no leaves and the landscape was snow-covered. So first, I decided to add some texture to the curtains. It's a subtle adjustment but made the curtains look a bit less heavy and solid. Then, I took some curtain from the part of the frame that I'd cropped out, and composited it into a new position behind Laurie's right shoulder. I also needed a bit more image area above Laurie's head (than I had shot), so added that in digitally, and added back in some area at Laurie's right elbow which I had cropped out originally, but needed back now as the new curtain area changed the balance.

The image on the right has also been subjected to fairly standard portrait (for me) retouching. It's a bit hard to see here for two reasons: 1) these pictures are pretty small, 2) this flat-ish lighting tends to obscure details, rather than emphasize them. I actually prefer less beauty-ish lighting as I like to see a bit more depth in a portrait. But Laurie does look really pretty! The one retouch I can point out that is clearly visible at this size is the little bulge of flesh above L's right wrist (see above the bracelet in left photo). That's a distraction, and needed to go. 

Bottom line: an almost successful shot that was captured sort of unexpectedly was made successful with a bit of extra work and post-production attention to detail.

Before and After Business Portrait

Ashley Before and After

Ashley is a Toronto-based illustrator who specializes in cut-paper collage. Her illustrations have appeared in a variety of magazines and children’s publications, as well as posters, packaging, clothing lines, animations and set design. When her work is exhibited or published she is often required to provide a contributor profile photo, so she wanted a portrait that would depict her as the professional she is.

In Ashley's case, I didn't have to do a whole lot to "make her pretty" as she is pretty already, and doesn't really struggle with being unphotogenic. However, there are still a few important differences between the before and the after shots.

To begin, we looked at the wardrobe she brought and chose a solid coloured, structured and flattering jacket, which would look good on her, and look appropriately professional for an artist. Then we looked through her jewellery and chose a necklace and earrings pairing that would complete her look in an understated way, and not draw attention away from her face. Ashley arrived with her hair and make-up done as she would normally do them. So once we'd steamed the jacket and she was changed, I asked her to have a seat so I could take her picture. See frame 1 above left. Not bad, really! It's sweet, but it's a little tentative.

So what did we do? 

1) I added a touch of eyeliner, and some lip gloss, which didn't take away from her natural look, just enhanced it, and made her look a little more grown up. (Oh, to have the problem of looking too young! But too youthful a look can be a disadvantage.) We used a bit of hair spray to subtly style her hair. I am not a hair stylist or a make-up artist, but in the absence of professional stylists, I can help. 

2) We changed Ahley's posture and position to give some energy, confidence and shape to her body.

3) Then we worked together to elicit a confident, friendly, approachable expression.

4) Once we selected the winning final shot, I got to work retouching. What was needed was going to be subtle but important: a. hair: shape, hair on shoulder, fly aways, and split ends that catch highlights, b. lapel which was sort of sticking up in the selected frame because of a stubborn crease, c. cleaning up of eyes, and lightening under eyes, d. teeth (just a very slight whitening), e. skin: winter wreaks havoc on delicate facial skin making it dry and less smooth than it would be under ideal circumstances, and f. crop (I cropped both the before and after so they'd look more similar as possible for comparison purposes). 

Now Ashley has a strong, professional looking headshot.

I want to finish off here by sharing one of the shots we got at the very end of the shoot.

 
After the more formal portrait, we did a few looser, more casual portraits, which in Ashley's case would also be very appropriate for her personal profile pic. By the time we got to these, Ashley had changed into more casual wardrobe and she was able to be even more relaxed in front of the camera; her energy and down to earth personality really shine through. I look at these pics and I feel her smile...it's contagious...and ideally that's the effect these shots will have on all the viewer's of her portrait.

Makemepretty.photography

My new business card art featuring over 90 tiny portraits, although you can't actually see all of them :)

Welcome to my new blog!

After over twenty years of working with clients to represent their brands with photography, I have finally been able to distill my own brand into a distinct and resonant phrase (O.K. two phrases, but they are slight variations on a clear theme)! I'm so happy!

I am now the proud and excited owner of Makeitpretty.photography and Makemepretty.photography.

As I was thinking back to what it was that drew me to photography in the first place, and what has kept me interested all these years, I realized that for me, it's pretty simple…I like to make things and people, "look pretty". It's a simplification. But it's basically true. Photography for me was never about capturing reality. It was a way of taking a subject and making it look better.

There are all kinds of ways to expand and elaborate upon on the idea of taking a mundane or, in some cases, not very photogenic subject, be it an object or a person, or a dog, or an insect, and working with lighting, props, backgrounds, sets etc., etc. to bring out their texture, beauty, character, colour, etc., but it all comes down to what I think my clients really want from me. And that is, to "make it (them) look pretty", or "make me (her,him,them) look pretty."

My main website is still at hollinrake.com.
It can also be accessed using  kathrynhollinrake.com
as well as makemepretty.photography
and makeitpretty.photography

I've done a slight reorg. on it, so now the categories are:

PORTFOLIOS
ABOUT
ABOUT (really)
CORPORATE PHTGY
    Corp Intro
    Corp p.2
    Corp p.3
    Corp p.4
    Testimonials
BLOG
Makemepretty BL (link to this blog)
LINKS (this is new)
CONTACT

Here on my makemepretty blog I'll concentrate on the theme of making people look pretty. And yes, this can apply to women or men (guys…just substitute "handsome" or "gorgeous" for "pretty"…for simplicity's sake I had to pick one word...I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and trusting you get it!).

And I'm just going to throw this out there…I'm going to be looking for some willing subjects for before and afters to post here. This means I'll give you an unbeatable deal on a portrait in return for being able to show the world what you looked like before and after finessing/retouching. Please e-mail me at kathryn@hollinrake.com or call me at 416 465-8280 if you would like to participate.

Thanks for reading and I hope you'll revisit!

Coming soon!

Hi there! Welcome to my new blog featuring news, views, information about, and examples of my corporate and lifestyle branding portraiture. Thanks for your patience while I update my website and get this blog going. Please feel free to e-mail me if you'd like to me notify you when my first post goes live. 

In the meantime, please contact me by phone or e-mail for info, availability and pricing.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Kathryn