One Portrait - The Setup

Friday, February 15, 2008

On a regular basis we get called in to do a standard portrait series for senior management (and sometimes the entire staff) and this is how we do it.

Concept/Objective:

The objective is to always produce a well lit, flattering portrait of the subject where the subject is separated from the background and the lighting doesn’t take away from the person being photographed.

Pre-Production:

We arrived on site and tried to locate the best conference room in the clients suite to producce the protraits. Often times we have very little space to work but unless it’s a closet we can pretty much make any space work (even a closet can have it’s advantages). This location ended up being in one section of a subjects office rather than in a conference room.

Assignment:

Once we were set up, each of the individuals stepped into the portable studio setup where we made some final adjustments to hair and wardrobe before making a series of images with slight variations of angle, zoom and perspective.

Post-Production:

Following each image, the subject photographed was able to review the images produced and select their preferred choice and make any retouching requests of us for that image. The client in the end received a CD with finnished files ready for publication.

Final Analysis:

While this is a fairly straightforward portrait, I’ve seen many a corporate protrait (produced by other photographers) made in a distracting way and have realized that when it comes to consistly shooting it simple, sometimes a non-attentive photographer can miss the mark.

(8/28/06)

Thanks for sharing these insights. Is the portrait shown though the final version? You can clearly see some blemishes on the background...? Thanks, Robert

Robert -- No, not the final, but one of the early test images. Thanks for noticing! John

To what degree do you direct the subject in these sort of shots? I imagine that for some business a closed armed defensive or even evasive pose would be contrary to the image they want to project.

Thanks for this post. Looking at the final portrait, I would guess that there is a large softbox camera left and a reflector (or soft fill) and a kicker camera right. This isn't what I see in the setup shot. Am I missing something?

Looks to me like the subjects left eye is in the 'dark' giving him a deep dark circle under the eye... I've had females freak out on me when they saw that type of thing.

I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to do this. This is great....

John, I really appreciate what you're doing. This doesn't look complete and leaves me with lots of questions. Any reflectors? What direction were the llilghts coming from? What I see in the image doesn't answer this. Also, Please list each piece of equipment used. Only then does this become meaningful to me. I've seen lots of lighting books that leave out all the details and am endlessly frustrated by that. Please, please, please.... it's all in the detials.

Looks good to me and well done for exposing yourself to criticism. Yes I can see the small faults mentioned by some of the other viewers but overall its a nice image which I'm sure suited the client purposes well. I would love to see a fuller description and lighting diagram as its evident that the setup image only tells half the story. I was trying some shots like this myself recently and I have to say that they didn't come out nearly so well.

I would like to weight in on this subject if I might, considering that this is my area of experience. It is my attempt to give helpful advice and not be critical or disrespectful in the slightest. The first thing that strikes me is the placement and intensity of the main or key light. If one desires to eliminate the shadow under the clients left eye the key light can be repositioned to illuminate the area under the eye socket i.e. Rembrandt or broad loop style lighting. Either of these lighting styles will put more light from the key into the client’s eye socket and soften or eliminate the shadow that is formed under the eye. If the light cannot be repositioned then instruct the client to turn there head until the eye socket is illuminated by the key light. Next the exposure is off and the highlights are blown out. Re-meter the key light and increase the f stop, maybe one to one and a half stops. Also the kicker or rim light is to hot as well and by changing the f stop this will bring the image within the dynamic range of the capture medium, digital sensor or film. Finally reposition the reflector to reflect a greater amount of light from the key or main light into the shadow areas on the clients left side, decreasing the lighting ratio between the diffused value and the shadow value, making a more pleasant transition from high light to shadow. Also pay close attention to the height of the main light and try to keep the area under the chin in shadow. This will help to give a more sliming appearance to those of us that are middle aged and over weight. Thank you for listening George

I need to make an amendment to my last post. I over estimated the degree of overexposure of the key light by a half of a stop. I did a little tweaking of the image and it is only .40 to .50 overexposed. Once again let me state that I am not trying to be critical or disrespectful, only helpful. I greatly respect the creator of the photo; he is an extremely accomplished photographer and a credit to the industry. George

Hi I am delighted to have come across this website as I am just starting one of my own for amateur and professional photographers. It is so good to read what others think about the photographs submitted for this purpose. But why are most, if not all forum contributors so scared to come straight out and say what they think? Why must evry blog begin with an apology? I am from the UK, but I was so lucky to attend seminars given by some of the great American and UK photographers. When I did, I asked all the questions that were in my head and accepted all the harsh words that were sometimes said to me by those creative and well-meaning experts, because I wanted to learn how to improve and they had the knowledge to help me do this. So make it a rule to say what you think without hiding behind some meaningless waffle! No one who loves photography and strives to improve will mind being told how to improve. You really don't need to apologise for being interested and concerned enough to put your thoughts on this or any other worthy place. You should be proud that you number among the few people who give their time to help make the world a better and more interesting place. Photography is the expression of passion and thought. Great images have the power to change the world and make it a better place. So keep helping each other and don't apologise for doing so Regards Henry

Could you please explain me the meaning of 'KEY'

Hi Alvin, The term Key light is interchangeable with main light. It is the primary light used to light your subject. You will have, on most portraits, a key or main light and a fill light. The Key light determines the shadow placement and the fill light determines the shadow to highlight ratio. That is to say that the fill will raise the shadow values to the point that they are pleasing to the creator of the image. This may be accomplished with the use of an additional light or reflector or both. Hope that helps. George

Good news Thank you for the informations.

thanks you very mach

Not a bad setup. I like the Idea of a super simple setup that one can travel with. Light travel and light setup goes a long way. Best Regards Yuri Arcurs - The World's Top Selling Stock Photographer

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It's good news. Thanks for sharing these insights.

Thanks for the article! Full of great and useful information! Keep it up it up! I can't wait to get started building a nice light setup! If you get bored check out my 400 site directory or you can get my prints at my store!

One major consideration is portability and easy of setup. Most times corporate headshots only allow a short period of time and from my personal experience limited areas to shoot in. This lighting kit provides the necessary equipment but remains portable and can be setup or torn down quickly and easily transported from you vehicle to the working area.

Seems that backlight could be darker to prevent cheek from overexposure.

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I agree with Michael on the setup. The kicker camera is probably off to the right.

Yup this is very nice and planned approach i am impressed.

Well the photographers and stylist play key role in this. i like the systematic approach from you.

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