Up 50 Stairs or Make Do in the Conference Room?

The objective for this assignment was to capture a flatering portrait of the subject for Managed Care Magazine, a trade publication that serves nursing homes, long term care facilities, and other managed care companies, for an article inside the magazine.

We determined that we’d use a primary main light. And then light the background separately. Since the subject was being photographed at his company’s office, it was slated to be an indoor picture. Concerned that the room of a typical office space is often bland, we took our gel kit to aid in making the background more interesting.

Once on location, there were several challenges. It was a very small company office, almost a townhouse setting. Further, the subjects offices were up three flights of narrow stairs. We looked at locations on the first floor of the building, and fortunately, there was a nice conference room – and with purple walls. Something I’ve not seen before. I made the decision that that was the best place for the portrait, and we set up. One main softbox, and a light on the background made for an attractively lit setting. To enhance the already purple walls, I added a light purple gel to the background light. The first photograph shows the final lighting, on subject, and the second is a wide showing the setup with the lights. One of the decisions that was made was to turn on the uniquely shaped room light hanging from the ceiling to give the light just the slightest of a glow, and warmth.

Other than a conversion from RAW to JPEG, and upload to an online gallery for client review, there was little special post-production work being done. Further, since it is for an editorial client, retouching would not be allowed.  The client made their selects from the gallery, and we delivered final high resolution files of their selects.

The client was very happy with the results. The image played well, and I was pleased with the subtlety of the background lighting and colors, as they didn’t complete with the purpose of the photograph – an attractive depiction of the subject.