Posts Tagged ‘portrait’

We don’t often advertise it, but we do quite a few professional portraiture sessions for our clients.  It isn’t a big part of our business, but it is a very enjoyable and often challenging part.  But, to distinguish our portraiture for others’, we have tried to create a product that is not your typical ‘head in a box’ type portrait.  Since the vast majority of our work is capturing stunning interior and architectural subjects, we developed a style that would fuse the two.  Architecture and portraiture, you say?  Yes, architecture and portraiture.

While our clients are the ‘subjects’ of our portrait images, we can use elements of interior design, architecture, and textures to bring more interest, more style, and more character to the final product.

In contrast to this style, the two images we created below are what would be considered more ‘traditional’ styles of portraiture.  This consists of a subject, and a rather ‘static’ background in terms of interest.  Generally, these types are best used when only the face is of interest.  Modelling and actors’ headshots are usually in this style.

And here is an alternative style.  These types of images incorporate elements from the surroundings to add to the final product.  Generally, these surroundings add some dimension that is applicable to the ‘subject’.  These may be textures in the walls, elements of the architecture creating ‘leading lines’ to the subject, or outright literal ‘environmental’ elements of the subject’s work environment.

The combinations of background environments and interesting lighting are virtually unlimited.  These examples above incorporate the architectural and interior design elements, and they create a very visually compelling image.  What do you think of this style?  We’re always trying to stretch our creative output, so let us know what you think!

In case you have never heard of it, there is a thing called a ‘styled’ shoot.  Generally it is a photo shot that is designed to showcase a particular style or theme, and all of the images in the shoot follow that theme.  They are fun, they tend to produce amazing results, and one often has the opportunity to work with some very creative and talented and creative people.  This shoot wasn’t one of those…

BUT, (you should never start a sentence with but…) it had nearly every aspect of a styled shoot.  A great subject or model, a very interesting theme to photograph, and a unique location.  It just so happens that all of this came from a normal portrait shoot.  It ended up being a very all-American-like theme, and there wasn’t enough time to shoot all of the ideas we had.  Thanks so much to Kristal for being such a great sport….in 30 degree weather in Oklahoma nonetheless…

Let us know what you think!

Senior portraits can take many forms.  Sometimes they are sweet…sometimes they are stylish…  Sometimes they are tough.  We shot this set for Zane recently, and their only request is that he look ‘tough’.  Having worked with his football team throughout the last several years, I knew that the football route would be the way to go.

We shot this on a relatively warm evening, but when we start spraying him down with water, it actually took some ‘toughness’ to push through.  Thanks Zane for a fun shoot!

Here are some images from the shoot…  For the photographers, most shots were shot with a 2-3 light setup.  Usually 2 strip boxes on camera right and left, and a key that we switched back and forth between a 22″ beauty dish, and a 3×4 softbox.  Have a great Monday!

One of the more interesting, albeit understated, parts of being a photographer, are executive portraits.  They can be challenging, and most of the time, they push you both from a technical standpoint, and one of time-management.  In most instances, you will be very limited in the amount of time you have with your subject, and everything should, in a perfect world, go relatively perfectly, in terms of your execution.  Again, in a perfect world…

I had the opportunity to shoot another local attorney, Bill Dillon, that works in the fabulous Candler Building in downtown Atlanta.  It is one of ATL’s oldest buildings, and had a ton of spectacular architecture and character.  I shot in one of the upper floor offices (here) some time back, and I always wanted to shoot in the lobby also.  We were able to work it out this time, and tried not to make a spectacle of ourselves.

The lobby is relatively grand, especially with it’s ornate marble carved starcases, chandeliers, and, who could forget, the marble gargoyles.  I always thought that the staircase would make a striking background for a portrait, so we used it this time.  

We had shot in one of the offices earlier in the morning, and the lobby shots were going to need to be quick.  We had requested permission from the building management a day or two before, but, as we found out later, the building manager was on vacation in the Caribbean, so permission wasn’t going to happen.  Forgiveness over permission was going to have to be the rule of the day.  Luckily, the ‘stand-in’ for the manager was very nice, and was more curious about the shoot than she was concerned about us shooting there.  We had about 10 minutes to set up, and I needed every second of it.

This was a 4 light setup (all speedlights) with the key being a 28″ Wescott Appolo with a 1/2CTO, a bare speedlight with a grid for a rim, a bare speedlight in the background camera right to open up the shadows on the stairway landing, and a last bare speedlight in the background camera left to open up the shadows from the landing below.  The room was a mix of tungsten light (from the chandelier, and sconces throughout the room, and a ton of daylight coming in from both sides of the lobby.  I gelled the key with the CTO to bring the subject in line with the room, and left the rim and 2 background lights at 5600K for some color contrast.  I wasn’t going to be able to kill the daylight, and I kinda liked the feel of the more blue ambient in the room.

All in all we had a great time, and the subject really liked the final images.  Can’t wait to shoot here again!

While Kim and I were in Kiev, we had the opportunity to photograph a wonderful person named Karen Springs.   She works for an organization called Orphan’s Promise, and they provide assistance to orphanages throughout Ukraine.  She’s awesome.  She is also very knowledgeable about the adoption process there, so she helps families (like us) that are in Kiev to adopt.   Anyway, because there are so many places to shoot in Kiev, we decided to find some rockin’ streets in the Podol district.  It’s older, has a ton of character, and seems to be the area where all of the younger generations tends to haunt.  Here are some images from the shoot.  And gentlemen….she’s single.