The Slanted Lens – Episode 28

This is a simple look at how to shoot very basic corporate portraits. When you take a job on to shoot an office full of people where do you start? What background do we need? Where do we shoot? What is the schedule and how do I light everyone? These are a few of the questions that are answered in this look at shooting simple corporate portraits. Our Thanks to Milam, Knecht & Warner, LLP – Glendale, CA.

#1
Lets look at our lighting. We are in a small space and will need to take that into consideration as we light. Our first light is a Dynalite pack and studio head with a Large Photoflex soft box and grid. I use the grid because the room is small and I need to keep the light off the surrounding walls and ceiling. If I leave the box open faced it will create a bounce light that will overfill the subject and make the BG too bright. I will lose all control of the light. I like the Dynalite studio heads because they produce a soft light.

Here is our first light. I know I’m headed in the right direction because the room is dark.

#2
I will add a small Photoflex octodome with a grid as the rim light. I used a small Octodome because of the quality of light it gives me for a rim light. To understand quality of light in an Octodome see TSL Lesson Understanding Octodomes.

#3
We now added a dynalite travel head with a 20 degree grid for the BG. Here is our image with the BG light. I will move this around for each person. My goal is to separate her from the BG and create interest. The shadows are a bit heavy so I am going to add an umbrella as a fill light behind the camera. This light I am fine with if it bounces all around the room.

#4
Here is our final image.

#5
Here is a look at the lighting set up from the camera point of view.

#6
This view shows the grid on the soft box with the umbrella behind the camera.

#7
These are samples of some of the people we shot.

—

If you would like to see more, make sure to check out The Slanted Lens Youtube Channel.