Business portrait style

14/11/2008 by jim.

The traditional business portrait can be a tricky assignement. It needs to engage the sitter with the viewer straight away. It needs to have a degree of animation to make the subject dynamic, it needs a degree of power to instill confidence.
For this portrait I used my favourite light - a 1.5 metre Octa on an Elincron Ranger Speed powered head. It was still daylight outside and the curtains didn’t close so I need to overpower the ambient light. I needed to use 100 ISO to get the best quality from my camera. I wanted a greater depth of focus than usual, shooting at at least f16, I wanted drama yet maintain shadow detail and the Octa makes that possible. I also used a couple of small Canon Speedlites using good old Strobist techniques to add a little hair light and also to put just a hint of light into the background.
I miss the old days of Film Star portraits when they all held a cigarette in their hands. Hands are weird things to photograph, leave them out and the subject looks too static, include them and they can just appear to wave about in thin air. They can add power to a portrait but they also have the ability to do exactly the opposite.
Lots to think about and the pressure is usually intensified by lack of time. Busy men have tight deadlines. You just got to love doing business portraits. I do.

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