Commercial Portrait - The Principle

Background


For this section of the 'People' assignment I wanted to push the boundaries and work out of my comfort zone. I didn't realise at the time how much out of my comfort zone I would be working! The whole point of a Corporate Portrait is to identify someone of importance at a recognisable establishment.
I sent a letter to the Principle of Blackburn College  Mr Ian Clinton who very kindly agreed to come and have his portrait taken.

Creative Idea


I wanted to create an image that had the atmosphere of Caravaggio's paintings. His use of the chiaroscuro is fascinating and always heightened the depth  to his compositions.

The Calling of Saint Matthew 1599 - 1600  Caravaggio

At the 'Planning of Ideas' element of the assignment I came across the article in the Times Magazine about high achieving schools. There were a number of images of prominent educationalist who had driven this success. I was struck by the use of lighting that the photographer had employed especially on the background models. This was the kind of look and feel I was after along with taking elements of Caravaggio's compositions.
 I also wanted to portray the significant weight of responsibility that this type of role has and the character you must have to lead an establishment such as Blackburn College.

Planning

So I now had the model and I new what look I wanted to achieve. It was time to make a decision on location. Two things happened in a short space of time. Firstly I had been discussing some of my ideas with John, and secondly Andy had taken a small group of students to practice lighting outside the studio. Both these elements pointed to a location of the atrium at the University centre. For the envisaged composition, as well as the Principle I need a number of students for the background. For this I contacted the Student Support service at Blackburn College. I briefed them that I was looking for around 8 students of different social and cultural backgrounds. It was felt that the Principle would like to portray Blackburn college as an all inclusive education establishment.

I was given two dates by the principles secretary. I chose Friday  26th March due to it been a quieter day a Uni.

At this stage I informed security what I was doing and John informed Student Support at UCBC. So everything was book everybody had been informed - or so we though, more on this later.

Practice

Originally I had planned to use the Large Format Camera to capture this image. However, as I got closer to the day and the importance of the shoot started to hit home I gave in to better judgement and decided on DSLR. As no one from the photography dept had taken the Principles photograph I wanted to set a good example, this did start to put a little pressure on. John had suggested it would be a good idea to have a practice session on the Wednesday. He also suggested that it would be a good idea to have an assistant to help on the practice day and the day of the shoot itself. Chelsea very kindly volunteered on the Wednesday and Sarah on the Friday. I got in touch with Student Support and asked if they could get hold of the students for a practice session on the Wednesday.

Wednesday Practice

The set up for this practice session was as Andy taught to some of the students a few weeks before. Two lights were used, one at 45/45 degrees about six foot high. The second was 90 degrees at waist height. The atrium window as the background. 

Set up

1. Meter the background through the camera. Set shutter speed 125th second and set ISO 200. Take a picture. Look at the image, at this stage you want to select the aperture. I wanted the detailed contrast background. Keep taking an image and shutting the aperture down until the desired image. This is normally around f22, the more experienced photographers would go straight to this f stop. This was a good exercise to see what the different  aperture make.

2. 1st light a 45/45 - stand model in position. Turn the power to the highest setting, using a handheld light meter take a reading of the models face. Compare this reading to the background metering taken through the camera. Adjust the 45/45 light until the meter reading matches the background reading.

3. The second light is really only adding a highlight to the side of the model. Yet again turn the light on to full power. Take a meter reading, adjust the light until it matches the background reading and light 1.

This is the basic set up. You can now adjust the power of lights 1 and 2 until you get the desired effect.

It is worth a mention at this point the 1st light 45/45 has a lightbox on it the second has a lightbox but has the front cover removed. This then can be masked to give a thin panel of light down the side of the model.

The images below are using this set up:

Camera Nikon D300                                                   Camera Nikon D300
125th Sec                                                                    125th Sec
f22                                                                               f22
ISO 200                                                                       ISO 200
28mm Prime Lens                                                       28mm Prime Lens





The Big Day






Set Up

The set up was the same as the Wednesday practice but with an added third light with umbrella. As we had to change the direction of the set up from one window of the atrium to the other we need a bit more light to highlight the background model.

I went through the same stages as on the Wednesday practice i.e metering the background etc. From analysing the Wednesday practice shots I turned down the second masked light reducing the highlight to the left hand side as I didn't like the shadow it cast under the chin. This was a decision I later regretted. Please see the practise shot below:

The actual shoot


I fell into a trap, I let things get to me a little bit here. I was annoyed that I had to change location which was not as good a backdrop as the other window and knew it would effect the final images. I had set the f stop to f8 see the image above, as I didn't like the background and wanted to lose detail. I balanced my light all to this setting. F8 is not enough and I would have been better balancing to f22 as the whole background would have been darker and more dramatic, and this would have led to the loss of detail I thought.

Learning Outcomes:

1. As the saying goes 'Best laid plans of mice and men' - it is not always going to go as planed. As a photographer you have to be adaptable. This is were the creative skill aligned with technical skill comes to the fore. I knew the background was not what I wanted, rather than except it, work creatively around it to achieve a look that you feel is acceptable.

2. People will let you down! have a plan B.

3. I have learnt a fantastic lighting technique, learn to use it before trying to adjust it.

4. I did achieve one element of the objectives I set myself. I did work out of my comfort zone and I thoroughly enjoyed it, It has given me the thirst to try more.

5. I gained a huge amount of experience form this shoot, from health and safety (cordoning off areas), to organising models and locations, but most importantly experiencing of this type of shoot. I feel I have gained confidence and will now put my hand up for Student Union jobs that might come around.

6. Always be on the look out for glare reflections when glass is involved in the background.

Big thanks to John for stepping in at the last minuet to assist me on this job. And before anybody asks, no he didn't tutor me throughout  else the pictures would have been a lot better!






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