Tags

, , , , , ,

Hi and welcome back.

Today I’m shooting corporate head shots for Tangoe Marketing.

My contact at Tangoe sent me a proof from another photographer and asked if I could match the lighting?  Tangoe had a conference in Phoenix about a month ago and they hired a local photographer to shoot all the executives and conference attendees who needed head shots.  This is a great way to get all of the employees head shots done in a short time without having to hire photographers around the country; however, if you are not in attendance this can be an issue, especially if you are the CEO.

So, Tangoe sent me a proof.  I took a crop of just the eye area for two reasons: 1. to find out how the other photographer did the job, simply look at the catchlights in the eyes, 2. I don’t know the other photographer so I won’t post all of his work as I can’t credit him or her.

Here’s the crop of the eyes.  You can see a soft box on the left as key and an umbrella reflected in the upper part of the glasses for fill.

IWP_3751

This is not how I usually shoot my corporate look, but for this job, matching is essential.  So I set up my lights and took a few test shots while shooting a corporate portrait for Crysta.

_RVH1773 copy

In order to stay mobile and work quickly as I’m only shooting a few people, I used a 46″ Photek Softlighter as my key instead of breaking down and setting up a large soft box.  Here’s the setup.

Lights: Profoto Acute 600e with three heads

Key: 46″ Photek Softlighter

Fill: 45″ Photoflex Umbrella

Back: 20 degree grid on a Studio Gray paper

_RVH1794

_RVH1795

 

Here’s a straight-out-of-the-camera proof that matched the look perfectly.

_RVH1773

I don’t normally shoot my corporate shots like this as I prefer a hair light, but I’m exploring now using a hair light with this type of setup.  The nice thing about key and fill lighting is that your subject can move from side to side without you worrying about moving a reflector or dealing with falloff on the opposite side of the face.

I like the look and it matched the other shot perfectly.

So, in short, to learn light, look in the eyes.

Till next time, happy shooting.