Contextual Executive Portraits

Photographing and Processing Executive Portraits

The standard portrait against a painted background is almost a thing of the past unless it's used as a guide as to who's who in a company.  What executives need today are Contextual Portraits that show them in their environment.  These are much more illustrative and can tell a story about the subject better than any head shot.

The contextual portrait has multiple uses for the subject.  Not only can it be used in corporate printed pieces and on their web sites, but these images can also be submitted to magazines and newspapers for articles that may feature the subject or their company.

David Durant, Blackhawk Network

When setting up to photograph one of these sessions, keep in mind you need to be prepared for them. They have meetings to be in and conference calls to be on. They generally don't have time to stand around while you are setting up. That is why I use the Profoto B1 Air lights that are powerful but also battery operated so there are no cables to deal with.  Set up and breakdown is fast and neat.

In this session, I photographed the subject against a large glass logo wall inside their offices.  The glass wall allowed me to place a strip light, back and to the side of the subject, to illuminate the edge of his face.  

The main light was into an umbrella up and to the opposite site to provide the light on the face.  The Profoto B1 lights can be dialed down to blend with your ambient light in the background so this is fantastic way to set up for shallow Depth-Of-Field  and shoot a lot of variety in a short amount of time.

Nikon D4 - 200mm f/2 - set at 4.5 at 1/25th of a second. (ISO 100) Lexar CF card

Here is the lighting set up:

Viewers are always asking how I convert my images from color out of the digital camera to make high quality black and white imagery.  There are several programs on the market today and I am currently using one called Tonality Pro from MacPhun.  Here is a step by step video on how I made this conversion. 

Wynonna and Spot Metering

Wynonna performing at the Wente Winery in Livermore.

Ever wonder when it's a good time to use the spot meter setting on your camera?  One place is whenever you are shooting stage events where the spotlights are your illumination source. The lighting situation is extreme with very bright lights on the singer but the background falls into darkness.     Here is an example: With the camera meter set on "Average metering", the light meter averages the scene exposure wise. So the camera, wanting to expose to medium gray, sees only dark clothing and the deep toned background. Thereby overexposing the scene.

Shot with average meter mode set on camera.

On the Nikon cameras, there are three meter modes to choose from.  Average matrix metering, Center weighted metering and spot metering.

Now is the time to switch the mode from average to "spot" metering.  This will tell the camera to only make what's in the spot (based on your focus setting) of your camera exposed for medium gray.  Simply keep the spot (focus point) over the face (since that is what you are usually focusing on anyway at a concert) and you should be good to go.  Remember to turn the meter mode back to "average" metering when you are done so your next images can benefit by the advanced matrix averaging system on your camera. 

Beach Session

It's still a blast to photograph couples at the beach.  I like to head out about an hour before sunset to capture that late afternoon light usually shooting well after the sun goes down.

One of the challenges to photographing at the beach is blowing sand, and very moist air.  I find it useful to keep the lens cap or lens pouch on just until I'm ready to shoot. This means composing "Over" the lens and when the cover comes off it's pretty quick to make the final adjustments.

Another hurdle to get over is the lack of communication.  If you are shooting with a long lens as I  do, (Nikon 200mm f2) you are a fair distance away from your couple.  With waves crashing and the wind blowing, it's difficult to give direction to the subject. 

If you have the luxury of someone coming along, (in this case I had the young man's mother) position them half way between the subject and you, to relay position changes and posing.  There still is a lot of trotting through the sand back and forth between the subject and the camera but having the third person helps a lot. 

Congratulations to Laura and Cody on their engagement. 

Colorful Bride and Groom

Last weekend's wedding shoot in Durham, North Carolina, came to a close with something I've never done before. Photographs of the Bride and Groom getting pelted with color! Similar to the popular color runs, the participants are doused with pods of colored cornstarch by willing family and friends. While the bride and groom strolled in their wedding finest, friends and family gathered to give them a proper send off.  I hope you enjoy the photographs as much as I did shooting them.

Something Missing?

Photoshop helped me not to violate the commonly enforced trademark ruling against commercially publishing a photograph of the Lone Cypress in Carmel California.  

As many of you know, the Lone Cypress in Carmel is trademarked.  The current trademark is held by the Pebble Beach Company and it declares that no commercial use of its image is allowed. By rule you are not allowed to publish photographs, paintings or drawings of the tree without written permission. Permission that they hardly ever grant. That includes the use of it on Facebook, Twitter or Blogs.  Though people take photographs of the sturdy cypress tree braving the elements on the point in the Pacific Ocean, every day by the thousands, few understand the trademark business. I don't agree with being able to trademark something in nature but I will respect it for now with my Photoshop protest image. 

Recently, after I finishing a shoot in Monterey, I made my way over to 17-Mile Drive and took in the sites. Like everyone else, I had a to shoot a shot of the Lone Cypress.

On this shot I used a 9-Stop Neutral Density filter to enable my camera to shoot down to 3 full seconds in broad daylight.  That allowed me to capture the silky water below.  

Of course I had to use a tripod and since the filter is so dark, you can hardly see through it. You also have to make all of your adjustments in advance.  You need to determine your exposer by test shooting or using a calculator like ND Timer for the iPhone.   Put your focus on manual, your camera on manual, then delicately place the filter over the lens.  You only have to thread it on lightly because you don't want to move the camera and thereby changing your composition or focus. Then use a cable release and mirror lock up to fire the shot. 

Shot at an 80th of second at f/16 at a low ISO of below 100 - this is as slow as I could shoot at this time of day. (Image is blacked out so as not to violate trademark ruling.)

While shooting, watch for the rhythm of the waves to capture the most dramatic water splashes.  Since that day was pretty calm, the use of the 9-stop ND filter was quite helpful in making the water look more special than it really was. 

Later in Photoshop, it took about an hour to take out the Lone Cypress.  I like to work in sections that I have selected in order to make the cloning look real.  I used the stamp tool and the healing brush both at different opacities to remove the tree and replace it with the hills in the background.  Another technique I like to use is copying the horizon from one part of the image and pasting in where you need it.  It's a lot easier to work with a mountain top that is real than one that is cloned. 

Lastly I cropped it and saturated some of the teal color in the ocean.  Now I'm going back to the computer to take the Golden Gate Bridge out of few shots.