March 26, 2014

Portrait photography

A

s a “people photographer,” I absolutely love it when I am asked to capture portraits for my coworkers to use when they are featured in magazines or when they make public appearances or presentations. This happens quite often, so I get to do this quite a lot.

But at the firm I work for, photographs must fit certain criteria in order to be brand-compliant. The look is supposed to be relaxed and natural, set in an office setting, and should not be lit by flash (at least the viewer should not be able to tell that flash was used).

I have found a very good location just a few yards from my desk. The glass wall looks out onto the Entrance to Rosslyn Park and the high-rise buildings that surround it. Yesterday we were experiencing a very active snowstorm while I took these pictures, so the background is a bit brighter than normal and in some of the photos you can see the flakes falling in the background. It makes the pictures unique because it doesn’t snow a whole lot in Washington, DC—well, at least it didn’t until this year.

The pictures in this post are from yesterday’s photography sessions. The first person had been asked for a brand-compliant portrait to use in an upcoming presentation. The second person is one of the editors in my group.

For these portraits, I used a dual flash set up with the primary flash (a few feet to my right) bouncing off of a round white cloth reflector—about 36 inches in diameter. I used the flash on my camera as a fill flash, set to a 1:3 power ratio with the primary light source.

Canon EOS 7D camera, 24-70, f/2.8 lens
65mm focal length
Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT flash 1:3 internal flash
ISO 100, 1/60th @ f/4.0

Canon EOS 7D camera, 24-70, f/2.8 lens
46mm focal length
Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT flash 1:3 internal flash
ISO 100, 1/60th @ f/4.0

Canon EOS 7D camera, 24-70, f/2.8 lens
34mm focal length
Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT flash 1:3 internal flash
ISO 100, 1/60th @ f/4.0

And a few of our local editor:

Canon EOS 7D camera, 24-70, f/2.8 lens
28mm focal length
Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT flash 1:3 internal flash
ISO 100, 1/60th @ f/4.0

Canon EOS 7D camera, 24-70, f/2.8 lens
35mm focal length
Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT flash 1:3 internal flash
ISO 100, 1/60th @ f/4.0

I really love doing portraits!

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