Business Portraits.

Business Portrait of a Lawyer photographed in the conference room of his Orange County, California office.

Creating Business Portraits on Location

I love to create Business Portraits on location. Not the same old “Stand in front this wall” photograph that many others use. It is a bonus when I can be creative and give my clients Business Portraits they are excited to use.

Using portable lights for Business Portraits on location.

For this Business Portrait I wanted to match the exposure on the subject with that of the exposure of the view outside his conference room. The use of additional lighting was required. But adding the use of  lights with glass in the background has some challenges.

Since light travels in a straight lines, placing a light behind or on top of the camera in this situation would produce a large distracting reflection in the window behind the subject. To avoid this I used two lights. One strobe unit shot into a medium sized umbrella, to create a soft effect, off to the right of the camera at enough angle to avoid reflection and another smaller strobe (no umbrella) to the left of the camera, almost behind the subject, to create some highlights and fill in some of the shadow on the subjects right side.

Looking closely you will see the main light on the subject (the one to the right of the camera) was also placed about level with the subjects shoulder. Going much higher would create shadows from his eyebrows onto his eyes (not good!). Going lower and my subject could start to look like something out of a horror movie. By not using a umbrella on the light to the camera’s left created a smaller light that complemented the main light and helped to create some sculpting of the face. I was also lucky enough to have a corner of the building visible in the left side of the photograph to add a layered look to the composition of the photo.

Different options for Business Portraits

When people call me to talk about the needs for Business Portraits, I like them to know they have options. As you look through my blog and examples of Executive Portrait examples on my website give me a call and let’s talk about your options.