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corporate photography

May 02
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Headshot Portraits for an Atlanta Engineering Firm

By corporate photography, Graphic Works, head shots, headshot portraits, Masqueman Photography, portrait photography
Many of my clients are right in my own back yard. This is especially true with an engineering firm that is located just a mile from the studio. This certainly makes the drive shorter.
Every company has preferences for the types of head shot portraits that I shoot for them. I show examples of styles that I have used in the past and ask if they would like any of the styles that they see. This puts us on the same page so that there are no surprises. This corporation chose a gray background style that has a slight gradient. The lighting ratio on the face is fairly close so no heavy shadows here. 
I have made head shot portraits in just about any kind of corporate room you can imagine from a claustrophobic closet to a normal conference room to a gigantic warehouse space. I can set up a portable studio in the space reserved for me… even a front entrance.
I shoot photos tethered to a computer so that I can show the victim, err, I mean subject the images. This usually makes clients happy because they will not be surprised with a photo that they dislike. I can also give contextual feedback that help the subject improve their posture or smile. 
In the end, I provide finished photos at the ratio they need for their web site (4×5 or 4×6) and another 1×1 ratio portrait for social media sites like Linked-In that use square proportions.
 I am always thrilled to work with neighbors and this was no exception.I even got to meet the office mascot who was notoriously shy. One click of the shutter, and this guy bolted.
Mar 28
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Matching the Portrait Style of Another Photographer a Continent Away

By Andrew Hughes, corporate photography, Graphic Works, Masqueman Photography, portrait photography
Photographers often dissect each other’s work to see how a photograph is made. We look for subtle tell-tale signs that show the environment and the light sources for the scene. Trying to recreate another photographer’s style can be very difficult, especially without all the facts. That is what I was asked to do when I was hired to shoot some pickup portraits.
I was tasked to photograph a few of the local Atlanta employees and match the style of the South American office portraits that were already completed. I have the utmost respect for the photographer who took the photos that I was supposed to match. This guy was good and had a wonderful look to his shots. Unfortunately, I do not know this gifted shooter’s name, but his work can be seen in the three photos below.

I was tasked to match these wonderful portraits from another photographer
Try as I might, I could not recreate the scene in the very small office I was given to work in. I got the results below “after the fact” with some photoshop. It was the only way I could do it.
I took the portraits on a white background so that I could composite a background into the scene. The background was pieced together from several of the source photos plus some illustration to extend the blinds.

Later on, the client share a very important clue about the original portraits. A behind the scenes picture revealed the extent of the original photographer’s portrait setup inside an office made of frosted glass. The photographer used the large glass wall as a humongous diffuser. Brilliant!
There was zero chance of me using the same techniques in the space I was given, but it all worked out regardless. Whew!
Mar 10
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Executive Portraits for Spin-off Healthcare Corporation

By corporate photography, Graphic Works, head shots, headshot portraits, Masqueman Photography
If you have not heard, last year Kimberly-Clark Corporation spun off a $1.8 billion healthcare division resulting in an independent, publicly traded company named Halyard Health. This new entity will be  focusing on preventing infection, eliminating pain and speeding recovery for healthcare providers and their patients.
I was hired to create executive headshot portraits of the international board of directors. I would only have a minuscule 30 minute window of time to do it since their day was crammed with obligations. This meant showing up the previous day to set up my portable headshot studio consisting of a backdrop, 4 lights, a camera and a photographer… that’s me.
I had to cut the set-up short because apparently the flash was bouncing into the board room making people think it was lightning outside. To put it mildly, this was distracting during an important Powerpoint presentation. We all had a chuckle about this later… but not then.
I showed up 2 hours early the next day to finish the setup. Then, during a short break in the meetings, I took all the portraits, packed up and hit the road. Mission accomplished.
Mar 03
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Shooting 225 Badge Photo Portraits in 3 Locations

By badge photos, corporate photography, Graphic Works, head shots, headshot portraits, Masqueman Photography
There are different quality levels of portrait photography from a typical DMV mug shot to a multiple-light professional headshot. The difference is all in the lighting and maybe the willingness to make the subject look decent. I was asked to do something in-between, and was hired to make 225 badge photos for a national healthcare company in multiple locations in the Atlanta area.
Many of the subjects shared horror stories of past badge photos during a bad hair day, when a pimple sprouted on the tip of their nose or they got just one attempt. Though a necessity, many employees do not like getting these and they are in a rush to get back to the day’s deadlines or lunch. 
On the flip side, many people are not willing to give up the 10 year old badge photo of their younger self. I made it my personal mission to make them look good and maybe even have some fun. There is nothing fancy with the 2 light setup, but it works for this sort of thing. 
Many of the photos were taken in just 2 shots. I had them write their names on paper and hold them up like they do in a police mugshot. Here’s one guy who is familiar with that concept…just kidding Nick.
Regardless of the quick nature of these utilitarian photos, quite a few of the employees were photogenic… not bad for a badge photo.
Feb 28
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Creating an Impromptu Architectural Image for an Atlanta-based Healthcare Company

By Andrew Hughes, architecture, corporate photography, Graphic Works, Masqueman Photography
A photographer must be ready for any hot potato a client throws his direction. It is not always possible to accommodate impromptu requests, but the more versatile I can be, the better.
Perspective corrected image…
While on location setting up a mobile headshot studio for executive portraits, I was asked to make an architectural image of the client’s new building. They had just completed parts of the build-out so this location still had that “new car smell”… and they needed an image the next day.
Outside was dull, dreary and threatening snow. I only had a few moments to snap some images before I was needed inside. I did the best that I could with the 24-70mm portrait lens I had with me. I normally do not bring my wide-angle 16mm lens to portraits so it was this or nothing.

A tilt shift lens would have been handy to dial out the perspective, but that is a rental for me. As such, I had to remove the extreme perspective in Photoshop. There are limited to what looks realistic. The very first image is what a tilt-shift lens might have produced. I’m not sure which I prefer since the second slightly distorted one looks more epic.

Building with some of the perspective left in…
The light played to my advantage with the foggy overcast sky acting like a giant softbox to evenly illuminate the structure’s facades. The sun was cooperative and placed itself directly behind the building allowing parts of the giant glass tower to be both reflective and transparent. 
Out of camera capture…

Of course, the sky had to be replaced with something better than boring white. Above is the original out-of camera shot… I think I added enough drama to make it work.

Nov 02
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Two for One Headshot Sessions

By Andrew Hughes, corporate photography, head shots, headshot portraits, Masqueman Photography
When two of my buddies told me within the same week that they wanted new head shots, my response was to proverbially kill two birds with one Canon. There is nothing more business-like than high efficiency, but that does not mean we had to be boring. They wisecracked jokes the whole time. I am afraid that they might hurt me for posting the photo below… ha ha.

We knocked out the standard business head shots first. Unless I am trying to specifically match the style of a company’s headshot, I tend to shoot a variety of backgrounds for the client. I can do this quickly by moving a few prearranged backdrops.

The requirements for Jason were slightly different since the headshot was going to include his company logo on his shirt. He owns Performance Audio & Video Atlanta…one of the best audio, video and home automation companies in Atlanta. Give him a call if you need any of that.

While Justinas was dressed to the nines, I took some full body portraits in case he becomes a CEO or lawyer in the coming years. I remember the first time I met him with long hair riding a motorcycle. Now he is a respectable business man, and he cleaned up nicely.

We then moved on to more stylized photos. For Jason, I used a warmer tone to match his shirt. For Justinas, I chose to use a slightly blue cast to match his shirt. I think doing this emphasizes the face more and the clothing less.

I know for sure that I have the best friends in the world.
Aug 26
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CEO Power Portraits

By Andrew Hughes, corporate photography, Masqueman Photography, portrait photography
One of my favorite things to do is make corporate style portraits. Usually that involves head shots, but it can also include body poses too. These can be great for magazine covers, articles or web pages. You never know where the images could end up including company sites, social media, email or print. In the samples below, I composited the client into 2 different backgrounds.

In this case, they will be used for several different types of articles on the company web site. With just a few modifications in the studio, I was able to provide a wide range of photos from formal to more informal. Providing different looks during a shoot gives the client’s graphic designer much more material to work with. Variations on a theme? Check, check and check…

Dec 27
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Hero Photography for Corporate Safety Campaign

By Andrew Hughes, corporate photography, Graphic Works, KC, Kimberly-Clark, PPE, safety
See last year’s campaign

Kimberly-Clark is a world class corporation that makes many of the brand name products you might use everyday like Kleenex, Huggies and Cottonelle. Every year they have a Safety Campaign aimed at maintaining the safety-culture of their company. Last year I took a set of photos of workers decked out in Personal Protection Equipment, or “PPE” as it is known in the biz. See previous campaign.

This year, the theme changed slightly from workers in the factory to family members. It was decided to use a young child and his father for the “hero” photo. This was a real father and son to make it more realistic, and it was probably the only way to do it. The young boy was no more than 5 years old so we would be fighting a short attention span. Having the parents there would help me coax the emotions that the art director was asking for. This is was challenging for many reasons.

The concept for the photo was that the boy would be seen hugging his father dressed in Dad’s PPE which consisted of safety goggles and vest. This is where the process got fun. The art director wanted black hair and a black shirt on a black background. Not only that, the boy was to wear wrap-around, highly reflective safety glasses that reflect EVERYTHING! I knew this was going to be a challenge to light.

In all, I used 1 softbox, 1 umbrella fill, 1 horizontal strip light and 1 gridded spot light and some reflectors. Removing any of those would have made parts of our subjects fade into the black background especially the hair.

All the safety goggles were highly reflective and showed all my studio lights. The highlights had to be managed.

We tried 3 different sets of goggles to give the art director a choice, and soon we were done. I tried every trick in the book to get the right expression from our young talent… I even bribed him with a robot from my childhood toy collection. Talk about going the extra mile.

The retouching phase of the project got a bit “hairy” as I removed individual stray hairs, and gave the Dad a hair cut. Below is a BEFORE and AFTER detail of the photo.

BEFORE Retouching
This process involved rebuilding the shirt collar and skin texture on the neck, plus adding back digital hairs in certain locations. I also removed a major unavoidable softbox reflection and added some color to the boy’s eyes. Overall, I am very pleased with the results given the circumstances.
AFTER Retouching
This poster will be translated into 21 languages and hung up in factories all over the world. Pretty cool.
Dec 26
Love0

Head Shot Portrait for an Atlanta Doctor

By Andrew Hughes, corporate photography, head shots, headshot portraits, Masqueman Photography, portrait photography

This is one of those cases where I needed to match a style of portrait that I took several years before. Luckily, I meticulously measure the position of my equipment, flash power and camera settings for every job I do. That way if an office manager says “we need a photo of our new doctor and we want it to look JUST LIKE the ones you took 2 years ago, I can do it.

I have even kept old studio flash sets due to recurring jobs… even though I have much more capable and expensive gear now. The bottom line is that it is faster for me to set up the old stuff instead of recalibrate a previous setup with new gear. You can decide for yourself if that makes me smart or lazy.

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