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corporate photography

Dec 25
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Corporate Headshots and Executive Group Photos for Q-Spex

By Andrew Hughes, corporate photography, Graphic Works, group photography, headshot portraits, Masqueman Photography, QSpex
I get to make a lot of headshot portraits for corporate clients. Instead of the client coming to my studio, it is usually more convenient for me to show up at their office with a portable setup. Scheduling is always an issue with busy executives so we time the photoshoot on a day when everyone is in town.

To make the photos consistently sized, I visualize the final proportions of the portrait. Sometimes I crop the photo very tight if it going to be used for low-res applications such as websites. That way, the face is larger and easier to see.

It is important to be fast and efficient when making these portraits. The last thing you want to do is waste the time of someone who has meetings planned all day. To do this, I shoot with my camera tethered to a laptop computer. As soon as I take the photo, it is transferred to the computer where we can review it. After several shots, we pull all the photos up on screen, and we pick the best one… usually by process of elimination. It is rare when we do not all agree on the final choice.

When I first visited the QSpex building, I was drawn to the front entrance that had a sitting area next to a huge window. Window lit portraits are things that photographers dream of… unless the sun is pouring in like bright white laser beams as it was that day.

The day we showed up was overcast which was very lucky indeed. I still could have made it work with  bright sun, but maybe not without a more complex multi-light setup. There was no time for that since one of the executives had a lunch meeting and had to leave. Nothing like performance under pressure, but that is always part of the game. I set up a huge and high umbrella and fired off several frames concentrating on the placement of the executives. The basic photo is below marked with things that I did not like.

I am not a photo journalist so I am not bound by truthful reality. If I think I can make the final image better by retouching, compositing, tweaking or outright removal of distractions… I will do it. Of course, I do share this fact with the client and let them see both versions… just in case they like fire alarms and closet doors. The cleaned up image is below.

I knew we would be making a web site for QSpex also so I wanted to make sure I could use the group photo in a web banner which has more of a 16:9 aspect ratio. See it still works this way.

And finally, the image must work as a black and white photo. I often turn images to grayscale to make sure that they have enough detail and contrast to work without color.

Dec 24
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Corporate Group Photo in a Narrow Gray Box

By Andrew Hughes, corporate photography, Graphic Works, group photography, headshot portraits, Masqueman Photography, photography
Sometimes the locations where I am hired to make portraits are not very exciting. Let’s be honest, many American corporate offices are basically gray painted boxes. In the case below,  it was a narrow conference room in which I needed to make an eight person corporate group photo.You cannot tell form this angle, but I would have been hard pressed to squeeze behind the subjects.

Because of the tight confines of the room, my only option was to set up two large strobes to the right and left of me at the close end of the table, and push light into the room. This was not ideal because of the glass display at the end of the room showed the reflections of the strobes very clearly. Also, the frame rate of the screen was giving me weird partial images. In the end, I just decided it was faster and more efficient to put the logo in post-production.

People have asked why I did not just use the fluorescent overhead lights to make the photo. There are a few reasons. First  fluorescent lights flicker unevenly and can cause issues with exposure and color balance. Those can be overcome, but it just adds complexity to the shoot. Secondly, there is not as much light as you might think in the room. Human eyes are much more sensitive than the sensor in my camera. Even at high ISO settings, I would have to set a longish exposure… not good for sharp shots of this many living, blinking people.

Flash captures the scene in 1/100th of a second freezing everyone perfectly. It allows me to control the color and shape of the light more easily, and in this case it made it possible to get the strong reflections in the table… the most interesting part of the photograph.

Nov 10
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Halloween Photos of a Corporate Cat in a Hat

By corporate photography, costumes, Halloween, headshot portraits, Masqueman Photography, portrait photography
One of my favorite clients, Andrea, came to our studio on Halloween day dressed like the Cat in the Hat. She barely fit in the front door since her bonnet was so big. She was dropping off an executive for a headshot. 

Of course, I could not let this just pass, so while my “official” subject was getting dressed in the other room, I snapped a few quickies. I just kept all the light stands in the same locations, but turned them toward the closest wall. This way I would not mess up any of the settings I made for the other portrait.

May 05
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Habitat for Humanity Group Photo

By corporate photography, Graphic Works, group photography, Masqueman Photography, portraits

Last week I made a deceptively simple group photo for an Atlanta insurance company who had participated in Habitat for Humanity. I think 80% of the company helped build a house. Impressive. The day before the portrait, my boss took an iphone snapshot of the location. I could tell it was going to be relatively dak because we were shooting on the shadow side of the building.

I know it sounds ludicrous to say that shooting outside at 11 am will be dark, but everything is relative. Because I was shooting rows at least 5 people deep, I needed to have the subjects in the front row and back row equally in sharp focus.

Celebrating their accomplishment

This meant that I would need to use a small aperture for maximum depth of field. Small apertures need long exposures to gather light which would not work with a group of blinking people. The other option was to add light to the scene.

I set up a single flash 10 feet to the right of the camera’s position and aimed it towards the crowd. The resulting image has the appearance of sunlight… if one is not a forensic specialist who can trace the origin of the light source. Without the flash, the photo would have lacked contrast, sharpness and definition. I used a slow enough shutter speed to let the flash and ambient light mix.

Apr 20
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Product Photography & Head Shot Portraits for Georgia Expo

By Andrew Hughes, corporate photography, Georgia Expo, Graphic Works, headshot portraits, Masqueman Photography, product photography
It was time to update the company directory for Georgia Expo, an Atlanta manufacturing company who I had previous worked for. This time around, I made 10 head shots portraits. It was a simple lighting setup. Nothing elaborate going on here.

The tricky part was timing the portraits with the ear splitting industrial noise in the warehouse where we were shooting. No office space was available so we set up a portable studio in the only place left in one of the cavernous warehouse rooms. Every 10 minutes or so the world’s largest air compressor would crank up reproducing the sound of 50 blacksmiths hammering horseshoes, machine gun fire and a pipeless Harley Davidson sounding off at the same time.

The portraits were just part of a 3 day product shoot for their web site and catalog. We took product photos of items ranging in size from 20 foot trade show booths to small hand sized parts and pieces. If you have ever been to a trade show or convention center, you have seen Georgia Expo’s products without knowing it. They make curtain and drape barriers that make up the different booths at events. They make huge divider curtain walls, stanchions, tables and so on. Here is a sampling…

Here are the carts for the moving all the trade show parts. Some weigh several hundred pounds.

Some candid environment photos were taken too. All those curtains are sewn by hand by fast seamstresses.

The storage area is huge and contains lots of already manufactured parts.

These tough guys only smiled after I promised lunch… just kidding. I had to pay them money.

Apr 19
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Model Room Photos for Melia Atlanta Hotel

By Andrew Hughes, architecture, Atlanta, corporate photography, interior photography, Masqueman Photography, Melia Hotel, photoshop tricks
I was hired by the Melia Hotel in Atlanta to photograph their new model room, a designer’s mockup of what the remodeling will look eventually for other rooms. Photographing architectural interiors can be challenging for many reasons…. finding the right angle, different light sources, cramped spaces, and materials.

The shiny wood paneling reflected everything. This looks great in person, but can be difficult to accurately photograph.

The materials in the room ranged from dark glossy wood paneling and tile to flat white linen and shiny chrome vases. I knew that I would not be able to capture the extreme latitude of the room with a single exposure, so I planned to find the best angle and then lock the scene down on my tripod.

To complicate things, there were at least five different light sources with their own color temperature…. blue daylight, green fluorescents, yellow tungstens, white LEDs and my flashes. Each light source was affecting colors and creating pools of localized color zones.

There were large areas of white in this room which were easily affected by colors of the different light sources.

Since I could not simply gel my flash to match all the light temperatures, I ended up shooting each part of the scene separately and composting them later. This allowed me to expose for highlights, midtones and shadows to create a high-dynamic range photo while controlling the color casts. This also allowed me to combine the bright scene outside the window with the relatively dark interior… impossible to do in one shot.

When lighting rooms with flash, try not to overpower ambient light sources that give the room its character. In the photo above, I shot a flash through the frosted glass shower wall which is a key feature of the room’s swanky design. You can see they spent a lot of money on custom glass walls in the restroom.

I also took photos of the room next door which was more of a standard hotel room. It’s pretty interesting to see the difference between the two. This room had the gauze-like sheer curtain that would have helped tame the other room’s extreme lighting conditions. Oh well.

The last shot looks easy, but it was difficult to hide the flashes while lighting both rooms. Again, the shiny materials revealed all light sources so I had to be sneaky where I put my lighting.

Apr 18
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OCI Corporate Headshots & Group Photos

By Andrew Hughes, architecture, corporate photography, Graphic Works, group photography, headshot portraits, location photography, Masqueman Photography, portrait photography
I was recently asked to make headshot portraits for OCI, a chemical company located in Atlanta. Due to hectic client schedules, I took two portraits in our studio and 2 in their offices. They had to match existing photo styles so I took great care in replicating the light and keeping it consistant across two locations. I do this by making anal-retentive measurements of every piece of equipment. I can make the same photo years  later if more shots are needed.

While in their office I also took photos of their new conference room which looks like it would be a great place to get business done or maybe challenge your friends to XBOX 360 on their big display screen.

As a surprise, our client also asked us to also make photos of 5 groups of workers in different departments. This had not been discussed previously, but it provides a great lesson in being prepared. Like many photographers, I tend to load up my car with backup cameras, extra lights and gear for such events. It is better to have too much and be ready than tell a client that I can’t do what they ask.

Instead of picking 7 locations and 7 different setups, we chose 1 location near the front entrance that had metallic mirror tile, mixed color lighting and a brushed aluminum logo. This presented a lighting challenge since any lights that I used would bounce back into to the lens revealing themselves as annoying hotspots. Even my largest umbrella diffusers did not tame the reflections. I decided to bounce the flashes off of the hallways walls to give a soft light. Think of this as the photographic equivalent of a bank shot.

For the top brass, we went very informal which was a refreshing change from stuffy CEO power portraits.

Apr 07
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Epic Photoshoot at Preferred Jet FBO

By aviation, corporate photography, Preferred Jet, retouching
Last year I was approached by Preferred Jet to make a large group photo of the company employees, their FBO (like a private airport building) and some of their airplanes. The photo was to be used in a trade show booth and on various promotions like their web site.

Large Tradeshow Graphic

We discussed optimal schedules to get the look they wanted which included dramatic golden light seen either in the early morning or late afternoon right before sunset. Unfortunately, the only time that all employees could come together was during a harshly bright day in noon sun… usually the worst time of day to shoot drama. To make matters worse, the position of the sun would be behind the building making the front of the building in dark shadow.

I knew this beforehand so my plan was to use multiple exposures to tame the extreme latitude of the scene in front of me. I would take an exposure for the bright sky, one for the mid-tones and a few for the extremely inky shadows. Later, I would composite these together creating a high-dynamic range photo.

Very Expensive Equipment

If you think moving people around in regular group photo is tough, try adding 12 people, a multi-million dollar aircraft, a gasoline tanker and a sports car into the mix. From atop of an aircraft tug, I looked through my lens as workers moved the elements into place. I would pass instructions to my client who would yell them out and use hand gestures. I was about to pull my hair out when it all came together. I was literally asking to move the jet back and forth by an inch or  two, and it was surprising to see how much that could make the difference.

The fun part of the job happened later during the retouching phase. The trick was to find the right balance between realism and idealism… or, let’s call it enhanced reality. Below are the original exposures showing that a single exposure would not have captured details in the bright highlights or the dark shadows.

Multiple Exposures Captured on a Tripod and Combined Later

The most important enhancement I made was to replace the sky which made it look more like sunset instead of noon. The color of the sky meant that I had to make sure that the rest of the photo matched in temperature and color cast. Changing the sky can really effect the drama in the photo as shown by this early color test.

Early Color Sketches Not Used. You can see the harsh shadows that were later replaced by hand.

I also did a lot of cleanup removing distracting elements like wires, gas tanks and even all the cars from the back parking lot. This was a tough to do since I had no reference photo of the lot without cars. I had to draw in the asphalt blacktop and then redraw a digital fence and gate on top. The fence was created using a seamless pattern I made. It’s a small element, but makes a difference in how clean the final photo looks.

The fence on the right was digitally created.

I also took an impromptu fun set of photos that were much less formal…Heck, this one even had a chopper! This was quite a project.

Jun 04
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Environmental Portraits and Headshots for Atlanta Law Firm

By corporate photography, headshot portraits, lawyers, Sutton Law Group

I love to work with corporate clients who need photography for web sites, advertisements and other promotional materials. I was contacted by Documentopia to provide headshots, environmental portraits and location photos for Sutton Law Group, a law firm working out of Marietta, GA.

My plan was to provide them a variety of styles of portraiture so that they could use different photos for different projects. They have a gorgeous office with old style brick and wood work. Though I think the brick pattern is ultimately too distracting, we tried a few portraits on this background. This proved that simpler portraits may be stronger.

I made head shots of Darrell Sutton and Andreea Neculae. I prefer a clean undramatic light for these kinds of portraits because the reproduce well that way in print and when reduced on web.

We also wanted to take a few styles of partner photos. I wanted to take advantage of the reflective conference table by shooting at a high angle.

Here is how I set up the lights. It is a trend in some magazines like Wired to show the lights in the portraits. I kinda like this look, but is probably for works for editorial and not promotional media.
Another example of showing the behind the scenes gear… in this case just a portable background.
This what the scene above looks like cropped in. You can see the natural light falloff on the edges.
I always keep my finger on the trigger in between the official photos because that is when people let down their guard and just be themselves. Even though they probably will not use the photo below for official lawyer business, it is my favorite shot of the day.
Sometimes less traditional headshots appeal to the client who picked this tightly cropped photo.
It was pouring outside but I was able to create a “sunlit” photo using a very large umbrella that simulated soft window light. This was intended to feel more candid than the other portraits.
The  last photos were taken outside in a drizzle. I replaced the dark skies in some of the photos with blue skies, otherwise the place might have looked sinister… especially since it is adjacent to an old cemetery.
One final photo of the business sign and I was gone…
May 11
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Safety Poster Campaign for a Corporate Client

By corporate photography, Graphic Design, Graphic Works

For this year’s corporate safety campaign, I was asked to photograph groups of workers in factory settings wearing safety gear. Kimberly-Clark considers safety a top priority and their “Who’s Counting on You” awareness program is designed to remind workers that they should be safe for their own good, the health of their coworkers and for their families who depend on them.

Due to time and budget constraints, the previously planned on-location factory photos turned into in-studio portraits. It was not feasible to shut down part of a busy factory for up to 4 hours at a time. Time is money and that would have cost the company too much.

Plan B involved taking several photos of different poses and expressions in-studio and them compositing them into existing factory environments. The final composites would be used on large posters that will be displayed in multiple languages in factories around the world.

The workers in this photo were photographed individually and composited into the background.
This was done to give the client multiple options. The reflection on the woman’s glasses was purposely
 included in since it did not obscure her eye.

Technically, these seemingly simple photos had some challenges in the studio. The workers were wearing wrap-around safety glasses that reflected light from every angle. I had the models adjust the angle of their faces in small degrees to remove the harsh reflections. Half a degree could make all the difference.

The photo of the 2 men was taken as one exposure and composited into the background

The group photos had to have a great depth of field so that all parts of the models were in sharp focus. This involved working with very powerful flashes on almost full power in our small studio. The final tricky part was that the orange safety vests were made of a semi-reflective material that shifted hue with even the smallest difference in flash power. The vests produce a strong local color reflection on the skin of the models which we decided to keep for realism.

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