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…
