We shoot a lot of corporate photography a lot...often this isn't without its challenges.
Magnolia walled meeting rooms, a giant conference table, three suits and 10 mins isn't exactly easy.
I use a variety of technique and photo kit to makes things interesting, nearly always that's a 'down n dirty' approach - (down n dirty is my affectionate term for the use of speedlights over remote studio packs)
You have to be quick and able to change things up and react to new opportunities during the shoot, often you have to change location several times during the job. I have learnt from bitter experience that the best pre lit ideas and locations can often be shot down when the executive arrives. I once spent 45 mins pre-lighting a honda sports car in the reception of honda's uk headquarters, moving the vehicle around, setting up an elinchrom octa with a couple of gridded kickers for the grill and underneath the car only to be told on his arrival he wants to be photographed outside with a honda mower!
The problem doing commercial work is you're often photographing the person who pays the bill - if this had been an editorial shoot I could insist that we do the car shot 'as nothing else will get in' but I need to work again so ...'where's this mower then?'
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| The use of ringflash and a simple bold colour |
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| Ambient lighting in the shadow of an office building. I liked the colour palette |
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| I used a single gridded speedlight camera left, and dropped the ambient exposure. This help clean up the messing office background that was visible through the glass in the background. |
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| Nikon SB800 in a chimera softbox camera left and high. |
Every now you get to photograph someone who practically makes the picture themselves, this is a fantastically friendly an energetic frenchmen at Orange. Not everyday you get a vice president to do this!
