Construction of The Portrait – Part Two

Construction of The Portrait – Part Two

by William Lulow

Once you have decided on your basic camera angle for a portrait you are making, the next step is to decide on what kind of lighting you will use. Most of the time, the lighting is determined by what mood you are trying to create and what you want to say about your subject. It is also dependent on the type of image your client needs and wants. If you are making the portrait for yourself, you have complete control over lighting, attitude, background and overall “look” of the portrait. If you are commissioned to make the portrait, then it depends on what your client wants. So, it’s important to find all that information out before you actually do the shoot.

This is one of my basic set ups that I can make on location or in the studio. A main light plus a fill-in light and a light to illuminate the background. This “set” was also made in a fairly tight space, actually, the office’s kitchen. It just happened to have more physical distance than the conference room. It can be done, however, if you can set up your lights correctly. (There was also a small fill-in light to the left which is not in this shot):

This was the result:

There were no accent lights on this set. So this is a typical beginning for many of my corporate portraits. I normally begin with this basic lighting arrangement that will yield a well-lit portrait, suitable for any commercial purpose. After I have made quite a few exposures, I will begin to show the subject some of the results on the camera’s LCD screen. I don’t like to use a laptop during a portrait session because I think it interferes with the overall flow of the shoot itself. In order for the client to look at the laptop image, you will need to stop the shoot, have the subject walk over to the computer and examine the shot. And, it is just one shot of many! I prefer to let the shoot continue for a bit before having the client look at any of the take. All the while, I am asking the subject if he likes the shots and what he thinks about his own representation on screen. If I get positive responses, I try to duplicate the look of images I have already shown him or her.

To add some variety to website shots, I like to offer the client a choice with some either full-length or three-quarter-length shots that can be used on extra pages. This image was made when I quickly switched to my portable strobes and was able to create an interesting lighting by hiding them in the offices down this hallway:

Once I am sure that we have a number of acceptable images, I will then announce to the subject that I am going to change the lighting a bit. This may involve changing the power of the studio strobe units or shutting them off as necessary. I will then show her more samples and see if she likes them or not. Again, if the response is positive, I will then try to duplicate the look as many more times as I can, before changing the lighting again. So, I can achieve a completely different look by changing the lighting:

Sometimes different lightings are exciting to a subject who can often be made to look at him or herself a bit differently. All of this needs to be in keeping with the overall purpose of the portrait to begin with. I will often make sure that I have a usable portrait that captures a certain something about my subjects, then try to do a bit extra by trying to create an entirely different mood:

Yet, at the same time, producing salable shots.