Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Executive Portrait


I've been a corporate annual report photographer for a long time now. When you shoot corporate assignments, you need to feel comfortable shooting a variety of subject matter, you need to be versatile.

The photograph above was shot for a new client of mine. They had seen some portraits I did for another client of mine which appeared in an annual report.

When it comes to the executive portrait, I'm looking for a location that denotes a sense of power and confidence. Some of the corporate offices I visit are really nice and finding a location to photograph is not difficult. There are also times where the locations are a bit harder to find, as was the case with the photo above.

The location for this photo was in a realistically small conference room, there was bank of windows on the right side of the room. The conference table was a simple glass table with chrome and leather chairs spaced around the table.

I positioned myself at eye level with the table and arranged the chairs height and position in such a way as to guide the views eye to the subject. The light coming in through the banks of window on the right looked great and I felt that no other lighting would be needed for this portrait.

I've been on the road for about 4 weeks, shooting assignments as well as teaching. Over the next several posts I share some of those assignments with you. I will tell you that on of those assignments was shooting for Nikon. I spent 2 days shooting in NY for Nikon's Learn & Explore web site. I was video taped shooting 3 different photos, I'm looking forward to showing those to you soon.

I leave for Hawaii next Thursday for Popular Photography's Mentor Series. With the recent snow here in Denver, I can tell you that I'm looking forward to some nice warm weather. DT

3 comments:

Oliver Rathonyi-Reusz said...

Nice shot! Clean and simple.

Perry A. Powers said...

David - Thank you. This kind of real world, practical advice that you're so good at is the reason I always check your blog...

Perry Powers

Adrien said...

Nice work, especially in a challenging location. Do you find that clients are not always into a creative take, such as with this shot? You know, "it's too bad the chairs were in the way" :-)

Adrien