This business portrait is a simple development of the one light Magnum portrait (click link for behind the scenes photos and more) I shot earlier the same day as a test. It uses the same key/main light as before, a Profoto D1 250 Air with a gridded Profoto Magnum reflector from above through a large Chimera panel with diffusion fabric.
I just added another D1 in a medium sized softbox (2×3 feet or 60×90 cm) placed near the background half way behind the bookend so the effective size of the light is more of a strip softbox.
[Read the full post here…]
I mostly shoot studio portraits on a neutral background, from white to grey and sometimes black. And that is what my supply of background paper rolls consists of, one super white, one medium neutral grey and one black.
When a consulting company contacted me and wanted business portraits on blue background I first thought I had to buy more background paper, but later I chose a simpler solution. As they needed just half length shots, I used a reflector frame with blue fabric and a couple of clamps to get the surface reasonably even.
Click for Behind the scenes and lighting diagram…
One of my latest assignments was taking some portraits of the director of The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA). I have worked for them during the last three years, mostly documenting their winners visiting Sweden for the award week and ceremony. Now it was just some publicity portraits we did.
It is nice to get outside the studio and try to do simple portraits on location with as little equipment as possible. I brought only one light this time (a Profoto AcuteB 600R and a large 5 foot softbox Octa), but we managed to get good portraits from three different “stations” without having to spend too much time on setups and preparations.
More portraits and behind the scenes here…
This is a portrait style I think works very well for corporate and business portraits of all types. On location or in the studio, with a clean background or with something out of focus.
It works especially well if you need to have a lot of portraits in a layout, for example showing the board of directors or management, as every face has the same type of shadows on one side.
What you need is three lights, a diffusion panel and a camera.
Lighting setup diagram and more details here…
