Simon Ridgway Photography » featured

on assignment : corporate portraits

simonridgway — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:18:21 +0000

One of the more common assignments I get is to shoot corporate portraits. Simple head and shoulders or full length portraits of staff/employees/executives at companies and organisations, to be used on the web and in corporate literature, powerpoint presentations, annual reports etc.

Now that I have done this so many times, I have a well tested setup for these shoots that has served me well in many different locations. However, it does involve a fair bit of kit and some setup time. Once the setup is complete I can shoot as fast as the people can put themselves in front of the camera!

This shoot for the Wales Audit office was carried out over two half-days and the client wanted three different backgrounds as well as headshot, half-length and full length portraits, looking left, looking right and smiling/serious. This added up to a LOT of different combinations and I had to work out a system to make sure I got all the required shots for each person as efficiently as possible.

Here’s the setup…

As you can see, I’m using red gels on the background lights to give a red background for one set of shots. Removing the gels gave me the pure white background and over on the left you can see the black cloth background clamped to a boom stand which I was able to swing into position for a pure black background. (with the back lights switched off of course!)

The main problem I had with the gelled red background was the low white ceiling causing a lot of light to bounce around and wash out the red colour. Since there was nothing I could do to prevent this (other than painting the ceiling black!) we got the best red we could and the client was happy with the results after checking them on screen.

I shot tethered in to the Powerbook you can see on the left so each person was able to see their pictures immediately and I was able to check that all the lights were firing and I wasn’t getting any nasty reflections in glasses etc.

Here’s just a few of the shots…

And that’s just one pose with each person! There were a lot more. Because all the lighting had been arranged carefully, I only needed each person for around 10-15 minutes to do all the background and pose combinations. In an ideal world each pose and background combination would have been lit differently with the lighting tailored to the individual picture, but there was no way we were going to have time for that. The lighting had to be designed to work as a compromise for all the shots.

Once we’d done all these I needed to get some more portraits of the auditor general. We had planned for around an hour with him in between meetings. However, at the last minute we discovered that he was going to be required for a live radio interview and then have just 15 minutes between arriving back (hopefully on time) and his next meeting.

I broke down all the lighting and worked on setting up lights around the office and corridors to enable me to move from one setup to the next as quickly as possible, so that when my subject arrived back we would be able to shoot straight away and not worry about lights, exposure, background etc.

I set up in four locations and did test shots with a stand-in. We waited for the arrival of my subject and then got to work…

Location 1:

Location 2 :

Location 3 :

Location 4 :

He got to his next meeting bang on time.

Are these photographs great artistic creations? No, not really. But the client got exactly what they needed with the minimum of fuss and disruption for their staff. If time is tight then my job is to make quick decisions about what is and isn’t possible under the circumstances. And then be prepared to change my plans when the circumstances change!

Being able to do shoots like this under pressure requires a thorough understanding of equipment and technique, good logistical skills, careful planning and a willingness and ability to change those plans and still get the job done.

random shots : diversions dance

simonridgway — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:09:31 +0000

I love it when I look back through my archives and find a picture I really like and get the chance to rework it a bit on the Mac. This shot was taken during a rehearsal in 2007. The Diversions dance company were rehearsing a new show and I was sent to get some pictures. They were in the middle of rehearsals when I arrived and I wasn’t going to get an opportunity to set anything up – so no posing and no lights!

This was shot on the Canon 85mm/f1.2 at settings of 1/100s at f1.6 on ISO800. That’s really dark! And they were moving about a lot! At 1/100s the only way to get anything pin sharp was to wait for moments when the action peaked and the dancers were relatively still.

Photographing dance is not easy but its the dancers that are doing most of the work for you – its just a naturally photogenic subject. As long as you get the technical aspects right, its hard not to get great pictures.

on assignment : trainee priest portrait

simonridgway — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:50:05 +0000

I was commissioned to shoot some portraits of a lady who is training to be a priest and was the subject of a magazine feature. The shoot had been scheduled for midday on one of the hottest, sunniest days of the year so far. As most photographers will tell you, midday sun does not make for ideal conditions for photography.

So my first instinct was to find an indoor location. Fortunately the chapel was free and when I walked in and saw the amazing windows, I knew I had my first location. These shots were done using one hotshoe flash in a brolly as the key light with a second flash balanced on the pew behind her, providing a rim light to simulate the light coming from the windows. Keeping that second light coming from roughly the same direction as the natural light makes it look real and doesn’t call attention to the lighting.

I shot plenty of variations using these windows as a backdrop and, although I was happy with these, I needed to offer my editor an alternative so we moved outside into the harsh sunlight to find a possible shot.

With the sun so high in the sky, there was very little shade around but we managed to find a spot right up against the chapel wall, under a tree. By putting the subject in the shade I was able to expose for the background ambient and then add my own light to the subject. This was again just a hotshoe flash at full power, fired into a medium size brolly and moved in as close as possible to make the most of the power available from the small flash.

This lady was not at all keen on having her picture taken. I can understand that, as I really don’t like it myself. Hopefully though you can’t tell from the photos that she wasn’t enjoying it!

on assignment : photographing the makeup artists

simonridgway — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:56:27 +0000

I was commissioned to shoot some pictures for the website of a new makeup brand and the client needed portraits of the makeup artists that would be working on the counter in-store. Normally the makeup artist would be behind the camera not in front, so this made a change. And, guess what – they did their own makeup!

The shoot was done in a hotel conference room, where the makeup artists were getting training before the launch day. Some portraits had already been done in other cities and mine had to match the style of the others. Here’s the very simple setup. One light with a grid to stop it spilling onto the black cloth background.

And here are the results…

random shots : in the studio

simonridgway — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:00:56 +0000

I’ve got a small studio attached to my office and, when I’m not shooting for clients, I like to try out new techniques on willing victims volunteers. Here’s a picture of my niece shot using a classic high-key lighting technique. A white paper background, lit by two lights plus one big softbox giving quite flat, soft light on her face. I like the subtle “bounce-back” of the light from the background onto her hand, which gives it a lovely three dimensional look. This has also had a bit of post production work done on it. Its been run through Color Efex Pro and Nik Sharpener Pro using my new favourite settings! This looks fantastic as a large framed print (which is currently waiting to be put up on my office wall).

recent work : artist liam o’connor

simonridgway — Fri, 01 May 2009 09:39:27 +0000

Some portraits of painter Liam O’Connor in his Cardiff studio, for a newspaper feature.

recent work : eleri sion portraits

simonridgway — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:00:00 +0000

A set of portraits of TV and radio presenter Eleri Sion near her home in Barry in South Wales. These were for a profile piece in a welsh language magazine, with one shot for the cover and a couple more for inside.

recent work : mothers’ day portrait

simonridgway — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:00:00 +0000

A portrait session in Swansea to illustrate a feature on Mothers’ Day in one of the Sunday supplements. I shot loads, complete with clothing changes and hair and makeup. Unfortunately it turns out the picture was used the size of postage stamp! You just never know what newspapers are going to do with your pictures. In this case it was one of three case studies squeezed into a two page spread. Seems a bit of a waste to me but the shoot was fun and the pictures turned out well.

recent work : edwina hart at the welsh assembly

simonridgway — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:17:39 +0000

I recently shot some portraits of Edwina Hart AM, Minister for Health and Social Services at the Welsh Assembly Government. The shots were for a health journal and were done after an interview at her office at the Welsh Assembly offices in Cardiff Bay. Her office wasn’t a great location for pictures so we arranged to set up in the Senedd building next door where there are lots more options.

Mostly natural light with one Elinchrom studio light in a big Chimera softbox :

on assignment : cardboard cut-outs on a windy day

simonridgway — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:03:34 +0000

A client asked me to shoot some promotional pictures for a new campaign. This involved shooting life-size cardboard cutouts of children, placed in realistic looking situations around Cardiff Bay and in Swansea city centre. Fortunately for me, they supplied a van and an assistant for the day…

So, what are the worst possible weather conditions in which to shoot cardboard cutouts? Hmmm, wind perhaps? Yes, the day we shot these pics was INCREDIBLY windy with just a little bit of torrential rain!

We started down in Cardiff Bay and did our best to tie the cutouts to railings, benches and lamposts, whilst still making them look “real”. Not easy. With Jack, the runner, helpfully running around picking up the cutouts every time they fell over, we managed to shoot a few decent pictures, but decided that we would head to Swansea and see if the weather was any better over there, then come back to Cardiff later in the day, when frankly the weather couldn’t have been any worse than it was already. Nothing to lose.

The rain didn’t stop but the wind was less of a problem in Swansea’s Castle Square and we got a nice range of different shots there. And quite a few funny looks from shoppers!

Back to Cardiff and still it rained, but we’d had a bit more practice now, and managed to find a few spots that were sheltered from the worst of the wind. A couple more goods shots and we were done. Wet, cold and tired but successful!

This is a perfect example of a job which I simply could not have done single-handed. Having an assistant to help carry and arrange the props, keep an eye on equipment and provide a second pair of eyes when scouting for locations was invaluable. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to set up one of those cut-outs and run back to the shooting position, only to have the cutout fall over and have to repeat the process over and over again?

Here’s a few of the pictures…