At one time or another if you are a professional photographer, you’ll be asked to photograph a business portrait. While it may be more interesting to photograph the client environmentally, often what people need for their company is a good clean head and shoulder photo taken against a plain background. Typically when I get that call, I ask a few questions to save me frustration during the shoot.
Many companies will have a standard business portrait template that they want all employees to follow so that they’ll have consistency where the portraits are displayed. They often will give clothing guidelines, background preferences and even whether they want full length or head and shoulders. I always ask if they have company guidelines and if so, can they forward them to me in advance of their session.This one small thing helps me be better prepared for a smooth session that is properly set up.
For example it’s helpful to know if they require any full body portraits so I know how to set up my backgrounds and lighting.
I’m a believer in lighting business portraits for publication even if it’s destined for the web. That means I don’t employ dramatic light ratios between the highlights and shadows. Some print processes may have issues with detail in very dark areas so it’s generally better to have a fairly bright shadow area.
Dark hair need separation from a dark background so a background light and a hairlight will be effective.
While one light with a reflector can capture a great portrait, it will be missing that professional sparkle that a background light, hairlight and fill light will provide.
For colour portraits a subdued blue background makes an excellent compliment for skin tones. Just make sure that their clothing choices will comply.
You can give an excellent variety of images to select from by just changing the position of the main light, varying the fill light, and increasing the amount of background light on the background for various tones.
Paying attention to traditional posing techniques for males and females, will ensure professional, businesslike images that are flattering to your subject.
Adding professional business portraits that are properly lit, retouched and quickly returned can add a great stream of revenue to your studio.
Robert Nowell
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