I was hired to produce a cover shot + some interior story photos for a magazine published by a Seattle private school. Here's the process I went through to create the images. Concept The cover story was about a family with 4 boys (ages 15-25) that has had at least one child in attendance at the school for 20 consecutive years. The photos were supposed to be informal, displaying a loving family enjoying each other's company and conveying some of their personality. Location I chose Gasworks Park in Seattle because there are a few locations there where I can get very clean backgrounds to accommodate the magazine copy around the portraits. I'd much rather have a clean background than a "cool" one. Lighting The shoot was timed to begin exactly at sunset. My plan was to get a few natural light images using the setting sun as the key light, then after the sun went down light the family with off-camera flash. Most photographers wouldn't deliberately schedule a shoot to take place mostly after sunset. But why not? This time of day can produce some really interesting looks when combined with off-camera lighting. Gear I brought one body (my 5D) and one lens (50mm f1.4). For a shoot like this, nothing more is needed. I just wanted to keep it real simple. My lighting was either natural light or my LumoPro speedlight mounted on a monopod with shoot-through umbrella. My assistant Paige and I arrived about 15 minutes before the shoot start time. We walked to the exact shoot locations so I could quickly test what the light looked like. No matter how fancy you get with your lighting, nothing beats plain old setting sun for the nicest light. (1) Here's a test shot of Paige - the light at 20 mins before sunset looks darn near perfect. You can see she's holding a monopod on which I mount my strobe. Then she holds onto the monopod like a flag bearer at a parade. This is a much quicker, flexible setup than moving around light stands.
(2) This was one of the first shots of the day. Natural light only. The purpose of starting with a shot like this is just to warm up my subjects and get them used to being in front of the camera. The magazine probably won't use this shot. 5D/50mm, ISO 400, f7.1, 1/500 sec
(3) Okay, nothing new here - many wedding photographers do this with the wedding party. Meant for the inside story, the purpose of this image is just to reflect the family's personality. At this point it was literally 5 minutes before the sun set. This was the last natural light shot of the day. In addition to the nice golden light on my subjects, notice how blue the sky is at sunset. ISO 400, f6.3, 1/800 sec.
(4) This was the first image I took that was meant to be a candidate for the magazine cover. First of all, it needed to be a vertical to conform with the magazine shape. It's always a challenge to pose 6 people for a vertical shot. To do this, I put them on 3 levels, sitting, kneeling and standing. I organized them by age with the youngest on the bottom and parents on top. The background was selected because - especially after deliberately underexposing the ambient by 2 stops - I knew it would be very dark. This makes it easy to place copy over the background. One 40" umbrella covered the entire family with no discernable light falloff. ISO 400, f5.6, 1/125 sec
(5) This was the other candidate for the magazine cover. This time using the sky to make a nice clean backdrop to place copy. Again, the ambient was underexposed by almost 2 stops and a single umbrella covered the family nicely. The key to this shot was the pyramid shape of the pose, as well as their relaxed expressions. I got the laughs just by asking them to goof around. ISO 250, f6.3, 1/100 sec
(6) The last shot of the day was not really for the magazine, I did it for the parents so they could have a professional shot of their boys. ISO 250, f6.3, 1/100 sec
For your next portrait session, try something different and shoot after sunset. You'll get something very different than what all the other photographers out there are offering! Laurence Kim Workshops available in Seattle or via Skype |
