Corporate Photography - Portraits in a museum

One of my larger projects this year was to make portraits of the senior management at the Corcoran.  

When I've photographed management at the Corcoran in the past, it's mostly been on an individual basis, making it hard to get a good cohesive group of images.  This time we were able to shoot everyone against the same white seamless with the same lighting, as well as in a space around the gallery.  

This time, I had a dozen different people to photograph over two days.  I brought an assistant, and had help from the Corcoran's communications department in scheduling everyone.  

I've previously written about taking photographs in a museum.  Many of the same considerations of copyright and permissions came into play when making these portraits.  When scouting the different locations, I had a list of approved artwork that could be shown in photographs.  

Corporate Photography - Portraits on a blue backdrop

Earlier this summer, I shot portraits of the staff for The Corcoran's pre-college program.  Some of the people I had already met through my work at The Corcoran, but most I had not.  The portraits were scheduled during a break in training for the summer staff.  I was able to spend enough time with each person to get some of their personality to show through in the images.   

 

Click to read more ...

Corporate Photography - Headshots

I recently had an assignment to photograph 54 portraits in under an hour.  I have shot similar assignments for this client before, so I knew pretty much how the schedule needed to go.  The company needed both individual and group images of 54 people for an upcoming piece of literature that they're producing in house.  The images are all going to appear close to each other, and therefore consistency is key.  I set up a medium sized soft box against a wall in a small conference room.  I marked a spot on the floor where everyone should stand, and was able to shoot everyone quickly without too much fuss.  

The image below shows all 54 headshots, plus my test image.  The total time to shoot the individual and group shots was just over 40 minutes.  

55 portraits made in under an hour.

Corporate Photography - Portrait of a Librarian

Last week I shot a portrait of the director of the Corcoran's library, Mario Ascencio.  I arrived after the library was closed for the day, so that we could use the stacks for the backdrop.  The lighting was a simple two light setup.  In the top photo there is a softbox above the camera, and a SB-800 clamped to the shelves above and behind Mario.  I also put a reflector below the camera to soften the shadows. 

More images after the jump

Click to read more ...

Corporate Photography - Location Portrait

In my ongoing assignment to make portraits of students and faculty at the Corcoran, I've tried to make at least one portrait of each person that reflects their field of study or interests.  The portrait below is of Brittany, a recent graduate from the Interior Design masters program.  Brittany was very helpful in finding a location that would fit well for her portrait.  After letting her know what I had in mind for the portrait, she suggested a residence for which she had recently created some work.  I had previously met the owner at a few Corcoran events, and he was gracious enough to let us use his beautiful house as a backdrop. 

Because we were shooting in a person's home, I kept the setup minimal.  I didn't want to be running cables everywhere, and have lighstands littering the living room.  I used single battery powered monolight in a medium softbox.