Jason Cohen, founder and CEO of WP Engine 4
Continued from number 3...
This was one of our final settings. We actually shot one more against a gray wall, but they aren't terribly interesting. In truth, they were shot just sot he designer could easily cut him out. But, you've seen that all before. One light, 45°, cast shadow, bang and done. Sort of a quick and dirty Zack Arias type of workshop technique. This setting however was really fun, they had this cafe-kitchen area for employees with these diner like tables. The windows had more vertical room here once I sat him down, and the table blocked the cross members from the backdrop. So this gave me a portrait of him against another classic Austin landmark, the Frost Tower building. I liked this too, because it gave him something to do with his hands while relaxing. This was also shot with a single light following Heisler's suggested technique of "motivating the practical".
Because each of these settings had been tested with my assistant, and I had a placemarker on the floor for each one, all we had to do was walk into each scene, place the light on the marker. Dial my settings back to my successful test shots as a starting point, and then start right off with direction more so than looking at my camera.
In the end we got A LOT of different shots that were all highly usable. Some were better than these in my opinion, but they were picked by the client. I like to show that as a reminder that sometimes its what the image will be used for that overwrites what you think is the best photograph. Printing, color, design, layout, negative space, all these factors can dictate a winning shot outside of your photographic values like exposure, contrast, mood, etc. There's a relationship between them all of course.
Jason was not your typical subject for a C level executive. He was fun, polite, courteous, joking and more. He even jumped up at the end and started helping us rearrange the furniture. You can see why his employees like him, he's humble, approachable, and an all around good guy. I've discovered after reading his blog for a couple of weeks now that he's a really diversely interesting guy. If you want to check him out, his twitter is @asmartbear.
I wish all my clients were as fun as he was. I try to remind people though, fun experiences like this only happen when you've done the preparation so that none of the chaos is present when the client is.
Jason Cohen, founder and CEO of WP Engine 4
Continued from number 3...
This was one of our final settings. We actually shot one more against a gray wall, but they aren't terribly interesting. In truth, they were shot just sot he designer could easily cut him out. But, you've seen that all before. One light, 45°, cast shadow, bang and done. Sort of a quick and dirty Zack Arias type of workshop technique. This setting however was really fun, they had this cafe-kitchen area for employees with these diner like tables. The windows had more vertical room here once I sat him down, and the table blocked the cross members from the backdrop. So this gave me a portrait of him against another classic Austin landmark, the Frost Tower building. I liked this too, because it gave him something to do with his hands while relaxing. This was also shot with a single light following Heisler's suggested technique of "motivating the practical".
Because each of these settings had been tested with my assistant, and I had a placemarker on the floor for each one, all we had to do was walk into each scene, place the light on the marker. Dial my settings back to my successful test shots as a starting point, and then start right off with direction more so than looking at my camera.
In the end we got A LOT of different shots that were all highly usable. Some were better than these in my opinion, but they were picked by the client. I like to show that as a reminder that sometimes its what the image will be used for that overwrites what you think is the best photograph. Printing, color, design, layout, negative space, all these factors can dictate a winning shot outside of your photographic values like exposure, contrast, mood, etc. There's a relationship between them all of course.
Jason was not your typical subject for a C level executive. He was fun, polite, courteous, joking and more. He even jumped up at the end and started helping us rearrange the furniture. You can see why his employees like him, he's humble, approachable, and an all around good guy. I've discovered after reading his blog for a couple of weeks now that he's a really diversely interesting guy. If you want to check him out, his twitter is @asmartbear.
I wish all my clients were as fun as he was. I try to remind people though, fun experiences like this only happen when you've done the preparation so that none of the chaos is present when the client is.