No two alike

Examples of natural light corporate portraiture

By Paul Clarke Photography

May 31^st, 2017

the challenge

If you're reading this, you'll be interested in capturing a bigger group of people – an organisation or department – in a way that's consistent and clear. But also so that they don't look just like every other company. One approach to consistency comes from using a controlled light environment – or put more simply, a studio – whether that's a dedicated room or a portable one brought to your office.

But using studio equipment can increase costs, and also make it less economical to shoot additional subjects, or just a couple at a time. When planning any corporate portraiture it makes sense to think not just about current staff, but those who will be joining in future. The flexibility of natural light portraiture is very well suited to doing this efficiently.

Natural colour

Even with identical camera settings, the natural variation in light at different times of day, and with different weather conditions, means some variability in tone and appearance across a set. This can be more noticeable with some skin pigments than others.

Black & white

Monochrome corporate portraiture is really popular. So much so that it can be something of a cliché. Doing it well involves more than just taking away the colour. A good monochrome conversion will carefully balance light and dark tones, working with textures, structure and detail to give what can become a distinctive corporate style. Making your people stand out from other organisations, and helping to bring a coherence to the overall set.

Variant black & white

Adding a little grain, structure enhancement and a textured background helps to give the black and white versions their own style, and increase the sense of consistency across the set.

stylised colour

One of the reasons that black and white is so popular is that it provides a level of abstraction from reality. Making decisions on how your face looks to the outside world isn't easy for everyone, especially if you might have to live with that decision for quite a few years. Black and white helps with that by providing a bit of distance from a natural appearance.

Another approach that has similar benefits is to use a custom styling filter to provide a consistent colour palette and texture across the set. It can also help portraits to fit in well with a corporate site colour palette. As with the monochrome conversion, tests need to be made on a variety of face types before choosing a final styling, to ensure that it doesn't unduly age or weaken anyone.

What else?

The portraits speak for themselves, hopefully. They represent about half of the overall set done for a large professional services organisation. The shoots were done over a few weeks, in sessions of up to 20 people at a time, timed to make it as easy as possible to attend.

The process is simple enough – finding a good space with neutral wall by a window is sufficient in terms of set. Then each subject gets individual time (with no one looking on to distract them) to find expressions and positions that work for them. From around 20-40 shots taken – it varies a little for each person – we then select the strongest three photographically, that also convey a range of expression.

Range is important – and not just for each individual. Depending on the nature and brand of your organisation you might want to aim for coolness, or cheeriness, or perhaps a mixture across the set. Beware of having a gallery of clones, all grinning away. Different areas of professional practice may call for different demeanours. You can see in these sets that the group effect of emotional expression is distinct from what may be conveyed by any one face.

Based on plenty of experience, providing three edited images sets a good balance between giving the subject some choice over what gets used, but equally avoiding them having to wade through dozens of very similar photos, not all of which might be flattering, as that's not a good use of either their time or their feelings! Of course there is a wider selection to fall back on for the small number of subjects who will want to do this.

All photos are edited to a very high standard of detail. Any minor cosmetic or grooming issues are tidied up before submission. Headshots like this may be displayed in small size, but all should be capable of holding their own were they on a magazine cover, for example. There are no corners cut in terms of quality, from the use of the best cameras and lenses available, to experienced judgement in terms of editing and styling of the final product.