This job took me over the Humber Bridge to Barton, North Lincolnshire do some business portraits for Jo of Aspen Morgan Counselling & Wellbeing.
She's an old school friend, who I hadn't spoken to in real life in many years, and was still just as lovely as I remember. She has her website built but needed some better images for content.She sent me some ideas that she has seen for inspiration, with quite a casual, friendly and warm look, and while we could have done something in the studio, I felt it would be better to do something in a more homely environment, with a natural look to the lighting. I tasked her with finding some places that were "spacious and airy" to get that same kind of look, and she found some spaces in her own home, and her dad's nearby, despite her own house being a "work in progress".
I arrived on an overcast day, unloaded the car and got set up. We started at what appeared to be the place with the most light - the upstairs landing - which was fairly spacious, and a large wide set of French windows letting lots of light in, but had a large balcony which meant the top half of Jo was shaded. I added a key light using a flash to the right, bounced off the plain grey wall and ceiling to throw some more light on her, and added another flash into the back bedroom because the corridor behind her was a little gloomy.
From there we moved downstairs where there was a lovely old leather chair next to a glass door with obscured glass. Plenty of "nice" light coming from the right, but a bit too much shadow on the other side, so I used my large white reflector to bounce some of that light back, then added a flash in the far corner pointing at the ceiling to brighten that area, adding a bit of highlight to her hair and the chair edges.
Then we went to her dad's house, where there was a lovely big modern kitchen, with a big island unit and plenty of space. Jo dressed it with some flowers and fruit bowl while I set up more lighting, with a the bigger flash and large softbox, as we were in a bigger room, and further from the windows. A smaller flash bounced of the ceiling to the left filled some shadows. We did some with and without the props, as they were a little distracting, even if they did add some colour!
Despite Jo claiming to be very nervous, she came across as that warm and friendly person we needed, and we got some very natural photos, and a lot of different looks and outfits in a small amount of time.
The response to the photos from friends and family was immensely positive, so we hit the mark.
If you need any business profile photos, drop me a message on the contact page and we can discuss the looks you need.
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