01-08-2012
We were given our first major task today.
Our assessment task is to produce a collection of Corporate Portraits. It should prove challenging, but be very rewarding if everything goes to plan. We are required to produce a Public Relations Folio that must include the following:
Group portrait
- Photograph a group of 6 people in an outdoor location. We are encouraged to be creative, but keep in mind the fact that the purpose of this is to give a positive image about their business.
3 individual portraits
- Standard head & shoulders portrait with white background - photographed inside on location.
- More creative head & shoulders/three quarter portrait - photographed inside with a simple background on location with a more relaxed expression.
- An environmental portrait - photographed in a setting relative to their business/industry to elements of what they do without it totally distracting from the subject. They must remain the main focus of the overall image.
My thoughts...
GROUP PORTRAIT
I had considered going back to The Royal Canberra Golf Club and approach their management staff and/or board members to pitch my proposal to them and see if they would be willing to cooperate. And after doing some hunting around on the internet, i was unable to source any photographs of these members of staff, perhaps that's a good thing.
There just happens to be 6 appointed managers at The Royal Canberra Golf Club, which is perfect.
I can think of a few settings to do the photoshoot, but ultimately i feel it is important to either include parts of the clubhouse and/or a stylish section of the establishment or make use of an area that displays some of the club's history.
Anyway, i will make contact with them and see how i get on.
Examples:
If things don't work out for me with Royal Canberra - or even if they do, my other thought was to also do a group portrait of 6 architects at one of their favourite creations in or around Canberra. I could assess the establishment and then devise a creative way of arranging each person within the framed image like the following picture.
INDIVIDUAL PORTRAITS
I would like to try photograph a local architectural firm here in Canberra and photograph either one of the directors or senior architects. I think their office spaces will be interesting enough to make a nice simple location background and hopefully i can then go out with them to one of their creations for an interesting environmental portrait.
1. For the standard head and shoulders portrait i could set up the portable lighting and portable white background that i own in their office space. There is likely to be a sufficient amount of natural window light available within their office environment which i might also be able to work with somehow.
Examples:
2. The slightly more creative portrait could definitely include some simple shapes, lines and colours to make up a subtle indication of an office environment.
Examples:
3. Doing an environmental portrait of an architect i feel, definitely requires an interesting, but not too distracting part of a building that the architect has actually designed and created. This could be rendered with texture, shape, colour etc. It might seem cheesy, but perhaps even a hint of some drafting plans or similar faintly displayed in the distance would work well.
Examples:
How will i do it..?
Thankfully i own an Elinchrom portable lighting kit. I can use this for each of my shots either by itself, or in conjunction sync this kit with my Canon 430EX speedlite to give me a total of 3 lights should i require it. I also have a number of light modifiers i can make use of. I will spend further time planning out which will be the most suitable to use once i know exactly which of the above ideas i am going ahead.
The advantage i have with this kit is absolute portability. I can set it up inside an office space if need be for the more formal portraits as well as then take it outside for any group and/or environmental portraits.
