I over-complicate these blog posts I think! Sometimes it should just be about sharing a portrait full of genuine emotion!

There are lots of technical elements to portrait photography, some of them easier to get to grips with than others but once you’ve got that bit covered it comes down to you and the subject in front of your camera. The best portraits, for me personally, are created when you capture a feeling of genuine emotion. So here’s one I made earlier…

This portrait stood out to me straight away as one that shows that emotion perfectly, so I wanted to share it with you!  I love portraits like this as they are honest if that makes sense. It feels real because it was real!  The laughter was all genuine.  I’m not sure what we were talking about at the time and it didn’t matter. Most likely I was me making a fool of myself in some fashion to help my subject feel more at ease and relaxed in front of the camera. Whatever it takes to get a great shot though right? It’s my role as a portrait photographer to try and bring out different emotions or responses from a subject whether that’s for a client or a personal project.

In this case, the portrait is from a client shoot earlier this week. The shoot was for a company called VIQU Recruitment. VIQU is a busy IT and Cyber Security recruitment company based in the UK with offices in both Birmingham and Southampton. VIQU asked me to help them create some new images with lots of personality, that would stand out from the normal, grey background, stuffy, corporate look that can sometimes be associated with recruitment. I can’t share any more images from this shoot as we only shot it the other day and none of the images have gone live yet but I would just like to say thank you to them for allowing me to share this quick teaser in the blog. The team at VIQU are far from stuffy and have tonnes of personality so they made my job pretty easy and great fun. Keep an eye out for the finished images from this shoot in a future blog post.

That’s it for this week! Not too complicated right?

TECHNICAL

Camera: Canon 5D MK IV

https://www.canon.co.uk/cameras/eos-5d-mark-iv/

Software: Capture One Pro

https://www.captureone.com/en/

Lighting: 5 x Elinchrom Ranger RX S Heads + Modifiers

https://www.elinchrom.com/battery/ranger-series.html

Background:  Summer Green

https://www.photography-backgrounds.co.uk/Photography-Background-Papers/2.72-x-11-metres.html

Client: VIQU Recruitment

https://www.viqu.co.uk/