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By Alex Thorne

A financial services firm needed headshots for their website and the initial request seemed pretty straight forward.  However, after a face-to-face meeting with the client, the project grew into an interesting opportunity to help the company present a more personal image to the public.

The client had expressed an interest in showing off their newly decorated offices.  In addition to formal headshots, I also recommended that we capture some images of the staff with the office as the background.  The shoot really developed into a nice combination of formal and intimate images that really capture the firm’s personality.

I wanted the informal portraits to look natural, so I decided not to use any flash lighting for these images.  I only had artificial light to work with, so in order to fill in the shadows from the overhead lights, I needed to us a handheld reflector.  I tapped one of the employees to be my assistant and directed her on how to direct the light onto the subjects face.  I used a 50mm lens at f/1.6 to get some separation from the background and to make the subject almost pop out from the rest of the image.

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I think these images demonstrate how adding informal portraits to a company’s stock of headshots can go a long way in presenting its employees’ personal side.  You can see more images in my portrait gallery by clicking here.

Below are a few more examples from the shoot showing both formal and informal portraits of the staff.

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