This blog will no longer be updated and will eventually just redirect to the new blog at www.nathanelson.com/blog

Now, in my experience, corporate jobs always tend to be somewhat of a constantly changing creature. What I mean by that is that no matter how much planning you do before the shoot, inevitably something always changes come shoot day, whether its adding more people to the shot list, changing locations to a much smaller room because the large boardroom suddenly became unavailable, people running late, etc. Fortunately I’ve garnered enough experience in my years of shooting to know this is just part of the gig, and I’ve dealt with so many of these situations that it’s not even an issue anymore, just a quick problem solve then business as usual.

Whenever possible I always head to the location a few days before the shoot to scout out a few possible spots for what I need to make the photo I have in my head, especially when you are dealing with the heads of large companies who’s time is usually pretty tight windowed. Spending a 1/2 hour walking around the offices a few days prior to the shoot saved my ass when I showed up on the day and found out that they had decided to double my shot list for individual portraits, going from 6 people to 12. Knowing things like this happen I always schedule ‘buffer’ time to allow for additional photos, but doubling the amount of portraits I had planned for ate up any time I would have needed to scout a location and set up for the group shot. Pre-scouting for the win.

When scouting I had decided on the presidents office because of the large window and the fact that the sun wouldn’t be blasting through it given the time of day, the downside was that I was going to have to tear apart his office to make it happen, fortunately he was an awesome fella and just told me to do what I had to do. 15 minutes later my assistant Jeremy and I had everything moved and the lighting set, 10 minutes after that we had the final frame and the shoot wrapped.

Here is the final group shot:

This is how it laid out in the report:

And this is what it looked like from where they were sitting:

The two octa-boxes on the right were used to evenly light the group, with the PLM on the left with the diffusion panel acting as a fill to bring out the shadow detail on the left side of their faces so it wasn’t too contrasty. I then shot a separate frame of just the windows without the lighting to mask out the reflections in post.

Hopefully if you’re looking to get your feet wet in the corporate photography world this post will act as a little heads up for what you can expect. If you have questions, use the comments section. Thanks for reading.

Cheers

This is the natural light image. The entire scene is in the shade, so the lighting was nice and even, but I also find it to be rather boring. There is no punch to the image and no real direction. I find that my eyes travel all over the scene.

I added in a 46″ octabox, then set it to over power the ambient by one stop, and put 5 stops of neutral density on my lens to retain my shallow depth of field. The results give the whole scene a completely different feel, and really direct your eye to Alina’s face.

Here is a diagram of the lighting setup. It’s very basic lighting, but placement of the light was key in creating the shadow detail I was looking for. The octabox is placed nice and close, just barely out of the frame, and slightly behind Alina’s face (so facing into the left side of her face). This allows the light to feather across her face, and produce shadow detail on the right side of her face, creating shape. Had I placed the octabox on the opposite side, lighting the right side of her face, all of that shadow would disappear leaving the photo looking flat again.

I shot one more image using almost exactly the same lighting (one stop over ambient, placed slightly on the left side of Alina’s face, with 5 stops of ND on my lens), but this time slowing my shutter speed a little to produce a little more ambient fill.

Thanks for reading. If you have questions, sound off in the comments, and if you’re interested in doing your own One on One lighting workshop drop me a line using one of the contact buttons above or below this post. Cheers.

If you’re a street or travel photographer, you’ve likely already read every review out there (and there are about a million) so you already know how this camera operates in those circumstances. I’m not a street or travel photographer, I’m a portrait photographer that operates in controlled environments, but I’m also a father of two, which was the main driving force behind my decision to get this camera.

In 2011 I picked up the Fuji x100, and it fell short. The focus was slooooooow, and seeing as I had purchased it to take photos of my daughter (my son had not yet entered the world at that time) and she was entering into that “I just learned how to walk and I am going to tear ass all over the place” phase, I missed 8 out of 10 photos that I wanted to take. Needless to say I sold it to someone who didn’t have children.

With no other options, this tank ended up serving as my ‘walk around’ camera: The D800 w/ 35mm AF-S f/1.4G

Now don’t get me wrong, it is truly a beautiful tank, but a tank is a tank, and a tank strapped over your shoulder sucks when you are running around the park with the kidlets, or going for lunch, or going to the mall, or… well you get the point. As amazing as this body and lens are, they are not meant to be used in a casual every day fashion.

So, when the X-Pro1 was announced, it intrigued me, but people still complained about the slow focus, so I waited. I waited almost a year, until people finally started reporting that the firmware updates were vastly improving focus and that the camera was handling like a rather expensive camera should. When that happened, I decided to try Fuji again, and I have been in love with it since day one.

Now I’m not going to get into a pixel peeping, chart measuring, side by side sensor, blah blah blah type of review, they are out there if you’re bored enough to read them. I’m just going to post a few photos of my kids, doing what they do, to show me using the camera as I intended when I bought it. I won’t give you a whole yearbook, but here are some recent snaps:

I’m a photographer, and I have always felt that being a photographer meant that my kids deserve to have their childhoods captured on something more than an iPhone, and this camera is just as easy for me to grab and use. It’s small enough that carrying it isn’t cumbersome, it’s really well built, it feels good in my hands, and it’s always either with us when we are out, or sitting on a nearby shelf when we are home. It also doesn’t hurt that the camera itself is just plain sexy.

The one warning I will pose is that you shouldn’t buy this camera if you are expecting it to react like your DLSR, it won’t. It takes some time to get used to, the focus is still not as quick, and the auto focus reacts differently based on distance, but once you get a handle on it, it truly is a fun camera to shoot.

If you have any questions, sound off in the comments. Thanks for reading.

Photography and Concept: Nathan Elson Photography
Hair & Makeup: Sarah Byrne
Model: Jenn Mi

To view Sarah’s work, visit her site at: http://www.sarahbyrne.ca

It’s been a great year, and I truly thank each and every one of you for sharing in it with me. I’m not the kind of guy who makes New Year’s resolutions, but I have made a promise to myself that I will roll out a lot more of the portrait ideas that pop into my head. 2013 is going to be fun. Safe travels and a Happy New Year to all of you. See you next year!