February 2024 Newsletter

 

 

Happy already second month of 2024!

This is issue #9 of my super infrequent newsletter.  I don't always post them on my blog, so if you don't want to miss out please click on this link to sign up. You'll hear from me approximately quarterly.

One of the reasons I don't always post my newsletters is that I often summarize and point to blog posts in them, so if you are already here on my blog, then, well, you are already here! But in an effort to make my latest one available to those who missed it, here goes, and please forgive the overlap and links to 'elsewheres'.  

 

Make-up for profile portraits: Make-up artist or AI

This whole post is on the sister blog to this one: click here.

 

Photographing dogs who help humans, again!

The CAMH Therapy Dog Calendar 2024

 

Summer

 

I had the great pleasure again, in 2023, of working with CAMH's therapy dog program on their annual calendar project.

Each year we change up the theme, the look of the images, and the look of the calendar overall. This time we decided to go with a fine art black and white environmental portrait treatment. And for the first time we included bits of their people in some of the shots. Nobody wanted to take the focus off the dogs by including their humans in any major way, but I think including hints of their presences did speak to the relationships these special 'volunteer' dogs have with people.

I've noted before that we finally established once and for all that we needed to shoot inside for control. All we needed this time was a 'room with a view', a few props in the way of dog beds and blankets, a Swiffer to keep the fur at bay, and an assistant who was quick on her feet so she could move the light around as the dogs moved. Fun!

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity once again to collaborate, get creative, and meet these lovely dogs at CAMH. It's like a whole day of pet therapy.

I've included a couple of my favourites shots on my website.

I'd also like to acknowledge the The Copy Connection for their fantastic print and graphic design services. They go out of their way every year to really make this calendar beautiful.

Employer Brand Photo Shoot

 

One of the images we shot, currently on the client's website

In the fall we got the chance to do a day of "employer brand" photos for the company that makes e-transfers possible in Canada. I love doing shoots like this. They are challenging and creative, we invariably have a lot to get done on a tight schedule, and I get to do my favourite thing...work with models who aren't models. They are what we call in the biz "real people", in this case really, real people because they are actual staff. Sometimes people who are fantastic at their actual jobs are not fantastically excited about being in photos. So it is beyond gratifying when we get to collaborate in a way that, possibly to their surprise, ends up being fun for them, and also results in great, authentic photos.

The keys to this shoot were planning, pre-visualizing and quick-to-set-up lighting. A pre-shoot location scout is highly recommended (we did one for this shoot). We have done this kind of shoot on the fly, in the past, when location scouting prior to the shoot date(s) wasn't possible, but I will always scout if I can. So I recommend planning for that.

I've shared a few of my favourites on my website.

 

 

Corporate Portraits

Whenever I get the chance I add to my business portrait background archive. Here are a few new ones I love, on my website.

 

 

Another author portrait and a small world moment

Some readers may know that I have done a bit of on camera work from time to time over the years. In January 2023 I started taking improv classes (again...I did Levels 1 and 2 for the first time maybe 20 years ago) at Second City. Unrelated to this I was contacted in early spring by improv expert, facilitator and author Tracy Shea-Porter who needed a new profile portrait for her soon-to-be-published book The "Yes, And" Business Evolution, Improv Skills for Leadership and Life. I believe she found me via Google.

As it happened, thanks to my courses at Second City I had become aware of another Toronto comedy venue called SoCap where one of my Second City Teachers performs regularly. SoCap's proprietor is a hilarious and talented improviser named Ralph McLeod. Ralph McLeod happens to be Tracy Shea-Porter's business partner in their company Yes Unlimited. Ralph is in the book. And that Level 2 teacher, actor and improviser Kerry Griffin from Second City who performs with Ralph at SoCap in an improv troupe named the Coincidence Men is in the book, too.

What a coincidence!

You might be thinking that Toronto's comedy and/or improv scene must just be very small. I don't know if it is or isn't. I do know that there are many, many comedy shows across town I see advertised featuring people I've never seen, so it doesn't seem super small. Tracy Shea-Porter and SoCap are east enders, as am I, so I guess that helps to explain how I have become involved with this particular circle of people. But it feels like a "small world!" kinda thing.

Great story, eh? Ha-ha (this is why I am not a comedian, or a writer)!

As for the book, I raced through it and, biased as I might be accused of being, I thought it was very well written, very easy to read, intelligent, full of good information and inspiring. Highly recommend.

Comedy is such a great anti-depressant. Whether you need that or not, check out the shows! Maybe take a class! Laugh!

And if you or someone you know needs an author portrait get in touch. 

 

 

Improv expert and author Tracy-Shea Porter and her new book.

 

Another cool couple of projects

One of the things I am most grateful for in my line of work is the opportunities afforded me to meet fascinating people and be exposed to businesses and organizations I might otherwise not be.

In 2023 I was fortunate to get to photograph some of the inspiring scientists and engineers competing in the Weston Family Foundation's Homegrown Innovation Challenge, the goal of which is for participants to develop the technology to sustainably grow berries in Canada. On their website you'll see a mix of photos from photographers across the country. I got to visit and photograph teams at OTU, Guelph, and TMU.

Another inspiring organization I had the chance to work with is Tim Horton's Foundation Camps. The foundation runs camps across Canada for underserved youth. I am just one of a number of contributing photographers hired (in my case, in St. George, Ontario) to capture stock shots for mostly internal communications (so you won't see any of my photos on their website). It's a great cause, and project, the camp is beautiful, and I'm grateful to be involved.

 

My little 2024 desk calendar

"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was within me an invincible summer."

Albert Camus

As I explain on page 1 of my calendar, I created these images before I found Albert Camus' apparently oft-cited quotation. But as soon as I read it I felt he summed up perfectly in words what I was portraying visually. As someone who may occasionally lean a little "glass half empty" I realized that I, like Albert Camus, also have within me an invincible summer.

As some readers will know first hand, every year for the past bunch of years I have produced a mini desk calendar. The project requires a set of six images that will read well at less than 4 inches across, and gives me the impetus to put on my artist hat and shoot something other than people (usually).

Once I conceived my plan for this year's set I started, during the winter months, carrying with me everywhere a small set of blank "photos" of various sizes around two inches square. Whenever I found a suitably bleak environment I placed one of my little "photos" in it, and took a picture. Then when flowers were once again blossoming in the spring and summer I took a variety of pictures of them. The final step was to decide which flower photos to combine with which backgrounds and composite them together.

If you are interested you can see a few of my favourites on my website.

And if you've read this far and haven't received one already I'd like to offer to send a free calendar to the first few readers who contact me and request one.

My calendars wouldn't exist without designers Martin Finesilver of Finesilver Design and Mark Smith of Rhyme Design. Thank-you so much Martin and Mark!

I also want to add one more shout-out to Nora at the Copy Connection (link above). It was huge challenge finding a digital printer that could successfully trim my tiny pages as precisely as they needed to be trimmed. But they do it at The Copy Connection, consistently! I cannot say enough about this shop.

Yay Us! Testimonials

 

From one very happy profile portrait client in 2023:

"You did a great job retouching the photo so that I still look experienced, but more smoothly so 🙂.

 

I see why you have pivoted away from the [other] background and I really like where you have gone with version []. Let's use that background. It is energetic and soft...There is also enough contrast to make the background interesting without drawing undue attention away from the face. It's a great choice. Thank you for persevering until you found/created it. 

 

I value how diligently you've worked to get this right for me. Thank you for your care."

Funny story...Many years ago when a marketer friend asked me what set me apart from my competition I said that "I care" to which they responded something along the lines of "Nobody cares [about that]". In fairness I think he was talking about commercial/advertising clients where that would go without saying. In corporate photography land I think maybe caring a lot about individual clients is not necessarily a given. So my clients do care that I care. It's why my clients come back again and again, and why my business continues to grow based almost entirely on word of mouth referrals. Thank-you, as always, for those!

Final thought



As always, I'm here to help you plan and problem solve your next photo shoot, whether it’s where to shoot, what your options are, what to wear, etc. I look forward to seeing old clients again as the world gets back into gear, and to meeting new ones! Let me know how I can help, or reach out and I'll let you know how I can help!

Thanks so much for reading. And thank-you to all my clients for enriching my life.

Sincerely,

Kathryn Hollinrake

Hollinrake Photography

corporateportraits.ca

Connect with me on LinkedIn

 

 

 

 

Spring 2023 Newsletter

Hey everyone! Happy little-bit-closer-to-patio-season! It has been great seeing people in person again, at photo shoots, of course, but also at various functions, networking events, entertainment events, improv (what?) classes, etc.

 
BTW, as I look at my profile portrait at the top of this newsletter I am reminded of the importance of keeping these up to date. Might be time for me to do a new one. You’ll see what I look like now below in my book cover project.

For those not on my e-mail list here is a copy of my January 2023 newsletter. Please e-mail me if you'd like to receive my (approximately) quarterly newsletter in your InBox.

 

First: CORPORATEPORTRAITS.CA a wee bit of a marketing fail

A little while ago I attended a networking thing where we shared “epic fails” in our businesses and what we learned etc.

I didn’t think of this at the time but I think it would count!

So here’s a funny, extremely short story which I’ll start off with a question. Who do you think owns the domain name corporateportraits.ca? I do! Do you know how long I’ve owned it? Years. I have owned “corporateportraits.ca” for literally years. And how many people have I told? Well, whoever is reading this right now, you are whom I have told (plus, very recently, my network on LinkedIn).

Yes, quite a while back I thought it would be a good idea to have an easy to remember website address that spoke to what I do (a lot of) and wasn’t my name, in case people didn’t know it, or forgot. And then I paid for it year after year waiting for I’m not sure what. I think I thought it may sound too limited in scope, but I hung onto it. Luckily, I am a way better photographer than marketer. In fact you could take this as a reassuring indication of how focused I am on what I actually do (ie. corporate and portrait photography). Anyway, I’m telling you now.

Thank-you to everyone who does remember my name. For everyone else when you need corporate photography just try to remember CORPORATEPORTRAITS.CA!

 

Another Toronto/Vancouver Annual Report Challenge

 

For a recent annual report project we had a number of creative and logistical problems to solve in support of creating an elegant, cohesive document. 

The challenge:

1.    Photograph featured staff on gray seamless, and add Vancouver individuals into the Toronto group shots so they look as if they were photographed together.

2.    Photograph a second set of featured individuals in a way that shows them on site in busy, populated areas to illustrate a theme of being “back together” in a style that would tie together the Vancouver shots with the Toronto shots, and visually tie all of them together with the formal portraits on gray.

In order to facilitate challenge 1 we simply had to make sure the subjects in Vancouver were photographed as if they were photographed here in Toronto. So, we shot the larger groups in Toronto first, then sent instructions and sample photos to Vancouver so our photographer there could position their subjects accordingly and match the lighting as well as possible, paying attention to the need to capture the shadows on the floor as well. RAW files were sent to Toronto for processing and retouching to match the Toronto files, and were then inserted into their appropriate groups.

Left: One subject in Vancouver shot standing camera left. Right: Three of the four, in Toronto.

 

The final shot of this particular group

For the student shots, the solution was to have each student stand in front of a small gray seamless background. Logistically this presented a number of challenges. Right off the bat we decided from tests that the standard size small seamless looked too wide, so we had to cut down a 36 foot roll of paper (one in Toronto and one in Vancouver). Perry used a saw. I used an xacto knife. Perry’s method was faster!

 

Although we used the same seamlesses for every shot, we knew the gray background would look different in every photo because the colour temperature of light, in this case the combined flash and ambient light (which would inevitably be different in every shot), affects neutral gray much more noticeably than it does strong colours.

 

Left: before and after post-production. Right: the background file (from the staff shots) which was composited into the backgrounds in the student shots.

 

We also knew the seamless backdrops would not hang neatly (ie; wrinkle free) the way we decided to hang them to match their appearance from one shot to the next, but that was OK because it was the plan all along to digitally replace the main section of each background with a shot of the background taken earlier during the formal portraits to create consistency between both sets of shots.

 

 

In order to look consistent (other than seamless colour) we made sure ahead of time that the background stands in Vancouver and Toronto would match, (ie. same brand, style and colour) and we measured the Toronto set-up meticulously so it could be reproduced for subsequent shots here and in Vancouver. Having to fit this set-up into the locations made finding suitable spots to shoot a big challenge. Shout out to Perry Danforth for overcoming great obstacles to find five workable spots!

 

 

Another big obstacle was timing. For a number of the shots we had to shoot at times when the availability of background people was extremely limited. As a result, once again we had to shoot with post-production in mind, photographing the featured subject and background people separately to combine them later. It sounds like a simple thing to do but it required careful execution and the use of a sturdy tripod and focus locking to ensure elements aligned properly in the final images.

 

In one case we couldn’t even capture the subject and background people on the same day. When we returned we had to re-set-up the gray seamless and the lighting, and had the added stress of having to clean the floor constantly as students tracked in wet footprints from a snow fall. More retouching for me as it was impossible to keep on top of that. 

 

Left: The original shot from which we used only the person (in this case). Right: The final shot combining three separately shot elements -- the person, the background in situ, and the gray background (from the staff shots) shown earlier in this article.

This short description makes this project sound less complicated than it was but I don’t to bore you with the minutia! The point is that we had a difficult set of problems to solve in order to create a cohesive and high quality set of images under challenging circumstances and we did!

 

I love a challenge, and love having the opportunity to collaborate with creative clients who have high expectations! If you’d like to see the whole AR e-mail me and I’ll send you a link. And if you need a super experienced branding and design firm for your organization I’d be happy to connect you.

 

And of course if your organization needs help with photography please reach out.

 

 

IABC PIC The Buzz September 2022. The Weeks Effect: PIC members find inspiration for growing their businesses

 

The first tip I posted. (The 30+tips were posted in random order.)

Many readers will know that I spent a chunk of 2022 creating a series of tips on how to prepare for and get the most out of your next professional portrait session which I posted on LinkedIn and on my blog.



The inspiration for this exercise came from media trainer Warren Weeks as explained in this article by Brent Artemchuk:

https://express.adobe.com/page/PjvjWlY1AnHCM/

 

Once I completed the series I compiled them into an ebook which is free and downloadable here:   https://hollinrake.com/pdfs   Business Portrait Tips by Kathryn Hollinrake 2^nd Ed.

 

The guidelines in this series were gleaned from many years of encountering issues people had with being photographed, and issues I had to deal with as a result of clients just not knowing “best practices” for portrait subjects, and why would they? It’s my job to know this stuff and I’m excited to be able to pass it on to future subjects so readers’ experiences being photographed and the outcomes of those experiences will be the best they can be.

 

 

IABC PIC Personality January 2023

In another minute of publicity I was also featured as the PIC (Professional Independent Communicators) Personality in the January 2023 issue of their newsletter The Buzz:

 

https://express.adobe.com/page/SYlf8VFV0pE9F/

 

I’m sure most people reading my newsletter know the IABC and some are already members. I joined this great and very active organization in 2022. I should have joined years ago. In June 2023 Toronto is hosting the IABC World Conference at the Sheraton: https://wc.iabc.com/  I’ll be there in the Headshot* Lounge. Come and see me!

 

*Anyone who knows me knows I avoid the word “headshot” like the plague (for reasons I won’t get into here), but in this situation, I will actually be shooting very quick headshots.

 

 

Kathryn's Fake Book Cover Project

 

 

I have spent a lot of time over the past few years focusing on messaging to

corporate clients, in 2022 dressing up as a “business woman” for my

series of portrait Tips referenced above.

Recently, in a bit of a twist I re-imagined myself as a bunch of imaginary authors,

to illustrate some of the (sometimes) more creative ways an author may want to show

up on a book cover or jacket flap. These were all shot in my studio. I have been posting one a week on LinkedIn with the tagline “In between photographing actual authors…”

 

To see all eight covers and a few notes on them please click here:

 

https://hollinrake.com/portfolios/fake-book-covers

 

These were so fun to do. One friend and client commented that I am “such a chameleon” but the point I’d make is that art direction, lighting, posing, Photoshop etc. can make anyone look very different from one shot to another. That’s what we professional photographers do!

 

So if you are an author or know an author, or anyone else who wants a more creative portrait I’m here, ready to collaborate!

 

Yay Us! Testimonials 

 

A couple of testimonials received in recent months:

"I absolutely love the pictures! You did a superb job considering what you had to work with. I look wonderful, if I may say so myself."

"...our client raved about her experience with you as well! She said you are a true artist who loves what you do."

And this just in:

"Kathryn is a total professional, and produced the best business portrait of my career. Her attention to detail and care and ensuring that I was happy with the result were shining factors. Kathryn helped me select the right outfit that would photograph well, made sure my hair and make-up were correct, and all the while cheerfully explained every move we were making to get that perfect shot. The final photo has depth, and conveyed my personality beautifully. The feedback I've received has been overwhelmingly positive. Highly recommend."

Tracy Shea-Porter, CEO and Co-Founder, Yes Unlimited

Final thought



As always, I'm here to help you plan and problem solve your next photo shoot, whether it’s where to shoot, what your options are, what to wear, etc. I look forward to seeing old clients again as we all navigate the new normal-for-now, and to meeting new ones! Let me know how I can help, or reach out and I'll let you know how I can help!

Thanks so much for reading! 

 

kathryn@hollinrake.com

hollinrake.com

January 2023 Newsletter

For those not on my e-mail list here is a copy of my January 2023 newsletter. Please e-mail me if you'd like to receive my (approximately) quarterly newsletter in your InBox. 

 

Happy New Year! Who is as excited as I am to have left 2022 behind?!

As we all know it is coming up on three years since everything slammed to a halt. While I have already had the pleasure of reconnecting with some people in person, others I look forward to seeing for the first time in a while, in 2023, now that business is back to sort of normal…

 

...Although, for many people the issue of where they'll be working -- in office or at home or both -- is still in flux. This continues to make in-office photo shoots more of a challenge to organize, although I'm thinking in some cases it may make reserving those busy, often previously booked up boardrooms a little easier. Here's hoping!

 

If you work in an office I am curious to know your circumstances and would love to hear from you.

Photographing dogs who help humans: the CAMH Therapy Dog Calendar

Above: Gracie

Our set

In the summer I was thrilled to get the chance to work once again with CAMH's therapy dog program on their annual calendar project. The calendars sold out quickly so hopefully next year's print run will be even bigger, raising more funds for a great cause and bringing more awareness to a fantastic program.   Before working with CAMH I had worked on many a dog photo shoot, but this job had its own particular challenges. By this stage, our fourth go around, we had established once and for all that we needed to shoot inside. This way we wouldn't be worrying about weather, or construction, or squirrels, or any other distractions. However, this year, we definitely wanted the dogs to look as if there were outside (as we did two years ago). So once again I donated a bit of extra time make this happen. Knowing from experience that it can be easier to have a dog stand on a platform to limit their wandering (as long as they are willing to get on it!) we first built a portable barn board table with folding legs. Once I did a preliminary scout for suitable locations I then returned with the table which I dragged around on a wheelie cart to photograph in situ. I didn't actually need the shots of the table; I needed the background behind and around it from a camera angle that would make sense when compositing in the shots of the dogs on the table. Preparing this way made the compositing much easier than it might have been. Yes, people looked at me weirdly. And hilarously, one little park denizen hopped up to eat its breakfast while I was shooting. It loved my table.

 

 

My little photo assistant/model

 

The shots worked out so well I added several of my favourites to my portfolio here: https://hollinrake.com/portfolios/dogs.

 

 

I still love authors!

Dahlia Lithwick's new book Lady Justice available everywhere!

In my previous newsletter I mentioned photographing this particular author prior to her book coming out in the fall. Now that it's out and I've got a copy I have the never-gets-old satisfaction of seeing my work in print while also getting to read a fascinating, informative and inspiring book I may never have known of (by someone I now know personally) had I not been given the opportunity to photograph her. (And holy cow what a nice inscription I found inside the jacket!) I can tell you now I've finished reading it...highly recommend.

As many readers will know I have photographed a number of authors over the years some of whose portraits you can see here.

I am just going to throw this out there: I used to be hired directly by publishers but these days more often than not authors are tasked with finding their own photographers, so if you know any authors or you are one, I'd love to help!

 

30+ Tips on how to prepare for and get the most out of your next professional portrait session

Back in the spring of 2022 I started posting on LinkedIn a weekly series of tips on how to prepare for and get the most out of your next professional portrait session. Over many years of portrait shoots I have seen so many things that compromise both the experience and the product, and that I figured might be easy to fix if people only knew. If you follow me on LinkedIn you may have seen them. I posted the (almost) final one of the series in December.  In case you missed them I plan to share some of my favourites in my newsletter going forward.

 

Update: I have now compiled the whole set of tips into an ebook downloadable here.

Today I am going to share the final ones, Tips #34 and #33 in reverse order, because these are really good ones to start with if you are responsible for organizing a shoot for yourself or for people you support.

Rough example of an ideal space to shoot

Tip #34 How much space do you need for a portrait shoot? Are you ever unsure about what kind of space a photographer needs to do a business portrait shoot? Here is a link to my recommendation (scroll all the way to the bottom of this very long post): http://khollinrakemakemepretty.blogspot.com/2022/04/30-tips-to-help-you-prepare-for-your.html

 

Tip #33 Pick up the phone.

Another important element is communication.

I know that many people responsible for planning (corporate) portrait photo shoots for others or for themselves have a lot on their plates, one small morsel of which may involve, on occasion, hiring a photographer. So I understand the desire for the process from the first outreach to receipt of final files to be simple, quick and painless. I also get that there can be a need for several reasons, to make sure everything is in writing and everyone on the communications team (if there is one) is in the loop and on the same page. This is easily accomplished by copying everyone on the e-mail that is sent after the initial conversation between the main point of contact and the photographer. 

 

What is there to discuss? Once again I'll direct the reader to my blog post to read my thoughts. Please see the link above, and again, scroll almost all the way to the bottom.

And very briefly, a shout out to the PIC (Professional Independent Communicators) special interest group of IABC Toronto (International Association of Business Communicators), of which I am a member, for mentioning my Tips series in the September issue of their monthly online magazine The Buzz . Thank-you PIC! Check it out!

 

 

One more calendar and a little bit of art

Every year for the past bunch of years I have produced a mini desk calendar with the help of my friends Martin Finesilver of Finesilver Design and Mark Smith (formerly of Finesilver) principal at Rhyme Design. It gives me an excuse once a year to play around and make some mini art with a small 'a'. I say mini, because anyone who gets my calendar knows it's a wee little thing measuring less than four inches per side. So the challenge is always to produce a set of six images that read well at this very small scale. This year's theme was wabi-sabi, which has been interpreted and explained in different ways by different people but which for me reflected the idea of the beauty in decay. Using specialized fibre optic macro lighting with macro focus enhancing and extending software I was able to capture sharply focused, precisely and dramatically lit images of small pieces of flora and foliage in a way that portrayed their decomposition as art. Don't ask me why I didn't do this before we went to print, maybe because the printed pictures were going to be so small, but later, I decided to add a subtle, distressed antique texture (from my archive) to some of them, which only enhanced their wabi-sabi-ness. These I uploaded to my website/portfolio at https://hollinrake.com/portfolios/still-lifes. Special Offer: To the first few readers who contact me, if you don't already have one I have a few remaining calendars so please let me know if you'd like one. I will send you one free of charge.

 

Yay Us! Testimonials

 

From another happy client as I wrapped up 2022:

"Thank-you for your amazing work...!"

And I don't recall who said these but in a binder I found a scrap of paper with notes I'd made so I wouldn't forget what people said after one particular shoot, so I thought I'd share:

"That was fun."

"That was painless."

"I have never looked so good."

"Can you follow me around every day and make me feel this good?"

"This is the best picture of me I have ever seen."

Final thought



As always, I'm here to help you plan and problem solve your next photo shoot, whether it’s where to shoot, what your options are, what to wear, etc. I look forward to seeing old clients again as the world gets back into gear, and to meeting new ones! Let me know how I can help, or reach out and I'll let you know how I can help!

Thanks so much for reading!

 

hollinrake.com

kathryn@hollinrake.com

Pandemic Lockdown Portrait Shoot

 Sub-title: Shooting against a green screen in a back yard in the middle of winter

Malene's final selected file, comp'ed into an outdoor background (photographer's version)

  

January 2021. It has been a mighty tough time for so many people and not great for photographers of people. As I write this we are in a lockdown that for the most part precludes shooting, for obvious reasons. However, recently an old friend and colleague called to ask if there might be a way to do a headshot as her new career launch schedule had just accelerated somewhat unexpectedly and she had to have a professional portrait pretty quickly. She said that she wanted an outdoors shot which would fit well with her 'personal brand' (my words), and would allow us to shoot at a time when visits to indoor locations for any unessential purpose are forbidden/discouraged/not cool. So we chose her back yard as our studio.

I can tell you that as a photographer who has frequently pushed back at the idea of shooting outside unless there is a really good reason to do so due to the many and varied potential drawbacks, but who was also dying to be shooting again, I leaped at the opportunity to make it happen with the caveat that there would be a few necessary compromises that we'd need to discuss and understand ahead of time. Things like my not being able to bring an assistant which meant my lighting would be a pared down version of what I'd normally do. And it would be cold, which would make it tough for her to look relaxed and happy. And I probably wouldn't be able to style her properly. So we set out secure in the knowledge that we might not actually succeed.

Before I go on I want to note that the image above is the one I optimized to a level that I felt satisfied with. Malene felt very strongly that her likeness should not be enhanced in any way as in her profession as a psychotherapist authenticity is crucial. So for her version I had to stop short of what I'd normally do.

Here's the above portrait right out of the camera:

The sun kept going in and out meaning that the contrast ramped up, ie. the shadows got darker than I wanted every time the sun went behind the clouds.

And here's the version Malene approved for her purposes:

 

The version Malene approved is less retouched than my final version.

 

So how did we do this? The first thing we did was choose a date based on both the weather forecast and her availability. Of course the day before the shoot date the weather forecast changed and the pre-shoot day swapped weather with the shoot day...so we had sun on the pre-shoot day and clouds with snow in the forecast for the shoot day. Excellent! But we didn't want to postpone because temperatures were slated to drop by the following week, so we went ahead. Believe it or not I actually brought a fan, because Malene has fine hair which is longer than usual due to salons being closed and I knew a bit of a breeze in her hair would give it some volume and life. As it happened there was an actual wind so we didn't need to create one. Thankfully, periodically, it came from the right direction!  In between it did things like this:

Obviously the goal was to shoot when the wind caught her hair perfectly, just enough to give it a little volume and life (not like this).

We knew we weren't gong to use stands for the green background as we needed to keep gear to a minimum and didn't want unmanned stands holding up what would effectively be a sail in the wind, so we tacked the green screen to the one fence that faced away from the ever-changing light (sun going in and out) and was tall enough to fill the frame behind a standing subject. Thanks to 36Pix's brilliant green screen knockout software the fact that the screen was not lit perfectly or stretched perfectly didn't really matter.

How uninspired does this scene look?! The hero shot at the top was taken when it was overcast like this.

As I mentioned above one of the most important things when doing portraits is to make the subject comfortable. A profile portrait shoot is not like a fashion shoot where models get paid a bunch of money have to suck it up and look warm in summer wear during between season shoots. There was no way Malene was going to be comfortable wearing a t-shirt outside in just above zero degree weather, but she was willing to power through it. And I knew I was going to have to retouch out some nose and eye redness. When the sun did come out spasmodically, the slight increase in warmth was hugely welcome, for Malene anyway. And aesthetically it was nice, throwing lovely backlit highlights onto her hair.

 

An alternate version, not retouched at Malene's request, with different hair, sunny highlights and a different background.

Other compromises included using a far smaller light modifier than I normally would, and using only one light, resulting in harsher shadows on Malene's face which I had to mitigate during retouching. I am a big believer in getting the exposure as close to perfect as possible in camera rather than having to "fix it in post", but this time I had to work with what I got. And I knew I captured enough to ultimately get what we wanted.

It's an important step to be able to review captures with the client prior to wrapping, if at all possible, so as to ensure that we've really captured the magic (ie. shots the client loves). (If we haven't we shoot more.) But during Covid we have to do this at a distance, so I attached an external monitor to my laptop and she took that inside with the door cracked open so we could hear each other speak while I stayed outside. 

Left: Moving my laptop closer to the house. Right: Setting up an external monitor for Malene to take inside to review the images. Photo credit: Malene Johansen

Do I recommend shooting business portraits outside in winter, or ever? Well, let me summarize why we may question shooting outside:

• Can't control the weather 
• so shoot dates may have to change last minute
  
• may have to deal with changing light (eg. as sun moves), or not ideal light
  
• may have limited control in terms of the direction of available light/sunlight relative to background and subject ie. the best available, most appealing background may not line up with the best light for the subject
  
• lighting may be compromised unless extra crew is hired to man lights and appropriate modifier(s)
• subject may be cold or hot (ie. not comfortable or relaxed)
  
• may not be able to keep hair styled, or make-up perfect

Unless a specific outdoor location is significant or meaningful to the portrait or the subject will be interacting with it...for example sitting on outdoor furniture or leaning on a tree, one might ask what the benefits would be to introducing al these variables into the equation when you can shoot indoors on green screen and put in one of the many backgrounds your photographer has collected in her "outdoor portrait backgrounds" archive. ;)

That said, it can be done! In October 2020 in between lockdowns when it made slightly more sense, and I do mean slightly more, to be outside, we did a huge multi-day people shoot outside on green screens, and in that case there was no "maybe"; the shots had to be great. I'll write about it in an upcoming blog.)

Hopefully soon the world will open back up, and I look forward to working in close proximity to people again then! In the meantime if I may be of any assistance please do not hesitate to reach out. Thanks for reading!

kathryn@hollinrake.com

hollinrake.com