Formal Portrait... quick and easy

Katy, first year in Secondary College

Recently I had a conversation with my good friend Paul, He has a son coming up for First Holy Communion and he wanted something a bit different than the standard shots of the day. So it started me thinking of how to do a quick and easy set up that I could replicate almost anywhere. And this is the shot I came up with; a derivation of my favourite two light set up. This is Katy and this is her first year at a new school. She has the obligatory school photos, but we decided to only opt for the big group shot. There was simply no character in the portrait shots.

Here is the set up shot; an SB800 in an Eazybox softbox to camera left and a gridded Vivitar 285 to camera right. I can't remember the exact settings, but they were about half power or so, I didn't particularly need a quick recycling time, so I could have gone lower, but I wanted a smaller aperture to ensure all of Katy was in focus. I shot at 1/200 and that ensured that the room ambient hardly registered.

Here you can see each light shot separately; first the softbox and then the Vivitar. That's it; quick and easy, and for my money a far more lasting formal portrait...

More formal portraits ...

The School Governor seems to be a particularly British institution. And long may it continue to be one. It is a way of giving something back to the school and through it to the greater community in the form of time and expertise. Completely voluntary, these people provide support and help to the Head Teacher and all the Teachers of our schools to grow and develop the school, which ultimately comes down to a better education for our children.

I was recently asked to take a set of portraits of the School Governors of St Joseph's RC School in Bracknell.

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D200, SB 800 in softbox camera left, Vivitar 285 gridspot to background

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I went into the hall where the meeting was to take place beforehand and set up the lights and took a few test shots. I tweaked the exposure until I got the look I wanted and then it was a matter of sitting all the Governors down in the strategically placed chair, (which was moved again and again) and taking the shot.

The camera was in manual mode, at 1/250th; I cannot remember what the f-stop was. The flash guns were on 1/4 and 1/2 power to give a faster recycling time, as I knew I would have to get the job done quickly.

I want to say thanks to Adele, John and Donald for allowing me to post their pictures and thanks to all the other Governors for having their photographs taken.