So what we had is probably what I would consider a "jam sesh" for photography. Like with music, jamming is getting a few people together and playing away with no specific songs in mind to practice. Sometimes you can jam with a camera and some lights as well. Just try different set-ups with no initial idea in mind, and see where the wind leads you. Eric was on board, and had brought his favorite outfit to give us a starting point (which he could not fit in a few months prior).
[[Side note: I do NOT recommend this as a general approach to professional sets. While spontaneity is a huge blessing for any job, most clients will want to have a specific shot or theme laid out and obtained before you tramp off down the whimsy trail. Know when to stick to the script and when to improvise. Okay, back to your regularly scheduled programming.]]
Let's start by discussing the process that led to this shot:
At the time, my basement was currently being renovated, so my studio space was out of commission for the night. Now, my wife is a wonderful interior designer, so our floor level makes a wonderful set anyways, but it was also around Christmas time, so the other open space reserved for my portraits had a massive, but gorgeous, Christmas tree taking up a large amount of the room.
It may have been a jam session, but Eric didn't seem too keen on a Yuletide theme. Oh well, we'd just have to shoot around it.
As we played around with the set and lighting, chatting about the mood we wanted to instill into the pictures, it was decided that we would start by incorporating hardcover novels as props. A writer reading a book, right? It seemed like a natural idea.
A little cliche' as well, if we're honest, but it's a good starting place, and ideas tend to stay locked in my head until the shutter actually starts snapping away. So I got him a low ball glass of bourbon, gave him a thick collection of tales by Jules Verne, set him in a big, comfy leather chair and...hated it. It caused Eric to feel closed off, absorbed in a novel on his lap rather than engaging with the viewer. Instead of seeing a facet of his personality, we just see a smart-dressed dude who likes to read and drink. Wooo.
But you know how I said that sometimes you just have to get started and see where it goes? This disappointing turnout forced my brain to evaluate Eric's personality, and how I could express that on a deeper level than "writer=books." He's an avid reader, sure, but he is also extremely charismatic, and ludicrously confident at times. When these qualities combined in my head, I immediately envisioned a storyteller, sitting at the apex of a circle and spinning tales that captivate the people surrounding him.
I took the book away from him and instructed him to relax into the chair. I also switched to my 50mm lens and got close, sitting on the ground before him. This gives him an air of authority as he looks down at the camera from a higher vantage point, and it also works with the context of the shot by evoking the feeling of a child, sitting on the ground and being told a fable by an adult (at least, that's what I was going for).
At first I only had one light fixed on him, a 22x36" softbox that's raised about 6 feet and pointed down towards him at a 45-degree angle just a few feet from camera-left. This kept the light from reflecting in the glass in his hand and also worked to smooth out the shadows on his face, but I felt that it made the shot a bit too bright and even. Eric's stories are weighty, his prose exploding with themes of betrayal and sacrifice. I wanted his portrait to compliment that, so I grabbed a second light and shot it through a snoot (think of it like a barrel that directs the light to a targeted area rather than letting it just go everywhere).
This didn't have much of an effect on his skin, since that was already fairly evenly lit from the softbox, but it did cause more detailed shadows in his clothes, and (what I was hoping for in the first place) cast his shadow hard against the curtains and chair behind him. Now it looks more dramatic, with his confident smile assuring us that we're about to hear a tale for the ages.
That should do it for today. I'll share a couple more shots from the set before I go. Thanks for reading! A big thanks to Eric Moore for being a guinea pig for my creative impulses. Again, please visit his writing blog, Mythmaker's Forge, and give his stories a read. I promise you won't be disappointed.
-Bryce
Nice
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