small business headshots Vancouver dentist

These small business headshots were photographed on location at a Vancouver dentist office. Upon arrival, the challenge before me was finding a location within the office that had enough depth and width for the equipment and to serve as a suitable background. The best location turned out to be their reception area, which had just enough space for all the lighting equipment needed to create modern branded business portraits.

Choosing a good time of day turned out to be an important factor in planning for these small business headshots for a Vancouver dentist. Dental offices can be very busy depending on the time of day. Had it been a busy morning, it would’ve been nearly impossible to photograph these headshots in the reception area.

Once the Elinchrom lighting and camera were set up for the look I wanted to produce, the rest was fairly straight forward. Each person was coached on how to pose and on their facial expressions. Then we went through the different angles and various poses I do for most corporate photo sessions. This helps most people feel at ease and increases the number of good shots we get from the headshot session – most business people I work with want their headshots done as quickly as possible, but still want their best looks possible

The final headshot photos turned out great even with the small amount of space I had available for lighting the photo shoot. These are going to look great on their website, for social media, and other print marketing materials!

If you would like to learn more about planning for your small business headshot session or promotional video or video blog, contact us today for further details and quote.

A few sample photos from a corporate headshots session I did for a group of managers and executives from a property management firm in Vancouver. Photos were taken on location at their office. The setup was in a tight space, but the portable lighting system I often use on shoots fit perfectly. These corporate headshots are being used as profile photos for the managers, but are large enough to be used in print marketing as well.

Corporate headshots for property managers and executives

Insurance business headshot portraits

 

These business headshot portraits were done for a local insurance company on-location. I often do on location headshots at my client’s office, and these were done in the hallway with my usual portrait lighting setup for travel. Usual set-up times are about 20-30 minutes for most locations, and each session can vary from 5 minutes to 20 minutes per person. There a mix of Westcott, Lastolite, Elinchrom, and even California Sunbounce in these photos.

 

Vancouver outdoor headshots (1)

Vancouver outdoor headshots (2)

Here are a couple of professional headshots I did recently in Vancouver. The organization that contacted me wanted to have photos done for an upcoming conference and for the web, but I only had about 4 days to get the shots done and ready to go. We decided on an outdoor location in the courtyard right downstairs from their offices. There are a couple of cafe’s there and lots of people, which made finding a clear background a little tricky. Moreover, there was a strong breeze that day coming in from the harbour, and the narrow courtyard funnelled the breeze through like a wind tunnel. Fortunately for me, there was one corner of the courtyard where things were a little calmer, so that’s where I set up for the shots.

For these headshots, I used one Elinchrom Quadra RX light inside a Westcott Apollo Orb softbox. I had originally planned to use a two-light setup, but I found one wall with some reflected sunlight that added depth and texture to the shot, so a second light wasn’t necessary. I tried to match the output of my Elinchrom Quadra head to make sure the natural light reflecting off the brick wall behind the subject was at the proper levels (i.e. not too over or under exposed) and used a Singh-Ray 77mm Vari-ND filter to allow me to open up the camera’s aperture, thereby throwing the brick slightly out of focus – which helped to give dimensionality to the overall image.

Windy locations are never a good place for headshots, so this session took a lot longer than expected. One of the subjects kept blinking in sync with the flash, thereby making it very difficult to get a good shot with eyes open. The wind also made it uncomfortable for the subject to keep eyes open, not to mention hair blowing all over the place. I eventually got the shot I wanted above, which were edited in Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop CS5, and cropped.

Headshot Photographers, here’s how you travel light!

 

Last year, we decided to close up our bricks and mortar photography studio in New Westminster and go completely mobile. We discovered through working with our clients that they often prefer to have a professional photographer visit their office to do head shots. In many cases, it means more business for you as a photographer because they will often book you to photograph a longer list of people.

After doing this a few times with my studio gear, I really started to hate lugging around all that extra gear that is actually meant for a studio and not mobile use in rainy Vancouver. I’d had my share of lugging around heavy lighting stand bags and cases for my monolights, not to mention my camera bag, which was always on the heavier side.

So recently, I said goodbye to my studio equipment and started to build a kit for mobile use. Here’s what I came up with base on extensive research and months of actual in-field use: “The Ultimate Vancouver Headshot Photographer‘s Mobile Toolkit”.

This list is ordered by the level of highest benefit for mobile on-location portrait work. Items near the top are things I can’t live without and things at the bottom are nice-to-haves, but not as critical.

1. Lowepro Pro Runner x350 AW Rolling Camera Backpack

 

Lowe Pro x350 aw rollerThis is bag I really can’t live without. It’s a smaller roller bag, but it carries just about everything I need for a headshot session on location. It won’t carry all my lighting gear, just my Canon flashes (aka. speedlights), but it will take 2 bodies and all the lenses I need. I chose this bag because it can be easily converted to a backpack in case both my hands are busy with other gear. On a recent business trip to Calgary, Alberta I had no problems bringing this on board WestJet. I stuffed it pretty well and my only warning is that it will fit very snug in the overhead compartment. Had I got the x450 version, I’m not so sure it would have passed a carry-on luggage. As a Vancouver headshot photographer, going downtown to do corporate headshots is a real pain the neck from carrying all that heavy equipment from parking lot to corporate office. Having a roller-bag is a real life saver and it just looks more impressive to walk into an office with all your gear stuffed neatly into a small bag, rather than crash in with five camera bags hanging off your shoulder.

 2. Lastolite Reversible Collapsible Background (5×6′  White/Mid-Gray)

  I can’t believe that I used to haul a full background system around just for a headshot. What was I thinking? After years of filling my car with background stands, poles, clamps, and of course a long roll of background paper, I had enough and picked up a Lastolite Collapsible Background. I have the 5×6′ version in White and Mid-Gray. There is also a White and Black version, but I rarely ever shoot against a black background nowadays. Folded, the background is about 1/3 of it’s size and relatively easy to carry around. It’s still big, but no where near as big and heavy as a full background system.

3. Lastolite Bracketed Stand for Collapsible Backgrounds

 If you do decide to get this background, I also recommend getting the Bracketed Stand. It’s light and collapses to a small enough size to fit into any lighting bag. It will save you time and headaches trying to hang the background.

 

4. Photoflex Transpac Outbound Bag

  This lightstand and umbrella carry bag will carry almost everything a headshot photographer needs. I’ve stuffed up to 4 lightstands, and smaller Manfrotto tripod, a reflector arm, the Lastolite Bracketed stand, Photoflex umbrellas, the Westcott Apollo 28″, and several other small items in this bag (and checked it in at the airport too!). It’s not padded, so you need to add some padding or make sure it’s checked in with the fragile luggage, but man, does this think hold a lot of stuff. In future, however, I will be looking into a bag with wheels, but for now, this one bag takes care of all my on location lightstands and grip needs.

5. Manfrotto Alu Mini Stands

  These are the 6.75″ stands I often use for rim and fill lighting. They work great with my Canon 580EX II flash units and lightweight strobes such as the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra or even Alien Bees or Einstein E640 monolights from Paul C. Buff. I even used it with my bulkier PCB White Lightning monolights before with no problems – although be warned that you can’t use oversized modifiers (e.g. 53″ Elinchrom Octa Light Bank) with these light stands, they are simply too lightweight for that sort of thing. I love these stands because they are small and they click together, make it very easy to carry around three lightstands. If you are going to buy these lightstands, buy them in the 3-pack, you’ll be glad you did.

6. Elinchrom Ranger Quadra RX S Head

  Elinchrom_Ranger_QuadraThese are the bees knees (if you know what that means, you rock!). I love Elinchrom lighting equipment. They are one of the top lighting companies out there. The only other ones that are better are Profoto and Broncolor, but those are the Lamborghini’s and Bugattis of the studio lighting world. Elinchrom is up there with their Ranger series as well, but a little less expensive overall. The Elinchrom Quadras give off beautiful consistent light and have been around for a few years now. People who own them love them for their portability, and at 400ws max, the power output is good enough for most portrait situations, but it’s the overall convenience that draws me to these lights. They are battery powered as well, meaning you don’t need to worry about bringing along a long extension cable – and thus one less thing to worry about! They may seem expensive, but how many speedlights would you need to output 400ws? Maybe four or five? And do speedlights have modelling lights? Nope, they don’t and you need modelling lighting in some low light portrait situations. You simply can’t function without modelling lighting in some office spaces or homes, so the Elinchrom Quadras help solve a huge problem for me on location. And why the Elinchrom S head vs. the Quadra A head? Because for most portraits, you don’t need the extra flash speed.

7. Westcott Apollo-series Softboxes

 westcott_apollo_softboxI love these softboxes, especially my 50″ Apollo, and the only reason they aren’t listed higher is that there are so many good light modifiers out there. Some I’ve tried and others that have excellent reviews, such as the Photek Softlighter II and the Elinchrom Rotalux series of modifiers. I love these modifiers because they help create even lighting and they work with just about any strobe out there (for the Quadra, an umbrella bracket is needed). The Softlighter II does a similar thing, and perhaps even gives off slightly softer light. I’m looking to purchase the Apollo Orb too, so perhaps that will find a spot on a future list.

8. Reikan FoCal Automatical Lens Calibrator

 

If you’re a Canon shooter with a 5D MKII or other camera with fine-tune calibration options, the Reikan FoCal may help you. I say “may” because there are few minor bugs with the system, but in theory, it should help you get better focusing results. I’ve used it and for most of my lenses, it appears to have helped improve autofocus, which saves me a lot of time and frustration. The one major downside is that it only works on Windows computers, so if you don’t have a PC, get a Windows emulator or get something like the SpyderLensCal Focus Calibration Tool or LensAlign MKII Focus Calibration System.