Last weekend, I shot some business portraits for two really cool guys from my university. I like to do projects like these whenever I find the time, because they are a good practice and they are a lot of fun to do, too. I try to deal with these kinds of assignments in a quite professional way so that I have an incentive to deliver my best. And as I am exploring the intriguing Strobist (see previous post) “techniques” more and more (you can’t really call ‘em techniques, it’s more like an approach to consider lighting in a thoughtful way) of course I use a project like this to try some new lighting setups.

When I saw what I had on the chip, it somewhat made me think back to the very first business portraits that I took using the available light only. This first picture is one example: The available light, enhanced by only a small, foldable reflector, gives a very smooth, even lighting. And thinking “business portrait”, I’d say that’s kind of what you’re looking for. After all, the light in a portrait used to accompany the resum? in a formal job application shouldn’t scream “Hey! Look at me! See how cool I am?”. All it should do is bring out the features of the face in a nice, subtle, flattering way. These are all things available light can do – given the right weather, the right time of day and the right location (or at least the right angle).

If you don’t have all that, available light can be a pain. Take that from someone who actually loves available light. For these two pictures above, I simply selected locations that were in the shade to achieve an even lighting. Still, you’re somehow at the mercy of all the outdoor conditions – you’re not in control. Fortunately, becoming part of the Strobist movement is all about achieving control over your light. And it’s not even expensive. Calling yourself an available light photographer often has to do with being a budget photographer, which you can remain using some cheapo speedlights instead of huge (studio) lighting gear. Addionally, as you can see from my pictures, having a history in on-location shooting with available light stimulated my love for nice background patterns that create an interesting contrast to the ordinary plain-white seamless backgrounds you mostly see on business portraits.

Long story short, here are my new portraits that I shot on location (university buildings used as backdrop) using my recently acquired small lighting gear. As I mentioned above, I tried to keep it subtle, yet add some accentuation to fit their type. The beauty of this shoot was that I was in absolute control over my light. The flashes could have easily overpowered the available light on the shot, but I decided to use it to add some fill. The setup was simple: One shoot-through umbrella on camera right, one snooted light on the background, one cardboard-gridded spot on the cheek from camera left and back to add some interesting contrast.

Are these pictures any better than the available light portraits? I don’t know. Let me know what you think using the comment button! What I did enjoy, however, is the amount of control that I had in the last shoot. As David Hobby wrote, don’t let good light ruin a photo, the most important thing is still the subject – a great smile, the right atmosphere, and so on. Which is why I kept the setup simple so I didn’t need to set things back and forth after I had them in the ballpark within 5 test shots and could instead focus on the subjects.