Post lockdown corporate headshots

Office portraits in London during the pandemic

It’s the same but different right now. Walking into a familiar office, that was once buoyant with activity now quiet feels like walking into a dream. It’s laced with a sense of melancholy almost, a yearning for another time.

I have shot in Egon Zehnder’s office in Victoria, London numerous times and am familiar with the areas that are good for shooting, the daylight, the decor etc. However, due to the Covid restrictions I was given an office to work in that I hadn’t worked in before.

Business Portrait for Egon Zehnder

Using the location for your headshot

There is a feeling that photographers have on entering any environment, is, "Now what am I going to do here? You quickly scan the area to see what could work. It can be quite depressing when you are working with a magazine that you’ve always wanted to do a commission for or important client and the location you need to create that killer portrait in is terrible. This is then down to the eye of the photographer to find the area or angle that gives a good or right impression. converseley a location can have too many options so then you have to select the rights areas to spend your time in. Obviously you are looking at the light to. How much day light is there? Can I use it or do want to use lights to create a dramtic effect?

Whilst shooting portraits for magazines I once had a truly terrible house that I needed to get a portrait shot in, a place that was actually a risk to me and my assistants health!

Anyways, this wasn’t one of those. there were some heavy furniture and large TV screens that needed avoiding and fortunately a huge south facing window. The light was pretty subdued to the overcast day, but it was enough to be able to use daylight for the portraits and just have a little fill flashlight here and there.

What I’m looking for these ‘environmental’ corporate headshots in the office is a ‘sense’ of the office without that information overriding the portrait. I really don’t want the background too busy, almost just some tones and shapes. You can give an impression of a business, almost the quality of the company with hints and subtitles in the background. I like to try and engage with the person I am photographing by talking about everyday stuff. What they have been up to that week, whether they have children and stuff like that. It quickly builds into a conversation that becomes informal and relaxed. This really help with people who are a little reticent or nervous about having their portrait taken.

Headshot portrait equipment

Keeping the portrait engaging and about the person rather than the whole environment I tend to use a brilliant 85mm Canon lens for these portraits and sometimes the 50mm lens. I shoot on a low aperture- I like to take risks with the aperture as the quality of the soft background is beautiful. You must be super careful as its very easy to have one eye sharp and the other out of focus if you are not careful! (obviously I have never done this :-) I use a tripod and lock it off and take my time. Canon have a lovely L series 1.2 85mm lens that cost around £1999. It’s very expensive! I don’t use this one! I use the Canon EF f1.8 that retails at £189 in my opinion much better, it focuses quicker and is much lighter to use. It takes up less space in the camera bag, which sounds stupid, but it can make a difference when you are lugging stuff about.

The two business portraits that I have included in the post are done on these two lenses to give you an example.

Corporate portrait on a 50mm lens

Smiley headshot