Portrait photography is one of my favourite assignments. NatWest have been booking me as a portrait photographer and for various commercial work for more than seven years. It means a lot as a photographer when clients like your work and continue to book you time and time again.
Brief
I was therefore excited to be asked by NatWest to come to their flagship branch on London’s Bishopsgate in September. They required portraits of their Director of Climate Change, James Close ahead of his appearance at COP26 in Glasgow this November. There was to be a selection of formal and informal portraits and they also required some standard corporate headshots against a white backdrop. The images are to be used for COP26 purposes as well as for general press releases regarding climate change. It was nice to be involved, albeit indirectly, with such an eminent event.
Shoot
Armed with my mobile portrait photography studio, I headed to Bishopsgate to meet with James. But beforehand I needed to find some suitable areas within their newly renovated flexible working area on the 9th floor. It turns out they have a lot of plants and greenery which was the perfect backdrop for a Director of Climate Change.
The standard headshots were shot against a collapsible white background with three off camera flashes (OCF). One illuminating the background and two within softboxes set to different power in front of James at 45 degrees. A reflector was used below James to bounce light up and fill the shadows under his chin. The environmental portraits were shot with two OCFs within softboxes, one as a main and one as a fill light.
NatWest are always great to work with and were once again pleased with the results. It’s also been nice to see James’ portrait already published alongside a climate change article on the Microsoft website. Here’s a selection from the day:
See more of my portraiture work. If you’d like to chat about a portrait photography session, do get in touch.
