I don’t have much experience with studio style pictures, and to be completely honest I have a complex relationship with them. When they are done well, they seem to distill the very essence of a person through the tiniest tilt of the head and varying of expression. When they are done badly, they look cheesy and cheap, as though a photographer in a shopping centre has pre-set his lighting and has a stock pose all ready for everyone. As for the glamour photographs done this way, I find they leave me cold. My quality test for a portrait is “do I want to know more about this person”? With glamour photos the answer for me is always no, they are so unnatural and objectify the person so much that I can’t relate to them.
So all that in mind, I thought I’d have a go since I found some unexpected time on my hands tonight. Catherine kindly agreed to help and we hung some blue net on our curtains and I set up my beloved portable flashguns with an umbrella for Catherine’s facelight and a cardboard box snoot for the other one onto the net backdrop. I hope you find them interesting and feel they say something about Catherine without me breaking the rules I set for myself above.
