Ritchie

This handsome gentleman is my new friend Ritchie. While visiting on Saturday, I noticed this wonderful backdrop and asked if Ritchie would allow me to photograph him with the massive window behind him. It illustrated some of the challenges of portrait photography when snatching opportunities.

Firstly, while I loved the soft and textured backdrop of the window, it meant that Ritchie was backlit only and would require fill flash. I was only carrying my OMD-10 with on-board tiny flash and so it is difficult to create interesting fill light. (If it is on the camera it tends to produce flatter, less textured light). This required a bit of flash brightness adjustment which is a bit trial-and-error.

The next problem is that of scale. The window is floor to ceiling, and trying to fit it all in while keeping a reasonable perspective on Ritchie is always a challenge. If Ritchie had been a woman, this perspective would probably not have been ideal.

The final problem was the lovely big dining table to the right of the picture. It forced me a little off-centre to remove the table from the image. This meant that I had to crop to get a reasonable degree of symmetry.

I am delighted by the results and really love the image. I mention the challenges purely to illustrate the kind of things you have to wrestle with when doing an impromptu portrait. Ritchie was a great subject and I really look forward to photographing him again.

Thanks Ritchie.

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