Headshot photography in London – YLD
Headshot photography in London for software engineers YLD
We are fortunate to have an ongoing working relationship with YLD, an innovative software engineering and design consultancy company, based in Farringdon in the City of London, 10 minutes from our studio base in Islington. We are always pleased to be asked to provide headshot photography in London on location at our client’s offices as well as outside, using the environment as a backdrop.
Our first meeting was set up last year, where we discussed in detail with the director of communications the style of photography that would fit within the company’s brand and general visual identity.
Our brief was to shoot portraits of all the members of staff, who often had flown in from Lisbon that day (where YLD’s head office is located). As experienced London headshot and portrait photographers, we are used to having only a short amount of time to photograph each person, to achieve a successful final portrait image. Each portrait was shot with a consistent lighting set up throughout, to achieve a visual integrity and coherence when viewed in the context of the company website.
We took on board the over arching themes of the company; namely a young, modern and dynamic brand who’s personnel needed to be presented through polished portraits, while avoiding stuffy and corporate headshot photography.
Now onto the photography side of things. We were allowed some creative range and freedom at our first session; we initially shot test portrait images using props – tables, chairs and mugs of tea, to convey a more relaxed (even hip) working environment. We also shot a series of portraits in a loft space that, became in effect, a purpose made daylight studio – with white walls that bounced and softened the daylight and resulting in flattering portraits that worked especially well in black & white.
After further discussions with the YLD team, we decided on a specific photographic look for this company. By taking our studio lights into an outside courtyard area, surrounded by pleasant foliage, we in effect created a controlled studio environment outside. The portraits were shot using a 15 inch Elinchrom rotalux octabox, attached to an Elinchrom RX1200 studio head. As is becoming somewhat our trademark, the key light was feathered away from the subject and bounced into a large silver reflector, which in turn bounced the lighting back onto the subject from camera left position. This technique creates a more subtle quality of portrait lighting, so when you hit the sweet spot there’s a more painterly quality to the images. When sympathetically edited in Lightroom, with a touch of desaturation, the portraits take on an almost fine art quality, far away from a generic corporate headshot on a stark white background. Just a little more detail to finish with – we underexposed the background ambient area by 2/3 of a stop (via shutter speed control), which is a key component in making this technique work. So, the portrait subject is lit with diffused and feathered studio lighting and by making the background area a touch darker (underexposed) the subject “pops” and is separated nicely from the background area, which receives no flash lighting, but still registers. It was a conscious decision to use the foliage background within this set of portraits, to soften the overall feel and to suggest an open, progressive and environmentally aware brand. We hope you enjoy looking through the final selected images below.
If you’re looking for headshot photography in London, please drop us a line via our contact form to discuss your requirements.