Corporate Portrait Photography with London Cityscape added.

Post production work adding London cityscapes to studio headshots.

For years we shot these headshots on location in and around London and were open to whatever the weather would hold in store for us and the unfortunate client.

We now offer a service where we have a large collection of London cityscapes and we can drop them in behind your corporate headshot. This means we can eliminate the worry of the weather and dragging clients around London. We can shoot your headshot in our studio space or at your office. This adds the benefit of studio lighting and with clever balancing your headshot can look natural, professional and interesting.

 

 

Background added with Photoshop make sure you blur the background image so it looks like it was shot on a long lens.

Careful to balance the light levels so the person appears to be in their office or boardroom with the background a little lighter.

For more examples please check out or corporate photographers London samples.

For years we shot these headshots on location in and around London and were open to whatever the weather would hold in store for us and the unfortunate client.

We now offer a service where we have a large collection of London cityscapes and we can drop them in behind your corporate headshot. This means we can eliminate the worry of the weather and dragging clients around London. We can shoot your headshot in our studio space or at your office. This adds the benefit of studio lighting and with clever balancing your headshot can look natural, professional and interesting.

Background added with Photoshop make sure you blur the background image so it looks like it was shot on a long lens.

Careful to balance the light levels so the person appears to be in their office or boardroom with the background a little lighter.

Origins of this process.

For many years we had been shooting the headshots with a London backdrop on site. Clients often wanted to be associated with where they worked and having the London cityscape behind their LinkedIn or company website photo was a perfect way to do this.

This was interesting work for our photographers but often we had to postpone or cancel the shoot due to bad weather which in London is very frequent. Our favoured area to shoot was looking back to the City from the view on the south of the Thames. This gave us a good background using St Pauls or The City skyline. This is a public area so no legal problems taking photos there but also this is a very popular area for tourism which made it sometimes unsettling for the sitter.

It was one commission in particular that gave us the need to add a London backdrop. This case was a guy who wanted to show he was in London but did not want the shot to look too touristy. He asked us to make the background very blurry ie out of focus which was something we often did but he insisted he wanted it very blurred. On looking at the results we thought that they were in fact too blurred and that the background was now not identified as London. We sent him the shots and he agreed and asked if we could resolve this for him. He was travelling abroad for a month and unable to reshoot but needed the headshot for his presentation.

We revisited the London location and shot the background less out of focus at the standard we would have originally planned.

I was now my job to lift the old headshot off the poor background and drop it onto the new one. For many years I had been doing this process in photoshop but normally from a studio shot on a white background but this was going to be harder as making the cut out look 100% natural was critical otherwise the whole process would be flawed. After spending many hours on youtube looking at different workflows I put a request on LinkedIn asking if any photographers had any suggestions. One of the guys I had work with for several shoots came up with a process we now still use and it allows you to feather the edge of the cut out which gives the headshot a near perfect clipping path.

Now when a commission comes in for a corporate London headshot background we always suggest the cut out process. We have a large library of pre shot London cityscapes which we allow the client to choose from. We often blur these in photoshop to attain the perfect match with the headshot. This does take extra time per commission with the added post production but the benefits to the client are massive and at the end of the day its all about giving clients what they require.

This last image is a great example of the cut out process. Look at the hair and how it looks against the sky.

Professional Studio Corporate and LinkedIn Headshots in London Offices.

Samples of recent corporate headshots captured on location in London offices using our professional mobile studio system.

Over the last year we have been building up our mobile studio set up so we can produce ‘studio’ style headshots at any location in London. Although this means lugging a little more kit around it enables us to capture contemporary headshots at client’s offices or individual’s homes. We have found that many businesses prefer the formal headshot but need to have a photographer visit them as taking employees away from their office interferes with the running of their business. We come on site and it takes approx 10-15 minutes to set up the background and the professional lighting. We can then capture a good range of portraits for each member of staff which gives a much more polished look to the company website ‘About Us’ page.

With many companies having remote workers and employees in different offices around the UK and across the globe, sometimes a conference or AGM is the only time everyone gets together in one place. We are often asked to take headshots on these occasions and they are normally at a function centre or hotel in London. With our mobile studio kit we can set up in a spare room and capture uniformed and consistent styles of headshots to either match existing current headshots or create a new look for the client.

Getting professional business portraits for your company has become a major factor in marketing as potential customers want to see who they are dealing with on your website or LinkedIn profile. Our studio system allows you to capture up to 60 staff in one day and we provide a pop back service to photograph any staff who were not in the office that day.

© Corporate Photography Ltd

Corporate Headshots North Acton

Braiform contacted us and said their Global Board Members were meeting in North Acton London and thought that this would be a good opportunity to have everyone together and to get updated corporate headshots taken. Dan did this shoot and he focused on the lighting and the white background was added in post production.

© Corporate Photography Ltd

Contemporary Corporate Office Photography

Corporate office photography commission for our client LHH Penna at their refurbished offices in Gracechurch Street. Dan has worked with this client over the last couple of years and knows their style and requirements well. They asked us to come in and capture the feel and working environment of their newly fitted out offices and we spent a day with their staff capturing generic images of the daily flow of their business and how the new space worked for them.

We tried to capture as many images in a reportage manner and avoid have to set up any shots. This works well up to a point but sometimes an area or situation that is on the shot list is not being used and we have to stage a photograph in this instance. Saying that you still can add elements of ‘fly on the wall’ as you can ask the people to talk about business or holidays just to keep them relaxed and avoid them focusing on the fact they are being photographed.

Most of these selection photos are to be used on their website as backgrounds and banner images. We photographed with this in mind as you have to shoot much wider to accommodate the banner crop and allow for the subjects to sit well within the photographic composition.

© Corporate Photography Ltd

Corporate Branding Headshots

Commission for Maintel at their offices in Blackfriars Road. They had sent us some sample shots from a previous shoot and wanted us to match the corporate branding colours that had been used in the background. We were struggling to find the right colour background screen to use and had decided to shoot the new headshots against a plain wall and then cut them out and drop them on a photoshopped background matching their corporate blue. When Dan arrived they were showing him into the boardroom so he could set up his lighting etc when they passed a feature wall in reception that matched their corporate colours. Dan suggested they do the shoot in the reception area as this would give them the exact match and save their budget being spent in post production work.

© Corporate Photography Ltd

Business Portraits. Photography in Mount Street Mayfair.

This is my favourite style of business photography. Corporate portraits make up a smaller percentage of our commissions but they are most favourite of our photographers. These were shot by Dan for Macro Currency Group at their offices in Mount Street Mayfair.

The great thing about corporate portraiture is that you can include elements of the person’s character and business within the image. Dan has balanced these really well here and the use of the Mount Street office interiors and signage have all been used and combined with good poses and a well thought out composition.

Corporate portrait photography decreased in use when businesses first started going online. We used to get commissions for annual reports and pitch brochures but the advent of corporate websites meant smaller images and the use of the simple headshot became very popular. Now with much increased internet speeds larger images are being used on company websites and we have seen a welcome increase the requirement of the well executed corporate portrait.

© Corporate Photography London Ltd.

Business Portrait with Photoshopped London Background.

For several months we have been supplying a headshot service which allows clients to have their portrait taken and then we add a London backdrop in post production. We feel that we need to explain the process and benefits of this service as we feel its key advantages are being missed.

The best way to do this is to go over each step of the commission and show how this gives the clients a much wider choice of results than the conventional way of shooting a corporate headshot with a London City view behind them.

Many individuals especially if they work for international companies often require a headshot that features certain business districts of The City or West End being in the background of their profile photos. Traditionally we would arrange a date and meet with the client at the agreed location. This can work extremely well but is dependant on the weather. Wind, rain and even sunshine coming from the wrong direction would often be detrimental to the end results. We had been working on gathering a wide range of pre shot London backgrounds for use on another project and had the idea that we could produce much more consistent results for clients if we could drop the London background in post production. The major benefit with this method is that shooting at a clients office or our studio we have full control over lighting etc and the style has to look like the headshot was captured in an office with a large window with the view behind. This means the backgrounds we drop into the London headshot need to be shot with this style in mind. So for example you would not be able to use a pin sharp view of the City behind a pin sharp headshot as this would look false and not take into account the depth of field factor from the long portrait lens you would be using. Also very important would be the angle of the background you use as it will have to fit with the angle that the headshot has been taken at. You would not be able to use a view of London looking upwards to the tall buildings as again the portrait lens would not allow this view so all the backgrounds we have pre photographed are captured with these angles in mind.

Another great benefit is once the headshot is captured you can search over our photo library for a variety of backgrounds that suit the headshot or which can be used for different media or profile photographs.

If we go through the process from start to finish.

Client commissions Corporate Photography Ltd to capture his headshot with a view to adding London scenes in post production. This is the process recently shot with a City client.

We attend the clients offices and set up lighting to capture initial headshot. We understand the background in this photo looks a mess but we are only interested at this point in capturing a well lit and professional headshot.

Then in post production we remove the original background and replace with a solid colour. This can be any colour and with white we can add a perfect web friendly white so that when the profile headshot is added onto a website it does not carry any hint of grey that is always captured when shot against a conventional white background. Sometimes the client is very happy with this result as the headshot looks professional and is ideal for use on LinkedIn or we can match a current corporate website background colour and drop that in for the individual.

We then email the client a range of backgrounds for them to choose from and then we add these to the headshot. We are not saying that all of them will work. You still have to take into consideration lighting and what is visually happening behind the headshot. We feel these samples work very well and you can reposition the client within the background to get the perfect composition and make the photograph look realistic.

This composition also works with a broad City backdrop

These last couple do not work as well. The first one has a problem I mentioned earlier, the background of the City is too sharp and clean and does not look in keeping with a headshot on a long lens. This combination makes the client look slightly 3D against the backdrop of London as both elements have different depth of fields which is not possible to do in camera.

This background is the opposite as it is too out of focus and does not look realistic as again the depth of field is incorrect and therefore the image looks false.

To finish on a positive note the headshot below is our favourite of the batch and shows with careful positioning and balancing the right background with the correct headshot you can create a professional and striking corporate portrait for all media.

Grantly Lynch © Corporate Photography Ltd

Contemporary Event Photography

We recently covered an event for Confidence Capital Ltd at the Intercontinental Hotel in Park Lane. Jason was the photographer on the day and his work reminded me of how far event photography has moved on since I first started covering corporate events in the mid 90s.

Back in the day all photographers were still shooting on film and this had restrictions which light levels would dictate what could be achieved at most events and especially evening events. The standard and accepted way to photograph corporate events was to use medium format cameras with a on camera flash system and try and balance out the low level ambient light within the event location. This method meant most results were posed due to the size of the camera and the need to pose people so the flash lighting was direct and did not cause to many shadows and that it lit people in an even way. I was never a big fan of flash lighting and even less when it was on camera. In my opinion flash is a very harsh light and daylight balance which is never the best source of light when photographing people.

My preferred way of photographing people was using ambient light and catching natural poses with 35mm camera and a fast long lens. I had been using a fast B&W film for many years and by pushing it several stops I was able to shoot in most low level lighting conditions and get unposed photographs at corporate events which clients preferred as this method of working was much less intrusive without large cameras being moved around with flash lighting firing off during key points in the event proceedings. When I went out selling my event photography portfolio most corporate clients were very impressed with the photos and would ask me to quote on upcoming events.

This is where my style and process hit a problem. To shoot in an informal and reportage manner at events you had to shoot lots and lots of film. As it was 35mm you had not polaroid proofing system so you had make sure you had the shots the client needed by covering all aspects and all angles and basically shooting all the time with the knowledge that when the whole commission was edited down at least 10% would be great stuff and fulfil the clients needs. Shooting lots of film meant my quotes/budget were higher than the traditional method so I was only commissioned for key events within the business calendar and this restricted the growth of my event photography service. This brings me back to our recent event that Jason photographed and how the creation of high end professional digital cameras with very high quality file capture and pro software have allowed the contemporary event photographers to cover commissions in reportage way within the same price bracket as any other style of event photography.

Here are some samples from Jason’s commission and we can see from these three images how the camera’s digital sensor and the post production software has managed to level out the contrast caused by the harsh down lighters often found in commercial halls. The most common form of lighting are these small tungsten spotlights which are recessed in the ceiling and give out small pools of direct light in little patches around the building. These make taking photographs very tricky as a person under one of these lights has a very bright light coming directly down on them and this can cause harsh shadows on their face and especially under the eyes. These samples show how Jason has managed to cancel out this unpleasant lighting and come up with photos which have a good range of tones and thin shadows.

These next two sample images show that the contemporary style of reportage corporate photography in London can be captured by using a minimal amount of photographic equipment. No need for flash lighting and even using fast long lens with the aid of high ISO setting that no longer cause noise in shadow areas of the image. This allows Jason freedom to move quickly into positions to photograph key moments within the event in a non intrusive way.

This last image really brings home how good current software is at levelling out contrast. If you had been at the event the screen on the right of the person would have appeared much brighter and the speaker would have been in semi darkness as this would have allowed the projected screen image to have been seen clearly. We have levelled out the contrast so that the shadow and bright areas are visible and still look natural.

For further samples of Jason’s and our other corporate photographers work please visit our contemporary corporate photography page.

Contemporary Corporate Photography

Recent shoot for Sempre Analytics at their offices in Richmond. We were asked to capture some natural offices shots and did a wide range of photographs for their new website. These samples were taken using the reflection in the dividing glass screens which add another element of reality to the images and give them added depth. Shooting this was also means the subjects are less aware of the camera and look more natural.

© Corporate Photography Ltd

Fly On The Wall Office Photography

Commission for Sumitomo Corporation Europe Ltd who asked us to capture some ‘fly on the wall’ photography at their offices in Vintners Place on Upper Thames Street.

Our photographer Jason had worked with Sumitomo before and had captured a range of headshots for their online marketing. These were to be used on their website and as a part of a new brochure which was using their people as part of the new corporate branding.

© Corporate Photography Ltd