This post uses examples of Photography for university prospectuses and brochures for Kent businesses – and some of the things we need to do when working on location.
Editorial photography involves creating images to illustrate content for a magazine or other article. They’re stand alone stories. Larger bodies of work such as university prospectuses or company brochures can involve a whole series of these stand alone stories, sometimes linked by a theme. The style of photography is similar as are the challenges. You will find that I refer to lighting a lot only in that it is such a big part of what photographers have to do: manage it, shape it or fake it. Manage it when there’s too much. Shape is to harness and do something with it. Fake it when it’s simply not there.
All of the examples below required the use of artificial light and in some cases working in near darkness, building up the lighting from scratch.
0-Prospectus images for the University of Kent: a blue light to diminish the fact that is was a plain classroom wall and a bit of shadow from another light to add contrast. The alternative would have been a dim room lit by florescent ceiling lights.
1-a flash to the left to fake window light and stop the student becoming a silhouette
2- A top light (faking a window) to make the student stand our from the background and bounce light off the table and back into her face
3 – This was a heavy chromakey (green) room so I had to use direct lighting (not bounced)
4 – A dark box of a room with an orange top light had to be accented with flash to add detail. The room absorbed all radio waves.
5 – Two lights to create window lights that were not there. The background is a large screen so that’s the starting point for the lighting.
6 -Another dark room enhanced with flash from the left and right balanced to match the brighter space in the background.
7 – At Eurotunnel courtesy of Pillory Barn. A single large light from the side creates a window light.
8/9 – At Macknades in Faversham for Scott Anderson shooting cakes made of cheese. A dark space under some stairs with a spotlight, large diffuser panel and two reflectors.
10 – Matthew Barley at Canterbury Cathedral for the Canterbury Festival. A single spotlight to create strong shadows and a rim light around Matthew.
