I was commissioned by Theatre Producer James Seabright to do a studio shoot to photograph a portrait of 4 actors for the poster image of the new play Games For Lovers which opens at The Vaults under Waterloo Station in July.
The actors were to be photographed separately and then added to the artwork by the designer.
As the portraits were going to be cut out I photographed them on a neutral background, I decided on Platinum Grey.
The key light was a 175cm by 72 cm indirect Elinchrom lightbank lit with an Elinchrom Chic 1 pack powering an A300N head which has a fast flash duration which freezes any movement. This was positioned about 45 degrees to my left, pointing downwards to help balance the floor. This was filled by a 135mm Octabox lit by an Elinchrom Style 600 head which also has a fast flash duration. The fill was high above the camera, again pointing downward. The exposure was metered using a Sekonic 758 light meter with a pocket wizard radio control to fire the strobes.
Each actor was asked to get into the character and be themselves to give a range of poses and expressions. They all set about this with great enthusiasm which comes across so well in the finished artwork, a big thank you.
After each actor was finished in make up they were photographed with a Nikon D850 and 58mm f1.4 lens at aperture f/8 at 64asa.
The D850 at 64 asa is the sweet spot which gives an exceptional range of tones which is ideal for post production. The Raw images were then processed using Phase One Capture One 12.
The finished images were then sent to the Designer who produced the poster above.