Two recent visits to Exeter School to photograph headshots a couple of days apart, and although it wasn’t strictly necessary there seemed to be a sense in replicating the style even though the shoots were to be in different locations within the school.
We decided to go for an up-beat high-key approach with the sitters looking relaxed and approachable. The style was set and agreed upon both before with a test session at the beginning of the first shoot.
Photographing direct to the Mac the sitters were able to select their favourite image from each set as we worked and this helped to make the process more collaborative. The shooting style is simple enough to be replicated easily should an update be needed.
Organisation is the key to success with a shoot such as this, for the second shoot a large number of people needed to be photographed in short period of time. Being supported by a member of staff the sessions ran very smoothly enabling fifty people to be photographed well in an afternoon. Notwithstanding the time constraints I didn’t expect to be involved in a fascinating discussion about Ilford film chemistry with one of the governors, how I would have liked a bit more time!
