Meet the Team Photos
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Throughout this blog post, I will be exploring different 'Meet the Team' photos by comparing case studies and relating them to my own work. The method I have chosen for this blog is part visual and part written. For our website, we decided we should take 'Meet the Team' photos as this would help show who we are and our identity while also creating a connection with viewers. As the photographer of the group, I took on this responsibility and thought it would be best to look at our competitors 'Meet the Team' photos so we could get a sense of different styles and what worked for them.
Competitors
East Street Arts
East Street Arts' images were shot on location, using natural lighting. Each image shows the person standing in front of an open doorway, which I interpreted as a way for them to symbolise their brand 'opening doors for creatives'. It gives a welcoming and approachable impression. Their team was photographed in a creative way, with each member smiling and wearing natural, earthy-coloured, casual clothing without logos or text that could distract from the image. I feel that by doing this, it made them appear authentic and relatable as if they were showing themselves just as they are, which contrasts with most websites I looked at that had professional images in a studio, wearing formal clothing which appeared corporate and uninviting to the viewer.
Jerwood Arts
Jerwood Arts' headshot images are taken in a studio with professional lighting equipment and positioned against a grey background, showing consistency. The composition shows the person from the chest up and shot at eye-level creating a feeling of direct connection with the viewer. The black and white colour of the images adds to the professional tone and avoids any distractions from bright colours. The people in the images are smiling which helps to create a positive and approachable feeling of their team.
Hoot Creative Arts
Hoot Creative Arts' images were shot in a studio against a dark orange background, which was an interesting choice as it did not match their branding colours. Although they attempted to keep a uniform look, the lighting in each picture changed resulting in the orange colour looking different in each image, making the images appear unprofessional. In the images, the subjects wore clothing featuring bold text, logos, and patterns. I feel that this was distracting and could even associate themselves with unintended brands. Because of this, I think it would be best to avoid using clothing with text, logos, or patterns when taking our photos.
Globe Arts Studio
Globe Arts' images were taken in the studio against a blue background, which matched up with their brand colours, creating a cohesive and consistent look throughout. The images of them individually seemed to be taken at a 3/4 length. This framing allowed the viewers to see the person's branded t-shirt clothing. This helped to create a uniformed look and further their brand awareness.
Innovation Arts
Innovation Arts' images were taken in a studio, against a white background. This choice looks very professional and clean. As these photographs were headshots, the people were photographed from the chest up, which created an image that would be more focused on their facial expressions. The expressions shown were mostly smiles, this creates an approachable and welcoming ambience. The images were also taken in black and white, which I feel adds to the clean look of the images. By removing colour, the viewer can further focus on these facial expressions. The majority of documentary photography is black and white so we tend to associate this with truth,
My Photos
When it came to photographing my own 'Meet the Team' images, I corroborated my findings with my team and we agreed that Jerwood Arts' and Innovation Arts' images inspired us the most and would show a message of professionalism yet friendliness.
I mentioned the distracting nature of the images by Hoot Creative Arts and that we should avoid text, logos, and crazy patterns in our clothing choices. However, I suggested we take note of the outfits the Globe Arts Studios team were wearing as they were very casual and 'everyday' clothing, which would make us seem more approachable and friendly whereas the smarter clothing worn by Innovation Arts almost seemed too corporate and serious.
We decided that the final images would be black and white as we wanted the lack of colour to emphasise our facial expressions. Also, I decided on a headshot crop like Innovation Arts as this would further emphasise the focus on our facial expressions.
Lighting Set Up
For the lighting set-up, shown in Figure 17, I decided to use two soft boxes on either side of the person, as this would create a diffused and even light on the subject's face. This minimised harsh shadows and helped to create a flattering look. Placing the softboxes on either side of the person ensured that the lighting was balanced and symmetrical, guaranteeing no distracting shadows.
I placed two strobe lights at either side of the backdrop as this helped to separate the subject from the background and created a sense of depth within the image. By lighting the backdrop separately, I had more control over how the images would turn out and would also ensure that the backdrop was evenly lit with no unwanted shadows.
I think this lighting set-up worked well for what we, as a team, wanted to create.
I shot these images with a Canon 5D Mark IV as it's "Dual Pixel CMOS AF offers Face Detection and Tracking AF, as well as FlexiZones, to keep subjects consistently sharp" (Parnell-Brooks, n.d). This helped me in making sure the images were high quality.
Issues
Reflections in glasses are a common problem for photographers when shooting portraits. This was one of the biggest issues I faced during this shoot. In Figure 18, you can see the reflections from the studio lights in his glasses, this was very distracting and made the images look unprofessional.
However, as most of my family are glasses wearers, I knew this could potentially be an issue and did some research on how to avoid this ahead of time. One of the ways I found to "eliminate glare is to tilt the glasses" (Em, 2021). I asked Pratik, shown in Figures 18 and 19, to tilt his head down slightly and to adjust the position of his glasses. Thankfully, as you can see in Figure 19, this tip was successful in preventing any glare from being seen.
Posed or Candid?
Initially, for the individual headshots, we decided on posed images, however, it quickly became evident some people were more confident in front of the camera than others. This led to the posed photos appearing very stiff and almost awkward, as shown in Figure 20. To combat this, I suggested to the group we should try both posed and candid then later after the shoot decide collectively as a group which we felt looked best. For the candid images, I had to think quickly on the spot as telling someone to laugh wouldn't help them look less posed. I had to think of the best ways to make them laugh, I tried out some jokes and - clearly, I am not as funny as I believed myself to be as this did not work. I decided to get someone to stand to the side of me and have a conversation with the person being photographed. This seemed to be the best way to capture a candid image, as the person is not looking directly at the camera helping them to almost forget they are being photographed and relax more. As you can see in Figure 21, Pratik looks more comfortable in the image and appears more natural.
For the group shot, we experimented with both posed and candid images as this would give us more choices when it came to choosing our final image. Personally, I preferred the composition in Figure 22. However, we encountered the same stiffness and awkwardness as we did with the individual headshots. Therefore, we opted for a candid approach as it would bring more emotion and visual interest to the image. Despite liking the original composition, I felt we needed to move around and appear more natural, which led to the new composition shown in Figure 23. This presented a challenge as we had limited studio space and had to fit eight people into one image without looking cramped. I had to be mindful of the distance between each person to avoid anyone being out of the shot, casting shadows in the background, or blocking any of the lights. To solve this issue, I decided to zoom out the camera, trusting my Photoshop skills to remove any unwanted objects, as demonstrated below in Figure 25 & 26.
Final Images
The images shown in Figure 24 are the final individual headshot images and were a result of a collaborative decision to create a mixture of posed and candid shots. For some team members, posed shots worked best as they felt comfortable and confident in front of the camera, allowing them to showcase their best features and capture their personalities in a controlled environment. However, for a couple of team members who felt less comfortable and preferred not to show much of their faces, candid shots were chosen as they allowed them to relax and express themselves naturally. This resulted in images that captured their authentic self and brought out their personalities in a more subtle and natural way.
The images selected in Figure 24 showcased a great balance between the two types of shots. The posed images reflected the team members' professionalism and confidence, while the candid shots highlighted their approachable and friendly nature, creating a balanced look for the team.
Overall, the final images turned out to be a great representation of the team. I am happy with how these images turned out as they fulfilled our original aim.
Figure 26 was the final team group photo, however, I personally preferred Figure 25 as I felt it looked more professional. Whereas the group liked the fact you could see studio lights in the image as our name is Level Up Studios, so it emphasised the 'studios' part. I decided to side with the rest of the team and use Figure 26 as the final photo, as this project was all about working collaboratively.
For post-production, I kept it minimal as we wanted to appear like ourselves. I only fixed the colour balance and removed any blemishes. I experimented with adding our logo on some of our clothing and when presented to the rest of the team they really liked this.
Overall, I am happy with how the photos turned out and feel like they really portray the message of friendliness and approachability we wanted to achieve. However, to improve next time I would look at bouncing the light off reflectors onto the backdrop to make sure the lighting was more even and soft.
Illustrations
Figure 1 - East Street Arts. (n.d). Helen Moore - Engagement Leed [jpeg]. East Street Arts. https://www.eaststreetarts.org.uk/profile/staff/
Figure 2 - East Street Arts. (n.d). Karen Watson - Artistic Director [jpeg]. East Street Arts. https://www.eaststreetarts.org.uk/profile/staff/
Figure 3 - East Street Arts. (n.d). Liz Ainge - Space and Place Lead [jpeg]. East Street Arts. https://www.eaststreetarts.org.uk/profile/staff/
Figure 4 - Jerwood Arts. (n.d). Kaya La Bonté-Hurst [jpeg]. Jerwood Arts. https://jerwoodarts.org/what-we-do/who-we-are/
Figure 5 - Jerwood Arts. (n.d). Lilli Geissendorfer [jpeg]. Jerwood Arts. https://jerwoodarts.org/what-we-do/who-we-are/
Figure 6 - Jerwood Arts. (n.d). Clíona Malin [jpeg]. Jerwood Arts. https://jerwoodarts.org/what-we-do/who-we-are/
Figure 7 - Hoot Creative Arts. (n.d). Jonathon [jpeg]. Hoot Creative Arts. https://www.hootcreativearts.co.uk/about-us
Figure 8 - Hoot Creative Arts. (n.d). Untitled [jpeg]. Hoot Creative Arts. https://www.hootcreativearts.co.uk/about-us
Figure 9 - Hoot Creative Arts. (n.d). Holly [jpeg]. Hoot Creative Arts. https://www.hootcreativearts.co.uk/about-us
Figure 10 - Globe Arts Studio (n.d). Untitled [jpeg]. Globe Arts Studio. https://www.globearts.org.uk/team
Figure 11 - Globe Arts Studio (n.d). Untitled [jpeg]. Globe Arts Studio. https://www.globearts.org.uk/team
Figure 12 - Globe Arts Studio (n.d). Untitled [jpeg]. Globe Arts Studio. https://www.globearts.org.uk/team
Figure 13 - Innovation Arts (n.d). Sally Pring [jpeg]. Innovation Arts. https://innovation-arts.com/about-us/
Figure 14 - Innovation Arts (n.d). David Christie [jpeg]. Innovation Arts. https://innovation-arts.com/about-us/
Figure 15 - Innovation Arts (n.d). Sam Lakha [jpeg]. Innovation Arts. https://innovation-arts.com/about-us/
Figure 16 - Innovation Arts (n.d). Jonathan Guppy [jpeg]. Innovation Arts. https://innovation-arts.com/about-us/
Figure 17 - Morley, J. (2023) Lighting setup [jpeg].
Figure 18 - Morley, J. (2023) Pratik Glasses Reflection [jpeg].
Figure 19 - Morley, J. (2023) Pratik No Glasses Reflection [jpeg].
Figure 20 - Morley, J. (2023) Pratik Posed [jpeg].
Figure 21 - Morley, J. (2023) Pratik Candid [jpeg].
Figure 22 - Morley, J. (2023) Group Photos Posed [jpeg].
Figure 23 - Morley, J. (2023) Group Photos Candid [jpeg].
Figure 24 - Morley, J. (2023) Final Individual Photos [jpeg].
Figure 25 - Morley, J. (2023) Group Photo White Background [jpeg].
Figure 26 - Morley, J. (2023) Final Group Photo [jpeg].
References
Em, D. (2021, November 9). How to Avoid Glasses Glare in Photos. https://portraitsrefined.com/avoid-glasses-glare/
Parnell-Brooks, J. (n.d). 10 things you didn't know your Canon EOS 5D Mark IV could do. Canon. https://www.canon.co.uk/pro/stories/eos-5d-mark-iv-things-you-never-knew/