Behind The Shot. Why I Love This Portrait.

I wanted to share some stories of how some of my headshots came to be, as at times these are photographed in not your standard ,usual studio setting. This portrait of snooker pro Ken Doherty is an example of having to think on my feet and to set up in an environment that was busy and with less than ideal light!

The setting was at Alexandra Palace in North London during the Masters Snooker tournament held there each year. I was working for the BBC then on their snooker coverage, and Ken had kindly agreed to do some quick headshots during some downtime.

The only space available for my backdrop and lights, was a tiny space about 6ft wide between piles of flight cases. At the time I had a fantastic backdrop from Westcott which was light, portable and took up a tiny amount of floorspace. It was the ideal piece of kit for this situation.

So with the backdrop up, and a single soft box with a reflector for a bit of bounce, we got the shots done in a few minutes. I always spend time getting some test shots done before a subject arrives. It saves a whole load of faffing, and it then means more time spent one on one with the client making them feel at ease.

Just a note on controlling ambient light during a headshot photoshoot such as this one with Ken.

Lighting in big venues such as Alexandra Palace are not ideal for photoshoots. Big high sodium lights don’t look great, so as a photographer I want to eliminate this light from my images straight away. A fast shutter speed and a high sync flash does this job easily and so problem eliminated.

It was great to work with Ken and to do some headshots for him. If you are considering getting some headshots taken the I’d love to hear from you, so please just pop me a message on my contact page and I’ll get back to you asap.

A Portrait of Ken Doherty.