I had the honour of taking some commercial photography shots of Ex-Liverpool player Jason McAteer for Top Gear Magazine.
This shoot was a blend of Portrait Photography and Still life photography as a lot of commercial photography is. Fashion Photography is usually a model, but the real focus of the shoot is the clothes or items they are wearing.
Jason was to tell Top Gear his car-ownership history for an article piece the magazine does regularly. I had the task of taking images of both Jason and an Audi Q8 and making them both look good.
Some tips for getting the most out of your subject in portrait photography are:
Connect with your subject on a personal level, get them to relax and engage in the process by explaining what will happen during the shoot and what you both want to achieve out of it.
Find the right location. On this Commercial Photography shoot, we chose the Liverpool ground Anfield as Jason spent some time in his career here. We were lucky enough to get access to inside the ground as well as the surrounding area such as the players car park.
Working with Jason was easy as he is more used to having a camera pointed at him than most people. It is a lot easier than working with 60,000 people shouting from the terraces I would imagine so he was not fazed by this but building rapport with people is a good thing to do to get the most out of the shoot.
Taking photos of the Audi Q8 has its own set of skill that are needed to be used, luckily earlier in my career I used to take photos of cars for magazines and trade sales, so I have a decent amount of experience in it. You still must plan what shots you plan to take to make the car look good. Lighting is a major part of this. As we were working mostly outside, the light is always changing, especially in the north-west which is partial to a cloud or two. Knowing how to manipulate your camera is essential in these kinds of shots. Work the angles and composition until you are happy with the images you produce.
Knowing these tips and practicing working with both a live subject and an inanimate object is a must for doing Commercial Photography. Practice, Practice, Practice!