Last week I held a photoshoot with Hacienda resident and legendary DJ Graeme Park to accompany a magazine interview. It ended up being quite rushed as he arrived late and had to start his set almost as soon as he got there so I only had a 10 minute window to shoot him. Thinking the venue was covered in black drapes, my initial plan was to use backlighting to give him a halo rim light, then light his face with a flash through a brolly.
However, arriving at the venue I realised there were no black drapes or similar backdrop so had to modify my plan. One problem with doing a portrait session like this in a nighclub is that it is too loud to talk to your subject in a comfortable and natural manner. Shouting and picking up every third word is not conducive to developing a rapport, so I had to keep things simple, quick and easy. I spotted the curtain used as a partition to screen off the VIP area and saw an instant backdrop which I could fire a diffused flash through, so set up in this area quickly and got Graeme to sit in a leather armchair and fired a few frames. See set-up shot below.
Reviewing the images later revealed the limitations of such a quick setup - the rear flash is not fully hidden behind Graeme, which causes the hotspot to his right. Also, I must sheepishly admit that I failed to notice my camera was set to ISO 1600, which meant that I burned a lot of pixels unnecessarily and ended up with a noisier, higher-key image than intended. A lesson learned! I’m still happy with the image, given the timeframe and shooting conditions, but it is definitely not as intended. Luckily, the softness of newsprint should swallow the noise up and save my bacon. Thank the lord for poor print quality!
To see a larger version, click on the image.
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Tags: editorial, Graeme Park, nottingham, Photography, portrait, remote flash