PatB Photography

Annie Leibovitz video shooting a portrait of Conny Dufgran co-founder and chairman of Profoto

I’ve just seen this video on Strobist, showing Annie Leibovitz shooting a portrait session.

I’m looking at this from a different angle from David of Strobist.  Yes the speed of the Profoto flash lighting is incredible but this is seriously expensive kit and I’m more than happy using my British made Bowens kit

My interest in this video and what I hope will be of interest to you is Annie’s approach to taking the portrait:

• making sure that the lighting pattern and catch lights are correct and making very minor adjustments to what is a very large soft box.
• taking many shots of her subject – using continuous shooting mode with studio lighting is just out of this world and may be unique to Profoto (so I am a little envious of that ).
• using a portrait table.  I bought one of these a few months ago after trialling a make-shift table for wedding bridal portraits through 2008.  It is unbelievable how much gear I buy from America – not just because of the price but more because it is not possible to buy in the UK!  Can you believe that something as basic as a portrait table is not readily available in the UK?  I only found one place selling them but it was cheaper to buy a table and stool from the States including postage and import tax than what just the table would cost here in the UK!
• Annie is not getting her subject to look directly into the camera.  She is going for a two thirds view of his face as well as modelling it a short lighting pattern.

As background to this portrait session, Profoto hired Annie Leibovitz to shoot a series of portraits of Conny Dufgran, (co-founder and chairman of Profoto) for their 40th Anniversary

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