Anatomy of a Shoot – Questions and Answers
The Shoot
We were somewhere between a second coffee and the start of lunch (timing is everything) when one of the delegates asked how you would go about creating a dark, moody portrait of a teenager. Which, let’s be honest, could be achieved with nothing more than a smartphone in a parent’s hands and a simple command to ‘smile.’ But in more advanced photographic terms? That’s a whole different ballgame. Enter Kai.
Now, Kai is someone I’ve been photographing since he was knee-high to a grasshopper, or maybe shin-high to a hockey stick, given his sport of choice. He’s grown up in front of my camera, from a tiny toddler to the cool, curly-haired teenager you see here, and he’s always been brilliant. Quietly confident, photogenic as anything and blessed with that kind of natural style that most of us have to fake with hair wax and a steamer. And even then, it wouldn’t look nearly so good!
He also plays ice hockey, possibly the most energetic and bruising sport there is, but you’d never guess it from this portrait. That’s one of the things I love about working with him, the mix of high energy and stillness.
Anyway, I positioned him side-on, hands in pockets and head drooped slightly, just like any teenager would stand. Or at least, I would have done at that age! And then the lighting. It’s a single light set-up, just one Elinchrom strobe and a softbox without a grid, but the magic’s all in the feathering. Instead of blasting the light straight at him – because nothing says ‘moody teenager’ like flat, front-on lighting – I turned the modifier away, letting the edge of the light drift across his face and gently skim the grey paper background behind him.
Feathering the softbox like this creates a lovely, subtle contrast. It gives you shadows without losing detail and tone and without harshness. The background, by the way, is just grey paper. Nothing fancier than that. But lit like this – with a little light reflected off it – it takes on a painterly quality. Almost textured. Paper is almost always my backdrop of choice, and it comes with the advantage of being both cheap and effective.
The hero shot
Something about a subject looking out of frame always adds tension. It’s somehow weirdly cinematic, like we’ve stumbled into a moment, but we’re not quite sure what came before or what’s about to happen next.
In this image, Kai isn’t engaging with the viewer. He’s in his own world which, frankly, is somewhere most teenagers are most of the time, but it just works beautifully here. The lighting helps too: the way it falls across the side of his face gives just enough shape to make him feel three-dimensional, but the shadows hold on to the mystery.
It’s one of those images that could easily be the cover of a vinyl record. You know, the sort — obscure folk singer with a cult following, or maybe a Scandinavian indie band with a penchant for jumpers and melancholia. Either way, it’s got that vibe. It’s the kind of portrait that should have a soundtrack.
But what I love most about it, aside from the lighting, and Kai’s patience, is that it came from a conversation in the workshop. It grew out of a question, an idea, a ‘how would you…’ moment. And that’s the magic of these sessions. They’re not lectures, they’re more interactive than that. The delegates guide the day, and my job is to keep the energy levels up and to provide (most of) the expertise. And provide coffee. And lunch. And cake. And the occasional bad joke!
