The fun part about creating editorial portraits is meeting really interesting people and then creating dramatic portraits that show them in the perfect light. (Ahem, pun intended!) This portrait of Michael Cirami on the roof top of Eaton Vance, was created for Simons School of Business Alumni Magazine in Rochester NY.
Editorial Portraits on Location
Of course, the challenge of the editorial portrait is that, when you go out on location, you takes what you gets!
We did some prep work for this portrait by scouting through google earth and talking with the Director of Media Relations at Eaton Vance, where Michael, our subject works. The roof deck on the 13th floor had a wonderful view of the Boston skyline, including the Boston Harbor and the Custom House.
Watching the weather, we planned for a day that was supposed to be sunny and clear. In typical New England fashion, the day dawned with clouds racing across the sky and gusty winds. It was bad enought that I had to plant Claire, my intern, on the one light stand we dared to bring out, to keep it from sailing away. Claire wrestled the wind and managed to avoid going for a ride.
Just as we were finishing up our set up and Michael was coming out on the deck, the clouds blew into beautiful puffy cotton balls over the harbor and we got our image for the magazine.
Which just goes to show that, in New England, if you don’t like the weather, just wait 10 minutes!
When to use an Editorial Portrait
Editorial portraits have been traditionally commissioned by magazines.
However, this more casual, story telling style of photography is also a very popular tool for corporate marketing libraries.
They work great for press releases to accompany articles, brochures, presentations, speaker announcement posters and, of course, blog posts.
Get your own Editorial Portrait
Its important to keep in mind that editorial portraits are not “selfies”.
They are well executed, technically perfect images designed to tell a specific story.
If you would like to explore getting an editorial portrait for you or your team’s marketing library, get in touch at 617-910-9314.
