Well, heads as in headshots.

Recently, we had the great opportunity to meet all of the lawyers with a very large law firm, Meyers, Nave, Riback, Silver & Wilson (more affectionately referred to as Meyers Nave). The expertise of this organization was an education for me-public law. They represent airports, cities, schools, public power companies, and on it goes. As part of developing their website and printed materials, Meyers Nave wanted to have headshots of all their attorneys…and this is OUR area of expertise.

This project translated into: Have camera, light meters, reflective screens, softboxes, posing knowledge, multiple lights, power packs and backdrops-will travel. And I REALLY traveled. This firm has offices in many locations around the State of California, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Oakland, Santa Rosa, San Francisco, all of which we visited!

For the photographs we made, regardless of locations, the key requirement is to keep the look and feel consistent. Consistency is absolute in importance, in the area of branding and marketing. This meant reproducing the same backdrop and the style of head placements over a period of many months.

I’ll share a trick when photographing faces to make the subjects appear younger (less wrinkles), and avoid the reflections of light on the retinas of their eyes. If you can, take the pictures near a large light source, such as a large window that has sunlight shining indirectly in or perhaps on a cloudy day. A simple way to avoid the retinal reflections is to avoid using a small light light source (i.e. direct camera flash).

Our thanks to Meyers Nave for selecting us as their photographer. And I’ll share a little-known secret I learned through this project about lawyers…they do smile!!

— Michael Soo

Where is your studio?, is a common question that I get asked a lot. My answer is always the same,

Yeah, you can quote me. The term photography studio tends to indicate an indoor space where backdrops and sets are available to create a seamless background. Multiple lights are setup for a consistent look and feel to the images.

However, the next step in the progression of a photographer is outdoor where nothing is consistent. The sun travels across the sky, a dynamic lighting phenomena that perplexes the likes of Ansel Adams & Galen Rowell. Add the complexity of studio lighting, it creates lighting condition that will make the most skilled studio photographers cringe. A good example is a recent sunset shoot with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Cheerleaders’ 2009 Swimsuit Calendar. As the sun dips lower into the horizon, the lights had to be toned down by half power every 2-3 minutes!!!

I had fun shooting Environmental/Lifestyle Executive Portraits for Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a VC company that invests in tech companies such as Hotmail (acquired by MSFT), Baidu (BIDU), Skype (acquired by EBAY), etc. The lifestyle portraits are meant to create a fun factor, humanize the executives and build a virtual rapport with their business partners/clients via their website.

(Click on an image, then use your RIGHT and LEFT arrow keys to go through all of them)

- Michael Soo

Sometimes a spur of a moment available light can be incredibly inspirational.

I was working on a 4 days commercial work with iWin. One of the models who is also working in the project by the name of Chris was recommended by me. You see, he worked with me a year ago in a photoshoot to showcase a new bluetooth headset. Here’s Chris, in the 2006 photoshoot, on the right.

On the first day of the shoot, Chris approached me and requested that I take a good headshot for him. And since he has a tight budget and hence, he was hoping I would do it for, you guessed it, free.

The project we were both in has an incredibly tight deadline & budget. iWin expected me to shoot 46 perfect shots of their game imagery all across San Francisco (Pier39, beach, Palace of Fine Arts, Arboretum, Daly City Golf Club House, karate dojo in San Mateo), amongst other locations in within 3-4 days. In a perfect world, this type of shoots takes at least a week to accomplish due to several things such as herding 10 models around the city, finding the perfect spots, loading/unloading heavy lighting units/stands, working under harsh and difficult lighting conditions due to the constraints in time.

I was running around the sets, city, driving, loading, you name it, non-stop for 12 straight hours at a time. I like the guy but that’s just not the right time for this type of request. On top of that, I charge top dollars for a good headshot as it really does takes a good eye to bring out the personality of the person into the headshot.

The stars, however, seemed to shine on Chris’ path during Day 2 when I was hurrying along the corridor of the Daly City Golf Club house for the next set. I saw Chris, sitting on a red sofa with window light filling the room. I also had the right lens at the time. Taking one quick aim, and posing him the way I wanted it, I shot ONE frame and ran off to my next set. That single frame proved to be the most amazing time-stopping image I took for his career.

Chris has since started using that headshot for his modeling and acting career. He just sent me an email stating that his acting career took off like a rocket after that headshot went into circulation. He just accepted a 2 months film project in the east coast and is subletting his apartment in Los Angeles.

…and no, I didn’t charge him a dime for it. The satisfaction of a perfect moment captured sufficed.

Did a headshot of a young lady yesterday. Uncanny resemblance? You be the judge!