I came across this really nice behind the scenes video on F-Stoppers today. The main set-up shots are a bit conceptual for me but I like the ideal of taking what you know (and can discover) about an individual and creating a portrait that uses that in both setting, lighting, styling and the emotion of the subject.
But at the end Schoeller does a more simple thing with the chefs and a coffee cup – well who’d have thought of that?
I’ve worked with Brendan Cashman since Augustines moved to the Clarion. About the time that that relationship was ending he came to me for a set of profile images. Unusually he specifically wanted them shot in Studio rather than the more environmental portraits we’d done as part of the publicity for Augustines.
So we shot a range of images and had a lot of fun. Apart from a truely gifted chef, what’s struck me about Brendan is that he understands how he wants to use images to promote himself and his work. He’s also very comfortable in front of the camera.
Whenever we’ve worked together before there’s always been coffee and a cigar involved during the ‘briefing’ (we drink, he smokes) so I wanted to include those two elements in some of the shots: they were an essential part of the I considered the Brendan Cashman experience.
For me, Portraiture is about capturing a glimpse of someone character in an image way more than it’s about capturing someone’s physical likeness. Getting that to appear for you, knowing it when you see it and getting it into the shot are the skills of a good Portrait Photographer.