Over a decade of shoots
It’s over 10 years since we first did a personal brand shoot for John Thompson, from Metropolis. Back then it wasn’t called a “personal brand” of course, it didn’t really have a name – I just called it something vague, like a Profile Shoot.
That first shoot was in the Sky Bar and Dark Arches by the station in Leeds.
Since then, we’ve used Otley Chevin, a recording studio in Beeston, Marsden Moor, a golf club in Morley, Dock Street in Leeds, Heart in Headingley, Meanwood Park and many other locations.
The point is, we can shoot anywhere and it’s often dictated by what’s in the front of our minds or the weather! It doesn’t matter where – it’s just getting together, catching up and using whatever we find as our set.
Temple Newsam
I chose this great location because I knew these long corridors of trees look great in the winter – no leaves on the trees leave bare trunks, brightly lit on one side, dark on the other – see the shot above for a great example.
Also, I wanted to do some drone experiments after the shoot, so this was a great place too – lots of space. More on this in the near future.
So the 2023 look is the dark Ray-Bans and big coat, with leather gloves
Cinematic Look
We usually end up with a dramatic set of images, this wasn’t any different. Woods are pretty dramatic and the background, even when blurred, is a series of menacing light and dark shapes.
I went with my favourite 2-light setup, well 3 if you include the sun, a softbox lighting john’s face and a bare flash adding a little rim lighting.
With the first shots, which have the blue background, I’ve lit quite widely, so a nice even light over John’s face – later with the browner shots, I’ve moved the lights almost 90 degrees to get a lot of shadows. The ones where John’s by the tree are especially shadowy.
With the edits, I’ve erred towards a limited colour pallet using bolder than usual colours, which is a common cinematic look. Teal and Orange is the look of Sci-Fi, so the blue backgrounds hunt at that.
Another thing I tried was editing the background and John separately – made easier with Lightroom’s new masking tools – to make him stand out.
So here we go – a few more shots of JT at Temple Newsam
