On a day-to-day basis, I work as a web developer. And, even though a person in that capacity has to be quite creative from time to time to deal with all the strange quirks of Internet Explorer, in general it’s a fairly technical and routine job. Luckily, trampoline allows their staff enough space to pursue their passions and keep the creative juices flowing. So, in an effort to get me away from my computer screen and create some face-to-face time with the rest of the staff, they recently commissioned me to take new photographs for the online staff biographies. Below, I’ll go over the experience in a sort of tutorial style for those of you who are interested in taking portraits themselves.

During the shooting day I pursued two different concepts; I took both environmental portraits of people in and around their work space and also more traditional, but still casual, portraits against a plain background. The former was to be used on the author detail pages on this website, and the latter would be used to create a tight to medium cropped thumbnail to accompany blog posts. However, since the regular portraits turned out to be the better image for most people, we’ll probably just stick with those for now and save the other ones for a rainy day.

Most of the images on this page were shot in the range of 70-135mm at around f/4, 1/250 and ISO1000. Since exposure settings are unique to any given location and its specific lighting situation, your best bet is to learn how to take an accurate reading using a light meter or an 18% gray card. Because the trampoline office has a lot of windows and skylights, it proved sufficient to just use the available natural light and a very weak flash to fill in the shadows and provide the ever important catch lights in the subjects eyes. A black and white treatment with heavy vignetting (the darkening of the corners) provides a classic look and nicely frames the subject. An f/4 aperture provided a shallow depth of field (producing a blurry background that makes the subject stand out) and ISO1000 added a subtle (and in this case desirable) grainy look to the image.

Both concepts called for the shots to be fairly casual and create a bit of an intimate feel. But trying to photograph people without them posing isn’t as easy as it sounds — they quickly tense up as soon as you put a lens in their face; and telling them to act casual generally results in the opposite effect. An easy way to instantly make the photograph more real and less posed is to have the subject look away from the camera. The draw back is that you also lose some intimacy and the lack of eye contact causes the image to not draw you in as much.

A good trick to gain back some of that engagement and intimacy is to have the subject lean slightly in towards the camera, like you would during a job interview to show you’re interested. Another way to create this effect visually is to photograph people slightly from above, although based on past experiences, I personally find most portraits look best when taken from just below the subject’s eye line.

It’s well known that people’s eyes draw you into a picture. To compensate for the lack of eye contact in some of these pictures, I had most people’s shoulders at a slight angle, as this also tends to lead the eye into the picture. An added benefit is that it makes the person’s head seem better proportioned and it also helps to balance the photograph. Putting the subject on a third also helps in balancing the shot.

All tricks aside, you may still find that asking people to not look at you and just be natural just doesn’t work for all but the most photogenic people. Just switch places with your subject and you’ll notice just how uncomfortable it can be. The best way around this problem is to distract them as much as possible. Just get them talking about something they love or, if they’re not very talkative, start talking about yourself. Anything will do as long as it gets their attention away from being photographed and it may also create a few laughs in the process.

Keeping someone talking also prevents their facial muscles from locking up in that fake and awkward smile we all know so well. If you can have a partner accompany you this becomes much easier. They can be in charge of putting the subject at ease and keep them looking natural and away from the camera. It’s also easier for someone to look directly at another person as opposed to just looking in a general direction. The latter rather quickly results in a glazed over, dull look in someone’s eyes as they stare into the distance. Having them focus on somebody nearby just helps a great deal.

If you’re unsure how you would like people to pose, then by all means ask them. They most likely already know what kind of pictures they generally look best in. Smiling, not smiling, what their better side is, etc. In this particular case, the pose that resulted in really good images almost 100% of the time was to have people actually write or draw something. The reason this pose works so well is because it combines so many of the tips mentioned above. It gives their hands something to do which helps to take their mind of being photographed, it angles their shoulders and head, it causes their eyes to be directed away and out of the frame, and it gets them to lean forward. It also tends to keep them moving around a bit, which provides you with many different shots. And as a last tip: just take loads of images. It’ll increase the time you need to spend going through images after the shoot, but it will also greatly improve your chances of getting that absolute winner.

And since you’re still here, I may as well use this opportunity to show you our winning shots and introduce the entire trampoline staff to you. After all, it’s always good to be able to put a face to a name:

Originally from Amsterdam, Mike made the move from Europe to Atlantic Canada in 2003. Attending the University of New Brunswick, he earned a bachelors degree in Computer Science with first class honours in Multimedia Systems. During his university career, Mike was recognized for his outstanding communication, leadership and interpersonal skills. Before joining our team, Mike used his European sense of style to work as a freelance designer and developer for six years. Having touched a diverse range of projects, from print design to business identity development, he found his true passion working with the web. Mike joined trampoline for its strong creative focus. A meticulous graphic designer and web developer at heart, he aims to create original media with a strong focus on usability and web standards. When Mike isn’t busy designing websites and slinging around HTML and PHP code, he’s usually playing a variety of sports, including water polo, tennis and baseball, exploring the outdoors with sea kayaking and skiing or pursuing his passion for photography — a hobby that will continue to break his bank account again and again.