Editorial Portraits 2

© Tom Parkes

I was commissioned to photograph Dr Rabia Malik at the Marlborough Family Service in north London and is sometimes the case, the interview was scheduled to take place at the same time as the shoot.

Having divided access to a subject whose time is limited imposes some restrictions on the photography, but also has some advantages. The first decision to be made is whether to shoot the picture before, during or after the interview takes place. Shooting during the interview means it's relatively easy to make animated pictures where the subject is seemingly unaware of the camera.  The logistical problem is one of arranging the subject against a suitable background, lighting them and still leaving enough room for the writer to work and the photographer to move as unobtrusively as possible around the subject, keeping the both the writer and any microphones they have positioned out of shot. The disadvantage of this approach is that the subject will be looking anywhere but at the camera and once the interview concludes they will be looking to get away, so don't count on more than a few extra pictures to camera.

Given a free choice of shooting the picture before or after the interview I always opt to sit through the interview. The extra time to have a good look around the location, listen to the interview and observe the subject is invaluable and will almost invariably result in a better photograph. The only real risk of this approach is that the interview may overrun or be cut short by external events, leaving only a few moments for the photograph.

On this day, the only practical location available was the medium sized room in which both the interview and photography would take place and there was the added consideration that a short additional interview would be filmed by the writer for the magazine's web site. I opted to shoot the portrait at the beginning, having ruled out an interview style picture. The room was regularly used as a general meeting room for both the staff and clients of the Family Service and was initially fairly unpromising from a photographer's perspective. At one end of the room though was a green chalkboard, it had  been used in a previous meeting and I decided not to clear it. Positioning Dr Malik against a harmonious colour meant the eye would be drawn to her face and the chalk pattern would balance the composition nicely. I've always liked pictures which use a limited colour palette. With relatively little time to spend on set up, I chose a single SB800, zoomed to concentrate the light to a tight beam, shooting through a light panel from almost overhead. At such close range, a speedlight will recycle in a suitably short time but I would have had the option of adding a second SB800 rubber banded to the first to share the load and give either an extra stop of power or half the recycling time.