Payne Financial Group

CASE STUDY #48 Payne Financial Group

CAMERA: Hasselblad H3D LENS: 120mm macro

ISO: 50

EXPOSURE: f/6.8 at 1 / 15 second

LIGHTING: Profoto 800ws pack powering a 30-degree grid as main light and a medium Plume softbox place behind the first light; white reflector for fill

Assignment I was assigned to photograph a series of portraits of employees of the Payne Financial Group, an insurance company, for billboard advertising.

Visual Objective The ad agency wanted something very stylized that would look good in black & white.

Pose I had Angela cross her arms and directly face the camera to show confidence.

The Story When I learned that these images would be used for billboards, a red flag went up. I had been using my Canon D30 for commercial work, but the resolution would not hold up for billboard-size work. The client preferred that I shoot digital and approved the funds to rent a Hasselblad H3D 39 (list price $29,000). So I was embarking on a shooting a big ad campaign with a camera I had never used before. Yikes.

The camera arrived on a Friday and I spent the weekend getting comfortable with it and the software. On Monday, my assistant and I set up on location for the Tuesday shoot. Before we left, I tethered the camera to my laptop for a test shot. All was well.

The next morning, however, I tethered to the computer for another test shot and the camera froze. My heart started racing and I figured I’d try rebooting. Presto! I was back in business.

It turned out to be a three-day shoot—and about 30 gigabytes of images. (Note: I ended up asking the client for 500-gigabyte external hard drive so I could download the images and deliver it to them.) The quality and sharpness of the images was phenomenal and the client was thrilled. Two weeks later, images started appearing on billboards around the Northwest.

Tips I am fanatic about backing up my digital files after the shoot. I download the images from my card to my computer’s hard drive, then drag my files to an external hard drive for additional back up. You can never have too much memory.

30-degree grid for main light

medium softbox behind grid white reflector

LIGHTING CASE STUDIES 119