I've posted a version of this photograph before but it was processed on an uncalibrated monitor and I wanted to re-process it now that (hopefully) the colours will be right. I also wanted to contribute it to the Strobist group on Flickr.

This photo was from a shoot to publicise an upcoming charity exhibition of the artist's paintings. It was my first location portrait commission and although we both expected the paper to use the standard "artist posing near easel" shot, Paul was kind enough to spend 2 hours with me, allowing me the opportunity to experiment with a variety of lighting techniques, both indoors and out.

In the end the paper did of course run the easel shot, but this was my favourite picture from the day. I must thank Paul for being the perfect subject, and for tolerating countless technical hiccups at the beginning of the shoot. It is the photographer's job to put the subject at ease, but on this occasion it ended up being the other way round!

Click here to view a gallery of unprocessed shots
Paul Taggart
Shot specs:
Canon 1Ds  •  70-200 f/2.8L IS  •  135mm  •  1/80s  •  f/18  •  ISO 100
The reason for the crazy f/18 aperture was nothing artistic or technical, it was simply that I'd set the flash power way too high and rather than waste more of Paul's time by fine-tuning it I just dialled down the aperture a couple of stops.

Lighting set-up was a Bowens 1000DX with silver brolly positioned about six feet in front of Paul, a foot above his eyeline, triggered by Pocket Wizards. Aperture was set for the strobe, shutter speed for the sky. With hindsight I should have gone up to 1/160s and under-exposed the ambient by another stop to bring out some drama in the brickwork.