Master photographer at work | Story behind the iconic Steve Jobs portrait

We all remember the iconic photograph of Steve Jobs where he is just looking straight at you. There is an intense expression which is shot against a clean white backdrop. Given how long some of this photo session can get, especially to get this kind of portrait, it is remarkable how fast this portrait was made. In the video below you see a master explain his work. Albert Watson who made this portrait describes his thought process and explains how he created the iconic photograph.

If you look at the photograph the expression is priceless which would give you the illusion that Jobs was great at posing and giving expression. While this may have been true, it is also true that Jobs did not like being photographed.

This makes this photograph even more compelling as a study. While we see the expression what we don't see is the master photographer who put Jobs in that state of mind to evoke that expression out of him. This is one of the most important parts of a portrait photograph "Emotion". Albert Watson gave Steve Jobs simple instructions before the shoot. Not only is Albert great at posting but also has mastery of light. There is a common joke among portrait photographers that in addition photographers, they are part psychologist and part director. All this and much more can be seen in this video below. The best part about this is he finished it in less than the time Jobs was scheduled for the portrait!

What did you notice from this video? Share your thoughts and comments below.

Creating a cool look

I was walking through the mall recently and saw this really large poster on the wall which looked like a scene from one of the recent vampire movies. The overall look of the image was blue in colour but the person in the image had almost a normal skin tone.



So I did what any sensible person would do, I went about recreating it. Which lead me to my next obvious question who would be the be willing to be in front of the camera. I reached to a friend who said he could help with a person after some stuff not working out he checked with a few of his friends he said: "hey I know this guy who will come". Felt like a movie dialogue at that point, and I was almost at the point where I was willing to just shoot a scarecrow but he said to have patience. Little did I know the friend he was referring to he was an Instagram Influence. Which I was blissfully not aware of. We had a few conversations about wardrobe and then he showed up. The guy looked like he stepped out of a magazine cover and with a face cut so sharp one could get cuts merely by looking at him, but I digress.

My second challenge was the location. After a bit of location scouting, I finally settled on a park nearby,  which had a lot of trees to create the look of a forest. Also, I was on a budget of nothing so parks worked out just fine.

The trick to the image is white balance. [Warning technical stuff ahead] Normally flash temperature is at 5500K or 6000K which is about the colour temperature of daylight. If you add a gel on it the color temperature shifts. You can shift the white balance number to a higher number or a lower number. For my look, I wanted to get to a white balance of about 3500K. This is done by adding an orange filter on the light also known as a gel.

For the shoot I used this big umbrella was to produce soft light. It looks ridiculous in person but produces beautiful soft light

Now if there is daylight everywhere and if you balance for the orange colour everything will look blue and the person will look normal. If everything is kept normal the person would look like they have jaundice or some disease so don't try this without fixing the white balance. I have been there, does not look good.

The result is what you see below.

Since I was there and with such sharp features I decided to pull off a few more you can check them out here.

Give this a try and post your comments below.

Making the most of window light

Recently I photographed the wonderful Devika Duggal from The Fashion Algorithm . Here is the image below.

A post shared by R Karthik (@r_karthik_info) on Oct 13, 2017 at 8:18am PDT

It is a simple image, from a composition point of view but what makes the image is the directional quality of light. The light is coming from camera right. I placed her next to a big window which produced nice soft light giving the effect of big soft-box. Once the light was set it was only about striking a pose and clicking away to get the shot. We are almost at Diwali and you will be presented many such opportunities to photograph people. Use this and get great results. Share your photos by adding in your links in the comments below or tagging me on Instagram. If you like what you read signup for my email newsletter, where I share some exclusive material.

A Portrait Session Over a Cup of Coffee

Recently a friend came over for a cup of coffee and what was a casual meeting turned into a portrait session. The was an interesting one as he was not expecting an elaborate session. A lot of times when I do the session the lighting gear becomes very intimidating partly because there is so much of it. I have had varying reactions when I have done these session ranging from extended periods of shock to curiosity (mostly from Kids who forget about all the equipment and get busy in their own world. Once they get engaged in what ever they are doing they give one of the most endearing expressions.)


Grown ups are no different from kids, they just pretend to be mature, including yours truly. Once my friend was comfortable with the surrounding it was just a matter of get the poses done and create a compelling story. This pose is one of my favourites.  Partly because this is how people are prepare for a formal photo shoot and it tells a story of a person getting ready for something.

The coat and tie were supplied by yours truly and a great expression form the subject and the story is complete. The photo was created with two lights on camera right. One was the main light and one was for the hair and shoulders (a 20 degree grid was placed on that). A diffuser as background and a reflector on the right used as fill. Enjoy.

The Illusion

I like to call this image "The Illusion". There is a lamp in the composition and creates an illusion that the scene is illuminated by this. However, the lamp serves only as a prop. There are two off camera flashes firing which are illuminating the composition.

There is a bare flash on camera right, which provides a rim light on the right shoulder and casts a hard shadow on the wall. To compensate for this there is a flash firing from camera left though a huge diffuser thereby creating soft light which wraps around the subject and is pleasing to the eyes. The intensity of the soft light reduces the harsh shadow cast on the wall and even casts a soft shadow around the nose.