124/365: Northampton All-Stars

One of my company's clients is the UNC Kidney Center. A few years ago we did a billboard and commercial campaign for them, using images of regional folks encouraging others to ask, "Hey Doc, how are my kidneys?" at their next doctor visit (it's an easy test, but not a mandatory one, so outreach and education are key to preventing kidney disease with early testing). The areas of NC that are hit hardest with kidney disease are the poorer, rural areas, for myriad reasons...So we visited a few of these counties and shot portraits of some community-recognizable folks, then created custom billboards to run in each respective county. Yesterday, we kicked off another round of these with a trip to Northampton County, where I shot this wonderful crew. The final ad will most likely feature a composite of their individual headshots, but I like to get a group pic in as well. This first shot of the group was just a funny, whimsical moment I thought I would share.

This is a run-and-gun assignment every time, as the folks are usually waiting for us when we get there. I let the client talk to the subjects as my assistant Krista and I found a large white wall (really big, actually) and quickly set up two lights, both Bowens monoblocks: one in a large shoot-thru umbrella camera left, and one with a high-efficiency reflector behind the subjects, camera right, aimed to rake across the wall. This background light usually blows the wall to pure white across the frame in the vertical 3/4 length portraits I do of the individuals, but in these group shots, the left side of the frame was starting to dip below white as the light fell off, so I use photoshop to burn that area back up to pure white. Here's the setup:

-llg