The right way to Shoot A Picture Of A President [Photography]

This is often President D.D. Bouterse of Suriname’s official presidential portrait. Karel Donk, the photographer who took the picture, brings us behind the curtain on what it takes to shoot (a picture of) a president. Spoiler: lighting, lighting and lighting.

Donk wanted to exploit Suriname’s national flag as the primary source of inspiration for the portrait, the red background of the president’s picture matches the red stripe inside the flag while the yellow lighting of Bouterse himself represents the flag’s yellow star.

Pretty thoughtful stuff, but a couple problems popped up. One, the room the picture was to be taken in just had white walls. Two, he couldn’t completely light the president in yellow light (since it’s going to make him look weird). So what did he do? Donk says:

I quickly decided that I might should rim-light him with yellow light. Not only would it not then add some more aspiring to the picture (meaning of the yellow color within the flag) but the yellow light would also help to separate the president from the background. But then I assumed what if the yellow light would come from above? Obviously which could add some more aspiring to the picture in a religious sense

I decided to ” paint” the white wall red by just placing a red gel on the background light (a Canon Speedlite 580 EX II). The gap between the subject and the wall may be big to ensure the wall could be out of focus and look like smooth within the pictures and in addition to attenuate spill light from the softbox.

Both problems solved. In all, it took Donk 30 shots (out of 32) to get the ideal shot and I need to say, it turned out pretty well. Which will read more in-depth on the explicit positioning of the lighting and the exact equipment he used, take a look at Karel’s blog here . For the remaining of you guys, does Bouterse’s picture beat out Obama’s portrait ? [ Karel Donk ]

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This post is tagged: background light, canon speedlite 580, canon speedlite 580 ex, couple problems, presidential portrait, primary source, religious sense