Thank you to Digital Photographer Magazine for inviting me to write the pro-column for the next three months. My portrait photoshoot with Ant & Dec is the topic of my first piece for the magazine.

Transcript below.

Projects are essential, as a portrait photographer promoting your technique & style is a tried and tested method of securing new clients and interest in your work. Renown presenters Ant & Dec sat for a dual portrait just before the new normal became wonted. The portrait took centre stage in Northerners, a collection of faces who hail from the North of England, just like myself, exhibited in Manchester last year.

Now presenters, but once working actors my aim was to reignite these thespians, manifesting Ant & Dec as a couple of wise guys from a Scorsese movie. Totally opposite to their kind and pleasing TV profile, taking Ant & Dec out of their comfort zone. Challenging the established norm and instead injecting moments of dramatic improvisation.

Using two soft boxes, (main light) Lastolite Ezybox Pro Octa & (fill) Ezybox Pro Strip, with a large black Skylite Rapid to deepen the shadows for an intimidating broad lighting setup. Both subjects are sat at a table, leering at the viewer, I’m positioned in the centre on the level with the counter, pointing my (F7.1) camera lens up at both subjects, giving Ant & Dec a towering presence.

In my style of simplicity, the portrait is all about the ocular. Keeping it simple is my mantra in directing subjects. My instruction to both, “Ok wise guys, I owe you money, I can’t pay, intimidate me”. Ant & Dec obliged me with a series of provocatively menacing expressions direct to camera.

Lasting only 30 minutes my sitting with Ant & Dec was thoroughly enjoyable, spending most of the time, bantering broke the ice for these vivid and thought provoking portraits.

If you are thinking of attempting this style of portrait yourself, keep it simple, just use a desk or freestanding table. Sit your subjects in the centre of the frame, position light 45 degree angle, using a softbox or shoot through umbrella. Utilise a reflector opposite the lighting to bring out those shadows.