The Messy Desk Rules

For years, whenever we made environmental portraits, we'd buzz around and clean up/rearrange the office, reception area or conference room where we were shooting. The idea was to create a calm vista where the subject of the portrait (typically a human) would dominate the field of view. The environment was supposed to be evocative, but not overpowering or too distracting.

Well, that approach worked sometimes, and other times, we'd end up taking all the personality out of the subjects' environment. Nearly "de-saturating" the environment, if you will.

Last week, we were invited back to Durrette Bradshaw to update portraits for a few of their attorneys.

This is Chris Hill, in his office...at his desk. Looks like the real thing, and it certainly is. Chris has developed a specialty construction law. He blogs about it at http://constructionlawva.com

There certainly is a lot of stuff in the image frame, but hopefully, through thoughtful composition (using the rule of thirds, and the natural triangle of the human head-torso,) we've made it easy for the viewer to focus on the person first, and then take a cue (or two) from the environment surrounding him. From a functional standpoint, we were able to set up the lights (there were 2 in the room--a smallish office about 8x12) and allow Chris to continue working at his desk.

One of the bonuses of Chris's office were the downtown buildings, including one under construction, just outside his window. This made it even easier for us (Winifred and I) to leave him at his desk. Our client, Amy Kimon Smith-Pike, agreed that the busy exterior environment balanced the cluttered interior environment, while adding yet another visual cue about Chris's professional expertise.

All images and text copyright 2009, Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC.