Shooting the Software Engineering brochure cover for Western Engineering

A little while ago I had the opportunity and the privilege of shooting the brochure cover for Western Engineering (Software Eng program). The requirement of the shot was predetermined and was to comprise of a young student working (writing) on a transparent board. The shot was supposed to be taken through the transparent board from the opposite side. My good friend and colleague Duane was instrumental for this shoot and wanna thank him specially for that. Andrea (an Engineering student from the program) was contacted to participate as the model.

 I would try and walk you through the shoot as it happened and try to lay out the thinking process behind it. The biggest challenge of this shoot was with lighting the set, which was a conference room in the department. I had to shoot from the other side of the transparent surface while the lights and the subject remains on the other side of it. The ambient light, which was fluorescent light (horrible for photographers) would not easily mix with the speedlights added to the set. Therefore, I adjusted camera settings to take as little ambient light as possible. This was shot with 50mm f1.8 lens (on a Canon 70D) and this particular lens was excellent for the shot we had in mind. The set was lit with two lights; one key light on the subject and one light for the background. The main challenge was to avoid reflections as much as possible while lighting the room sufficiently with the low power output of the speedlights. Apart from a small problem with the dress color (matching with the university colors), Andrea was amazingly comfortable and supportive during the shoot and had a great memorable experience. This would soon feature in the brochure (which is under revision at the moment) and will post that link once its available.

A fair amount of post processing was required to re-touch the portrait and it was a learning experience for me since it was my first attempt at re-touching. Will provide a step by step explanation of this process given sufficient spare time. This has already grown up to a long article :).. Here s the end result of the shoot.

Please note that this picture is copyrighted and should not be used for any purpose without a written consent. Also the logo is used only to provide context and reserve no copyright on the use of it.

Leave out a comment... would love to see what you think about this outcome. 

A special note of thanks to Dr. Samarabandu, Duane and Andrea for making this shoot a success.

LINK TO THE BROCHURE

Akila.