I don’t know if you’re aware or not, but only a third of the photographs in my portrait and headshot portfolio are natural light portraits; the rest are all shot with flash. People are generally surprised when I tell them this, probably because we’re so used to seeing really bad flash pictures, where the use of flash is extremely harsh and not subtle. We don’t instinctively think that flash can create natural-looking light, but light is light, and with the proper light modifiers, you can make artificial light look like natural light. I’m a huge advocate for proper artificial light use, but of course when it isn’t necessary, I leave my lights in my bags. In the case of this recent shoot with Reyhanne, we had a room flooded with beautiful natural light and we took advantage of it.
Reyhanne comes from a business management, administration, and human resources background at HEC. I love that her focus is on the ethical and sustainable side of businesses, and she worked as a consultant for different organizations over the years. Now, Reyhanne is starting her own line of natural eco-friendly beauty products, where she’ll be sourcing her ingredients from different parts of the world and collaborating closely with the producers (in a way similar to Ten Thousand Villages). And on the side, she’s also an aspiring yoga instructor (a studio with big windows and beautiful natural light is something we’d both love to have).
For her portraits, we were aiming for photographs that represented her and that conveyed a sense of calmness, tranquility, and peacefulness. I wanted a natural light look (whether I used natural light or artificial light to achieve it is irrelevant). In the end, we were both very happy with the results. Here's what Reyhanne had to say about me (en Français!):
Consciencieux et attentif, Alex a une approche de la séance de photo que je qualifierai d’holistique: de son écoute des besoins, de la saisie de toute la complexité de la personnalité, de l’offre d’un cadre agréable, à la réalisation même des photos. That's pretty awesome to hear as a photographer. You can read her full testimonial here.
I’m glad to say we’ll be staying in touch - Reyhanne will be joining my Montreal mastermind group! I’m hosting our first dinner tomorrow with the 6 other members, and everyone will be meeting for the first time. I’m excited!
