Studio Portraits: Allyson Bubb of Work Authentically
When Allyson Bubb contacted us about refreshing her headshot, we were delighted to be able to help her! Allyson is the founder of Work Authentically, a company that provides professional career coaching. With over twenty years of experience as a manager, coach, and mentor, Ally helps people understand who they are as professionals, what type of role suits their authentic self, and assists them through building an actionable plan to land that dream role.
Part of Ally’s goal in refreshing her headshot was to have various images that reflected the authentic parts of herself from the confident and approachable to competent yet casual. In all of the looks we put together, her personality shines through.
Taking the stress out of a photo shoot is a large part of helping our clients to infuse their personality into their portraits and headshots. One of the ways that we achieve this is by bringing the photo studio to them. With fully portable studio gear, we go to the client and set up in their home, office, or wherever they are most comfortable. They get the benefit of a full studio and the comfort of being in their familiar surroundings!
Ahead of Ally’s photo session, we sent her digital mock-ups of what her headshot might look like in terms of lighting style and pose. Giving her the ability to approve or make changes to the overall look and feel ahead of time also helps to take the stress out of a photo shoot and put the control in her hands. And, of course, during the shoot, we provide expert coaching on posing and positioning to alleviate any feelings of awkwardness that all non-models feel in front of the camera for “formal” photo shoot.
All of this added up to a photo session that was fun and produced fantastic headshots! Ally cycled through four wardrobe changes and they all turned out great!
The lighting configuration is a two light, two reflector setup against a black portable backdrop. The main light is a 400W monolight strobe in a 52” circular softbox. This light is set about 45 degrees to Allyson’s left side with the center about two feet above her head. The second light is providing additional light on her right side to help her stand out more from the black background; this was especially important for the photo with the black blazer. That light was 200W monolight strobe with a fresnel head set to its widest spread of light and was positioned behind and off to her right. There was a 36” reflector at waist level directly in front of her to bounce light up to lighten the shadows under the chin and nose. And finally, there was a 6.5’ x 3.5’ reflector positioned to her right to fill in the shadows on the right side of her face and body.
Everything came together for this shoot and we’re proud to have created great images with Allyson. More importantly, we were able to do so while creating a relaxed, stress-free experience for her as well!