Portrait tips from the pros
Rory Lewis
Rory won the Portrait of Britain award for four years in a row and is a National Portrait Gallery BAME artist. He also runs courses and mentorship programmes. See www.rorylewis.studio and @rorylewisofficial on Instagram.
David Morrisey
‘Described by the British Film Institute as one of the most versatile English actors of his generation, David Morrissey is noted for the meticulous preparation and research he undertakes for his roles – you may have recently seen him in the hit BBC drama series, Sherwood,’ Rory explains. ‘I captured David’s portrait for a new project entitled Selah, drawing inspiration from the Old Master painters such as Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Titian and Ribera. I have attempted to masterfully recreate the light, atmosphere and tones of classical portrait paintings.
‘I like to call this position the hero shot, positioning the subject side on, looking across their shoulder. I am positioned slightly lower, thus making David look tall and prominent.’
Studio lighting can seem daunting if you have never tried it before, but as Rory explains, ‘It’s not nearly as scary as most people think. To my mind, it’s all about keepng things simple. Most of my portrait sittings are like this one, using just one or two lights. Here, I used two Profoto B10 heads, with two Small Octa Softboxes. One was behind at 220 degrees right, and the other was in front of David, again to the right at 140 degrees. I also used a Manfrotto 1x1 Skylight Rapid to the left to tone down the shadows.’
David was captured at 1/100sec, f/7.1, ISO 100. ‘I never deviate from either f/5.6 or 7.1 in my portraits, using the medium format Hasselblad X1D II 50C camera,’ adds Rory. ‘These
