AFRICAN TRAVEL STUDIO

FIELD NOTES

Category: Studio Notes

Location: Cape Town

Year: 2018

Author: Thom Pierce

Innocent Mukheli at the Airbnb African Travel Summit, 2018

In 2018 I was asked by Airbnb to set up a portrait studio at their African Travel Summit at The Waterfront in Cape Town. Over the course of 3 hours I photographed over 100 attendees from all around Africa.

These event studios are always a mammoth task, but a challenge that I really enjoy. The logistics of getting everyone through the studio with a portrait that they are happy with is no easy feat and is only achievable through years of experience photographing people.

My simple 3 light studio at The Waterfront in Cape Town

You have to move quickly and make people feel at ease straight away. Most people don't immediately feel comfortable in a formal studio setting, especially with dozens of other people looking on, so it is important to know how to approach the situation with warmth and confidence. Posing needs to be quick and varied, with enough leeway for the individual to improvise if they need.

The limitations of a studio are many, usually a plain background and a few pieces of furniture, but those limitations also remove distractions and simplify the scene to a point where the personal character shines through.

I used three lights for this setup, a key light (the big one on the right), a fill light (the smaller one on the left) and a hair/rim light (the long thin one next to the backdrop). Using the Profoto air controller on my camera to change the brightness of each of these meant that I could quickly compensate for skin tone and pose, without changing the position of the lights.

Here is a gallery of some of my favourite images from the day...

For me this is almost an extreme sport. My team and I had to be well practiced and work together for it to run smoothly. Given the time we had and the amount of people, we had about two minute per person to shoot, edit and send them the images. No time for breaks, no time for mistakes!

I love this kind of studio shoot because it pushes me to really think on my feet, connect with people quickly and try to make something original and appealing for them.

Let me know what you think of the Airbnb shoot below...

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