Kyruus Executives

If you haven’t already realized, photography is not my full-time job. No, I am a software engineer at Boston-based startup Kyruus. The thing I love about startups is that I get to wear many hats. Sure, I am officially a software engineer; but, sometimes I moonlight as a designer. Last week I got to play the role of executive photographer. Our top three executives regularly speak at various conferences around the country and were looking for updated headshots. Additionally, a couple publications wanted a few group shots to run with stories about the company. My services were requested and I gladly jumped at the opportunity to shoot my bosses! ☺ Our office didn’t have a space large enough to contain my 11-ft backdrop, so we turned a white-walled conference room into a studio. Similar to my normal studio setup, a single flash on the ground provided backdrop lighting to blow out the background. I used my now-standard clamshell lighting setup for key subject lighting. For group shots, I simply brought both lights to the same height and power levels to evenly light all subjects. What did I learn this go-round?

Shooting in small spaces ~~kinda~~ (definitely) sucks. This almost goes without saying. The biggest problem is dealing with light from the background flash spilling onto the subjects.
It’s nice to have friends who are better at Photoshop than you. Sometimes, no matter how many books you read or tutorials you view, you just don’t know what the heck you’re doing in Photoshop. In my case, I had trouble with flyaway hairs. Fortunately, my friend Diana helped me out.

The shots are below; but, before I close, I want to extend thanks to: - Dave Gandy for his creative direction on this shoot. Dave is also a photographer and the lead designer at Kyruus. Furthermore, he is the creator of Font Awesome. If you use Bootstrap for your web designs, check it out.