SHOOT LIKE A PRO
Peter Fenech meets Paula Stopka to discover how she selects her urban locations and uses them to the max to shoot portraits with acreative edge
I was recently reading a book on the history of photography and, leafing through its pages, I couldn’t help but appreciate the freedom digital imaging affords us. Looking at early portraits taken on plate cameras – each of which required exposure times of several seconds, if not minutes, due to the low media sensitivity – it was easy to see how restricting that equipment was in terms of composition, backgrounds and lighting conditions.
While studio photography is clearly still a large part of the portrait photographer’s workflow, modern technology allows us to take our setups outside, making use of any location as a stage. Of course, leaving the controlled conditions of a studio space introduces its own challenges. It’s those unique quirks I’m keen to explore today and Paula Stopka is the person armed with all the answers. I’m meeting Paula for a location portrait shoot in London. Cities offer a huge variety of textures and colours to work with but they are also full of distracting details, something that Paula will have to be mindful of when composing her images. I start by asking her what she looks for when first arriving at an outdoor location and how she plans her portraits around what is on offer. “Usually, what I do is I pay attention to everything that is going on around me, from the light to any unique features I see in the buildings” she explains.
“Normally, I’ll go to the location by myself before the shoot.I might take some pictures on my phone and scout the area so, once the client arrives on the day, I know exactly where I want to position them. Sometimes, during the shoot, a few new ideas will come into my mind and I’ll ask my subject whether they would like to try a few different poses. So, while it is quite open and flexible, the shoot already has some kind of structure.”
Upon seeing Paula’s subject today, Tahir, my eye is immediately drawn to his bright orange jumper, which will stand out beautifully against the grey concrete of the urban surroundings. This is clearly not a happy accident, so I ask Paula how she decides what does and what doesn’t make a great portrait background out ‘in the wild’ and how she plans to direct the subject in that
