Old Master lighting
Cinematic Portraiture in the Old Master Tradition
Light is the story
On Sunday 1 November, I’m teaching a two-hour live masterclass on Zoom: Cinematic Portraiture in the Old Master Tradition.
Read MoreThere's a moment, going back through the frames from a sitting, where you can feel the difference between a photograph that merely records a face and one that holds the room. It is rarely a question of the camera. Almost always it comes down to two things: how the light falls, and how the person in front of you was directed in the seconds before the shutter.
Read MoreThere's a particular kind of luck in photographing someone you know completely. With Sasha I've now made more portraits than of any other subject I've ever worked with, and these latest frames from the LA studio are some of the ones I keep returning to. The cropped platinum hair, the stacked silver ear pieces, the Adidas track top with its three stripes — there's an austere, almost sculptural confidence to her here that the lighting was built to serve rather than soften.
Read MoreI'll be back at the Midtown Manhattan studio from Monday 25th to Sunday 31st May 2026 — seven days, one room, a short list of sittings, and what I suspect will be a faintly absurd amount of coffee. If you've been meaning to book a portrait, refresh a headshot, or sit down for a one-to-one workshop, this is the window.
Read MoreOn Saturday 23rd May 2026, from 10am to 3pm, I'll be running a one-day portrait workshop at the Downtown LA studio on Recreating Caravaggio. Five hours, two lights, professional models, and a small enough room that nobody can hide at the back. Tickets are $450, places are limited, and the date is closer than the calendar makes it look.
Read MoreAlex Blake came back to the studio recently for an update to his headshots — the kind of return visit that punctuates most working actors' careers every two or three years, when the credits have grown, the face has settled into something a little more itself, and the agent has started asking gently whether the current image is still doing the work it ought to. Alex's was, mostly. But "mostly" is the word that brings actors back.
Read MorePortraits of Babs Olusanmokun, London | Rory Lewis
Portrait photographer Rory Lewis on capturing actor Babs Olusanmokun (Dune, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) at his London studio — five years in the making.
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