The day I shot two priests and got away with it.

Msgr Delaney

When I first started working as a photojournalist, I looked down upon portrait photographers. I never want to be one of "them". That kind of photography was just beneath me. Now after years and years of making images for a daily newspaper I have come to the conclusion that I AM a portrait photographer. who knew?

The majority of the photo assignments that I get when I am at work are of the portrait variety. So I have come to the conclusion that instead of trying to avoid doing portraits, I may as well admit that I actually enjoy doing "that" kind of photography.
This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to photography two priests. Each of them continue to say mass in the Pueblo area. One of them is in his 80s and the other is a centenarian. I wanted to photograph them in a way that lent itself to their calling, faith and longevity.

Monsignor, Delaney was the first of the two that I photographed. He is 100 years old and still very much "with it". When I arrived Chieftain reporter Loretta Sword was just meeting him in the office he shares at the parish. I was introduced to him and was asked where I'd like to photograph Msgr. Delaney, I asked if we might be able to use the church's sanctuary. So we moved into the church. I took a look around and the magnificent sanctuary and decided while I liked the stained glass windows in the rear of the room, I liked the faux painted wall and the virgin Mary that were on the stage area behind the pulpit.

Beauty dish

I put one speedlight flash on a light stand to my left and pointed it in Msgr. Delaney's direction. I and used a "beauty dish" to soften the light giving him a very natural look. The beauty dish as a diffuser that can be stretched over the entire front of the dish which I also used to soften the light even more for this photo. The soft light spilled past him and lit the likeness of the virgin Mary that was behind him. I played with this for a while working to get enough light on both my subject AND the background.

I didn't want to allow too much of the ambient light into the photo because it had a green cast to it that I wanted to avoid. To do this I wanted to make sure that there is enough light coming from the strobe to completely light my background. The tones in the photo were all on the brownish-red part of the spectrum and I think that worked here especially because of his skin tone and the clothes that the subject was wearing.

To get everything to kind of work for this image I shot it from a low angle to get the background likeness where I wanted it to be in relation to the subject. I really like to incorporate my subjects' hands into my portraits so using the cane for his hands was a no-brainer. I just asked if he'd put his hands on it and I didn't do any other instructions in that area. What he did just look so natural that I was good with what he was doing. I made a few test images to get the light settings right, then made about a doze or so photos while moving a bit and having him look at me. Then it was just time to tear down my little set-up and get outta there while the reporter continued to talk to him.

A little later that same day I went to St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral. I was there to photograph Msgr. Racki who had just finished saying a noon mass. He asked if it was okay to wear the robes or should he go change? I figured that the robes would work great so I told him to keep them on and I began to get the light and beauty dish set up for this portrait that would be a full length image.

Msgr Racki

I looked around and noticed that there was some sunlight spilling into the sanctuary through a window right where I was going to shoot this priest. So I positioned him in that sunlight and placed the light  with the beauty dish to the subject's left. I made a couple of adjustments to allow for some ambient light to be used to light the background.

I also shot this one from a low angle. I did this because first of all, that he was a bit on the short side and that I wanted to give him some  decent space  in the image. I also wanted to frame him in the center of the arch but not have anything seem to be growing out of his head while he stood there.

It turned out to be pretty simple really. There are always little things that I might change to improve the photo if I were to do it over, but all in all this one seems to have worked out. I have come to really enjoy using a beauty dish. Maybe one day I will get the hang of it. Til then I will just have to make due with the knowledge I am gaining each time I use it.