The Power of Compositing: How We Brought a Medspa Group Shot to Life

Ever been asked to capture a group photo in a tiny room with no space? That was my challenge when a local Medspa “Flawless Lab” asked me to take their staff's photo in an 8 ft wide room for their website, social media channels, and also a magazine article in AZ Foothills Magazine. Part of every photoshoot involves coming up with a plan and scouting. In this case, we wanted to produce on-location shots that showcased their Scottsdale facility. We needed to capture not only the group shot but also shots of the team in action. The most challenging of all was the group shot. I realized quickly after scouting the location that having a big enough space would be a challenge to fit in the two owners as we as four additional staff. Renting a studio or shooting outside wasn't an option. So, I decided to take on a technique I'd been eager to try for a while: individual portraits shot against a blank background, with the group photo assembled in post processing.

To start, my assistant David, and I cut up a 9 ft white Savage seamless paper backdrop to transport and set up in the room. It was just large enough to not fit in the vehicle not to mention would not have fit in the room anyway. When we got to the location we quickly unloaded and got to work to start building our set. As the ladies were finishing getting dressed, and getting touch ups on their makeup we set up and taped down our seamless paper and marked the foot placement for the subjects. I quickly gathered the team for a quick group huddle letting them know the game plan and that we would shoot one after another to keep it moving along quickly. individually I also coached them on posing and what exactly to expect as a final result. I shot on a tripod to maintain perspective between subjects and set the camera with the tallest subjects in mind, ensuring no one would be cropped out of the frame. We shot a variety of poses, including ones in chairs, to have all the options we needed afterwards to create something dynamic. Below are some examples of shots that did and didn’t make it into the final grouping. While the chairs were nice a challenge we ran into was it was quite low which didn’t flow well with the height differences.

For lighting we used strobes and modifiers by Swedish company Profoto. I’ve used them since the start of may career and continue to due to the fact their gear never lets me down. They are consistent and travel well because of their genius engineering and compact design. To light our subjects we used a Profoto Large XL umbrella behind me for fill, a medium reflective umbrella for a Rembrandt pattern as key, and a Profoto Soft white beauty dish gridded for creating more dimension around them that was also gelled with a warm CTO filter. We adjusted the key light depending on the subjects' height to maintain consistent lighting across their faces. We then also set up a MacBook Pro with a Tether cable to enable client feedback and nuanced lighting adjustments. After every person we shot we would look back and make sure we got the shots that we needed and moved on. In that particular moment we are looking for great flattering lighting, interesting poses as well as camera connection and expression to convert an overall warm and welcoming mood. Below I’ve included a behind the scenes capture of the fill light doing the work of softening up our shadows. This particular light is set to a low power and goes through the largest modifier I have. The point is to add just a touch of gentle light that works to fill in the shadows. The effect is subtle but does make a difference in the final quality. A lot of people miss out on what this one tool can do to elevate their work. I incorporate fill light in all my photos in different ways and to different degrees. Some times I will even shoot shoot the strobe right on to a wall or ceiling for a similar effect. Out doors often times the phoenix sun alone reflecting on walls and concrete surfaces will be all the fill I need.

For the final image I still needed a background. We could have gone with a simple solid color but I thought adding a stock luxury themed background would elevate the final image. I searched for stock images that would work for their brand and gave them options including backgrounds that looked like indoor rooms and movie sets. In the end the one we chose made the most sense and let the group stand out. After creating around 10 or more mockups of poses and backgrounds, assembling them was rather simple. Subject selection, retouching, and creating some shadows by the feet brought it all together. I gave it a light color grade and a small amount of noise to make it feel more like one cohesive image. If you do this subtly with all the prior steps it prevents you for looking like you tried to “glue” together two images that don’t belong together.To stay efficient we used this same setup for more images showcasing specific smaller grouping of the ladies holding syringes as well as precuts with a tighter crop. The rest of the images for the client were shot in the rooms they used with no background and completely different list setups.

As a Phoenix commercial photographer the important note in all this is to take a problem-solver approach and plan accordingly. “Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance”. With some strategy and creativity, we were able to achieve the shot that Flawless Lab needed for their marketing materials, while making it look effortless.

If you you’d like to learn more about my approach on commercial photographer and portraiture in general follow my work on instagram where I post about my process and will also post when I get future blogs up going through my processes on different shoots. There’s a lot of variables and things to learn that apply to different situations and I find that my peers and followers thoughly enjoy getting into the weeds of what went into the thought process.

Till next time. Cheers!

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Gear Used

• Canon R6 @ 50 MM
• ISO 200
• 1/180 SS
• F/5.6
• 1 Slik Tripod
• 1 Profoto air TTL remote
• 2 Profoto B10s
• 1 Profoto B1
• 1 Profoto XL soft white umbrella
• 1 Profoto Medium soft white umbrella with diffuser
• 1 Profoto Soft white beauty dish with 25 degree grid
• 1 Background stand
• 1 C stand
• 2 standard stands
• Apple M1 Pro 16 inch MacBook Pro
• Tether Tools cable tethered into Capture One

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