Making Corporate Portraits Look Natural: The Lighting Behind the Shot

One of the challenges of corporate portrait photography is creating lighting that feels natural while still being repeatable months later.

IJ Productions was commissioned by Kokoda Property to photograph the team at their Richmond head office. The brief was to create portraits that felt approachable, polished and connected to the office environment rather than heavily staged.

To create the soft window-light look, photographer Ivan Lee placed a Godox AD200 with a Profoto reflector dish outside on the balcony, firing the light through sheer curtains into the office.

Melbourne weather had other ideas. With rain moving through during the shoot, a shopping bag became the very practical weather protection for the light.

The constantly changing cloud cover also meant the ambient exposure inside the office was shifting throughout the shoot. The power of the AD200 needed to be adjusted regularly to maintain consistency across the portraits.

Inside the office, a Profoto D1 with a softbox was used to add controlled light to the subjects while retaining the natural feel of the environment. The aim was to create soft, dimensional portraits without making the lighting feel overly obvious.

Several months later, IJ Productions returned to photograph additional staff. This time the shoot took place on a bright sunny day. Because the original lighting setup had been kept relatively simple, the look could be recreated and the new portraits integrated with the existing images.

A variety of poses and framing options were captured for each person, giving Kokoda Property flexibility across LinkedIn, website content, presentations, media releases and other marketing applications.

Good corporate portrait photography isn't necessarily about complicated lighting. Often, it's about controlling the light well enough that the final image still feels natural.

Client: Kokoda Property
Location: Richmond, Melbourne
Art Director: Rosie Wilkinson
Photographer: Ivan Lee
Digital Operator: Jonathan Ho