Fenix on assignment: Duke Energy Exec

This portrait presented several interesting challenges (but I'm actually quite pleased with the end result). Lighting explanation follows for those interested:

Challenges:

1. Of course the only available time to shoot this person would be 2:00 in the afternoon in brutal cloudless up-and down UGLY UGLY UGLY light.
2. The exhaust scrubbers and and stack had to be visible and behind the principal subject--so backlighting the guy on the other side of the facility was out.
3. The stack is several hundred feet tall, yet needed to be in the shot with the guy.
4. There needed to be some negative space for type above the guy's head in a nearly square vertical image.

Solution:
After driving all over the site, I managed to find the single small patch of shade under a coal conveyor (4'-square) that would give me a view of the scrubber vessels and stack that was a moderate distance away from the structure.

With a polarizer on the camera to darken the sky and cut the reflection on the metal structure, I exposed for the background. In the shade, the ambient exposure on the guy is where his left ear is (under exposed several stops). I quickly set up an AB-1600 studio light on a stand, powered by a AB-VagabondII, and rigged a baffled 36-in umbrella to give me a not-too soft light. Shortlighting the subject from the same direction (but not angle) as the sun, gave me the shape I wanted on his face. I gradually brought the artificial light up to where it more or less matched the sun for intensity. I chose not to fill, and to rig only one light so as to retain a high-ratio look somewhat in line with the natural light.

Lens choice was prety important here because of foreground background compression--a long lens brought the factory forward so that it towered twice as high as the engineer, nor would it have allowed both to be in focus. So, I opted for a wide angle lens, checking the distortion and deciding to center the guy and crop it from the horizontal position so as to keep the guy in the least distorted area (23MP means I can crop). I realize I did have to sacrifice a little paunch in the lower bit of the frame.

I think the akimbo pose works because I really wanted a heroic feel for this portrait and that idea is complimented by the sense of scale.