Studio portraits: shaping a relationship with light
Studio portraits are sometimes a bit of a challenge. They are part of these thing that look simple and straightforward and are anything but simple and straightforward. The Paris Salon de la photo is a great gathering that is dedicated to photography and photographers. It’s a perfect opportunity to meet fellow photographers and co-authors. In this post, I look back at an amazing studio photo session on the Nikon stand hosted by Little Shao and a very supple model, and make the link to a book by Dominique Agius just out on the subject of studio lighting for portraiture.
Studio portraits: playing with your model and the light
On October 7, 2023, I had an appointment at the Salon de la Photo with a few fellow Eyrolles authors. It was the perfect opportunity to fill my eyes and test out the new products on the stands.
Naturally, I went to the Nikon stand, where I attended a demonstration by Little Shao, dancer and photographer for the past 10 years. I didn’t know him before, but during the workshop I learned about his amazing photos, which are featured on social media as they should be. He is also a partner of Nikon, Manfrotto and RedBull, among other brands.
Little Shao is, according to his website, “a self-taught photographer known for his unique way of capturing movement”. He was born in France, where he grew up in the Paris suburbs, a fan of hip-hop and break dancing, in the late ’90s. Surprisingly, he went on to work in banking, and less surprisingly, left after 5 years to devote himself to photography.
As he put it at the show’s workshop, “our aim is to make beautiful images”, and it’s clear that he knows how to do just that.
Playing with your model … and with light
Mamadou Bathily, aka BATS, is an electro dancer. “Called electro or electro dance, [it’s] the first French urban dance based on atypical movements inspired by vogue, locking, house or popping, adapted to the rhythm of electro house” (source). I have to admit that I didn’t know this dance, although it’s been practiced since the 2000s.
Mamadou is a two-time champion of this discipline, in 2011 and 2018. He is also a model.
Light to illuminate the relationship with its subject
The aim of Little Shao’s session was to enlighten us on the “relationship to be created with your subject”, an extremely important point in every photo session. For my part, I always start by finding out about the person coming to the studio, so as to establish a relationship of mutual exchange and understanding. It’s not uncommon for people’s backgrounds to overlap, and this adds a new dimension to the session, making it a mutually enriching human experience, as opposed to a simple technical photo shoot.
And yet, there was plenty of technique in this session led by Little Shao in front of a full and attentive audience.
Armed with a superb Nikon Z8 connected to a TV screen, a flash trigger and a 24-70 mm lens, the photographer placed his model in positions as remarkable as they were improbable, made possible by the incredible flexibility of the 33-year-old dancer.
A dance photographer and studio portraits
For this, the dance photographer used “a versatile lens, but not necessarily the best focal length”. His preferred focal lengths are normally 50 or 85 mm, and especially the 105-135, his preferred zoom. During this session, he also experimented with the 20 mm f/1.8 with eye recognition.
For my part, I have to confess to a clear predilection for the 85 mm f/1.4 in the studio (on the right and on the equipment page) and for events, the 24-70 f/2.8 or 70-200 f/2.8 (also from Nikon). Of course, one can take portraits with any focal length. One should not rule out the 24 mm focal length for instance, provided you don’t put your characters into corners. But the 85 mm f/1.4 offers such exceptional sharpness and image quality that it’s hard to beat it. You quickly get used to the exceptional. What’s more, I like to move around with my subject, and the fixed focal length is a good remedy against immobility.
Studio portraits in extreme conditions
Little Shao carried out his demonstrations in the very difficult conditions of a trade show stand and, without claiming to have the perfection that this device did not allow, he succeeded in demonstrating the different possibilities of light with a single flash in a very convincing way.
So he moved his model to avoid shadows (or provoke them), installed the light below or above his subject, “avoiding to put it like a shower because the center is not necessarily the head”, or in the background with the reflector.
“Every attempt is a trial and error,” he tells us. Before trying a yellow gelatin “to give a sunset look” or changing the point of view with a 20 mm lens. “By adjusting the power of the flash, we solve the problem of parasites by plunging these undesirable elements into the dark”, he adds.
In short, a demonstration as successful in terms of technique as in the originality of the poses. Poses not unlike Emmet Gowin’s photograph, spotted at the remarkable black and white exhibition of December 2023 at the BNF.
This very pragmatic demonstration reminded me of my early days with studio flash. An incredibly powerful instrument, yet intimidatingly complex. But trial and error has its limits, which is why we’re going to take a look at a recent book by Dominique Agius, published by Eyrolles and entitled “La lumière de studio pour le portrait”.
------------
Je suis photographe et aquarelliste. Je pratique la photographie depuis l'enfance et la photographie numérique depuis 1995. J'en ai fait mon activité principale en 2021. Je possède un studio photo dans le 15e arrondissement de Paris
- Paris’ Own Romeo and Juliet - January 21, 2026
- Moving Forward in Happy 2026 - January 16, 2026
- Studio portraits: shaping a relationship with light - January 7, 2026
