Such a gentleman.

The delightful Harry Anderson (@harrytownmillpottery on instagram) of Town Mill Pottery, Lyme Regis, photographed for the I am Lyme project.

Smiling potter in a striped T-shirt and clay-spattered apron holding a jug in his pottery workshop — Harry Anderson - Town Mill Pottery, Lyme Regis

💡 The lighting

I kept things simple here, one light only.

I positioned it so the feathered edge lit Harry, giving soft light with shape through highlight and shadow.

Overhead lighting diagram of a pottery workshop showing a Westcott flash and softbox, camera and wheel

This also avoided flooding the area with light and flattening the picture.

The position also matched the direction of the lamp light bouncing off the wall behind him, visible in the shot.

Photographer at a camera on a tripod photographing a potter in his workshop, lit by a softbox

Town Mill Pottery has such a calming feel to it, and talking with Harry is the same. I wanted the lighting to reflect that, soft and subtle, hence the 4' x 3' softbox.

❓Why the tripod

As always, the camera was on a tripod; not for sharpness, but so I could keep eye contact with Harry throughout. Hiding behind the viewfinder would have brought on that "I'm about to be photographed" feeling, and I wanted to avoid that.

I haven't looked through a viewfinder in years. I trust the kit to nail focus, and I can check it on the iPad anyway.

📷 Kit

Westcott FJ250 Strobe
Westcott 4' x 3' Rapid Box Switch Softbox
TTL, -1 flash compensation
Fuji X-T5 with 33mm f/2.8 (roughly 50mm equivalent) at f/2.8
Tethered into Capture One Mobile on my iPad Pro

My Kit / Gear Page

Big thanks to my mate Steve Healy for the Behind the Scenes pictures.

Two smiling men standing side by side in a pottery workshop, one in a clay-spattered apron