Shooting "difficult people" with Tom Barnes

"I get sent to difficult shoots all the time," says advertising and commercial portrait photographer Tom Barnes. "I had to photograph someone the other day and they were four hours late. The press person came in and said, 'She's in the worst mood. You're going to have 10 seconds with her. She does not want to be here.'"

The story has a happy ending, though. "I ended up photographing her for 45 minutes, got five different set-ups and we had a great time," says Tom. "She was like: 'Thank you so much for turning my day around.'"

And that was no accident, but a testimony to Barnes' skills as a people person, which he's finely honed over a long career in portraiture.

Fun approach

When a subject arrives on a shoot, Tom will drop everything and spend time with them, finding out how their day was and what they're into, doing whatever he can to make them feel at home. "You can tell so much just through the face's textures and expressions," he says. "The face and the eyes really give it away. Plus, I quite like to have fun on shoots. If you're photographing a car or a flower, you look mad if you start talking to them. I quite like jacking around and having a bit of a laugh. And it's really been the best thing I ever did, just focusing on people."

These days, Tom is fully booked with world-class campaigns, and he leans heavily on his Canon EOS 5DS in his work. "As soon as the EOS 5DS came out, that was it; I knew that was what I wanted," he recalls. "I think I was one of the first in the UK to have two of them. Everyone was getting one, and I kicked up a stink and said I had to have two matching bodies. Ever since, I've shot everything with them. I absolutely love them."

Boasting a 50.6MP sensor as well as advanced signal processing, thanks to Dual DIGIC 6 processors, the EOS 5DS is an obvious choice for advertising photographers who need ultimate image quality, paired with the ergonomics of an EOS body. "The main advantages that come with the camera are the resolution matched with the speed," says Tom. The camera's successor in the current Canon range is the EOS 5DS R.    

For lenses, Tom turns to the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM and the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II USM. "I did have the 85mm f/1.2, which I love," he adds. "But I've just sold it and I've since bought the 70-200mm, because I have projects coming up where I need a zoom rather than a prime, and I must say I'm really happy with it. The 70-200mm is good because the flexibility it gives me is excellent. But that said, all of those lenses give me great flexibility.

"Now I use the 24-70mm and 70-200mm on every single shoot; I very rarely use the 16-35mm but it is there just in case I need it. For portraits, the longer the focal length, the more flattering the image. Therefore I never really need to go super-wide, but in case I'm stuck in a really small area and need to get a wide shot, that's my go-to. Those lenses are great. When you nail the focus they really sing."

Perhaps more surprisingly, considering his signature "moody" look, Tom is not big on post-production. "I'm not going to lie to you and say everything is done in-camera; the toning and contrast is done afterwards," he says. "But I don't really do much post. I don't have thousands of hours to spend in the office, tweaking and making sure everything is right, so getting it right in-camera saves me so much time. I have a couple of light modifiers [mounted on his studio flash] that I absolutely love and they give me the look that I'm after."