Ivanka Trump – May 27, 2014 (Upscale embedded with SynthID)

The Gear

Lens: Nikon 58mm f/1.4G

Camera: Nikon D4S

Settings: 1/400s, f/1.4, ISO 250

Technique: Prisming with a custom handheld grip rig

The Goal

Differentiate her portrait from her father’s in about 30 seconds.

The Vision

Earlier that morning I’d photographed Donald Trump using my classic three-image Brenizer method… the same approach I’d used on countless portraits before. He’s one of the rare subjects who actually asked to see the back of my camera, and he liked his photo so much that he asked his daughter to step over and do a quick portrait with me as well.

Suddenly I had maybe 30 seconds to come up with something completely different.

It reminded me of photographing Denzel Washington and Michael Phelps back-to-back… needing to create two distinctly different portraits with almost no time to reset. But where that situation gave me at least a little advance notice, this was pure improvisation.

I have a small grip system I put together specifically for prisming… it lets me handhold a prism element on both the left and right side of my lens simultaneously so I can get two different effects without fumbling around. It’s something I go over in depth at my workshops, but the basic idea is that you’re creating reflections and light distortions on either edge of the frame while keeping your subject sharp in the center. The trick is positioning everything so the prism elements catch interesting light sources in the environment… in this case, the bright windows and fixtures in the Holeman Lounge.

Shooting at 1/400s let me keep my aperture wide open at f/1.4 for that shallow depth of field without needing an ND filter. The D4S has a native sync speed of 1/250s, but with Auto FP high-speed sync enabled I could push past that and still fire the strobe. It’s one of those technical details that makes a real difference when you’re trying to balance ambient light with flash in a bright room… without HSS I’d have been stuck at 1/250s and either closing down my aperture or adding an ND filter, neither of which I had time for.

The Story

This was a standard National Press Club luncheon with Donald Trump speaking about “Building the Trump Brand.” Ivanka Trump was there as a special guest… she was Executive Vice President for Development and Acquisitions at the Trump Organization at the time.

The portrait was made during the receiving line in the Holeman Lounge, the same spot I’ve used for dozens of these portraits over the years.

She was very gracious. I actually got a bunch of takes of her smiling and asked her to do one more serious. I really prefer the serious expression… especially combined with the abstract prisming effect. I think serious plays better when you’re balancing that kind of visual intensity and chaos. A big smile would have fought against the dreamy distortion instead of complementing it.

The Nikon 58mm f/1.4G was one of my all-time favorite lenses. I shot with it for years and I still miss it. I’ve actually considered rebuying one to use with my Nikon ZF… the rendering is just beautiful, with modern sharpness and coatings but that classic Nikon character. It’s a very different lens than the vintage Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 I used for portraits like Denzel Washington’s… the Noct is manual focus and has its own dreamy quality, but the 58 f/1.4G gives you autofocus reliability when you need to move fast. And on this day, I needed to move fast.

The Lesson

Be ready to change everything in an instant. I was completely set up to photograph one person using one technique, and within 30 seconds I had to deliver something entirely different for someone else. Having a go-to technique like prisming that I’d practiced extensively meant I could pull it out under pressure without overthinking it.

Also… when you’re working with abstract effects, a serious expression often works better than a smile. The visual complexity of the prism distortion needs something grounded to balance it. Her calm, direct gaze gives the viewer an anchor in what would otherwise be pure chaos.