Portrait of the King of Busoga

I just returned from Uganda, where I was working on Part 2 of my story on Dr. Schiff's work for Saving lives in Uganda (which will be the feature in next month's blog).  The final day of this trip was an added bonus, as I got a chance to meet a king and create his portrait.  I can die now. :-)

For more context about how this happened, let's go back in time a little bit.  Last year, while hosting our first photo safari in Kenya, I was showing participants how to shoot dramatic portraits using wireless flash.  Here's an example (as always, click on any image to view larger and sharper):

And the behind-the-scenes shot showing how it was done using only one flash:

Pretty simple, no?

Fast forward to several months ago, when I was invited back to Uganda by Dr. Schiff.  "Our trip will coincide with the King's Coronation Anniversary Celebration.  You'll be invited to attend!".  That invitation was possible because the King has been working closely with Dr. Schiff and throwing some resources at his projects.  Dr. Schiff was also instrumental in getting the King to attend Yale and graduate with a degree of Master of Advanced Studies in Global Affairs.

Here's a picture of the two of them together, taken a couple of years ago.

So the prospect of actually meeting a King got me very excited!  I showed Dr. Schiff the portrait I took in Kenya last year, saying "I'd love to be able to take a dramatic portrait of the King using this lighting technique."

"Wow!" said Steve.  (I love hearing people say "Wow!" when they look at my images. :-) ).  "Maybe I can arrange some private time before the anniversary celebration to make that happen."

So I came prepared.  I brought a very small, portable studio with me, consisting of a Sony RX10 II (yes, II!), two Godox flashes, a trigger, and some light modifiers.  The great benefit of the RX10 II for this type of photography is its 1/1600th flash sync speed, great if you're not in a studio and still want black backgrounds.  (Like when I took the outdoor portraits in Vietnam back in 2018).  I figured if I even got 10 minutes with him, I would be able to do a great portrait guerrilla style with this modest equipment.

A very simple travel studio.  White diffusion cloth not shown.

Before the Event

The anniversary celebration capped off a busy week of science, going out to remote villages and doing soil, water, and animal stool samples from remote villages in Jinja, Uganda.  Upon our return one day we were greeted by a dance company who were practicing for the event.  After watching them for awhile they pulled us in and we all danced with them. :-)

(I now have a newfound respect for hula dancers.)  

Then the drummers invited me to "sit in with the band". :-)

The Anniversary of the Coronation

The event centered around the 11th anniversary of William Wilberforce Kadhumbula Gabula Nadiope IV, who is the reigning Kyabazinga (King) of Busoga, one of four constitutional monarchies in modern-day Uganda.

The annivesary celebration was an all-day event.  There were lots of performances, speeches, dancing, music, and a lively crowd.  But the king didn't emerge until about the time we had to leave for the airport.  The crowd went wild when he came out.

You can get a feel for it via some of the photos and videos below:

As you can guess by now, no private portrait time had been arranged.  And as we had to leave the celebration for the airport, a messenger was sent to our bus: "The King would like to take a photo with your team".

So I did the proper things one ought to do when meeting a king.  I bowed, addressed him as "Your Majesty", and congratulated him on his newborn twins and his recent graduation at Yale.  We all posed for some standard group shots.

Me, Dr. Schiff, The King of Busoga, and Dr. Ericson.

Having only about a 10-second window, I decided to punt.  "Please turn your head to the right" I told him.  He thought it was a strange request, but he did it and I snapped one photo with my cell phone.  "Maybe I could use a few Photoshop tricks to turn that into the image I had imagined", I said to myself.

"Please turn your head to the right"

Once I took that photo we were whisked off to the aiport.  On the plane I experimented with trying to simulate edge lighting with a black background via Photoshop.  The result below was the best I was able to do using the meager PS skills I had: I did a "Select Subject", copied and pasted it as a separate layer, painted the selection black, whitened the edges.  

Just the simulated rim light

Then I tried copying some of the original face back in:

Adding in facial details.

Yuk!  Okay, let's try Plan B.  When I had a 3-hour layover in Amsterdam I went online and tried the newest Generative AI tool I could: in this case Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (also nicknamed "Nano Banana".) whose claim to fame is consistent facial likenesses with its input.

"Light the person in the first image with the same studio lighting as the 2nd image".

Here's the result it spit back from that one-sentence prompt:

Wow!  I have to say right now that that's the first time I EVER got an AI image to look the way I had in mind on the first try.  So that's a great start.  Now how can I make it better?

"Now reposition his head so it's angled up about 15 degrees, as if
he's looking toward a higher power for leadership guidance."

Okay, getting better!  Now to add some rim light for balance, and darken the bottom half, then use Photoshop's neural filters to do a "super zoom" to up-res it to 7.5 x 11 @ 300 dpi:

The final product.  Now might be a good time to consideer retirement.

Now add a frame that's regal and not too fancy: 

I think that's it!

Pre-Emptive Strike

Q: "Gary, that's not a photo!!  It's an AI-generated image!  You're a fraud!!"

A: Yes, I'm aware of that.  But I wanted to create a portrait of the King, I pre-visualized my final image, and I used every tool I had at my disposal to realize that vision.  If you're a fan of my blog at all, you'll know that my definition of 'art' is 'anything that matches the creator's pre-visualized idea'.  And if you've perused my website for even a short time, you'll know that I certainly could have done it using the modest equipment shown earlier if the opportunity had presented itself.  So while it's not a photo, it's still the portrait I wanted to take.  I just used the most cutting-edge controversial technology available to realize it.

"Give him a halo backlight of a muted warm color"

Next month I'll share the article I'm writing about the continued work of Dr. Schiff and his team who are still investigating how the infant infections are happening in remote villages.  In the meantime, here's a slide show I assembled of my time in Uganda and the people I met.  View it full-screen for the best effect:

AI Used in this Blog Post

1. The product shot with the white background was taken with my phone and the white background automatically added via a free app called PhotoRoom .
2. Google Gemini was used for the dramatic lighting for the King.
3. Photoshop's "Super Zoom" Neural Filter was used to upsize the Gemini output by 4x.
4. https://Songer.co was used to generate the song in the above video given the prompt: "Write a tribute song for Uganda".  It also generated another track with a more rhthymic African feel, but I felt the track I ended up using conveyed the emotion I wanted better.

Until next time,

Yours Truly, Gary Friedman