Photographer Charlie Best shot Sally O’Neill, chief operating officer of the Royal Opera House, for the February edition of economia. He shares his passion for the job

What types of projects/shoots excite you most?
Anything I haven’t done before. Inevitably there is a certain similarity to many of the jobs I do, so the possibility of something new is always exciting. Apart from that, anything that involves being very well paid and travelling to an interesting location by private aviation is always welcome.

When it comes to portraits, how important is it to form a good rapport with the subject?
It’s crucial. Aside from professional actors and models, few people understand how to pose for a photo and most of them are fairly uncomfortable in front of the camera. You need to make some sort of a connection with them, so that they trust you and they can relax a little and be themselves.

How has your style evolved over the last 25 years?
I started working as an assistant on film documentaries and so when I switched to photography I had no idea about lighting. I taught myself and in my early years felt that a good photograph had to be lit and in a fairly obvious way. It made for some dramatic images, but these days I’m much more subtle about how I light people. The coloured gels don’t get much use any more. Additionally, there are trends in photographic style just as there are in fashion, so if you want your work to stay contemporary you have to be aware of those without necessarily trying to copy them.

Which jobs, if any, terrify you and which are the trickiest to make work?
I can’t think of any that would worry me too much, given adequate resources and sufficient time to prepare. I once did a cover shoot with F1 driver, David Coulthard, in 30 seconds… But because we were prepared and ready, we got the result we needed. Some of the trickiest ones are when you’ve decided you don’t need an assistant for reasons of economy and then you find out that you do.

What has been your biggest career challenge to date?
Staying in business. So far I’ve survived three recessions, the digital revolution, and a major client bankruptcy against a backdrop of continually diminishing fees and increasingly expensive equipment. Additionally, when I started the aspiration for any job was “as close to perfect as possible and don’t worry too much about the cost”. Now it’s “whatever can be done for this (much reduced) sum”. But once you adopt any sort of “that’ll do” mentality, you might as well give up. Fortunately there are still a few people in the industry who care about quality and I make it my business to try and work with them.

What challenges or surprises did you find during the Sally O’Neill shoot for economia?
Plenty. We had been allotted an hour with Sally from 10am until 11am and had hoped to be able to get on to the Opera House stage and set up lights at least half an hour before she turned up but when we arrived, we were told we couldn’t get on until 10am. So we had a problem before we’d even started. We decided to set up a secondary shot with some of the lighting trusses and props that were in the backstage area and then we were told the technicians had finished early and we could start. At that point I had a vague idea about how I was going to light Sally but it quickly became apparent that because of the limited space we had on stage, it wasn’t going to work as planned so I started to talk to the lighting guys to see what they could help us with and they came up with some spotlights in the dome which gave me more or less the effect I was wanting, although they were much less bright than I had hoped.

And did it all go smoothly from there?
It wasn’t easy. By the time Sally had arrived I was having to think simultaneously about how to frame the shot, how to light it and also how to balance my flash with the theatre lights because we were right at the limit of what was technically feasible – and the allotted time was ticking away fast. Finally we got a lighting balance that I was happy with and got the cover shot done before relocating backstage for the second shot only to find that the technicians had moved all the props we were going to use, so we had to come up with a different idea on the spot. We finished the shoot with a minute to spare. It was somewhat stressful.

How do you judge whether a shoot has been successful?
Normally on a shoot where you’ve had time to get organised, you can devote most of your mental energy to engaging with the subject and working with them to get the shots looking right. At that point, barring some catastrophic technical hitch, you can be pretty much certain that the job’s gone well.