Male Portrait

When we photographed Josh's portfolio we decided to create a little drama in the image.He was sporting a sport injury and his left shoulder was strapped with sticking plaster and we had to hide it.He is lit by a small (60x60cm) softbox camera left and a gridded spot camera right and from behind him,camera right is a spot that is bounced of a small reflector just "breathing" some light into the image.

If this was a magazine image we would photoshop the folds in his skin on his neck as the diagonal lines carry you down and away from his eyes. That is a compositional decision, I tend to want to portray people more natural way using light and camera angle/lens to flatter them.

Many of the images I see and many I produce there is a request to manipulate, I'm cool with that and the paying customer is the boss.

Sometimes it's like eating too much fast food...I just CRAVE some good honest cooking like a BBQ and salad !!.

I shoot BW film for my figurative exhibition images ( 18 years plus disclaimer) and although that in itself is a manipulation by means of the colour, what is in the frame stays in the frame. I have a wet darkroom to print this work at the New Carrington Studio and with the workload at the moment its still not fully operational (sigh).

Im looking forward to printing some negatives that Ive not done yet. I would also like to run some small group classes in the studio and darkroom if there is enough interest....its all on the "to do"list. Today, I', going to post some new portrait images on my commercial website www.ricwoods.com