Portfolios,Make-up, Lights and Photoshop

We often get asked about lighting, light shapers,make-up and post production.We find that there are no set rules, just a few guidelines. There are few things that I like to do.......

We are appreciated by our graphic designers as we strive to produce the best exposures/negatives/digital negatives and lighting ratios "in camera".

If our images are being handled in post production outside our studio by a marketing company ( eg we shoot for little green frog marketing) or graphic artist which is often the case then image treatments will differ. Our images may be posted to web, print and/or newspaper print, television commercials or billboards or all of the above, then there is different treatment for each use. For example web uses sRGB colour and our printed brochures are in CMYK.I shoot everything on RAW and Adobe RGB and convert to sRGB as necessary. I know that there are times when I could bang out jpegs but I don't want to risk having a hero shot that could have been so much better in RAW.

I find a sense of pride when we able to consistently hand over image and see the smile as our graphic artist don't have to do work with images where the photographer has the "oh they'll fix it in photoshop later" attitude.

There is no substitute for good hair and make-up. Kiera (above) asked us to shoot a portfolio for her to give her partner as a gift.I took an image at our interview ( left ) using a softbox, its a good way to plan the shoot if I have an image of the person. Its good to know if the person is blonde, brunette,what body shape, if they wear glasses.

This all this helps with lighting ,backdrops etc.It's not always possible to meet first but its a luxury I like.The client also feels more comfortable.The image of kiera and the right is shot with a beauty dish after hair and makeup.Ive not photoshoped Kiera's skin in this image, its all lighting and subtle makeup. The most difficult images to shoot are the orange spray tan subjects....getting the colour balance correct I find a challenge.

Strobe shot through the ladder I believe creates a more 3D look to this scene.

Ebony (above) was shot with a gridded beauty dish. I really like this light, I can control the fall off to get the treatment I want.If positioned correctly I can get a highlight on the gelled background which can produce a subtle vignette.I adjust this highlight by bringing the key light ( the gridded beauty dish ) closer to the subject.The inverse square law of light ( doubling the distance from the light source to the subject= a reduction of 75% of the light) is a helpful when lighting subjects in the studio. Move the light closer to the subject and reducing the exposure and the falloff is very dramatic in short distances. By the way I light the background first before introducing my key source.

The image of Ebony above is shot with barndoor strobes lighting the seamless paper backdrop and the key light was a large softbox and white reflector.

The image from Sarahanne's portfolio shoot is lit from below by a small softbox and above from a larger softbox.I find this this lighting can make your subject look a little spooky if the light balance is off.Its unnatural for the light to be coming from below so care needs to be taken,I move the light forward towards the camera and feather it, this eliminates a shadow on the bridge of the nose.I wanted the focus to be on the eyes and although I used a softbox above,I dialed it right down sometimes less is more.Ive lost some hair detail in this low res jpeg that is evident in my finished tiff files.By the way I've been told that tiff files are the most robust of files,even more so than psd files,Can anyone verify that for me?

This image shows and increase in the hair light and a different position of her head,more detail in the hair and a little more light on the background,there is more information in this shot ,personally,I like the mood of the first shot.Its subjective,what do you think?

More images at my website www.ricwoods.com