Maree-another image from the "Tule" shoot

Maree with $20 worth of tule.

Tech info: On boom above camera gridded snoot on SB600 1/4 CTO@1/4 zoomed 85.Camera right lower snooted-SB24 magentax2.Camera right top of frame snooted SB26 red gelx2,top of frame snooted SB26 CTOx2.D300 24-70 2.8.Triggered by PW.

Lisa's Success Story-A 95kg weight loss.

Lisa is a fantastic success story. Lisa a client of Curves Gym, Mayfield branch.I was commissioned to do a shoot for diane the Curves Magazine.

The brief was to supply a selection of images where Lisa looked vital and dynamic to capture her excitement at losing 95kg. Sample pdf was sent as samples of the layout.Clothing guidelines were no frills,plunging necklines or florals.Darker solid colours were the preference. We decided to add some purple the signature colour of Curves. Text will be added to images so there needed to be provision for that. Through discussion with the art director a seamless white studio shot was arrived at, with various poses.Facing the subject in both directions enables the graphic artist freedom when laying up the page ( they appreciate it).
Once the brief was filled we decided to add some more dramatic images, hard lights and some showing the light source. Many of our clients like a "behind the scenes" style of image. I think we are swinging the other way from OVERLY DIGITALLY MANIPULATED images and PHOTOSHOP DISASTERS. These images of Lisa are not liquified, pushed, pulled or reduced.
The more dramatic images were a hit with both the art director and Lisa and they are the selection that will appear in the magazine.

ric woods photography studio totally enjoyed the shoot and sharing the excitement of Lisa's fantastic achievement.

Waterford County Shoot ...

Photography is FANTASTIC, I enjoy it a great deal.The people I work with are very creative and they do inspire me. Most of the time when I'm on a shoot I'm full of adrenaline and coffee.

Here is a short movie behind the scenes of a shoot from the Waterford County Land Development campaign. It was late last year on a very cold day. I had previously blogged a few images from this campaign but the small movie is more entertaining for some.

Being self employed it can be difficult to take time out to walk on the beach, eat a good meal,catch up with the family and have some fun creatively,like the blog...Today, I was able to do them all...and secure a new client from Interstate.

The creative for this shoot was under the watchful eyes of Jamie Gilmore ( Little Green Frog Marketing) and his talented crew of young bloods.
By the way all my experiences with horses have been a little on the edge...including this time....Yes they do smell your fear

I was shooting on a D300 Nikon ( Raw Files) Lenses were 80-200 2.8,24-50 2.8 and my fave 24-70 2.8. ]

This is the images as it appeared in the sales brochure...

Blue World Order-band shoot ric woods photography

We shot about 90 images in the 90 minutes we had in total to setup and bump out...it was Friday afternoon at knock off time for the factory and some were keen to lock up on time. These are few of the band member profile images, these will be cropped and cleaned up in photoshop as necessary
rob -guitar


crooksie-bass

bono-percussion

I usually supply extra images of backgrounds etc and details to make the web builder and graphic artists life easier. AFTER I fill the clients brief/shot list I will shoot images I think will work and on deliver may give a few suggestions on the use of some images.This image below may work behind text on the back of the CD. Most clients appreciate the extra effort, Ive found the less experienced stylist can be a little rigid in taking on suggestions

I hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes glimps...ric and maree

Officeworks Staff Portrait & In Store Images

I was commissioned to shoot a staff portrait of the manager of Officeworks and some images of a child showcasing the new kid-sized office cart. I really like this kind of work because for a start its about people and portraits, besides there are always challenges, with time,space ,equipment and at times personalities.The Melbourne head office the style sheet and other image instructions.
I was to met Robert,the manage and set up a studio somewhere in store where I was to make several images of Robert on a pure white background. Well I finally set up the backdrop clamped to the shelves near the loading dock.

I'm using 2 mono bloc 500w with barn doors to control the spill and bounce and for the Main light the 500w strobe is firing through a medium soft box with a silver reflector as fill on the right side.Its really important to have the right gear on board as you never know what you will encounter at the venue.SAFETY SAFETY SAFETY you must have Public Liability insurance ( $10,000.000 is minimum) sand bag the light stands,rope of the area,tape down the leads if there is the chance of a trip and observe all the clients safety instructions IE fluro vests,footwear etc.

As usual a brand new power board I plugged in didn't work,so I had to source another from way up the front of the store...BACK UPS BACK UPS BACK UPS....really the name of the game

So I set up the studio and to get the exposure right I need the background strobes to read between 1.3-1.7 stops brighter than the main light on the subjects so that the white is blown out .The subject needs to be far enough away from the background so the we don't get flare and lose edge definition.

The way I do this is to make sure that the reading on the front of subjects facing the lens ( in this case F8) is about the same as the reading on the back of the head pointing towards the the background.Get it? If I have F8 at the front and he is too close to the background and I get a reading of f11 or f16 the edge of his face and hair are GONE !! If that happens the graphic artist will tell the boss NEVER hire you again.As you can see from the shot of my hand holding all the the right cards( graphic artists LOVE me) there is a clean edge on my hand and the colours are all defined...in spite of the very low res off the web.

You can use the histogram on the camera to balance strobes but that is slow I use a light meter. Remember don't rely on the image in the screen of the digital SLR, the manufacturers are know the "trick" up that image so all your shots look good.Always use the histogram.Digital images do not like to be overexposed so keep an eye on the right end of the scale.

If you shoot your hand like this BEFORE the talent arrives you have a pretty good chance that your exposures will be close.As it was I needed to adjust the height of the Key (main) strobe as Robert was taller than Id judged.Get the set up finished asap then the most important thing is APPROPRIATE dialogue to have your subject be at ease.Many people are shy and in the corporate world its not been their choice to have the portrait made.

Where is the child for the photograph in store?

Oh, we don't have one....we didn't get the releases in time.

Rather than letting this shoot go,I decided to find my own talent within the the shopping centre.

Which I did ...I found this perfect little boy whose dad was pleased to be part of it.I'm very experienced shooting kids, so engaging him was a snap.

I was able to send these images away to the delight of head office because they were not expecting to have the images of the child and the shopping cart. I got a signed release from the dad and gave office works permission to use his image.

Going that extra mile for the client really pays off, the PR company that rang me in the first place was real grateful that I gave them all the images they need within 24 hours..

These images were exactly what the client wanted ,I followed their style sheet to the letter.If you want to be a FULL TIME professional photographer you need to be able to produce the results and re-produce the results....

By the way I always shoot RAW files....