MAK workwear-ric woods photography

Troy from MAK workwear commissioned us as he is looking to update his images on his website of clothing for trades men and women.Capturing Fluro Colours with reflective stripes??....NO WORRIES !!


Its all in the angles of light....

Check out Cat- from Cat fight Collections-ric woods photography

Cat Heart owner of Cat Fight Collections , maree and myself got together in the studio the other day and made some great photographs.
I must ask the question....
Can anybody tell me ..What is this obsession women have with shoes?
To be honest, Ive seen shoes of late that are seriously bordering on becoming ART!
Maree did Cats' make up and cat provided the costumes, there is certainly benefits in owning a clothing store.
I provided the photography..

3 Sisters Shoot

Maree and myself shot 3 gorgeous sisters the other day. The girls commissioned us for the shoot to give their parents a print as a gift. We were shooting both outside in a local park and inside the studio.We use different lighting set ups during the shoot to obtain different looks. People of different ages have their own ideas of the look they want.Some people like contrast and others like a light mood. We provide colour and mono images. I like to light Mono images differently colour to get the results I want.

The sisters are very attractive and have vibrant personalities so I chose to shoot the outside images with a shallow depth of field and allow a little camera movement to portray that dynamic feeling. Pin sharp has its place and so does movement in the image. Photography for me is about not only filling a commercial brief but also bringing a little something else to the client. I always deliver the requested brief and get lots of information from the clients about their personal tastes. The primary focus for this shoot was a GREAT picture that their folks would adore.....It had to have not only great technique as this would be a very large print, but we had to capture the energy, humour and close relationship between these women.

Maree my prod mgr and second shooter is fantastic on a shoot , she watches the details that I may miss looking through that small viewfinder i.e. small strands of hair across the eye, crooked belts,necklaces and comes up with interesting additional poses.

These is NO SUCH THING as a self made man/woman. I am surrounded by many people that bring expertise,skill and creativity to www.ricwoods.com

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

I did a shoot for The Little Green Frog Marketing Think Tank. It was to update some of their staff portraits. My brief was to shoot was to supply images to the written brief

IMPORTANT NOTE:I always ask for a written Brief .Ask the client to drop their thoughts and suggestions in an email ...that doesn't mean i always get a brief.Creative people think in videos and when your a stills photographer if you cant get a written brief it creates a risk that your client may not be happy, because they haven't thought in a stills photography mind set.It also give me invaluable in site into planning the shoot i.e. talent look, costume,venue,camera angle etc This time Mary ( Gidget) gave me an excellent brief with poses, etc Fantastic.I follow the Brief and then add some of my ideas when they crop up.

Prior to the talent arriving Ive read the brief and am able to plan the lighting. Three of the images would need to be deep etched so they are shot on a white back ground son the graphic artist can drop them on their chosen back drop.

I am doing a self portrait holding a grey chip .It helps as a tool to remove an color cast. Lights even strobes do have a colour cast especially as they age.

The images on the left below of the before and after are virtually straight out of camera ( they are cropped etc) . As you can see the contrast needs adjustment shooting into the white paper background which acts likes a large light source.

IMAGE 1: Below is Katie aka Lucy from an old TV show "I Love Lucy" I think she nailed the character.


Image 2 : Mary aka "Gidget" from a an old TV surf series

IMAGE 3: Dominique "Shirley Temple" arrived with a selection of Lollipops, this one was the smallest.


Lighting change now, Jamie the owner of the Little Green Frog helps here.Jamie a good mate always gets into character when I point a camera at him. Here I think here he's being Kevin Rudd.(just kiddin")


The styling of the shoot was handled by the whole crew. I like to be influenced by the other "creatives", it makes for better images.



IMAGE 4: Megan aka "Mafiette" was looking good against black.The Mafia was the influence for the look.

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