Our Fantastic Girls Fashion & Photography Parties-ric woods photography

How much fun did these girls have at our latest Fashion & Photography Party..

BOOK ONE NOW for more information email maree@ricwoods.com studio 02 4962 1066

Lucy's Beauty Photoshoot- a great subject

Lucy commissioned us for a photo shoot and we all had a great deal of fun.

The shot list included images in colour and monochrome, images were to include, formals on seamless white, face portraits, some pin up style images and a selection of moody rock chick images. Lucy wanted to keep her natural hair style....I could see maree wanting to push the look a little...

At our studio we are less inclined to push the latest fashion of overworked over saturated images...in saying that we do show clients before and after images that have make up but very little photoshop work.

Maree kept the make up minimal and young.Make up in a photo shoot is very important to present clients at their best, it safeguards against too much shine as the studio strobes produce a great deal of light and the reflection of human skin can blow out high lights.

Air conditioning in the studio was great to keep the skin cool during these very hot days...I'm sure glad that we were not working in a warehouse studio.

We ask clients to come with washed faces with no make up, with a good breakfast to keep the blood sugar up and bring costume changes...we guide clients on clothing depending on the "tone" of the photo shoot and the looks that are requested.

I'm sure that a few of these images will find their way into Lucy's mums house on mothers day.

We provide a complete framing service with all the examples on the wall .Also other products like images on acrylic, leather free standing double or triple portfolios for all the young people that are renting apartments and cannot put frame hangers in the walls.

We run photography and lighting courses for those interested in taking their skills to another level or want to get out of the rut of shooting in the same way.

We also instruct people about digital colour and monochrome photography.

Some images work in colour,some work in monochrome and some can look great in both formats.

The pin up images were fun ...some for public view and some not...

Lucy settled in after an hour and produced some stunning images in colour and black and white...

The corporate world will never look at a blazer in the same way again after this photo shoot

Lucy was able to give me great laughs for images, this is a great deal harder that one thinks...Note how the colour tone changes in Lucy's makeup (especially the lipstick) in the colour image and then check out the monochrome images.I like to have the "tone" of the lips at least as dark as the eyebrows...

Danielle's Photoshoot

Maree provided the hair and make up for this beauty shoot of Danielle. Danielle's instructions for the shoot was not to have the current American inspired orange spray tan and the post production plastic skin look.....most of these images have very little digital work

We pulled out several lighting scenarios ( you can learn these, see our 2011 photography & lighting course booklet download HERE ) some produce great Black& White images.

Overexposing an image can produce a high key image that is flattering to the skin, a different mood can be obtained by bringing in a cool blue light effect

Colour and B&W are equal choices in our studio,some images look great in colour and some in B&W..some work well both ways.Its alway good to try different POV (point of view) with the camera as well as a shallow DOF (Depth of Focus) Here Im shooting at 2.8.Also be mindfull of intersecting lines like the floor squares or window frames

Its always great for us to hear the "WOW" from the clients as we reveal the images to them.As many of our followers know we prefer to shoot a more natural look with peoples complexions and our clients like the fact that we can give them what we call "the good nights sleep" post production re touch if requested...

Photography and Lighting Courses for 2010 by ric woods

Amanda our subject, provided the subjects with a beautiful face and animated personality in the studio. Maree discussed make-up for photography. Explaining the differences in the way digital sees make up, and what to do with application of lips for colour and black and white images.

Participants have just completed 2 of our courses."My new DSLR" and "Now I know my camera"


It was excellent for me to be able to de mystify the histogram and have them all shooting manual. Their homework had them bringing back images displaying shallow DOF (depth of field/focus),movement in images and conquering back lit portraits.

Some our students making fun of their teacher, encouraged by the co owner of ric woods photography, Maree Nichols.

Shaynon- Styling,Hair & Make up Maree-Photography by ric woods

Maree's face shows her focus. Here she applies make up to Shaynon

Maree gave Shaynon two looks during the shoot.

Shaynon has hair to the waist,Maree used this to create her "hair band"

This image below is shot using a gridded beauty dish camera right high

Maree went for a classic look for the second one.These images are pretty much staraight out of the camera

My favoute is the classic look in monochrome.Colouring the shadows. This was a technique that was very popular in our "Perfect Black & Whites" workshop.

Tiarnes 18th Birthday shoot

Cherrie from O'Carrollyns private eco village at Port Stephens gave daughter Tarnie a portrait shoot for her 17th birthday.We had a great session . Here are a few un edited shots from that shoot.

We did several looks an Jo Nelson did a great job of hair and make up.

A beauty dish high camera left and a gridded spot camera right to light the chair and to drop some shine on her pants

We try to achieve several hairstyles during the longer sessions as well different lighting setups.

We shot other frames to be converted to Mono, these need to be lit differently

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