ZENER ELECTRIC-ric woods photography

Check out our behind the scenes video grab and I shall show you how to make a black box look beautiful...

ric woods photography fashion and lighting course- behind the scenes video

Turn up the volume and take the jump to the "Behind the Scenes" video of our recent Fashion & Beauty Photography & Lighting Course. At ric woods photography we conduct small classes for better one on one time and the latest course (21 page pdf course booklet download) was a blast....All participants get to shoot and take home fantastic portfolio images.

The studio ( location) was buzzing with enthusiastic and creative people and at 6pm it all took off!

We started with some theory like:

• Camera preparation,lens selection...we talked about shutter speed, aperture , ISO and how to balance or eliminate the ambient studio like.We showed how to get clean perfect exposures straight out of the camera.I shot images tethered to two monitors and showed practical differences with light modifiers. I use equipment that people have in their own kits like umbrella's as well as studio gear like gridded beauty dishes and large soft boxes.
• We instructed people how to engage the models.We explain why we NEVER touch models without asking.Composition and camera point of view are covered.We talked about photographic releases explaining that you MUST have a release for every portrait and every wedding shoot. You get the HERO shot you best have a release before you sell that image on the Commercial Scene, OR it could come back at you and you may need pay many $$$$s to clean up the mess.

Special thanks to;

• Maree Nichols my business partner and production manager for pulling it all together.If you need more information about the courses of booking a shoot at the studio, shoot her an email maree@ricwoods.com.

We gave a couple of students their "shot" in a commercial studio.

• Caitlin Nolan-Jones wants to be a creative director. Caitlin was given free reign to design the theme for the shoot.She sourced the clothing and accessories and enlisted the aide of two friends to be the male and female models.She did a great job and exceeded our expectations.She did the work and was rewarded with a great result.She supplied several looks and did well in the 3 hour course.

My tip for up and comers that want their "shot" . Do the work you want to get paid to do....do the work..do the work.

• Piyanuch "Nuu" Hathaipontaluk was our make up artist and did well to collaborate with Caitlin to pull the vision together.She was showing off her skills, doing male and female make up finishing with a Dramatic look on our female model. Also thanks for her patience in my poor attempts to pronounce her Thai Name.
• Odessa our female model was stunning and brought amazing beauty to the photo shoot.
• Liam was the perfect male model, making light when some participants were finding it difficult to shoot and talk at the same time.
• Thanks to Kristie, Debbie,Peter, Zahra, Kaz and Llynda the participants...great work, good listening.

Finally..........

• Eagle Boys Pizza for delivering ON TIME and making GLUTEN FREE Pizzas...

NEWS- recent shoots and photography and lighting course download

Nicole M's Shoot. Maree waved her trusty make up brushes over the lovely Nicole guided by Jo Nelsons ever watchful eye. Maree is evolving into an amazing photographer and make up artist. She has a great attitude very client focused and always willing to learn. PROOFS HERE
Nicole N's friends arranged a studio shoot for her birthday. Celebrations started on the seamless white backdrop and continued out into the nightclubs. Primary photographer was Maree and grabbed great shoots.See the PROOFS HERE

Download our 2010 photography and off camera flash lighting course PDF booklet. Class numbers are small, to avoid disappointment EMAIL YOUR BOOKING NOW

Lady Juggler-ric woods photography

NOTE: DOWNLOAD PDF FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC & LIGHTING COURSES 2010 HERE



What a great job we have at ric woods photography.We had the opportunity to photograph The Lady Juggler-Llynda Nairn. Llynda wanted new images to update her.Llynda said she had difficulty obtaining images of her performance that she liked.We showed her that we are the "GO TO" studio for performers images....

Passmores Business & Managemet College Corporate Shoot

We had the pleasure of shooting the students of Passmores Business & Managemet College. The shoot was to provide a corporate style of portrait for the graduating students CV. We shot approx 44 individual portraits with several shots for each student and teacher to chose their favourite. 3 full class shots and several shots of the entire college students and staff. This required 5 different setups ( including the moving around of 40+chairs etc) and for each person to chose their image as well as all the required releases and information gathering. We arrived at 9am and had left by 12.30pm. This requires a smooth work flow and good communication skills with your clients as many of these people are camera shy.Maree was fantastic on the production side, she mustered the talent, created the paper trail and I shot each student, she helped them chose their image. This is where shooting tethered to the laptop is a great time saver.It directs the images directly on the the laptops hard drive with almost instant viewing of a large image. ( one disadvantage that still makes me nervous, is that it does not save a copy to the card in the camera)

It was a great shoot and we were really impressed with these young professionals, they are bright and well groomed and I guess that is why Passmores places most into jobs.

Once back to the studio came the editing and the electronic "vanishing cream" to eliminated those odd skin blemishes amongst this crew. Burn student a copy and presto... their First corporate portfolio shot.

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.

Corporate Indoor and Outdoor Shoot

I did a shoot the other day for Andrew, a corporate client who works in alt. health and life industry.I didn't post his site because I checked and he hasn't posted the images yet, my ego wont let me be blamed for the ones hes currently using. (I'm smiling)
The idea was to produce some clean images that can not only be used on a website but also brochures.Following my advice Andrew agreed to having Jo Nelson do his hair and keep an eye on the shine that may be present under the lights.

In the studio (www.ricwoods.com) when shooting men that don't have a full head of hair I do not use a hair light.
I generally use a large soft box in clos, if the guys have deep character lines, and a white reflector.It gives some contrast to the shot but has good detail for print and web. Remember you cant EASILY put detail in later and having black holes in print is not the go.

We tried various outfits but Andrew and myself were pleased with the white shirt on the white background.The correct exposure ( I know I mention this often) is important so that I keep a clean defined edge with the white on white.These studio images are shot with a Nikon D300 and a 24-70 2.8 lens ( which I use often)

These images will easily lend themselves to being dropped onto another colour background or natural image like clouds etc for his brochures.
We went outside as Andrew wanted to have a natural shot with his car to show the distinctive number plate. That is my hair and makeup artist on the reflector trying not to sail away...Jo is little and light. You can see the reflection in the subjects face of the Styrofoam reflector which creates a pleasing fill light. I was lucky to be using this as a big gust of wind came and as I grabbed the reflector the wind snapped a bit out of the side and Andrew was swatted with it (I'm pleased he didn't sue). This Styrofoam is not real good for the enviroment but great for photographers. You can get several grades and the cheapest is not the way to go, as soon as you touch it, it turns into bean bag filling. You can buy the stuff from Insulation Industries, tell them I sent you over to buy the damaged or dirty interior suspended ceiling tiles. You can gaff tape them into a folding book, they are much better in wind than those expensive folding photography types. I also use blocks of the stuff for kids to sit on and for product photography.

I am able to use the many places near my Carrington Studio to the best advantage for shoots. We have waterways, the harbour, industrial backdrops including sheds, boats ,trains, waterways, boat ramps, marina, bridges, parks and sports ovals and a walkway through the mangroves....a top place. I sound like a real estate agent.

This image was shot with an 85 1.4 portrait lens.This is a fantastic lens, especially when you want to isolate your subject in a crowd, or drop the background, in low light its a dream.It has creamy tones like European glass. I believe I was using an aperture of f2 for this with a circular polariser.This reduces the reflections on the front window. Circular polarisers only work for best effect if your 90 degrees to the sun, we were lucky in this case it was just about right.One disadvantage Ive noticed with the polariser is that you can get a blue halo on some edges due to the colour spectrum shift. I'm not a scientist so I don't know all the correct lingo, but I do know a bit about light and i do see it. Adobe bridge can pull some of it out but not completely.

On a personal note Andrew was real pleased with our work and we had lots of good laughs during the shoot talking about motorcycles and what we got up to. That was in my previous life, the image below was 22 years and 5 driving licences ago...

the next images was was 3 years ago....the camera was always around... I don't need to own a motorcycle, my old boss lets me borrow them...a real cool guy.

I really enjoy working with people and finding out about them .....I love this job......