CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT-RUSH JOB

Kristan & Matt commissioned us to shoot their portraits for Christmas gifts very very close to Christmas. We completed the shoot ,they made their pics and thanks to David at Pro Am photo lab we were able to get the matted prints to them in time to put them under the tree.

Maree and myself really like to shoot on white and black paper backdrops. It gives a clean result without not conflicting with the colours people are wearing (in colour images) The black paper is easily gelled to create coloured backdrops.

Maree is asked to do many jobs in her roll as studio manager and second photographer.
These include capturing images,lighting and set changes, image orders, up coming promotions, making wild noises to get the attention of peoples pets, wiping infants noses,as well as.......


.........making sure that people are relaxed and comfortable during the shoot.......

keeping and eye on stray hairs that may be out of place which can mean hours of photoshop work or worse....deleting the hero shot because there is hair over a subjects eye etc

....above she makes final adjustments to Matt's hair

At times she has to adjust clothing that is not sitting as it should ......here she is attending to Kristan's gaping blouse with a swatch of gaff tape....

Its always important to provide the images that are suggested by the client.We create a shot list. After this collection of images is achieved it is good to suggest extra images which may include changes to clothing,lighting,props and possibly some set changes or addition of props. This series of 3 images (above) was selected by our clients to be printed as a large triptych,this will hang on their wall, along with other strong monochrome images.

A great shoot with Kristan and Matt.

Thanks Maree your a legend

I "see" it...click....gold.

I do many,many portraits and every now and then through my view finder I get a glimpse of gold. ...and that is the primary reason I make images...tech info 24-70 2.8, D300, gridded beauty dish high camera left,60x60 softbox right & rear of subject for separation. Fired by pocket wizards. This will be in my web portfolio www.ricwoods.com.

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

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....