Ruthless Photography

Change in venue

2010-12-11T03:41:00.000-08:00

I've moved the blog over to Tumblr as most of my posts are picture posts. If you could all go to www.ruthlessphotography.net and bookmark it instead I'd much appreciate it. I may still post some things here from time to time as a more "behind the scenes" type thing. I haven't fully decided yet.

See you all on the other side.

2010-11-19T01:22:00.000-08:00

It seems that a photograph Leopard Second Skin that I took of the very lovely KumiMonster around this time last year has attracted attention over on deviant ART and was a DailyDeviation on 7th November. I really enjoyed this shoot and got lots of brilliant photos from it, some of which I'm still getting round to posting.

Maybe I should be getting on with that!

Autumn Update

2010-10-29T04:26:00.000-07:00

It has been quite some time since I posted an update. Things have been super busy here and between regular work, photographing some events and weddings for clients and sorting out lots of little everyday life events there has not been much time to generate new images.

I did however find some time to go back over some old photos from a few years back and found this of Skin which was something like my 3rd studio shoot ever.

There have been some other huge changes lately and I have taken over new premises to set up a dark room and so will be able to get some yet-to-be-seen shoots finally off the film and into print. More news to follow.

And for those who asked about the book sales: going very well. 56 sold which is excellent!

Book now available

2010-03-30T05:58:00.001-07:00

Fetish Miniature Series Vol 1: The Devil is in the Detail by Ruth Tolman | BOOK INFO

Coming Soon!

2010-03-18T05:23:00.000-07:00

Spring Cleaning

2010-03-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

I'm having a bit of a spring clean on the blog to make way for new projects and to streamline exactly what Ruthless Photography is all about. It was all a bit fragmented in terms of aim and style.

So, to anyone who has been following who doesn't want to see fetish themed imagery, nudes or things of a generally more adult nature then you probably won't like where I'm going.

Anyone who does want to see these things is going to enjoy where this is all going next.

Updates

2009-12-31T05:10:00.001-08:00

Yvonne-1
Originally uploaded by Ruth Tolman

I've been updating my flickr account with some of my old work. If you're new to the blog then check it out by clicking on the lovely Yvonne.

Minima

2009-12-10T11:49:00.001-08:00

Minima
Originally uploaded by Ruth Tolman

Went for the minimalist approach to nudes and rather liked the results that came of it. Once again the wonderful Kumi is the model and on this occasion the only technical equipment required was a window.

More like this available by clicking the picture.

Step by Step

2009-12-08T04:36:00.001-08:00

Step by Step
Originally uploaded by Ruth Tolman

Slightly old picture this one, but it fits in well with my current thinkings on new work. I'm probably going to be spending a lot of time in black and white over the next year and trying to forge out my idea of "fine art fetish".

There's not a lot of followers here yet and hopefully this will increase as I would like to hear opinions, objections, critique, suggestions..... anything really.

Lighting

2009-11-30T15:55:00.001-08:00

Kumi
Originally uploaded by Ruth Tolman

As promised, a shot with a lighting explanation.

My thanks go to Con Carson for helping me get my head round this set up and breaking my personal best on lights used in a single shot - 6. This was shot in Contrast Studio in Glasgow using 6 Bowens units set up as per the diagram that follows...

Main light is overhead boom with medium softbox - F11
Fill is with large octabox at rear - F4
Background lights - F8
Kickers - F5.6Gobo panels to prevent lens flare
Shot at IS0100 at F11, 1/125sec, post processing only to change contrast and add slight blue tinge to the shadows.

Back from limbo

2009-11-29T11:38:00.001-08:00

Laced
Originally uploaded by Ruth Tolman

Been a bit out of touch recently due to illness, so sorry there hasn't been much in the way of updates. Hopefully that's all the operations and illness behind me and I just have to get my stamina back.

I had a shoot with the incredibly lovely Kumi in October this year and I have a veritable treasure trove of images from it. One of the ones I liked the best was this rear view of one of her fantastic latex outfits.

I have a few more from this shoot to follow once I do up the lighting diagrams to give a bit of a how to for the interested. Stay tuned.

Hat Detail

2009-09-13T13:56:00.001-07:00

Hat Detail
Originally uploaded by Ruth Tolman

I spent most of today with the lovely Urska from www.misshats.com who makes custom hats, fascinators and hair accessories at incredibly reasonable prices. It was another outing for the home-made light tent which keeps the whole operation mobile and personal. Originally we planned for a model, but on the day there wasn't one so we did some product shots instead. We may well revisit this later as a few hats really do require a real head to show them off to their very best.

Thomas Truax @ Dreams of Steam

2009-08-23T10:55:00.001-07:00

Thomas Truax @ Dreams of Steam
Originally uploaded by Ruth Tolman

I had the great pleasure of being invited along to the arrival of Airship 1001 by Dreams of Steam at the Edinburgh fringe this year and tried my hand at events photography. Myself and Thomas teamed up to cover as much of the event as we could and some of the results are up on Flickr. We didn't manage to stay all night, but we had fun nonetheless.

Trip to Paris

2009-07-25T04:25:00.001-07:00

Eiffel Tower in Infrared
Originally uploaded by Ruth Tolman

I found myself with a few days to spend in Paris recently and am just getting round to filtering through some of the shots I took whilst I was there. Myself and partner photographer Thomas decided to take a slightly sideways look at the city and used pinhole photography, omniscopes, a couple of medium format cameras and a converted infrared digital camera. I'm making a start looking at the infrareds and I'm quite happy with how a few came out. I'm slowly adding pics to the photostream at Flickr.

This particular photo is stitched from 4 photos and so could make a huuuuuge print. I might just do that.

Kitty

2009-06-22T07:06:00.001-07:00

Kitty
Originally uploaded by Ruth Elliott

A while back now I got a Canon Powershot A720 to use as a portable compact camera. It's rubbish. It's really grainy, takes ages to focus and eats up batteries like there's no tomorrow. The "optical viewfinder" is a total joke and is about as useful as the one on my Holga for accurately reflecting what's in shot.

It does however lend itself to being deliberately grainy for the purposes of being a little bit arty. Here's Kitty in a rare moment of cooperation where she did a classic cat pose. I ran this through Lightroom and added a slight touch of blue to the shadows and quite liked the result.

Flexed and ready

2009-03-29T05:52:00.000-07:00

I was asked by a model yesterday to help her recreate one of her favourite shots of Sasha Fierce (aka Beyoncé). It was an interesting challenge and I thought if she was brave enough to try the pose then I'd see what I could do about the rest.

First thing I noticed about the original was the use of an underlit white background but minimal shadows in the foreground. I decided to go for a large softbox above and just off to right of centre. I also got an assistant to hold a nice big reflector for me on the left side to make sure any shadows were softened up. Then the most important part was get down on the floor with the model and shoot from her level. I always find this easiest to do "commando crawl" style and lying on my front and use elbows to make a natural tripod for steadiness (not that it really matters at flash speeds).

The first couple of shots weren't quite right as enough light was escaping onto the backdrop to give it a distracting uneven toning. I fixed this using a gobo and by angling the softbox further forward and readjusted the exposure accordingly.

Credit must be given to AJ for managing to not only make the pose but hold it long enough for me to flaff around with the rights until we got something close to what she wanted.

In the post I didn't go for the straight black and white of the original as the sepia complimented AJ's skin far better.

If anyone can tell me who the original photographer is I would like to know though. I couldn't get it from google.

I am not trying to claim this photo as my own idea by any means at all. It was simply an interesting exercise in "how did they do that then?"

Fashion Fun

2009-03-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

So, was back in the studio today with some models, a makeup artist and a whole bag of outfits and accessories to play with. We got lots done and I'm really quite please with it all.

I did learn a new trick though and that is photographing sunglasses. Damn those things are super reflective! Only a very few of the photos worked without getting me in the shot, reflecting the softboxes at odd angles or just looking a bit odd.

Much thanks here goes to Ola who is a lovely new model and was much fun to work with.

DJ Loveless

2009-03-15T15:30:00.001-07:00

Had a promotional shoot today with DJ Loveless who has kindly let me show a couple of the shots. This was shot on location and with my trusty Jessops 360AFDs. He had a very clear idea of what shot he wanted to get and all in all it turned out pretty well.

Happy client. Happy Ruth.

More from yesterday

2009-03-01T14:15:00.001-08:00

Anna
Originally uploaded by Ruth Elliott

The great thing about working with make-up artists is that there is just so much more you can do with a simple head shot. It's also a much better way of getting smooth skin-tones than any photoshop action can manage.

Although you can't really tell from this shot Mera created a shimmering green eye makeup complete with false eyelashes, diamantes and some bits of peacock feather for extra long lashes. Of course it was intended for full colour shooting but it came up very nicely in monotone also.

Halfway

2009-02-28T13:55:00.000-08:00

Halfway
Originally uploaded by Ruth Elliott

I was shooting today with the lovely Anna (model) and Mera (Makeup Artist) and we covered a couple of styles over the course of the day. This shot was intended to be clean, simple and natural toned.

For the interested the lighting is from 45degrees to the right with a Jessops 360AFD plus reflector dish. The backdrop is white but has not been lit so comes up neutral grey. The blue tinge is from adding a slight blue hue to the shadow tones in post processing.

Back into the swing of things

2009-02-27T10:17:00.001-08:00

umbrella
Originally uploaded by Ruth Elliott

So, in preparation for my first of many fashion shoots this year I've been going over some old shots left in my storage drive to see what mistakes I need to be avoiding making again. I love some of my old shots, but lots of them suffer from high noise, poor focus, odd compositions...

This is one I've always liked even if it is a bit soft at 100% and I hear it got adopted as a printer test image for a small company.

So, shooting tomorrow with a model and makeup artist and hopefully going to have lots of really sharp, well composed, colourful and generally stunning shots to show for it.

I hope.

Who you lookin' at?

2009-02-23T10:27:00.001-08:00

Who you lookin' at?
Originally uploaded by Ruth Elliott

Just in case you all thought I'd gone too quiet.....

I was playing around with the home studio the other night and snapped a few shots of these cheeky chaps. It was taken inside the trusty ikea washbasket light tent using white card and florist's wrap for the reflective floor. The light source was an energy saving desk lamp from the left of the shot from above at about 45 degrees.

Now, what to do with the other 48 of them.......

A horde of profiles to choose from

2009-02-14T06:38:00.000-08:00

The internet being what it is these days it appears I have racked up a rather large number of online logins for various photography and networking sites. What I shall attempt to do here is streamline them all into one neat post so you can all find me if you want to!

UKPM
ModelMayhem - #625038
Net-portfolio
Facebook

I'll try to remember to update this as I remember new ones.

Information for models

2008-02-17T10:54:00.000-08:00

Working with Ruthless Photography

I mostly shoot evenings and weekends both on location and in the studio. Sometimes I use my own house as the location. I am a female photographer and sometimes have a male assistant. You are free to have a chaperone with you so long as they do not interfere with the shoot. If you are unsure about any aspect of the shoot you should let me know in advance as fixing things on the day may be difficult. You will be expected to arrive on time and ready to work. Late arrivals may result in cancellation with no compensation.

Payment

Any payment will be discussed and agreed in advance. There will be no changes in the terms on the day of the shoot. Time For Prints (referred to as TFP or TFCD) is not a free shoot as full resolution images are provided as payment*. If you receive a full fee for your shoot you will not normally be provided with copies of the photos.

*For reference if you paid a photographer for a portrait session that provided just one full size print it would cost around £100 in most circumstances.

Time For Prints (TFP)

My definition of a TFP shoot is one whereby you are provided with full sized photos that can be printed to large scale that can be used in your personal folio, submitted to magazines or competitions and printed for personal use. You are not allowed to sell the images and the copyright remains in my name. All TFP shoots will be a collaborative process so that mutual benefit to portfolios can be achieved. All requests for images in a particular style should be made before arriving to make sure the required props and equipment are available.

Preparation

Before the day of the shoot you will be sent a shoot brief detailing what you are expected to bring with you and what times things are expected to happen. It is vitally important that you check this before arriving. Some shoots require coordination from make-up artists, stylists as well as you as the model and you are expected to work as part of the team. You will also be sent a copy of the model release which should be read and any issues discussed before arrival. You will be asked to sign the release before the shoot goes ahead and no release fees are given.

No-shows: last minute cancellations or no-shows on the day of a shoot are unacceptable for all but emergencies. Liars are usually found out, so if you act unprofessionally you will be treated as such. I talk to a lot of photographers and get to hear about reputations. I also pass on information I have about unreliable models. Consider yourself warned.

After the shoot

You will get the web-sized images from the shoot via email usually within 10 days. A disc will follow with higher resolution print files within a week or two from then. On average there are at least 10-15 worked images from each shoot.You are free to use these images for all your online folios and for competitions so long as copyright is acknowledged. You will be asked to sign a model release so that images may be submitted to magazines and stock agencies. You will also be asked to show proof of age and identity (drivers licence, passport or government ID card). I will only accept real names and not modelling aliases unless registered professionally. This is a standard practice for most shoots and if you are uncomfortable with either the release or ID check then the shoot will not go ahead.

Where your photos go

Photos of models may be submitted for publication via magazines, internet sites, stock agencies and as advertising. Prints may also be sold in some circumstances. If your photos are published and I have up to date contact information I will try as possible to inform you beforehand.

Wording of model release

2008-02-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

For information here is the wording of my model release. This is based on a standard template from one of the worlds largest photography stock sites.

For good and valuable consideration herein acknowledged as received, and by signing this release I hereby give the Photographer and Assigns my permission to license the Images and to use the Images in any Media for any purpose (except pornographic or defamatory) which may include, among others, advertising, promotion, marketing and packaging for any product or service. I agree that the
Images may be combined with other images, text and graphics, and cropped, altered or modified. I acknowledge and agree that I have consented to publication of my ethnicity(ies), but understand that other ethnicities may be associated with Images of me by the Photographer and/or Assigns for descriptive purposes.

I agree that I have no rights to the Images, and all rights to the Images belong to the Photographer and Assigns. I acknowledge and agree that I have no further right to additional Consideration or accounting, and that I will make no further claim for any reason to Photographer and/or Assigns. I acknowledge and agree that this release is binding upon my heirs and assigns. I agree that this release is irrevocable, worldwide and perpetual, and represents a legally binding contract.

I represent and warrant that I am at least 18 years of age and have the
full legal capacity to execute this release.

Definitions:
“MODEL” means me and includes my appearance, likeness and form.
“MEDIA” means all media including digital, electronic, print, television, film and other media now known or to be invented.
“PHOTOGRAPHER” means photographer, illustrator, filmmaker or cinematographer, or any other person or entity photographing or recording me.
“ASSIGNS” means a person or any company to whom Photographer has assigned or licensed rights under this release as well as the licensees of any such person or company.
“IMAGES” means all photographs, film or recording taken of me as part of the Shoot.
“CONSIDERATION” means something of value I have received in exchange for the rights granted by me in this release.
“SHOOT” means the photographic or film session described in this form.
“PARENT” means the parent and/or legal guardian of the Model. Parent and
Model are referred to together as “we” and “us” in this release.