Smoke and mirrors with showman Rhys Davis

At Adelaide Fringe earlier this year, I was shooting the action around a comedy venue called "The HaHa". The Haha is a small venue, seating only about 30 people, for short 15 minute comedy sets. There was a spruiker working the passing punters. That spruiker was Rhys Davis, a very charismatic circus and variety performer.

I hadn't met Rhys before, but as part of shooting the goings on at The Haha, I asked him to pose for a portrait. I’m glad to report that he happily obliged.

About 6 weeks ago Rhys contacted me, he was coming to Melbourne to visit family. And as he was in need of updating his promo images, he wanted to book in a time for a portrait shoot while he was here.

Rhys told me he enjoyed the brief interaction we had at Adelaide - he liked my direction and the resulting photo. (I gotta say that was very flattering - thanks Rhys!). Inspired by an image I had recently posted to instagram, Rhys was hoping I might shoot him in a similar style.

We found a time that suited and booked in a shoot. Then we discussed in more detail what he wanted to get from the session. Rhys sent me a couple of his previous images, shot on a plain white background. Although there was nothing bad about them, he thought the photos made him seem a bit lifeless and bland.. He mentioned his stage persona was sometimes awkward and quirky. But it was important for him to have images with "more confidence, spark and animation".

Our shoot was scheduled for June 1st. Two days before Rhys messaged me. He had been badly hit by the flu. He wasn't sure about getting to Melbourne. He had planned to drive over, but wasn't in a fit state to do so. We agreed that even if he managed to get here, we wouldn't get the best out of the shoot if he was still recovering. I had availability the following week, and we rescheduled.

The rescheduled shoot came around, and we were full of beans and ready to attack our shoot plan.

We decided to use a grey paper backdrop, as it offered some flexibility with lighting and gave a bit more depth to the image. For the first 30 minutes of the shoot we kept things simple. No dramatic lighting, full length shots, and no props.

One of the issues with Rhys' previous images was that he was just standing with his hands by his sides. So we played with a few different movements and found this pose we liked.

We moved on to working with some coloured lights, and everyones favourite effect - SMOKE! This set up is fantastic for performers - the lights and smoke helps evoke a “live on stage” vibe.

At the end of the shoot we reviewed the images. Together we made a shortlist for Rhys to choose his final delivered images. He spent a couple of days looking over them, before he sent through his favourites.

For a typical 90 minute studio shoot, I include 4 final delivered images (edited of course!). Though you can always choose extras images if you like - as Rhys did.

Speaking of edits, the process is not complete without editing. Some shots look great straight from the camera. But there's always room for improvement. My edits include things like removing distractions in the background. Or can involve extending the background wider than it was in real life.

In this case Rhys wanted photos for his website, with space for text over the top.

If the shot is a close up, as part of my edit, I remove any unwanted flyaway hairs, and blemishes that may have decided to spring up on the day. IMPORTANTLY - I don't change the shape of peoples faces or bodies. But I will get rid of things like pimples and any stray bits of dust on your outfit. My rule of thumb for retouching - if it's going to be there in three weeks’ time, it won't be edited.

But then comes the fun part of an edit. The finessing. The problem with shooting smoke, is that it doesn't always stay in the exact place you want it to. So adding a little (or a lot) in photoshop is needed.

Check out this before and after for the dramatic difference editing can make (slide the line back and forth - it’s very satisfying!)

This shoot was super fun and very rewarding. To top it off, Rhys let me know that he was "super stoked" with the outcome.

I hope you like the outcome too!

Click on the images below to view in all their full size glory.