Week 5. Techniques and Equipment needed to achieve a cohesive advertising portfolio.

For the research into Equipment and Technique I concentrated mostly on the Surf photography aspect of the major folio. Surf Photography, and water plays a huge role in all of Rip Curls advertising. The studio component of the folio can be completed without much research as you can simply use a macro lens for the close up shots and your standard 24-105mm lens, or 70-200 for the other shots.

So for the location and more surf specific style photography, you would need more equipment, you would need to think about your shots ans select locations carefully. Surf photography is a small industry in Australia with a few specialist photographers who work the surf magazine circuit and combine surf photography with landscape or underwater photography.

Below is a list of the equipment and some research into the techniques used in surf/outdoor/water photography. The style that Rip Curl use throughout their advertising.   

Lens

• Long Zoom Lens to shoot from the beach (surfing shots) 600+
• Normal Zoom - a range of lengths from 100-400mm 
• extender tubes to increase zoom length - a range of extensions can be used or stacked to get you more length
• Fish eye lens to shoot from inside tube waves
• Wide angle16-24mm
• Tilt Shift lens 
• Standard 50mm or 24-70mm
• Portrait lens 80mm

Camera

• Underwater Camera (either a housing or a cheaper underwater camera)
• Board Camera for remote use 
• 5D for shooting still and RAW

Other equipment

• Underwater Housing 
• Tripod or Monopod  
• polarizing filter
• bags to cart all the gear around in
• Need a car to get to locations

Ways of getting the shots

• Helicopter
• Water Craft - Boat, jet Ski, or a board to get you out in the water
• underwater shots, in the water shots (most popular at the moment is shots while in the water to get up close to the action, this is also used a lot in Rip Curl advertising)

Techniques

• Shooting in the morning is best for front lit natural sun light and creates soft colours and this is usually when most surfers are out and about
• Shooting in the evening will give back lit light and produce richer warmer colour but also a silhouette surfer or blown out backgrounds
• Shooting on sunny days is usually best but if you get a overcast day and dull colours switch to B&W and remove the colour
• Shooting from the beach is standard
• Shooting from in the water close to the action is a great way to get up close and personal
• Shooting from a pier or boat will get you closer but dryer and switching up the angles
• Rapid shutter firer is always good when trying to capture fast movement as you can select the best shot in a series
• Use a higher shutter speed 600+ and a higher ISO of 400 to 640
• Single or a few centered focus points to allow tracking movement
• fill the frame with the action is a classic way to shoot surfers
• A great surfing shot is not just a great picture, it also needs to capture the feeling of the rider at that moment in time....... Live the Search

Image Source: http://www.ripcurl.com.au/index.php?contact

Sources
Digital Photography School, http://www.digital-photography-school.com/surf-photography-for-beginners-equipment-techniques-and-tips
Tim McKenner, Photographer, http://www.tim-mckenna.com/faq-technical-9-how-to-take-surf-photography.html
Aqua Bumps, http://www.aquabumps.com/2011/01/24/my-gear/
Surf Photography 101 by Mike Baird, http://bairdphotos.com/surf-photo-blurb-101/

Week 4. Rip Curl Traget Market.

Rip Curl are a grass roots company who began making wetsuits and surfboards back in the 1964 and who grew to produce clothing and accessories all over the world. regardless of how big a company Rip Curl has evolved to become today, they still have a core target market and that is young (12 to 23) male surf and board riders (encompassing surf, snow, wake and skate board riders, however surf being the main core theme throughout). Rip Curl continuity adapts to this core changing market sector and like the market rip curl evolves to meet its needs. 

However, Rip Curl have been very savvy in marketing their product and to ensure they are not lost in the overall market with a very small core target group, they have attracted other smaller target markets without straying to far from the original vision for the company. Rip Curl's smaller but growing target markets are in the female surf ware sector (same age bracket as the core target market) and an even smaller mountain sector.

Each product line, is targeted at this core target market - surfboards, wetsuits, clothing, accessories such as watches, Jewellery and bags and even footwear is all aimed at young male surfers. The products Rip Curl products aim to meet all their needs both in and out of the water, in summer and winter (winter's spent snowboarding) and also in their travel needs as they go on their own personal search. 

Rip Curl attract their target markets at the grass roots level (the younger age group of the target market), so as their target market ages and then falls outside of their core market, they don't forget about them, they thank them for their loyalty by continuing to produce high quality goods and if they stay on and buy the Rip Curl products even better.

Rip curl also target local area's, this may seem hard but by targeting local area within a distribution district, they are ensuring that the products meet the needs of the local market. To maintain global unity within the company, this is where the Live the Search comes into play, by internally as a company living the search for the best experience they can provide to their local market, it ties the company together globally and also reflects that Rip Curl like their customers are Living the Search.

My images will need to reflect the 'Live the Search' and the 'Grass Roots' approach that rip Curl uses to attract it's target market. The images will need to be very Surf and Board orientated and will need to encompass water heavily.The images will also need to be clean but also a little grungy and imperfect to some degree, as the target market of young boys (and girls) are not clean and perfect and they are not after a high end fashion item, they are after an experience. The image will need to portray the mellow down to earth vibe, but also have a very fun playful and some what mischievous and adventurous feel to them. 

Image source: http://www.ripcurl.com.au/

Sources
Brand Channel, http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=58
Rip Curl, http://www.ripcurl.com.au

Week 3. Critique of Rip Curls Latest Advertising Campaign.

Rip Curl use a lot of visual cues and musical cues to create emotion in their advertising and this allow their target audience to connect with the brand on a more emotional level.

Rip Curls slogan is 'Live the Search' the brand is all about support the search. In the surfing world there is a culture of living the search, traveling and finding those perfect waves, finding that inner peace, being at one with the waves and then in turn connecting with those around you.

Surfing in a lone sport as such, sure your out there in the waves with your friends. but in the end your on your own on that waves, along with your thoughts, its your time. Then your back on the beach with your friends talking about the waves.

Rip Curl is a grass Roots company, its all about giving back and supporting the industry, so their campaign advertising uses real youths, young guys and gals with braces and blemished skin. They also use current world champions in their advertising, allowing the youth to make that grass roots connection, the world champs are sponsored by the brand and this demonstrates to the youth that we support you throughout.

The advertising is also very vintage is look and feel, its very high key and often desaturated, this adds to the emotional connection through evoking the past, living your youth.  On the other hand they use top of the range technology to film, shoot and create their advertising campaigns and often use interactive methods to capture and measure the stressfulness of the advertising. If you connect with your youthful target market on an emotional level, you then need to grab that reaction and create interaction with the brand through technology/social media.



Live the Search Summer Campaign.

Rip Curls latest summer campaign is very much based on Live the Search and was filmed in Bali over 6 days, and was shot and directed by Jimmy Gleeson. The advertising features a video as well as still photography. The images are of young surfers, living the search - surfing, traveling, connecting with each other and having fun, experiencing something.

The advertising features tropical landscape settings in another country reinforcing the live the search, water is a huge feature throughout all the imagery and the colours are vintage, desaturated and vivid almost like evoking the memories and the impression of being there, getting water on your face, driving down the crazy path on a motor bike.



Mirage - Like wearing nothing campaign

Rip Curl also use very up to date technology to film and shoot their advertising and are not afraid to experiment. The advertising is more about the emotion then the slick, beautiful models in a perfectly set up location. They use a more documentary low key casual approach, but combines with the latest technology and shooting methods.

This was shot in Figi using Rip Curl team riders by their dedicated technical team. This uses Time-slice technology and aims to capture the Mirage surf ware collection through portraying the essence of surfing.




Sources:

Jimmy Gleeson Portfolio <http://www.theloop.com.au/jimmygleeson/portfolio/rip-curl-live-the-search/22816>  


You Tube - Rip Curl advertising


Behind the Scenes <http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/behind-the-scenes-at-rip-curl%27s-matrix-esque-ad-campaign-shoot-in-fiji-1_67191>