Paul Ruffolo Photography

I have been working with the Lighthouse Brigade since 2001. I have recorded their Summer music CDs and have worked with Rex Rukavina each year to create a custom video DVD of their season, complete with special features, photo montages, director’s cut, hi-jinks and shenanigans and much more. Rex has a detailed vision of each DVD (footage, chapters, layout, concepts, etc.) and keeps meticulous notes for me to begin building and editing the DVD. The end product is an awesome keepsake of the entire season.

Starting in 2010, I began shooting their full band pictures as well as individual portraits. I wanted to take the staff picture to the next level and with the popularity of the Twilight series, I decided to create my own treatment of that awesome photographic concept used on posters and ads for the movie series. One thing I knew for sure, I had everything I needed to create the final composite image. The question was, “do I have the chops to execute it?”.

The entire staff came to my studio, we ordered pizza and took each picture one-by-one. We made a party of it! Once all the pictures were made, I began looking through all the images from the shoot to decide on which image would make the final cut for the composite image. Then came the tedious Photoshop work. I hand-traced around each person’s outline with my tablet and pen and removed my studio cyc wall, lights, stands and anything else in the image that didn’t belong. Once the images were ready, I began compositing these images into a new file, aligned everything, resized as needed and began to give it the darker, more dramatic feel. I tried a few different looks, i.e. forest, moon and forest, moon and clouds, etc. but I settled on the forest backdrop. I lit them in-studio with a backlight on their hair and body suggesting a bright moon behind them in the final image. It would also help them stand out from the dark backdrop.

Once the group picture was complete, I created their individual pictures. I couldn’t stop! I was having so much fun! I wanted the same look, so I designed the individual portraits much like the group composite.

After more than 20 hours work I had one Photoshop file totaling over 1 Gigabyte and 20+ layers, 12 Photoshop files approximately 140 Megabytes each with 14+ layers and countless effects and adjustments. WELL worth the effort!

It is a great privilege to work with this awesome team of individuals. Year after year, they teach young adults the meaning of teamwork, discipline, and hard work through the Lighthouse Brigade of Racine. Rex and his staff consistently set the bar higher each year.