Russ Robinson & Tampa Band Photos - Commercial Music Photography Blog: June 2009

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Before & After, Episode 3 | WESLEY CHAPEL PHOTOSHOP RETOUCH

On the occasions when somebody compliments me on one of my images, one of the ways that I try to deflect some of that attention and praise is simply to tell them, "Yeah, I spend WAY too much time in Photoshop!". Although I say that in jest, there's actually quite a bit of truth to it.

You see, I'm a hopeless perfectionist at heart. Sit me in front of a computer with an image to edit, and I'll work myself into an absolute frenzy of layers, tweaks, and adjustments-- I just don't know when to quit sometimes. However, this ability to get "in the zone" and tune everything else out until the job is done has proven to be a very valuable skill at times (unless I also happen to be tuning out my wife in the process, which ALWAYS leads to gnashing of teeth....but I digress).

As far as the image for this episode, I had a clear vision in my mind's eye before I even sat down to begin the editing process. I knew I wanted a composite of 3 different poses, which when viewed together would show some sort of a progression-- a story, if you will. Seemed a simple enough idea at first, since I had captured all three poses all against the same beige wall. However, it soon became painfully obvious that there would be MUCH more work involved than I had originally anticipated (does it ever go the OTHER way, really?).

The first problem was that none of the three shots had enough negative space for me to drop the other 2 poses in. So I had to "clone" the wall so that it extended out far enough to give me sufficient room to work. This process literally took me about an hour and a half, because I had to make sure that it looked believable-- that the wall and sidewalk really did extend out that far in real life. I painstakingly worked on the spaces between each brick to make sure that everything lined up and had the right proportions (did I mention that I'm a perfectionist?).

Once that was all done, it took me another hour to drop in the other 2 poses, and then about 30 more minutes to change the color of the wall to something more interesting (the fact that John's shirt was so close to the original wall color made this process even more fun). The final step was to add a thin, artistic black border around the image.

I am happy to report that when all was said and done, I achieved pretty much exactly the effect that I wanted to (which happens rarely, unfortunately). So it was time well-spent, as far as I'm concerned. What do YOU think of the final result? Do you think that changing the wall color was a good choice? Do you see a "progression" from left to right (reservation, reconciliation, realization)? Please share your comments below....I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Before & After, Episode 2 | WESLEY CHAPEL NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHER

For this episode we'll move into the realm of portrait photography, where I tend to focus my efforts about 99% of the time. I'll start with an image that has VERY special significance and meaning to me, for several different reasons:

1) When I took it, I was little more than a casual hobbyist with regard to photography. However, once it was fully edited (3+ hours in Photoshop, because I was just learning how to tame that beast of a program), the thought of pursuing professional photography entered my mind for the very first time.

2) It's also the first time I ever used off-camera flash (as opposed to on-camera flash, such the one that comes built into almost all modern cameras and even some cell phones and PDAs). It's next to impossible to get good results with on-camera flash, because it essentially turns your camera into a Xerox machine, and often creates problems such as the dreaded "red eye". However, when the flash comes from a position that’s OFF-camera, the resulting light is much more flattering and natural-looking.

3) This image ultimately became the very first one in my portfolio, and I proudly showed it off to all of my friends and family for several weeks afterward. Of course the fact that it’s a picture of my very own daughter made it even more special.

You’ll see that the image went through quite a bit of Photoshopping to arrive at the final product-- everything from cleaning up and smoothing the skin to bringing out the blue color of her eyes. My daughter also had a piece of skin hanging from her upper lip that had to be dealt with (apparently this is common with breastfeeding newborns—who knew?). Anyway, I think the final image really portrays her beauty in a much more flattering way than the original, and it almost single-handedly inspired me to pursue professional photography. Enjoy, and please leave me a comment down below if you like/dislike it! :-)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Before & After, Episode 1 | NEW TAMPA HDR RETOUCH PHOTOSHOP

OK, so here's the deal-- I've been kicking around this idea of posting some before & after shots for a long while. I don't think most people realize how much time & effort goes into retouching digital negatives in order to get them looking like a professional-caliber final product. In fact, I get the impression that many folks assume that all of my images come right out of the camera looking the way they do. While that would certainly make my life a whole lot easier, it's unfortunately not the case at all.

Yes, having a good-quality DSLR is a great start. Having nice lenses is even MORE important. However, it's what you do with the images AFTER they're captured that really matters. The critical thing to realize is that a camera is an inherently imperfect device for capturing light. I don't care how many megapixels you have-- a camera's sensor has nowhere near the capability of responding to different light intensities as the human eye does. So your camera is forced to make an intelligent guess as to which tones in your scene should be kept and which should be dropped. What this essentially means is that the resulting images will always pale in comparison to what you originally saw when you looked through the lens and pressed the shutter. That bright, colorful sunset that was so strikingly beautiful when you saw it in person will always look washed out, flat, and just plain dull when you compare it to the image your camera ultimately gives you.

However, through the magic of Photoshop, it is possible to bring back some of that lost charm, and restore an image to somewhere near the way it looked in real life. Over the next few weeks I'm going to be trying out a new concept on this blog by posting some "Before & After" images. Based on the response I get, I may also decide to share the steps I took in post-production to achieve the final result.

Anyways, since I used the example of a sunset above, I'll start with an image that I took while on vacation in Hawaii last month. One of the first things you'll notice is how blown-out the sky is in the unprocessed version of the image. To get around the fact that my camera's sensor could only properly expose either the sky or the foreground (but not both), I took several shots, each with different settings. I ended up with a collection of images of the same scene, and in each one a different part of the scene was properly exposed. By selectively blending these different versions of the image together in Photoshop, along with a dash of contrast, a sprinkle of saturation, and sharpening to taste, I was able to produce the final image.

Enjoy, and please leave me a comment if you dig this "Before & After" concept! :-)

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Hawaii 2009 | NEW TAMPA HDR PHOTOSHOP

Finally got around to editing the pics from my Hawaii vacation last month. Since we completely missed the surfing season, there were no waves (well, no 20-30 footers like I had envisioned), so finding points of interest in landscape/beach shots proved rather difficult. I still managed to pull off a few decent shots, though....and as always, the pictures do this place no justice.