Discussion: Shooting & Retouching Techniques for Professional Photographers

[Street_a_Licious]

Photoshop Tools

i don't know where else to post this

but i'm wondering if there are some filters on photoshop which professional photographers use. like, are there some which can make digital camera snapshots look more professional? what filters are generally used on photos from editorials and ad campaigns?

 

[JarradKevin]

It doesn't generally work like that.

It usually starts off with broad colour and contrast adjustments. Then many small, localized adjustments where necessary, depending on the desired look. Mostly done manually, not through filters that are commercially available. Of course some filters certainly are used, but it is rare that they are responsible for the entire character of the retouch.

 

[Street_a_Licious]

but aren't there filters to give a softer image? i know about the small adjustments, liquifying, smudging, patch healing and what not.

what would the general retouch checklist go. very general.

 

[JarradKevin]

It depends on the image, the desired look and how far away the original exposure is from it.

Yes, there are loads of filters that you can buy, the question is whether or not they're used by the top professional photographers and retouchers. None of the filters or plug-ins can make a regular old snapshot and turn it into an amazing image. It would have to be an amazing snapshot to begin with.

If you want to learn more about retouching techniques you should check out retouchpro.com

 

[jamamini]

As JarradKevin said, theres no quick fix.
To get to take a strong snapshot, learn how to light, how to make it softer or stronger, diffuse it or spread it, and the results will speak for themselves.

 

[Imaginara]

As have been previously stated, there is no "makethislookawesome" filter anywhere. It's all a combination of many different techniques, all depending on the starting image and the desired outlook. Sometimes you use one way to treat skin, sometimes you use another, and sometimes you even use plugins ;D

But, as Jamamini stated, it ALL starts in the lighting. If you have to fix errors made on set when taking the picture, you are at a disadvantage from the get go. Can you still produce a great image? Yes, but not as efficient as if it were pretty much done in camera obviously. And as a commercial photographer this can be very vital because there are times when you are not the one doing the retouching yourself. So if you deliver sub-par pictures that needs more work to be publishable than the other photographer, you will not be hired again.

Plus besides the time it takes, retouching pretty much always degenerate the image quality. Techniques like curves, levels, contrast tend to compress the tonality ranges in the image which can cause banding and such. This is one of the major reasons to use high-end Digital Backs for medium format as they are true 16 bit image sensors. So the image they will deliver can be tweaked and punished in retouching a lot more before they crumble.

Also note that retouching trends comes and go, plastic skin is in, then its out, then its back in, then its back out etc. So make sure you keep on track what the market wants aswell.

 

[Derin]

Is it even possible to get this type of natural light throughout the day?

http://bit.ly/fBEXBf (Blanco SS11 Campaign feat. Evandro Soldati by Hunter & Gatti)

As far as I could count, there are about 15 outfits in the campaign. And they all look like shot under genuine Late Afternoon/Early Morning light. Now, how fast should you move (and in how many days) to get as many pictures with natural light? I'm curious

 

[Imaginara]

well, there is nothing stopping you to shoot over a few days (except that logistics might be a bit more expensive). But these look like they were colour corrected to look like "the golden hour" a bit more than it actually being that light. That will give you a few hours that you can shoot (where the shadows are roughly the right position) and still have the same tone of light. Have a really fast wardrobe staff and you are set to go

 

[Derin]

Thank you Imaginara!

I am going to bet on 'colour-correction' since we know that Evandro is one of the most expensive and busy male models of our time. I believe the whole thing was shot in 1 day only.

One more technical question.

Can anyone take a guess what type of reflector was used in these pics (all from the same editorial

http://img214.imageshack.us/i/img005r.jpg/

http://img90.imageshack.us/i/img009n.jpg/

http://img199.imageshack.us/i/img017r.jpg/

I wonder how they manage to control those shadows.

 

[Imaginara]

well, you could get that effect probably with a gobo and a few spots... but there might a simpler way to do this if done carefully (and i suspect might be the case here). You take a mirror, shatter it, and glue the pieces together in a scattered way. This creates a reflected light pattern that is very chaotic and caustic in nature, and can be used to reflect a scattered lightpattern with pretty good precision. Ive seen it used in a studio environment where they bounced a flash onto a background using this technique to create a nice light pattern.

But here i'm actually thinking that they might be reflecting the sun back using that kind of broken mirror trick. Imagine when using a mirror to create lightpatterns on a wall that we (probably) did when we were kids. Its' the same thing, only that the pattern is getting more random due to the mirror being broken.

Sometimes, the simple solutions are the best

Ps. think i'm going to try this idea out actually ;D ds.

 

[Imaginara]

Btw. if anyone else has any ideas about this (or knows the answer) feel free to chirp in. I just love to try to figure these things out and thats why i'm posting all the time here I am definately not the only photographer in here.

 

[Derin]

...You take a mirror, shatter it, and glue the pieces together in a scattered way. This creates a reflected light pattern that is very chaotic and caustic in nature, and can be used to reflect a scattered lightpattern with pretty good precision. Ive seen it used in a studio environment where they bounced a flash onto a background using this technique to create a nice light pattern...

Wow, could have never thought about it. Thanks for the tip Imaginara!

p.s. Please be careful not to cut yourself, if you get to do any shattering.

 

[BetteT]

I'm not a photographer, but as a stylist who works closely with one particular shooter who likes me to reflect ... I've actually learned to work with reflectors and am quite good with them. And, as a stylist, my job is to figure how to get things done ... so that comes naturally to me, too. Imaginara is probably right ... because the reflection is so intense and sharp. I love the effect.

But it also occurred to me that they might have just placed some sort of cut out peice of cardboard, with slashes and/or holes in it, in front of or maybe clamped to a regular metalic reflector. Or anything that would obstruct the light in some sort of pattern ... even tree branches. I also noticed that on at least one of these, there is definitely two reflectors ... the second doesn't seem to be obscurred with a pattern, but it adds more drama and shadows from a different direction.

 

[Belinky]

HI,
This is my first post I am a photographer and shoot a lot of editorial and fashion.
With regards to the broken mirror you can also use mirrored perspex in different shapes - you can bend it and it bounces light onto the model - its a bit easier and safer to transport on location.
I use Capture One for processing my images and I do work with retouchers - my favourite retoucher lives on the other side of the world - she is amazing.
I process the files with some adjustments made in Capture One - then put a colour treatment on the file and do any reshaping - if its a fairly simple adjustment I send her a Tif with the treatment in place otherwise I send her a jpg with rough adjustments and a Tif that just has the contrast and a base colour balance. She then sends me reviews via email and if there are any adjustments needed I will send the file back with the areas circled and a description of what I want.
When its all looking great she will upload the hi res to my FTP server and I will pass them onto the magazine with the crops in place.
I cant recommend her highly enough - her name is Monica Chamorro - if anyone is interested.

 

[Lanc3]

As have been previously stated, there is no "makethislookawesome" filter anywhere. It's all a combination of many different techniques, all depending on the starting image and the desired outlook. Sometimes you use one way to treat skin, sometimes you use another, and sometimes you even use plugins ;D

Plus besides the time it takes, retouching pretty much always degenerate the image quality. Techniques like curves, levels, contrast tend to compress the tonality ranges in the image which can cause banding and such. This is one of the major reasons to use high-end Digital Backs for medium format as they are true 16 bit image sensors. So the image they will deliver can be tweaked and punished in retouching a lot more before they crumble.

Well said, here's my tip about working with professional retouchers, especially external ones.
Ask them to give you the final file with layers intact, uncompressed, regardless of how huge the filesize might be.
This way, you can do two things:
(1) adjust and finetune any effects (exaggerate or reduce it...)
(2) learn how your retoucher achieve a certain effect by switching on and off the layers.

Different retouchers have different ways of doing something. So it's good at the beginning to learn from different retouchers and pick the techniques that work for your style.

 

[Derin]

Could somebody please explain this setup to me (including the light panels etc)?

I'm aware that this is rather simple but I'm fairly new to studio setups.

ft.com

 

[Imaginara]

Well, you have one mainlight, up high (the umbrella) which since it's fairly close to the model gives a quite even soft light. This i further enhanced by the white panels which will bounce the light around making any shadows a bit lighter.

Now there is one panel which is a bit interesting. The black panel on the right side will increase the shadows on that side, especially in the face and on the right side of her arm (you see the dark shade there quite clearly). The lower half is to make sure that it bounces light back onto the dark pants so you do not loose too much detail in the trousers.

Hope that clears things up a bit?

 

[BetteT]

Not sure what you mean by "explain" ... I can't offer you the names and settings on the actual equipment.

But what I see is only one light source ... a reflected flash against an umbrella (it will probably have a silver or white lining) to provide a softer indirect source of light at about a 45 degree angle (usually the most flattering). If you look a the picture just taken on the screen, you will see how her shadow falls ... it's soft and undefined and you can see that most of the light is coming from our left ... which is consistent with the lighting set up. Also, there are white panels on either side of the model to reflect some light from those. The photograher still might use a hand held reflector too to fill in shadows on the right side ... that might be what the other small panel is ... it looks like it may have a handle on it.

 

[BetteT]

Imaginara .... you answered my question about what that small white panel was ... I was way off base. Thank you. Yay ... I was right about the rest ... pretty good for a non photographer ... I'm only a stylist.

 

[Derin]

^ Thank you so much, Imaginara and BetteT! You guys are amazing!
This photo was taken at the Asos HQ for an article about online retailers. It might sound silly, but it took me a while to get hold of a picture which showed the setup at their in-house studio. Their lookbook pictures are very basic yet they still favour even the lowest-quality outfit.

Now if you'll excuse my ignorance;

-Do you think I can achieve the same look with a rather large softbox (with a grid maybe) -instead of an umbrella- with 'Elinchrom d-lite 4 it' lights?

-Is the device seen right under the umbrella a hair-blower?