Image Manipulation – The future of commercial photography
With digital photography becoming more accessible every day, it’s more important than ever to keep up on the latest technologies and techniques – it’s more competitive than ever.
And once again, it seems that the field that has the biggest niche for work and the smallest for actual talent is the world of computers – or image retouching and manipulation.
Images are the property of Michal Horevaj
Images like these are made up of over 100 photographs, all painstakingly tweaked to fit together with the overall idea. These people do not take photographs – they create them. They are professionals, working hundreds of hours on a single image. The images are used for magazines, calenders, greeting cards and just about every thing you can think of. And these retouchers are paid very well because a lot of photographers are great photographers – but they rarely have the time or skill to do complete image overhauls like the ones you see above.
I attended a talk by Kate Chase, a image retoucher-agent and she spoke of how digital imaging is changing. She and many others in her industry believe that it is more important now than ever to have a degree in your field and have complete understanding of post production. It will give you leg up on your competitors – people who still shoot with film, I’m looking at you.
So if you think that you suck at photoshop, you better brush up or it’s going to be a long cold winter for you.
Utilizing Natural Light
At some point, you are going to ask yourself a very important question: “Am I a studio light or natural light photographer?”
Each type of lighting has it’s own characteristics and benefits. Studio lighting is customizable, professional, and allows you to capture nearly everything you need the lighting for. Natural light is beautiful, available, classic and impossible to replicate.
Unfortunately, each type of lighting has a downside as well; Studio lights are cumbersome and difficult to transport, they need a power source, they are expensive, and they take time to set up. Natural light is uncontrollable, so your at the mercy of your environment.
I’m a big fan of natural light – Something about it just feels so right, and like I said above, you can’t replicate natural light in a studio. Let me introduce you to the most common lighting situations you will face out in the world.
Noon Light
Shooting at 12 noon will give you very hot or orange/yellow light. Since the sun is at it’s highest point in the sky, you will get very bright highlights and very dark shadows. Not saying it’s impossible to shoot it – I’m just saying you will have a hell of a time getting decent detail in both the shadows and the highlights unless you use a reflector or a fill-flash of some kind or you’re willing to work a little photoshop HDR magic.
However, this type of lighting takes up a large chunk of the day – from about 10am to about 4pm, so it’s convenient to shoot in. Which brings us to our next type of natural light:
Dappled Light
If the mid-day sun is too much for you to handle, try moving your subject under a tree. It’s so simple – the leaves and brunches take out the intensity of the sun enough so your subject doesn’t have to squint, and you get beautiful patterns of light all over your photo. If you use these patterns properly – like placing a highlight directly on your subjects face, it can work very well for you.
Warm vs. Cold
The best time of day to shoot is bright and early – between 5 and 7am, and later in the day before sunset. Morning light is significantly cooler or bluer than evening light. And you won’t get the harsh shadows created by noon light. If you shoot about an hour before sunset, you will capture a magical mood – in the film industry known as the “Golden Hour” because everything takes on an angelic glow – it’s beautiful, but you have to be prepared and work fast – you lose light very quickly during sunset.
This photo was taken in a gazebo around 6pm:
And this next photo is the same model, but taken much earlier in the morning:
You can also get a similarly cold look from shooting in the shade or on a cloudy day. Each image cold and warm has it’s own feeling that you can utilize however you wish.
Window Light
I’ve saved the best for last. At any time of the day you can get what I consider to be the most beautiful lighting in the world… window light.
In all it’s simplicity, window light sure is versatile. You can place your subject right next to the window for more pronounced shadows and highlights or you can move your subject several feet from the window and get a much softer diffused light.
And depending on the time of day, the thickness of the glass, the weather, etc – it will all change, which makes it not only very accessible but also very exciting to work with. You’ll never really know quite what you will get, but it will always be beautiful.
Four photographers that influenced me
I have had an interesting career thus far – I did a lot of odd-jobs back in Green Bay Wisconsin, journalism, product photography and portraiture, and then later made a dent in the art scene there. I have shot many different subjects in a variety of styles.
What follows is a list of photographers who not only influenced my style, but my business practices and attitude as well.
Robert Stivers (www.robertstivers.com)
Seeing how my roots were sort of in Fine Art, when I found Robert Stivers’ “Photographs” at a used bookstore I was both enchanted and horrified at the same time. His use of normal subject matter on plain backgrounds was nothing new – it was his process’ results that made him stand out so much to me. He would Video-tape dancers with a super-8 camera and upon viewing the footage on a monitor, he would photograph them. What became of this process were these ghostly blurred images in which the subject matter would bleed together, in a sort of human symbiosis – and it was gorgeous.
His other book, “Listening to Cement” took his work out of the studio and to the streets where he did the same process with Architecture and street scenes.
His creative process and approach to such typical subject matter had a huge influence on me.
Lou Lesko (www.loulesko.com)
A photographer who has had much success in the world of fashion and advertising, he came to my school to speak on the business in my second semester at the Academy of art. Being the curious person I am, I asked a lot of questions and made a lot of comments throughout his talk, which apparently garnered some respect from him, as he gave me a copy of his book. I have read it 3 times since. More than anything what made an impact on me was his attitude. Here was a guy who had been very successful in his career, and with the continuing changes in the industry he not only rolled with the punches, but he evolved. He was at one time (and still occasionally is) a starving artist looking to make ends meet, and he is not afraid to admit it. He also writes a number of columns for photography magazines and he has developed the BlinkBid software. A few months after his talk, I contacted him to see what he thought of my work. I expected an e-mail that said “This is good, that sucks,” etc etc, but what I got was a call from his assistant who scheduled a phone appointment for the following day. Not only did we review my website for a good 20 minutes – he actually remembered who I was.
Diversity, a positive outlook, and the ability to evolve – No wonder he’s so successful.
Annie Leibovitz (Wikipedia Bio – It was all I could find)
Another diverse photographer, she may seem like a typical influence to have, there are a thousand photographers out there who are just as talented etc, but what I appreciate in her is her overall vision of things. It’s so strong and such a trademark, that you can tell at a glance that a photograph was done by Annie Leibovitz. That is some serious branding, right in her images.
I also rarely see a photographer with as much ambition as her – her work goes from very simplistic to outrageously stylish scenes such as her Alice in Wonderland work. If you pick up her book “At work” you can see the diversity of the work she has done, and how it has all seemingly climaxed at where she is today with her work in Vanity fair – It’s a perfect match for her style.
Autumn De Wilde (www.autumndewilde.com)
Nearly single-handedly got me interested in photographing people and environmental portraits. Her photos of people are so incredibly natural, she clearly takes time to get know her subjects before she even has the camera around. A relatively unknown photographer, she makes her living doing album artwork for indie bands. Of course, her making this list is helped by the fact that she photographed my favorite musician – Elliott Smith – in the later years of his life.
Even her other work, her work that doesn’t involve people at all has an amazing charm to it. She has an affinity for recognizing color and designs that are interesting to the human eye.
I know this doesn’t seem like a very long list, but each of the photographers that I mention I have delved deeply into their work. I can name most of the photos by Robert Stivers and which book they appeared in. I can recite all of the bands that Autumn De Wilde has done album artwork for. And I’m always looking for more, but in the last several years no other photographers have captivated me in quite the same way that these four did.
The photos in this post are property of their respective artists.
