Ask me about Photography/Photoshop

[ipitythefool]

There's been some recent interest in photography so I figure I'll start an "ask me" in case there are more than a few out there who have questions.

My background:
I graduated with an BFA in advertising photography from Rochester Institute of Technology which is arguably the best school for the study. I'm well trained in equipment of all kinds such as cameras, lighting, darkroom, etc. I know all kinds of software associated with digital photography and scanning. My specialty in school was all things digital. This includes photoshop, scanning, digital capture, RAW processing, color management (the translation of color between systems), and inkjet printing.

Currently:
I work in NYC as a digital retoucher which is another way of saying that I work in photoshop all day long, or if you prefer, I'm the guy who "airbrushes" models to get them to that unattainable level of beauty. I don't do illustration but can field most any photoshop question relating to image correction/manipulation. I also know about the photography industry as well. Most of my friends are in the process of trying to break in as photographers in advertising as well as photojournalism.

So if you want to know why megapixel is only one consideration in buying a digital camera, what digital zoom is, why shoot RAW instead of JPG, or what it's like to photoshop Gisele... I'll answer all that I can.

[Ignorant]

Airbrushed pictures suck!

[thirddan]

is there a hot key to bring up the color picker?

[italianstang]

Whats the best/easiest/most useful tip you can give to someone who is fixing up a photo in photoshop?

[thirddan]

before and after pics? who needed the most work? what changes do you make that a layperson would never consider? do you know how the models react to all the chagnes you make?

are you on set during the shoots? if so, what do you do on set in order to minimize the amount of "we'll fix it in post" crap?

[ipitythefool]

[ QUOTE ]
is there a hot key to bring up the color picker?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not that I know of. The fastest way is to double click on colors below the tools in the tool pallette.

[anacrime]

Alright.

Why shoot RAW?

Explain f stop values and what is best for different types of shots.

[ipitythefool]

[ QUOTE ]
before and after pics? who needed the most work? what changes do you make that a layperson would never consider? do you know how the models react to all the chagnes you make?

are you on set during the shoots? if so, what do you do on set in order to minimize the amount of "we'll fix it in post" crap?

[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately, due to copyrights, I can’t post images I have that are work related so any before-and-afters I come up with will have to be personal work.

There’s no real answer to who needs the most work since it’s situation specific. There have been shots were the client wanted the model at an extreme arc so we cut her in half, bent her and rebuilt the midsection. Things like this take some time. I often hear the comment that Gisele takes the least touch-ups. She is closer to reality in photos than most. Everyone has love handles, Tyra has thick upper legs that have to be “trimmed”. All underwear models lose almost any “bumps” where it can give a hint of a love handle or some fat, we usually make the garment look as if it sitting flush with the body and not pulling it in at all.

Things that the layperson would never consider: Things become very odd when 3D is compressed down to 2D. Some times you have to move around a person’s body parts just to get them to look natural on the printed page. The aforementioned story of breaking the girl in half is something a layperson wouldn’t expect. Skin is probably the biggest common things. You only have to pick up a playboy to see that eyewhites and teeth get unnaturally whitened and the skin gets smoothed until it almost takes on a plasticy look. Higher end retouching does all this but makes it look more natural and less plastic. The part that laypeople wouldn’t consider is what goes into it. On some models you may completely reconstruct the skin from scratch in photoshop so it’s not even close to real skin. Others you may just work them over to take out blemishes and beautify them. Rule of thumb is joints look ugly on film. Elbows, knuckles, and knees. Always wrinkeled, unappealing skin color, and can look ashy.

I don’t think the top models think about post, they know it’s going to happen and expect it to happen. I don’t go on set but from what I hear, many models awake from a coked up daze moments before the shoot and fall back into it immediately after so they probably don’t think about it too much. We have an account for plus sized clothing and recently one of the new models was deemed to be “not chunky enough”. I had to add about 30-40 lbs to her. That was one of the first times I really thought about what the model thought when she saw the image.

[ipitythefool]

Oh, and another thing people wouldn't expect is making cleavage look nice. A lot of times if there's a lot of cleavage, you'll have one well lit tit and one not so well. One of the ways to go about fixing this is to take the nice one, flip it around and blend it with the other to give two round, well defined breasts.

[ QUOTE ]
Whats the best/easiest/most useful tip you can give to someone who is fixing up a photo in photoshop?

[/ QUOTE ]
Depends on the subject matter and what you want to do to it. Give me an example.


[ QUOTE ]
Alright.

Why shoot RAW?

Explain f stop values and what is best for different types of shots.

[/ QUOTE ]

RAW is seen as "untouched" image data meaning it is unprocessed. Some liken it to shooting a negative but not processing it. The idea is you have more control on what happens to it in the time between capture and becoming image data. The most important reason is that RAW isn't a compressed format. Along with the advantage of added control you retain more detail, color fidelity, and less noise. JPEG is a compressed format. It compares the data of your image, finds instances where colors are similar to surrounding areas and throws out the color information where this happens in effort to make the image smaller in terms of byte size. The real danger is that it will keep doing this, if you work on a JPEG, each time you save it as JPEG again, it will run the compression and throw out more color information. From what I understand, the JPEG format was created to compress a TV signal down so it would be able to be transmitted more easily and was never intended from use in high quality imagery. For amateur photography, you may be perfectly happy with JPEG and not know the difference. For those who like to tweak and photoshop their images RAW is the way to go.

F-stop values are number values applied the opening and closing of a lens’s aperture. The aperture is a set of thin metal leaves that form a small circular opening for light to pass in the lens. The bigger the opening the more light passes. The reason you would change the aperture is to control the “depth of field” which is how much of your image appears sharp from foreground to background. If you have a wide aperture (lower F-stop number) things closer and farther than what you’re focused on will look blurry; think sports photography, sharp player, blurry back ground. If you have a smaller aperture. more of your image will be sharp foreground to background; think Ansel Adams or landscape photography, sharp throughout. F-stops are used in conjunction with shutter speeds to make your exposure. Every F-stop you go up lets half the light pass so you have to double the length of your shutter and vice versa. If you need a fast shutter speed or want to blur the background open your aperture all the way up with a F-stop like F2.8. If you need sharpness throughout, use a small aperture like F-22.

[Mr. 3173]

I recently graduated from Newhouse with a B.A. in Communication and Interactive design. I am well versed in all programs and a photoshop master. I am living in NYC and looking for some part time work before I begin grad school. Can you help me out?