This is one of my Film Noire sessions for 2010. A last minute session put together with Cat to take advantage of my schedule. The location for the session was in Dundee, and makes for a wonderful backdrop for this image. The session was what I call run and gun, basically find a location and grab shots before moving on to the next.
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This is an introduction to the retouching methods I use within Photoshop, don’t take this as gospel as my methods and techniques do change as I explore the hidden features of Photoshop. Instead use these tutorials as a map towards your own styles and techniques. I use Masks and Channels extensively to shape and mould the images and many of the techniques I use and will be showing are advanced in nature. However don’t be disheartened as all techniques can be learnt with practice.
This is a contentious area with debates raging about what camera is best. However this means that the larger viewpoint is ignored and the user should be looking at the camera system. The user needs to sit back and look at what kind of photography they want to do (even the possibility of doing) and review what offerings the manufacturers have. For example the Nikon CLS system (the IR control system for remote flashes) is generally superior than Canon’s making it easier to use. Canon’s image stabilisation (IS) is far more mature and readily available in its lens line up than Nikons VR (vibration reduction). This usually translates into Canon’s telephoto lenses are a better choice for wildlife photography where you have to deal with low light. Each system has it’s strengths and weakness and you need to weigh up what that means to you.
Autumn Collection series of images was actually supposed to be the Winter Collection, shot in January 2008 up in the Lecht area of Scotland. However due to conditions in the area I planned to be using was snowed out and the bridge was missing. So we had to find and use an alternative location, luckily I know the area and knew of some likely suspects. One of the cardinal rules of location photography is always have a backup. Only in Scotland can you go backwards in the seasons from Winter to Autumn and it pays to plan accordingly!
This is a quick post to let you know that the first of the retouching tutorials is due to go up shortly. I’ve done some portrait sessions recently specifically for Blueprint and I’m currently processing these images for release.
Whilst I’ve not covered some of the more technical aspects of Photoshop this will be a good introduction to how the Healing Brush and also the Clone Stamp Tool can be leveraged in a portrait image.
That should be the motto of every photographer. No matter how skilled, how aware or even how great you are at lighting there is always something you can learn especially when you make mistakes, and lets be honest if you’re not pushing your skills every time you do a session you’re not making mistakes. Mistakes are how we evolve, but also we evolve to prevent mistakes happening. This is called experience. Continue reading »

Call it an epiphany of awareness (or, more likely, a side effect of insomnia) but I decided to go back to the early days of my photography. A time where all I had was a single lens for my new camera and learning how to ‘see’ a scene. My project is as simple as it’s complex. To view the world with a digital camera with the limitations of film. This is a journey that I recommend everyone taking to break away from your comfort zone and learn to see the world with fresh eyes.
Welcome to the travails of Colour Management? No other words in photography cause so much fear, mysticism and woe. It’s one of the few areas that has yet to be simplified and is still very much a Dark Art. It’s a confusing quicksand of technology, science and experimentation. This article won’t go over the theory, as that would require several pages of mind bending science. Instead I’ll give a once over of what are colour spaces and I’ll cover Colour Management at a later date. This is not designed to be an technical article but a very brief introduction to the various spaces.
Bad Girl was taken in 2009 as part of an assignment with Saks Hair and Beauty. I had been commissioned to produce prints for the branch in Dundee. The Bad Girl image is taken from one of the Avant-garde sessions and is my personal choice from the session rather than a client selection. I love to work with like minded creative people such as make up artists and hair stylists, it gives a edge to your images that you wouldn’t get otherwise.
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The brush engine is one of the core tools of Photoshop, there is very little you can do without using the Brush Tool. However many photographers never broach the complexities or the powerful capabilities of Photoshop’s Brush Engine that lurks beneath the brush settings panel. It’s this difference that separates those that have used Photoshop from a creative background such as Graphics Design to those coming from a photographic background. Whilst this is a broad sweeping statement and that there are exceptions the simple fact is most photographers rarely explore the Brush Engine.



