Photoshop ? or Camera ? or both ?

This is a question that has been asked so many times that I thought it would probably be fun to have a small blog post about it.
There are many thoughts among photographers ranging from “hey man we’ll fix that in Photoshop” to “Photoshop ?, nah straight out of the camera”.
I have to be honest I’m a bit in between.

Why fake it when you can create it ?
Many of you know that this has become my motto over the years, and I still believe in this.
I see absolutely no reason to be sloppy on location or in the studio, because we can fix it in Photoshop, yes of course we can fix things in Photoshop and yes I will fix things in Photoshop but I will not fix things that could have been solved before taking the shot. First of all this method saves a lot of time but secondly, and for me more importantly, this method will give you more “real” images.

What do I fix in Photoshop ?
Wrinkled backgrounds are a thing that will happen a lot of times when using paper, canvas or any other type of background material that can wrinkle. You could of course make sure you use new paper every photo shoot but most “normal” photographers can’t pay for that. And this is a very easy and quick fix in Photoshop so that’s no problem at all.

The second thing I will fix in Photoshop is skin.
There is I think no model in the world that has 100% perfect skin.
Now we could go in the discussion of “should we work on skin, or post it online or print it the way it is”
For me it’s an issue that is not as clear as one might think.
For example when I shoot in the studio I will work on the skin to make it smoother (not perfect), I will always leave some “problems” in, and take some other “problems” out, but I will not replace the whole pore structure that some people will do, I will also not gaussian blur all detail out of the skin and make her look like Barbie fresh out of the box. I will try to find some in between version that suits me and the model (but most importantly the client), however I will not do something to my images because my client wants it, do remember this, I will go a long way (often almost against my limits of what’s acceptable) but I will never cross my own barrier. You as a photographer are judged on the work you do, if your client wants you to do something that is not fitting your style you have to decide for yourself what to do. For me the limit is without a doubt removing all facial structure, I will simply not do that, I’m willing to make it silky smooth with pores but I will not remove everything.

So what do we use for skin ?
Well it depends.
I’ve been playing a lot with different plugins but when I have to advise just one it would probably be Dynamic skin softener from NIK, you can find this in the Color eFeX suite (which I REALLY recommend because it has some great stuff, later more on this), other good options are out there but in the end I will advise NIK because it’s hard to beat when considering the complete package. When a client has more budget (and now a days they hardly do) we will use the dodge and burn method or some shorter manual options, I have to be honest that this is not my favorite waste of time but we can offer it. Also the plugins have become better and better and when you play (you really shouldn’t use the standard settings, that’s ugly) you can get very good results.

So when the skin is done what more ?
I love to color my images.
Sometimes I will give the image a more vintage look, sometimes I will go all overboard and do more cross processed looks, over time I’ve developed several actions with curves which work great, by the way this is one of the reasons why I really stress people to buy something like the colorchecker passport or spyder colorchkr, when you have a solid and repeatable base you can run those actions and filters and get the same results time after time, when you don’t do any form of “precalibration” of your file you will end up with a mess most of the times. By the way, when using these tools remember to always first load the profile (with the passport it’s under cameras and with the colorchkr it’s under calibrations) and then use the whitebalance tool on one of the gray patches.

When looking at the modern plugins like NIK colorefex they have some pretty decent film looks, but when you look at Alien Skin exposure 3….. man nothing can beat that, so when you are really into nailing a nice analogue look on your images make sure to check out Exposure 3 from Alien Skin, I have to be honest that I still use my own method but I’m more and more experimenting with Alien Skin and loving it. Sometimes just a little bit of the effect mixed in with the original can give your images that little bit of unique look, and sometimes just going overboard will do the trick.

Finishing it off
The other thing I love to use can also be found in NIK ColorEfex and it’s called Tonal contrast.
Now this option within ColorEfex should be a stand alone plugin and NIK would sell it like hotcakes, now a lot of people miss it because it’s buried in a mix of many great (and some lesser great) options and settings. Tonal contrast however ROCKS.
What it does (in short) is enhance detail to a point where you can change the whole image to look surreal.
I love to use it in a lesser setting to enhance some features in for example the background or in the clothing (it works great on white or black clothing for example), but you have to be very careful with this plugin (actually the same goes for all plugins) because when over doing it will cause loads of artifacts, so always do it on a separate layer and paint away what you don’t like.

Conclusion
In todays market it’s incredibly important to find your own unique look “voice”.
Let your images stand out from the competition, realize there is no magic “make it look like xxxx” filter.
Remember that your images will be MUCH stronger when you think about the image before pressing the shutter.
Remember that your images will be MUCH stronger when you know how to measure, manipulate and use light.
Remember that your images will be MUCH stronger when you can use Photoshop the correct way.

For me the correct way is to shoot a 99%-100% image (or at least the best I can get it).
Actually an image should get into Photoshop and you should be wondering, should there anything be done to this ?
Than you know you have the perfect image to start with.
Start with cleaning up, make your unique look and in fact you’re done.
It’s no secret that my total workflow on images from start to finish in Photoshop is often less than 10 minutes, some images will take longer of course (especially with skin work) but overal the average time I spend in Photoshop is less than 10 minutes per image. I’ve seen (and I know you have) videos and seminars where heavy underexposed images are transformed into works of art……. well to be honest why would you wanna do that ? I was told on Photoshop World by a good friend of mine that he loves my expression “why fake it when you can create it” but that he saw some videos online on for example youtube were he thought that the motto should have been “why create it when you can fake it” For me it makes no sense. Let’s be honest we are PHOTOGRAPHERS, we are not Photoshoppers. Well ok, Photoshop has been a part of our workflow for many years now, and to be honest I can’t live without it, but let’s think about this… the image should be our main focus (no pun intended :D) and not the retouching.

I’ve talked to a lot of photographers over the years and the frightening thing is that there are more and more new (and even pro) photographers claiming that light meters, calibration devices etc. are all things of the past. With the modern cameras there is hardly any noise in the images any more so we can underexpose by up to 2-3 stops and still fix it…. they say with a big smile on their face like they invented the new McDonalds burger with 0 calories and super taste…… Oh my.

Maybe I’m a dying breed of photographers (I hope not but I am turning 40 on May 6th) but I strongly believe that we should nail THE shot in camera and not after the event. When you are done with the shoot there will be Photoshop work without a doubt, but again that should be to enhance the image not to create the image.

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