Retouched vs untouched
I get this question a lot and especially after showing images from trade shows…. and to be honest I do understand the question a bit. For me it’s always very important to get the images as perfect as possible without using Photoshop, however I will never make a secret of the fact that I love to use Photoshop for the finishing touches, but I strongly believe that you have to spend as little time as possible in Photoshop as possible.
My Photoshop workflow is actually very simple (although I can do some funky/edgy stuff of course :-)), in most shoots I will retouch the skin and tint the image with filters like NIK, Alien Skin Exposure, OnOne or DxO, depending on the look I want. But I will hardly ever change light or the look of an image.
After posting the results from SWPP I got several questions from people who were asking how much retouching was involved for these shots because “you can never shoot images like this during a tradeshow without using Photoshop to make them look so good” well I’ve never done this before but for this time I will make an exception, today 4 images from the SWPP straight out of the camera and retouched.
Now why don’t I normally don’t show untouched images?
Very simple, we’re on the internet and I don’t want images to be shown who are not 100% the way I want them, it’s nothing secret or “I don’t want to tell you guys” it’s just a simple fact that as long as people respond to BTS images from my iPhone with comments like “Wow amazing shot and feel” I don’t feel comfortable sharing work that is not retouched to my final look, this is also why these images are watermarked. So without further wasting your time…. 😀 here they are.
By the way to make it 100% “honest” the images that are labeled “Non retouched” are not even color-corrected so they are literally 100% straight out of the camera.
I love your work Frank and you are and will continue to be a constant artistic inspiration for me. Retouched or not the point of becoming a “Professional” Photographer is to create memorable images. If people wanted pics of themselves right out of the camera then they would have their cousin take them with a point & shoot, not go to a studio to pay an artist for their time. I don’t understand why this keeps coming up¿ Nobody asks to see a movie shot on a green screen or says “I hate this song, the recording was done in a studio on a computer instead of a live band on a DAT”.
Yep,
The reason I did this was to show that the most important thing is to learn to understand lighting, when I look online and see different videos on YouTube I’m often shocked by the initial images and then after several photoshop tricks it looks great/ok. I think a lot of starting photographers think its supposed to work that way and they are frustrated that they can’t pull it off, while in reality anybody should be able to do it when they master their lights. Photoshop is often a very very small part of the shot, and remember in the years before digital there was no photoshop, only the darkroom so the images had to be there. The photographer did everything with light, the choice of film and developing/darkroom.
Thanks for answering the question this way. The key point is not the out of the camera look, but the look that you want to have associated with your work.
Some photographers want to see the “straight out of camera” pictures since I’m sure they think that you do something in post to improve the lighting, clearly you have disproved that here.
I was stood in the crowd at SWPP during the top two of these shots. Producing great work live on stage with a bunch of space restrictions in itself is hard enough, but once again you have shown great techniques and a fantastic way to work with the model to get the best base results for the pictures you wanted.
Brian
I showed it to demonstrate that you don’t need wicked photoshop skills to better an image that’s bad, but that with careful light placement, and remember this was all done with one light so everybody should be able to do it, you are already 90% there.
It is extremy easy to get perfect colors and contrast from your dslr. Here are the rules I personaly try to apply (which Frank does it all the time) 1-meter your lights 2-white balance your camera 3-set your camera’s sharpenin and contrast bit more higher (obviously for none raw files)… and if the focusing is right, very little photoshopping needed (maybe some hdr if not available in camera options)
Yep
It’s good to see the original files in comparison with the final result. People have different tastes, some like more a certain style, another person prefers something different. Some people can never decide. It would be really boring all having the same taste and style.
Everybody can use and create one’s own style. We don’t have to copy each detail, but we can use these images as idea for our own work.
Myself, I would have processed it slightly different, but this is personal taste.
It’s indeed always personal, and maybe in 3-4 months I would also do it differently, on the other hand it’s also what defines my style a bit.
Thank you so much for posting the before and after images. it is easier to learn that way for me at least. I usually get frustrated trying to learn from pictures wen i do not get a similar result….. I’m new to photography 🙁
Never get frustrated, always try to push yourself until it succeeds.
frank thank you for posting the original pic with retouched side by side. For some reason (for personal taste) I like the original better 🙂 The original has the warmer and colorful tone that I really like + the facial skin texture is so realistic left untouched, it add character to the picture compare to the muted smoothed out skin tone.
Correct, skin smoothing looks terrible on Internet by the way, full res I think you would go the other way around 😉 the retouched images have great skindetail.
Great job Frank. Thank you for showing us Before/After images. I would agree with some replies here, I like warmer originals pictures. However, I think that each person have own test and as a photographer own style. I`d probably decrease color as well, at least removed color cast.
Its indeed always personal tinting wise, and to be honest I also switch between looks in different sessions 😉 just find what fits so to say.
Agree, I would do the same. We don`t want all pictures to look the same in different environment each 😀
Oeps, I guess I was one of those naggers bothering you with this question :). Thanks a lot, now I got like a kind of “benchmark”, knowing what an image sooc of some pro-like you looks like and what great changes in look/style a little processing can achieve. Thx for being so open
Nobody nags 😀 it’s just questions, as soon as I find someone nagging I won’t do a response 😀