Inside the Big Lie

by Richard Martha

So why are we altering these photos

In the June issue of this newsletter I added a few links that were extremely helpful in explaining the different elements of what we call retouching, image editing or image manipulation. Most of these perspectives came from photographers.

This month I will try to break it down from my perspective, but first we have to ask the hard question; why are we altering these photos.

I wish to remind you that my philosophy on retouching does not extend itself to photojournalism, which should be deemed as the purest form of photography. Where editing procedures should be permitted only to compensate for limitations and defects inherent in the digital photographic process, provided that the impact is to make the photograph more true-to-life. See here…

In advertising and editorial imaging we play by a whole different set of rules, in which the use of multiple creative tools must be encouraged, especially in this modern digital age. Going forward, the results of combining creative media, whether photography, illustration, CGI or retouching shall be referred to as images.

• The principle objective for anyone who wishes to wring his photographs through a digital editing program is to search for improvement or eliminate flaws.

• The second objective is to obtain the desired effect that the original concept tries to evoke. Most images are born from an idea to convey a mood or message. So during this process the search for strong visual communication is pursued.

• The third objective is based on the premise that every image is unique and demands to be pushed to its full potential, like the sculpture appearing from a solid piece of stone. In this phase, judgment of when to continue or when to stop is of great importance.

The power to infinitely alter a single pixel, out of millions, allows us the freedom to change, re-create and create to our hearts content with just time as our only constraint. However, all three objectives make use of similar tools, which can be used in combination within the software. These tools can easily be broken down into a few major categories.

•Cloning; which includes the clone stamp, spot healing brush, healing brush, patch tool and cutting and pasting pixels. Used from eliminating dust to entirely removing objects from a scene by copying other pixels over them.

In these examples, a close-up of an old watch reveals hundreds of dust particles, scratches, dinks and other defaults. By using a combination of the cloning tools we were able to eliminate them.

•Color, Density and Contrast Correction; which includes image adjustment or adjustment layers, dodge and burn tools, painting tools, layer blends, sharpening, and channel blending. Used to be applied either locally or globally with use of masks to create minimal or drastic changes.

Close inspection of a magnolia showing a flower bud replaced with a miniature rolled up cotton towel. Downy, the client wanted its color to match their product and we managed to replace the white with a vivid orange. Shadows and highlights were enhanced locally and a harmonious color scheme was applied to the entire image.

Another example shows before and after of a beautiful black mare. In this Adidas campaign, curves in combination with channel blending were locally applied to give its hide a beautiful shiny luster.

•Masking; which includes all the selection tools like the marquee tool, lasso tool, path tool, magic wand, extract tool, duplicating channels, image apply, calculations, cropping and layer masks. Used to create Alpha channels for excluding or including changes to parts of the image.

Weatherproof called on us to create several color deviations from the original white jacket and blue background. Extremely tight masks had to be made to give us the flexibility to change colors often and fast. The results would appear on gigantic billboards in midtown Manhattan so margin for error was zero.

•Painting; which includes, all brush tools, the pencil tool, color replacement tool, gradients, smudge tool and most of the filters. Used to radically alter pixels or to add pixel value where non exist. Most special effects require the use of these tools.

The same watch from earlier with the visibility of the bottom half of the numerical 6 hindered by the dark reflection. Our solution was to completely airbrush or paint a nice new shiny surface.

•Cut and Paste or Compositing; the most complicated practice, which includes the use of selecting areas, entire photos, illustrations or 3D models to merge within one image using all or some of the above mentioned Photoshop tools.

In this Adidas ad, a real tiger was photographed of which the head would be used on the torso of the DJ. The entire image required many different composites, but we will only focus on the most challenging part. Not a method was spared to pull of a photorealistic result. Before the head could even be placed the upper body of the person had to be bulked up tremendously, and the hole of the sweater and chain were enlarged significantly to make room for the massive tiger head. The image was a great success ultimately claiming The GURU Award for Photo Montage. For more information on the making of this image visit here…

In all honesty, my description is just scratching the surface of what Photoshop has under the hood. But for photo retouching it is a pretty complete summary. The experienced retoucher may perform tasks using whatever tool is deemed most suitable for the challenge at hand. I’ve found myself achieving similar effects by using different methods for the sake of exploring new angles or merely to avoid being repetitious. But don’t be fooled into believing that Photoshop is the only way to achieve powerful images and photo-composites, as our artist spotlight will show a traditional photographer at play.

Before digital retouching was possible, talented people used amazing and creative techniques in the darkroom to create fantastical images. This months Spotlight artist this month is the king of of darkroom manipulation... Jerry Uelsmann.

July 2008

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