Lessons

Lesson Info

11:15 am - Editing and Finshing Photos

This is st one state one is the process this's the easiest way I found that it two years ago we used to do prove on paper paper proofs we dropped it because it didn't give us enough resale value because when they get a good proof book they say all I ve got all the pictures on the on the book so I'll order only fifty pictures now they don't have those proof books and the progress it's printing is harder now and it's it's not a ce physical is before so we we have conditional for the proof part that's the magazine that's, the magazine the proofs are the magazine because they're not finished. The finished product needs to be on paper or two versions proofs on line book finished owed one they've selected so as faras the software's we use I am quite at the moment my studio uses on ly a preacher because we we like our preacher it this filing system everything is beautiful on operator, it keeps very good records off the history and everything and and now I'm using also light room trying boat s...

oftware side by side because light whom is catching up in many ways it's better now, so I'm hoping that epa will do a better job in the next upgrade if not, we will move toe a light room so that's why I'm keeping up with answer a question you're saying that obviously the book itself is all finalized retouch pictures but the proofs that you show them are they color corrected their color corrected on lee no no no effects no finishing and you're you're also corrected if it was underexposed overexposed yeah hopefully we don't have too many defects puzzle very exposed body is definitely yes definitely so if we have underexposed and it happens my first shot always is under or over because I'm testing because I'm using manual we know that automatically the first to say pictures can be just over around because I'm making an adjustment after that we know that it's constantly could that's why when I should manual also I know that what that does to three pictures at the start the rest is going to be the same so I can run an action so I have a group of picture I used in front of this world I know I haven't changed my exposure so I correct the first one and I ran the same action in light from or a pitcher on the rest so all they match then I go to the next group different location correct the first one and ryan ran in action I don't do no black and white I don't do anything to those pictures but we advocate the client that this is only prostate why we call it proof this is only visual select the image so we showing the roof, I'll select image don't select because you liked effect or anything selective meet then we will make the art act is creating the next age, so also that exciting because the customer now understand it there's a lot of process to reach where they want to go for the album it's it's, very it's stages and there's few stages that we see the client if they can't come to the studio, we will do it on scraps cap is fantastic, we can demonstrate person to person on skype, but we always prefer to see the client client in person because that's, when I can sell better, I need to convince her not heart selling because I don't want my clients to be upset that I was expecting to spend thousand dollars now on spending two thousand dollars. I don't want that negativity I want to customer to buy because they want it not because I'm trying to sell it to them so it's all visual, so if I do good presentation, if I excite them with what I've created, this is what I like you too have then it's very easy to sell. They like the bride and groom look, oh, it was not how much we expected, but we love it. We're going to get it okay can we afford darling? Can we cut on the furniture next month and get this book so that's the convention station we don't push we never push if they don't want any off the extra pages I created it's okay to take it out I never ever push because I don't want this customer to have negativity towards us I don't want them to say all we got ripped off I want him to say what an experience I bought this most beautiful book it cost me a lot of money that's fine but it's beautiful no expensive and beautiful go together if you want something good, it will be expensive you know a mac and another pc can do the same job but having this is the experience so that's how it should work I just have another clarification question so when you do give out the digital images give the actual raw images are changing color corrected one so you don't even give them the basic collect way don't give them the color correct that we give them the raw images but we have another package clearly saying that if you want to color corrected version after you by the road running video images you have to pay voted it's an extra service you can have the role, the color corrected and that's it I don't give them album pages because I've had experienced mild homemaker at the ten years ago before I went to graffiti created the abu he made the album for us and the bright found out what the album maker once he took the first take it backto the album maker so she got it very to price so I lost on the cell so so I would not give my mind my layout is my properties it's mine if you want that we will make you another album and and it's all so easy when I send it to graphics studio it's the fathers are they're all I have to do is send them a message can we get parents album and in a week or two we'll get our parents album big and also very important we're selling product are these two products that we have this's very important that I should mention it this little books we print hundreds off this after it waiting hundreds off this and it's quite reasonable and we told this everywhere that pride of souls in the in the bag off the the bride when they see them you give them this like a brochure and girls love this it's cute she can put it in her wallet and she can show it off and everything so we have a lot off this in the studio it's like here you want one of these ten off this here take it and then this book this is the most sellable product for us not we don't make money out of this but we create customers every reception we should wedding they get a copy off this each wedding that we shot at the reception they get copies off this every guest gets a copy no no the reception place said the venue ok, the venue gets copy off this so it's with our name printed at the big so we give we send tim dempsey says it gives us a look give away this to the bride's that you see for new bookings every designer that we worked way actually have standard designers because were high and we get similar designers there fashion designers the clot designers there's one amazing lady we were an italian lady we were quite a lot with her and we send I've been working with twenty years and we send always copies off this tow her copies to the other designers so we spend money for investment this's this's the best investment we can get when a bright counts for an interview we have a brush er to give her but we give three four off albums that she liked now she likes this album she likes their album she likes this album I say, why don't I give you coppers off this story to your family? What do you think? So we give three books like this in the package and the packages come in the books. So so when when a bright goes home she has priceless from another person on a on a faxed page this you might have an inter internet price and then when she comes to us, she has a beautiful presentation box with our logo, innit, prices, samples, lollies, everything in that box it it's a package. Yeah, that costs us money. I don't know how much, but I think about thirty dollars per bright. Next let's come down to the software's like I said, nick software so the one I used the most is the calorie fixed. Let me quickly show you what I love. I've got the new images so what I'm going to pick up is one that I like quite a lot is the let me grab this old photo it's here this one here and I pick up the second one in the effects so in the style it's the second one it's quite a harsh, strong cpr turning so I click okay and I create a new layer already nick automatically create a new layer. What? What I love with this one. You can run a lot of actions we didn't buy, blending the two in the foreground and the background together it can get quite another effect fifty percent off the effect and fifty fifty percent off the picture get that or you can't see as much on the screen so let me show you more off the effect. So if you get this ah contrast e cpr color print out of it so you can use this quite a lot on honor spread and I tried to keep the effect on the spread. I don't go all over the place mixing up different type of his on the spread a spread disease the two sides the other one I love using on the new clinic collection is is the vintage no, sorry, nostalgic is the first one there it got a little bit everything becomes more magenta eye soft, but it was going to give me quite a soft effect to the picture and always haven't have a new layers so you can blend it with the bottom layer, tow the effect you want to achieve, so it gives you that scipio stone sorry pink pink magic stone and you blend again with the bacon. It will give you that soft look to the picture and it prints quite nicely so excuse me, can you back up a little bit and just talk? Tell people what I know you said nick, but there's different types of nick's software or where you find it in photo shop and the new collection it's it's uk it it's a google software now you can buy online and they have set off collections usually you came by to say I think it's one hundred fifty dollars he came by the whole collection from from nick on which one I used the color effects prada most their silver, black and white is quite a nice also you if you're a heavy black and white user silver, black and white is quite good, but I have an action that I'm going to show you and it's going to be part of my free giveaway action it's much better black and white and anything else that I have I have seen so I'm going to share that with you so that's in the in the special tomorrow did you get all right? Perfect. Thank you. S oh, so that those are the main ones I use defining is for ah, we re moving I think it's been moving for noise out of the picture, but I don't use that. Thea, the one that I used let me grab you a bigger image. Quick question someone was curious how many images are in those many albums that you leave with you okay, that's a good question usually I tried to keep as little as possible because I want thea albums, toby spread I want the pages the pictures to be spayed in an album so I don't want to feel an album with hundreds of pictures and just make a scrapbook so it's very important that way eliminate most of the pictures come tto one hundred images one hundred twenty meters is a good size for a novel and it's a big trouble so if I have hundred pictures and I can spend it to so many pages it's going to be a beautiful book instead ofthe a lot ofthe pictures on top of each other okay I've got an image here what image? No mick does here it is what image gnomic does is ah re just taken it it's often the face it plays with the skin so when when you open an image I will create a new a new layer control j or command and got to image no mick the portraiture that's the software so here you have a set set default setting so usually the one I used is normal or medium so what it does it picks up the skin tones and softens them quite nicely without losing any details in the texture so it if they have too many blemishes if they have too many skin imperfections this worked quite nicely without over working on it so smooth medium will give me quite a nice softness I click ok I dont try toe change the settings I I am quite happy with the default setting run the action it gives me quite a nice softness now for example, I love her skin toby solved because she she wants it to be beautiful and perfect let's see before and after just gives me softness around here around her cheeks and not everywhere. So what? All these are reduced the capacity to the amount softness I went on the actual picture and if the groom, for example hey has bean counter has gone to soft I don't mind selecting hiss section are feather feather about one hundred and the lead from from his face stirs the selection so that will give me quite a nice effect on the girls softer and the goal not losing the softness so imagine gnomic does this very great the other image gnomic software did I love using is the noise where so it's called image genomics it I am a g in or am I see image no make noise where noise where is beautiful, if you should on high aysel and you want to reduce a bit off the noise why do I want to reduce the noise? Because I love noise as I told you yesterday, but I like to add the noise after I like to know too at the noise after I finish the picture because I'm going to do softness I'm going to do retouching so I'm going to do everything so it's the first stage I will run the noise action this's a demo version here because it's not the right computer and your aunt do you use portraiture on all your photos of no, no not on the photos on mostly on the close ups okay, mostly on the cold close ups and but not all of them just just certain one certain wants it for example, if I have thiss image and I'm looking at the girl skin and there's too much play missions too many marks and I asked the customer I see how much we're touching you want some customers say not not a toll some customers say go for it the racial off the customer's ninety five percent say go for it five percent don't care so every girl nearly wants to have her skin retouch and everything and this is also a gn argument keep it natural what's natural the girl's folks spent so much money on makeup so she looks beautiful what do you mean natural? Am I delivering it to another photograph for or I'm delivering to the right was my client so I followed the client's instruction and if she's not happy too much or less we will fix that after after the the view so the view is her choice hurt her time to see if she likes or not like this is where she can make changes we show her on the screen if she wants to make changes we have a little print out off the off the pages under each section we will mark what changes you would like. So we call the customer big to say ok, this is this is the section you want to change. This is what we did, what you think if you like, we have no larger prints off the layout and with this signature underneath saying that she approves it because we need to get that signature to make sure dead she approved if she counts is I didn't approve that. There it is, darling, I'm not going to read to the album again because those things will cost money if I do every album again, then what's the point of me being in business so so we make sure that his hundred percent we even give her the remote control of the tv leave them alone in the room so they can go to each page after I told them a story after I told them the story so it's it's so important so we tell will tell the story we excite them, we say okay, now is your time to sit down and make changes if you need toe. In my opinion, this is perfect. But it's my opinion, you can you can have a section. You know, I'm wondering if you could give us an overview of your workflow as faras when you use portraiture. What point do you use the knicks software? At what point do you use the portraiture? This's at autumn when we start designing the album? I mean, as for one photo, if you were to bring up a hero shot saying and you were going tio okay, yeah, sure. I know what you're asking. Okay, the first thing we do, we have a folder off one hundred or one hundred pictures selected from the bright some could be repeat, but most of it will be album. So we open those files. We can we goto aperture. We've done a little bit work but way play a little bit more to make it perfect because the first stage was for proofs. So it's a quick action. The second adjustment we call more detailed. You know, I will correct the highlights and the shadows this's where you get a bit off the hdr effect because what I'm trying to do is balancing the tones. Are we show you soon in an app? Ritter how how we do it so being got the tail teachers in the white and being got the details in the blacks so the picture start to be flight, then we include a bit of contrast and that's ready for the next stage so way saved this is if he falls movie to another folder and now it's ready to go to photo shop so those software is many we use for correcting the tone and the the color off the image. We don't apply any effect at that stage after that we opened each individual picture and start working on it as an individual retouching softening which I'm going to show you all tomorrow dissection or tomorrow this afternoon I'll check in a minute so we start focus softening we start applying effective, we need toe and there's a group of pictures that it's going to go on up on the spread I can't say ok, this is going on the space so we ran the same type of effect on on four off them so it matches on a on a page. So if we if I think this image is going to look great in black and white, we converted at this stage so each individual picture will be worked on individually, not as a group then once we lay out in the album layers then it's it's layers off photo shop, then we start matching each other the page we make sure that this is not green, this is not red this's, not low. We try toe match the pages so it doesn't look all different pictures, so the floor will look nicer. So that's the next state after layer, but most off the retouching, the finishing off the picture will help happened before the album, so I know what I'm going to create, so I work on them and ready to go to the album layout and would you use portraiture before you use the knicks software with nick's off will be the last thing that you get the knicks software will will you used on top if I'm going to apply an effect ofthe colors, it goes on top because on on top because they are finished after after death on my trying a bit off noise on top of it, but this will process we're going to do tomorrow because tomorrow we're going to design a whole album from zero. So tomorrow station is all dead, a production, so I'm going to create in front of you a new album layout, so today I'm explaining to you the basics, tomorrow we'll do the layout perfect, ok, any other questions about this? Oh there's always questions you okay? You okay? Well let's do a couple questions kerim bey would like to know on average how much time do you spend per image editing and also a lot of people have asked if you outsource editing at all or if you do it all in at one stage I tried outsourcing but it was never minding it became someone else's it's a very hard thing to outsource because you imagine a picture you create a picture you imagine how it's going in if you outsource that person has nothing connected to your picture they don't know what was the day they don't know anything and they create their they fix it the way they want it they are the only outsourcing you can't go outside without without effecting the picture is just basically touching remove fly missions remove color corrected death states okay if there's the right power person you know you can do that but finishing outsourcing I think that the photograph there should be a lot involved with it that's why I love to keep my stuff do yourself do your editing you have something no no I have I have a team, I have a team but the team works under my instruction they use only my actions they even if they use sneak I have an action running toe operate nick the way I want because I don't want we have does hit ups and created an action out of it so I have a pallet of actions my stuff just placed about him so it's exactly the way I went to finishing off the images if if I come with the new style they get the actions again and they were acquitted so and once a month I sit down with them and we got trivialities and every time an album is created every term retouching has been done I take everything I make sure that it's it's my my standard before it goes to the book and so as karen had asked do you know the people that are on your team how much how much time they spend editing one image is it okay because we have actions some images for example the black and white action takes a few seconds once you've done the door three touching you know I love removing anything that's going to distract the picture for example on the floor there's a there's a gum start on the concrete I wouldn't remove that I want to leave it there you know if there's a pole and I'm being able to remove remove that pole will remove it power pour anything like that just distracting the picture unless it's part ofthe the designer off the creation ofthe the picture will remove it if there's cables and anything we're rooming with but we make sure that we avoid to have this in the orange origin a ship but we still go through it because the finished picture should be clean and straight to the subject we want to go sometimes you get a little bit off white light coming through through the wind or something that you can retouched it off so it doesn't be dominant point I'm going to go through this tomorrow so I want the eyes to go straight to the a place I want them to go so it's it's very important to do this so each each frame each inmate sometimes it could take two minutes sometimes it could take up to a half an hour depending how much we want to achieve so the whole album ah whole layout for hundred pictures it was take about two days for the retouching current color correction and it will take two days laying out in making it perfect so four to five days a novel per per employee sometimes I designed my elbows I love designing my albums I don't have time a lot but I love designing album so that I will design one album a week to make sure that it gets me here pixel and sometimes the customer says can you please designed the album so I make sure that I designed it sometimes they don't care so and do you review the images after your team at its them before you present them to the bride? Yes yes way view all the images we make sure that they're all perfect the dresses detailed everything this detailed if we need to we read to them again and then to the layout sometimes the whole image the bright says all I wanted more retired so we will go through the whole thing before we come to the album again so that there's a lot ofthe service involved to produce a book but the waiting time could be up to three months because we have ah, a lot of albums in production ah, in a week we we create three albums in the studio have you had any funny wedding moments? Who hasn't? I can tell you stories about those once once I had a bride and I went I didn't I never meet make this bright I went to her to her house not go to the hotel and I rank up acid I'm here I have a younger system he's twenty one year old I said I'm here they said can you wait? My father will come down and tell you where it comes from waiting downstairs the father came he said my daughter is upstairs she's waiting for you so I went upstairs it was a double door hotel hotel room knocked the door after a few seconds the off shore opens and I get this big few off a big bright totally naked in front of sorry I think I'm in the wrong room no national city than argue your vantage I said yes please come in I say you want to trace first I can bake later no no no she said I want to surprise my husband I wanted to have some boudoir pictures before I said ok I'll talk with what pictures but imagine this lady on do you have you have you seen the micheline the little men off michelle in that's how I can describe a beautiful lady but you know sometimes he should what yourself in the mirror before you have a photograph her in the room but I'm I'm professional I'm ready to take the pictures and why going out aboard it's all right it's for fun so so I go on and to my boudoir pictures to go on the bed on the happy pictures with a bit off covered he's covered that covered is basically cover everything and take a beautiful picture after and she was a beautiful lady and I didn't understand why she wanted boudoir pictures when she looked fantastic in addressing wedding dress now I can do better pictures with your bathing dress I canto sexier pictures with your waiting list anyway it was her desire I did but at the same time my twenty one year old a system who most probably hasn't seen a new person in his life is short dance is giggling behind me and I can't stop it so I said get out go go and get me something from my car so he can't make the bride is ready and it's only the bride and me in the room and I helped her to get placed put a trace on and then suddenly a bridesmaid comes which wass a men they says a bride mitt so a lot of funny things happened and eventually we went to see the groom the groom and bride were so synchronized it they were fitting in each other and it was perfectly bridal short, so I have many amazing moments like this s o I enjoy that's why I think wedding is h each couple is an individual each couple is a special moment each camp eliza I don't look any more for the backgrounds I look what I'm seeing in the couple and create those beautiful moments so you're running what software would you use to edit your photos guys, I'm all over the place I have a good story you're on okay now let's go into the next software are let's that's open our preacher which is here our picture is what I can you can convert the images in in tow into the in photoshopping brought the photos off software, but I prefer to run it on in our preacher or light room so I can get a constant similar finishing them it's more complete software so let's great grab an image drop it in into our preacher and I'll show you it's it's basically the same is light from the same techniques so what I'm going to do is grab one of those images maybe it's better to import so I'll important image from my best off yeah let's grab this one here I didn't want to hold off temp so I'll just grab this end let's work on it so basically this is a profile here it's this what are we look into the picture is I want to make sure that there's enough detail in the white's there's enough details in the background and there's enough detail in the blacks so I goto adjustment first thing I do is the exploiter this's what we used to do in the darkroom exposure first so make sure that to contrast the details I look at the face I look at the face make sure that the contrast and details are perfect on the tape on the face then I'll do a bit of recovery I do recovery so I can bring the whites the whites the details off the dress into the picture then I go and adjust the black points so make sure that the black points are have also details and just a bit of brightness adjustment then go down to contrast this is all similar in light to mosul adjust the contrast off the face again I always look to face because I'm shooting people bring out a bit off different definition because if the more you do the more htm are effected will become so just enough adjust the saturation and at the bottom we will go and highlights and shadows so the highlights I will pump it out quite a lot in the shadows so I can have in articles in the in the in the black hair so basically this is what we do have to all our images before we send it is a file into a folder so it goes to the next stage of potential into the next stage of photos off so once once I've done the adjustment run the action for example if I have four off this image is next to each other that brought his selectors also I will select all four and drunk the action on the same pictures or the color correction is exactly the same and then go to the next this is all what we use with a preacher or light room this is the only stage we control so let's quit our future I have good pictures there, bring it out in photo shop and start working on the wife photo shop and not finishing our preacher because photo shop is more controllable I can do many details when I work in a photo shop I I go into sections for example let's say that pillar minutes more dark ning hurt her veil needs darkening maybe take a bit of light ofthe furies so I work on it section separately if I need to remove the dust or if I need to do a neck station, they're photoshopped is much quicker and much much detailed. So photo shop is the tutu darkroom opera curie's before dark room okay, and the last software are uses page gallery, which is my software toe make the layout and I'm going to demonstrate it tomorrow. So this is all the software's I will use the rest I have them but no, no use question. Yeah, just a quick question. Duminy tips for post production when adjusting white balance sometimes I don't know why it's kind of a struggle for me so just white buns because it's a good question because when I use our preacher and when I use my camera, I do auto white panels, auto white panels and in many cases let's go for example due to this image, you see, because that is dead ugly light in the church and gives you that orange cast into the picture you can, we can do the white panels here in our picture before I take it toe photoshopped into more adjustments later on, so I will will warm up the temperature in that picture for example, it's make the screen larger just okay so this was the original or somewhere there and I will warm it up a little bit. I will give a bit off because there's that magic magenta tint but in many cases, if there's a cast on the dress and everything it's very hard to remove it it's very hard to make him remove it because the skin tones are quite close, but if you see it the white stairs imagine pattern because off the light at this days at the reception that happens quite a lot they've got this paxton and not led lights with pinks in it and losing it and you lose everything. So the best idea for dead if you have such a huge cast is de saturate here a little bit. Just get rid off the colors, make it more simple and open this in photo shop opened this in photo shop and in photo shop also be will go adjust colors and at a bit of red and a bit of yellow it start to become more natural, more or less this color dominated so de saturate and and you can do this is a photo shop also just converted and bring it to photo shop and make more adjustments inside potential so that will look pleasant sometimes it's so heavy did don't dominant light the safest thing is to convert it to black and ninety and you're done and if you have a very dark picture again converted to black and white and it's good so it's it's ah this is where you work on the picture and say okay, this is too much a lot ofthe noise but I'm going to show you interesting techniques in photo shop how I get those kate reed off those crane for example if it's the shadows are heavy and they had the shadow area there's a lot of noise I have a technique toe to reduce that noise I have a technique to get rid of it so I'm going to show you this when I start working on the on the product at the moment it's just showing what I use a now I do okay, how are we going? All right, well I just wantto possibly do a recap of your software process if that's okay we'll present very simple yet so let's go from beginning to end you open the photo and aperture we we bring the row fausto our preacher convert tow the colors, the texture the details contrast saved a message he fell in the north another folder bring them in for her shop applied the color adjustment the contrast all the adjustments make the perfect picture closed photo shop take them to the page page layout, software, unique effect and the image gnomic happening potential and paige gallery's last paige gallery last, but then we come back to photo shop to make sure that each page is matching, because once you lay out the pages, you need to see if the pages matching together you if you want to convert the colors or anything like that. But because paige gallery works with photoshopped, it opens bacon photoshopped or you can lay out the first page opening photoshopped, make the changes clothes and do the second paid so it works with photoshopped so it's it's there's two ways off to india either you can run a match and have them ready in a folder than open it further or open each individual page while you're designing and make an adjustment and and you don't have to do page gallery because this is basically everything is happening in photo shop, so you can do the same way in aiding a editing the pictures in photos and you don't use light room like I said before. Ah, a picture or light room either one. I have a moment a picture has a bit of a jj over light room in the quality ofthe postproduction, but I feel dead like room is catching up and it's going to be better, so I'm keeping up with put off them. I'm saying, I'll stay with our picture, but light room is going to be better.