There’s a rumour going about that I am somehow telling everybody not to use Photoshop, this is of course completely untrue. I’m just worried that software is
seen as more important than the photography itself.
My colleagues and I use Photoshop in our professional lives everyday, on campaign and print images for the advertising industry.
Photoshop for me replaces what many film photographers did in the darkroom. Providing tools that would be familiar to many darkroom enthusiasts. What starts to annoy me is that today’s Gurus see Photoshop as a tool that goes way beyond the darkroom or the creative’s desktop.
As you will see in the commercial gallery of this blog many of these images have been manipulated or part of a multi part composing but every image that has been shot to complete this image, have been shot correctly to make sure that the time spent on the image will be putting the images together and giving the complete image a “ type of look ” and to create a look that will change with every new campaign or Image, I of course am not the only person who works this way (some other people would like you to think differently) I’m referring to all my professional colleagues throughout the world.
Photoshop is and will always be one of the most powerful tools in the graphic industry. But when applying it to photography it’s time to move away from “ Oh it’s not too good we’ll fix it later in the post there is a very old English saying: “ You can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear “ this applies both to professionals and amateurs alike.
The only Photoshop this shot had seen was Bridge when I opened the raw in the ACR window. This shows that you should think about the shot before taking it and using the creative possibilities of the camera and surrounding light you can produce a look as if it had been created in Photoshop, but in a fraction of the time.
English
My english is too bad so I write in german: Auch für mich ist Photoshop mein Laborersatz um meine Photographien zu entwickeln und zu optimieren (ich stand über 30 Jahre in meinem Fotolabor). Ich möchte jetzt mal provokant behaupten, dass VIELE “alte” Fotografen Bilder digital mit der gleichen Sorgfalt aufnehmen wie damals analog. Ich persönlich weiß nach wie vor vorher, wie das Bild aussehen soll. Der Bildausschnitt ist exakt so gewählt, wie er im Druck dann sein soll. Photoshop ist für mich das wichtigste Tool nach der Aufnahme und ich liebe es – wir haben heute fantastische Möglichkeiten mit unseren Bildern mehr zu machen als früher – die große Auswahl bei den Fotopapieren wenn es um FineArt-Druck geht oder eigene Bücher (on demand) z.B. Robin ist einer der besten Postproducer (seine Bilder sind Magie und siehe seine Kundenreferenzen), hat sich aber auch einen Namen als Fotograf gemacht und hier ist eine Vermischung zwischen Fotografie und Photoshop unvermeidlich. Es ist sowieso müssig einen Künstler auf ein Medium zu reduzieren – er ist “Photoshoper” oder “Photographer” – diese beiden Begriffe sind sowieso inflationär, viele nennen sich so. Und was dabei rauskommt, sieht man in der Überflutung von Bildern im Internet.
Thanks for the comment Timo, yes I am known as the Photoshop guy but firstly I’m a Photographer, and your right some people have the impression that I only work in post production but people that have followed me closely know differently.
Please read the article carefully as it says this and you might want to read the comment in the post Blog Online, from one of my clients at the Advertising Agency JWT.