preparation is paramount, but 80% of our magic happens after the shutter clicks
by Brian Dressler Photography, Inc.
Volume 1 / Issue 5
In my on-going series about why hiring a professional photographer is a valuable investment in your company’s success, I feel that I would be remiss in my quest to illuminate the inner workings of my industry if I failed to share the dynamic of what happens after the shoot itself--the proof, to us, is in “optimizing” the pudding, so to speak. In terms of maximizing the potential of digital photography in the modern market, Photoshop allows us to push our already-top-notch images to an entirely new level of quality.
Photoshop does NOT “fix” a bad photograph; a bad photo is still a bad photo.
Optimizing an image involves many Photoshop functions. Photoshop enables the user to adjust layers upon layers that, holistically, comprise the image itself and its resulting impact on the viewer. However, contrary to popular belief, there is only so much that Photoshop can do to enhance a photo. Photoshop cannot make a blurry photo sharp, or re-establish poorly composed subjects, for example. There’s no “improvement” toggle switch that will magically create a flawless, jaw-dropping depiction of your company’s latest point of pride if the original photograph itself isn’t first-rate. You cannot afford to leave the lasting impression of your work in the hands of an inexperienced photographer--even if he/she claims to be able to “fix” photographs using Photoshop, if the photo itself is of poor, or even mediocre, quality, the result will still be inferior--as will be what the audience ultimately associates with you and your company’s quality--mediocrity. Who needs that?!
In addition to adjusting color, contrast, hue, and saturation layers, we also utilize multiple exposures of the same scene so that we have control of the various light sources in the frame. One example might be an interior shot where we can see out the window. The outside daylight offers a vastly different exposure and color balance than the interior itself. Add to that adjustments from different exposures within the room’s light source, and you suddenly have myriad variables, that when properly controlled, render the most powerful impact for the collective final image.
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Photoshop has changed the game.
In his March 2010 article published in The Columbus Dispatch, writer John Boudreau shares the history of Photoshop, which, at the time of the publication, marked its 20th year in the market. He shares:
"It's endlessly amusing to see how much it has permeated popular culture. It really is everywhere," said John Knoll, who created the original version with his brother Thomas, whose title at Adobe is co-creator of Photoshop. John Knoll is a visual-effects supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic in San Francisco.
"You can hardly turn around and not see something that was done in Photoshop," he said. "And it started out with Tom and I screwing around with it as a hobby."
In 1990, Adobe released 200 copies of Photoshop 1.0, which was distributed with Barneyscan scanners. Russell Brown, Adobe's senior creative director who worked with the Knoll brothers on Photoshop, appeared on NBC's Today show in 1990 for a segment on the dangers of photo manipulation. "Technology makes it difficult, maybe even impossible, to tell what's real and what's not," warned host Deborah Norville.
Nonetheless, Brown impressed millions of Americans by pasting an image of himself into a picture of former President Ronald Reagan and wife Nancy. "I see the computer as a wonderful tool for graphic artists, and I couldn't live without it. It's a must," Brown said on the show.
By 1992, Apple relied on Photoshop to show off the capabilities of its Macintosh computers, and video-card manufacturers used it at trade-show demonstrations. "You could not escape Photoshop," Guttman said. Photoshop has since redefined how people engage with photos, IDC analyst Ron Glaz said. "It was an overwhelming application that has kept on growing."
Adobe's Photoshop business generates as much as $300 million a year, he said. And it is the foundation product of the company's Creative Solutions business unit, which encompasses digital imaging, Web-site creation and post-production film editing. Photoshop has few peers: It owns 90 percent of the market for professional photographers and graphic artists, Glaz said. Adobe says 10 million professionals use Photoshop.
Photoshop is a tool for skillfully processing photos but is only as good as the skill set of the user.
My associate, Scott Nuelken, who has been a full-time employee for more than 14 years, is our resident Photoshop maven. Most photographers go to outside vendors for the level of expertise that he brings to the table. Our full-time, full-service image manipulation ensures maximum impact for extremely affordable, expert services, all with a fast turnaround.
*As you can see below, Scott is able to access individual layers within an image in order to manipulate the characteristics that can enhance or distract from the potential impact the image communicates. This intense scrutiny is at the heart of our quality and capability in processing our work. This cannot be undervalued nor, in this day and age, ignored as some sort of passing fad--everyone expects the professional to capture what amateurs often miss, and that means taking the time during the processing phase to bring out the nuances that come from years of experience. At Dressler Photography, we embrace the tools of our technological age, and we bring the know-how to utilize those tools, in order to ensure that you are receiving nothing short of outstanding quality in our field that reflects the outstanding quality of yours.
The bottom line and--let’s face it--our top consideration when deliberating any decision we make involving our company’s livelihood, is knowing value when you see it!
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