As a North East commercial and PR photographer people often ask me what goes on in the design studio, Stockton on Tees. Over 25
years as a professional photographer I specialise in commercial, editorial and PR photography I can tell you it’s added up to thousands of hours of work checking
and refining images one by one. I can sometimes do nine jobs in one weekend,
and that’s a lot of editing when you consider one hour’s photoshoot can sometimes equate to 2+ hours in the studio.
I’ve invested thousands in top of the
range cameras, lights and video equipment - that paired with my fast 27' iMac and professional editing software so I
have the best tools for the job. I
use Dropbox or Hightail for image sharing, coupled with a super-fast 50G
broadband service, all backed up onto 3 terrabyte hard drives (x2 backup folders)
Editing photographs can be highly technical and I
like to keep my skills updated, so each year I set aside some days in January/ February as my training
and update months. That might also cover customer service training, business advice,
technical training or an update on issues such as copyright and intellectual
property – there is always something new to learn and I apply that same
approach to my photography, to keep my work fresh.
In the studio I might carry out 20 editing
commands on one image alone. I never batch process for example, which basically
means dropping a set of images into one folder and telling the iMac to ‘sort
the colour’, it’s just not my style as a professional photographer. Every one
of my images are hand finished and assessed for quality.
When it comes to what and how to
edit, a good commercial and PR photographer will be respectful of personal things
such as birthmarks. It’s important not to tidy the personality away, although
if a self-conscious subject with teenage acne asks me to smooth away their skin
tone a little I would probably oblige! Seriously though, if I’m on a shoot such
as the one I did recently photographing several Subway branches across Northumberland,Tyne & Wear and County Durham, I’ll edit out things like a stray piece of
litter blowing around the street because my client wants crisp, clear shots
that promote the brand and can be used in brochures, advertising and online and
nothing can be allowed to spoil that.
Fashion photoshoots and food
photography are just two sectors where retouching is demanded or at least positively
encouraged in order to show the product off in the best possible light. The
fashion shoot I did for a Teesside marketing agency needing a series of unique,
high impact fashion photos to promote Middlesbrough Fashion Week’s ‘Fashion
Rules’ events took many hours of painstaking editing back at my Stockton studio.
Many amateur photographers buy themselves a copy of Lightroom and let the plug-in software do the work for them, but there are many pitfalls for the unwary. Blowing out the whites in a shot such as a wintry snow picture is a common mistake made by people without experience and training. Once a shot has been over-exposed you can’t restore it so the picture is spoiled.
Many amateur photographers buy themselves a copy of Lightroom and let the plug-in software do the work for them, but there are many pitfalls for the unwary. Blowing out the whites in a shot such as a wintry snow picture is a common mistake made by people without experience and training. Once a shot has been over-exposed you can’t restore it so the picture is spoiled.
It’s also possible to over brighten or add crazy saturated colours which is my pet hate. This might be just what you want if you are trying to
create an artwork based on photography, but it’s not acceptable in areas such
as corporate portraits or reportage photography where the colour and the image
must be true as possible. The trick is knowing
which detail to retain and which to ditch, and that all depends on the client
and the assignment.
There’s no doubt that editing is a
time consuming job but it’s part and parcel of being a professional
photographer. I pride myself in turning jobs around quickly, but I’ve heard of
people who take 10 days to deliver a simple 1 hour job.
That’s unacceptable in my book, particularly for commercial and PR shoots when images are often needed the same day for the north east press.
Going too far by cloning and retouching
is banned by most of the big media owners and publishers, who need their news photography to be completely authentic. Readers trust them to deliver honest
images, and I know of no titles that would compromise the faith readers place
in them for the trust and accuracy of their photography.
Global newswire Associated Press
recently fired Pullitzer prize winning freelance photojournalist Narciso
Contreras for removing a rival photographer’s video camera (pictured above) from a Syria war
image. Narciso accepted he had
done wrong but maintained he was doing his duty as a professional photographer
by removing an item that could have distracted the reader but AP maintained
that the cloning violated its ethical standards and cut its ties with the
photographer, removing all his previous images from its database.
It goes to show that even in this
weary world, there are still areas where when it comes to photography, editing is not always required, and standards of
truth and honesty apply.
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