(Warning: if you're not into photoshop, this will probably be quite boring)
For part 1 of this post, detailing my shoot organisation click here
Editing:
So after finishing the shoot, and the small studio session to add the missing member of the band, I was left with a hard drive of images. Once I'd finished organising them into folders representing each of the different setups I'd done, I had to prepare to send them to the client, for them to decide what they liked.
Something I've learnt in the past, is that no matter how 'photography-savvy' someone is, no matter whether you've explained your methods to them previously, and no matter how much they like your previous work, you should always be careful how you send your work out to them to edit.
The least I'll send out is a set of unretouched images that have been colour corrected to make them look similar to how I envision the final pieces will look. More often than not, I'll do this and also send out an image that has been 60% constructed and retouched, in order that they see what these unretouched images can eventually look like.
Its natural for people to see a dull raw jpeg and start to worry, especially when there is a lot riding on the shoot. Even if you are later able to say "hey! don't worry, they won't look like this when I've finished" the damage is already done to an extent. People start to worry, and second guess you.
Even though I took this into account on this shoot, when I sent over a folder of the jpegs of to the clients for editing, along with a folder containing the 60% retouched/colour corrected image, with instructions as to what each folder contained, there was still a smidgen of confusion in an email from one member of the team;
"I was looking at the un touched images thinking... oh dear.;
Then I found the two re touched images, and thought... oh yeah! "
Not at all a big deal, but next time I'd probably send two different yousendit links, one marked as 'retouched example file', another marked as 'unretouched files' rather than marking folders up within one single download. Saves confusion, as its human nature to skip past the email text, folder descriptions etc, in order to get to the images, especially if you're busy.
If you look at a big contact sheet of the whole shoot, with some images of the band together, some images of people stood by themselves etc, then the whole thing looks very disjointed, and ramshackle. If I provide a reasonably finished, retouched, colour balanced image to look at as well, it tends to reassure people that things are going to be ok! Its takes a lot more time to do, and they could decide they want to change everything about the image, meaning you have to start again, but its worth it.
Retouching:
Ok so rather than bang on about exactly how to I use every single tool, adjustment layer, mask and filter, I'll instead just show how I set up my file so that I can have complete control of the whole image. Dealing with a big team of people, each with differing opinions, I knew that there might be several changes to each image, as the post-production process moved along. Being able to make big changes quickly, and efficiently is very important.
So, as mentioned in the previous post, I'd shot each setup with the intention of cutting out each of the band members, so that they each sat separately on top of an empty background 'plate'.
1. Cut-outs -
I begin by processing the images featuring the chosen band member versions as tiffs. I draw a nice accurate path round each one, and save the image.
I could just drag a big rectangular marquee over each member, drag them into the background plate, and then path and cut them out, but I don't like doing this.
The reason I don't like it, is if I were to then move the band member to another area of the image, resize him slightly, save, close and go for lunch, then came back and decided I didnt like what I'd done at all, I would either have to resize (and thus degrade slightly) what I'd done, or drag a fresh version of the band member into the image, and line him up perfectly with the old path, which is just time consuming and pointless.
So once I've pathed up a band member, I then put a large marquee around him, duplicate him to another layer, add a layer mask to him using my path, and then drag him onto the background plate. I save the tiff, with a path to a separate folder.
Bear in mind, while I like to make sure the cut-out is nice and accurate, I dont try to perfectly cut out hair using paths, I just draw slightly within the edge of the hair for now. (See below)
2. Layer Layout -
So the next step is to get my Photoshop file organised. This is important not just so you get a good final result, but also for other reasons. You might come back to the image in a years time, and need to change something, so it saves you sitting there wondering what the hells going on.
The other reason is that its more professional, and just good practice. When I was younger, I sent some examples of my work to a pretty big photographer, hoping to get taken on as a retoucher. He liked the images, and got me to send him the layered psd files to look at (I also remember him asking me if I was good at Photoshop, to which I replied 'I'm brilliant'..... the cockiness of youth; I was actually quite rubbish in hindsight, but he seemed to like my confidence.)
The images I'd sent him were my own photographs, shots of urban scenes where I'd comped in big 2001 style black shiny monoliths bursting out of the concrete. I'd done a lot of work on them, drawing hundreds of small bits of rubble, all on separate layers. I didn't ever hear back from him, and when I look back now, I know it was not just because my retouching skills were a little bit rough, but because the file had hundreds upon hundreds of layers, all disorganised and unmarked. They were basically a mess.
Getting into the habit of having a fairly organised file is thus pretty handy.
So below are some images showing my file layout.
3. Basic Layout
Ok so on the bottom layer (marked 1) is my unretouched background layer. This usually doesnt get touched at all, its there as a kind of back up in case i mess anything up on the backround retouch layer group thats above it (2.) This is where I get rid of any cables and coke cans (yes someone did leave one there) left in the background, and basically tidy things up.
(3) is the layer group that contains all of the cut out band members and (4) is a folder containing all my colour adjustments to give the whole thing a moody, atmospheric look.
(5) is just a monitor adjust layer, used to either brighten the image up if the area im retouching is too dark to see properly, or darken it down the area is too bright.
(6) Is a colour fill layer that marks out a frame around the image, covering over the area im not going to use.
4. Band Member Layout
This is what the Band folder looks like when open, just a folder for each band member (1). Pretty simple stuff, although things are a little bit more complicated inside each of these folders -
(2) - Hair folder. Because I only roughly pathed up each band members hair earlier, I have this folder sitting at the top, it contains a blank layer upon which I draw back this missing hair. I just take colour samples from their 'real' hair, and use my brush to draw in the stray hairs to make them look less 'cut out'.
(3) This is the folder in which the image of the band member sits (6). As you can see, it has a layer mask from the path I made earlier, and contains two extra folders which are -
(4) a folder of adjustment layers I feel the image might need, to brighten him up, or even to just tweak the colour of his skin etc.
(5) is a retouch folder, containing a a duplicate of the original image, and this is where I make any cosmetic changes. If someone decides they dont like that I might have removed some creases in a jacket for instance, then I can quickly bring them back from layer (6).
(7) This is the folder where I create the shadows that the band member is casting, more on which below....
5. Shadows:
In the above image, for the purposes of this tutorial, I've put a white colour fill layer (1)under Lauries group. It allows us to see the shadow I've made for him better. Its designed to look good on the wood floor and carpet of the image, so looks a little sharp on the white, but if I needed to, it wouldnt take a hell of a long time to look right here. I only say this to show how flexible this system can be.
Rather than trying to make a shadow from the pixels of the actual image, I've pathed up the original shadow, and used it as a layer mask on a folder (2) containing some adjustment layer curves. These curves darken any pixels below them, much as a real shadow would, and this allows me to move Laurie around in the image with minimal work needed. I added a layer mask to one of the shadow curves (3) because when I moved Laurie into his final position, his shadow was a little dark in some areas. This layer mask allowed me tone it down in places.
6. Background retouch
Below are some images of the various stages of the background retouching.
First of all, the unretouched version -
Firstly I pathed up the areas where light was coming into the room, made this into a mask and reversed it -
Then I used this to darken down the areas in shade, making a more dramatic look -
Then I added some distressed concrete textures on overlay to the wall panels (which I pathed up) to make the room seem more degraded and interesting -
Finally I added some vignetting, darkened down a few areas and added a warm pool of light in the middle of the back wall to highlight Steve and the band better -
Finally
And thats it..... There were obviously a lot of other aspects to making this set of images, but hopefully these blog posts show the basic framework within which I worked. As expected, several layout changes were made on the images, moving various members around, or changing them for different versions. There was even a need to change the images to portrait versions, which was a lot easier having used this system than it would be with a traditional photograph. I just had to extend the images up a fraction, and then squeeze the band members together a bit.
I don't use this approach for all my shoots, but when theres money on the line, and other people have invested a lot of time in the project, then at least this method means its possible to insure you come away with a nice set of images, that fit the brief.
Drawbacks
As mentioned previously, the drawbacks are that on set it isnt a particularly dynamic experience for the people being shot, and it can often seem odd to others that you arent shooting the entire band together as one.
The chemistry you get when a group of people are stood together is also missing slightly, but what you get in return is an image at the end where everyone looks their best. Its a trade off one way or the other. However, each time I employ these techniques, I learn little tricks to make everything in the final image look more natural and less regimented.
Right, I hope that wasnt too dull and long for you!
For part 1 of this post, detailing my shoot organisation click here
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