The Complete Commercial Photographer

Lesson 13: Page 09

This was a very easy lighting setup of an electrician testing a box. There was not much room to add to many lights anyway, so I started with a light…

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This was shot in Mexico and is an example of choosing to photograph one aspect of the production line rather than all the people in the line. It was a…

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  The main light was another light with grid placed directly behind the vertical arm of the testing unit so it would hide the light stand. This light had a…

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This image was what I was presented with to shoot. I immediately went for  the dramatic angle and decided we would shoot down the inside of it. Nothing else around…

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For this photo (I was CMM burned out) I decided to use a 250 mm lens and focus on the part and test probe at the widest lens aperture for…

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Using Color Many situations that I am asked to photograph for business and industry are what I describe as; ugly, dirty, boring, drab, etc. These locations are usually business or…

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It’s important that you understand the lighting requirements you will need to shoot in big spaces.  The need for light to go much further will require more than 200 ws…

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Next to advertising; corporate, industrial, medical, and business’s are the largest segments of photography assignments. Large corporations and small business’s alike must show the world their products, their people, and…

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Lesson 31: Page 28 The Porcelain Portrait Skin Effect

Watch how we processed this portrait for the porcelain skin effect

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   Self Assignment In the final lessons of this course you should be working specifically on portfolio images.  So use any technique to create as many photographs worthy of going…

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Here is another fun image using Photomatix and the grungy technique for an unusual and interesting photograph.  This image is straight out of Photomatix with no additional Photoshop work or…

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Then I opened everything up in Photoshop.  I opened the base image which was the photo with the normally exposed interior room where the arms are  I then opened and…

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The Ghost Arms Quite frankly I’m not sure what this photo means. But once again it was an idea that struck me at the moment. I was photographing inside these…

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What about borrowing money to finance your business? Most businesses have a plan to borrow money when needed so what is the best way to do it? Most photographers probably…

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The bottle is then dropped into position. The bottle layer is then duplicated by dragging it down to the add layer icon.

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The Rocket Scientist This image called a rocket scientist, was another idea that hit me at one point.  However in this case, I think what’s interesting is how the idea…

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The reason I decided to add that image to the overall photograph was to add some of that beautiful team/magenta glow that was behind  the rocks.  So I added the…

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The Business Plan Why would you want a business plan? Most photographers don’t do one and I must admit I’ve only done one once in my lengthy career. First, if…

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The bottle was very reflective so I had to create multiple images by moving cards and lights around the bottle.

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What you do not see in these requests, are well known sites such as Yosemite Valley, Mt. Rushmore, Grand Canyon Scenics, Arches N.P., and so on. This magazine has such…

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Another consideration is to step back and envision yourself as a photo buyer. If you had to purchase images on a regular basis, how would you prefer to do it…

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Here is an example of an email request I get monthly from an outdoor magazine. The name of the publication has been removed on purpose. XXXXXXX Magazine:  APRIL 2009 Issue…

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Finally, I adjust the opacity of that layer for more realism.

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Here is the final image and I am quite happy with it.  Happy enough to open a vertical of the same climber and create basically the same effect.

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The first step was a curves adjustment layer and you can see on the left how I began to move the image towards high contrast and a cool blue tint. …

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 WHAT EDITORS WANT Clients do need photography and ideally, you and me for their projects because most publishing projects use photos from freelance photographers. Some of these clients may see…

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Next, change the blend mode on this layer to Soft light and then black changes to the color of the layer below.

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I quickly began shooting as fast as I could as he moved up the wall and this was the photo I came back with. Very flat, low in contrast, and…

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You must decide if you will have a site primarily to display your work in a gallery format or a site devoted to e-commerce and income generation. I mentioned a…

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As I look at the raw image on the left, I decided I wanted rosier cheeks or in other words, use PS to add some blush to her cheeks.

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My next duplicated the background layer again and then moved it to the top of the layer stack.  I then added a Hide All layer mask. Next I selected a…

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Here is an example: August 5th, 2012 Mr. John Doe Tropical Publishing 123 Some St. Nome, AK 12345 Dear Mr. Doe: I am a photographer based in Oregon and specialize…

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Next, click on the ADD LAYER MASK icon at the bottom of the layers palette, then choose the Brush tool and set the opacity to 50%. Choose black as your…

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This image shows the straight photograph in Photoshop.  Basically I just had him stand on his skateboard and pose for me.  It was simple and straightforward. I open the image…

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WEBSITES if you think having your own website is not important think again. Surveys suggests 90% of those looking for photographers will first check out their website. If they like…

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Keywords Accurate keywords are essential in today’s digital photography environment and marketplace. Every time you Google anything on the Internet you are using keywords. Clients going to a stock photo…

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When I am traveling out of state and stopping for groceries or other items, I always stop at book and magazine racks as well as the post card rack looking…

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Now that you have photographed lots of beautiful images and have accrued a nice collection of work, got them organized, who are you going to sell them to? To be…

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Instead they memorize the domain name if they visit often. So if your domain name is a tough one to remember………..

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This page left empty for new content…someday.

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  The next step was to add a reveal all mask each layer. Then I selected a soft brush and made white my foreground color.  Starting with the top layer…

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I have surmised from these conversations that I am much better off using my name and the word photography: Charlie Borland Photography than my original name which I incorporated: WildVision…

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Start by duplicating the background twice. These layers look like they do because I grouped them and I will discuss this shortly. Then turn off Background copy 2 so you…

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That led to an interesting change within the industry: assignment stock photographers. Agencies once pushed to own their imagery and this means that there will be less room for freelance…