The Complete Commercial Photographer

Lesson 31: Page 01

Lesson 31: Page 02

It is about the Idea! As professional photographers, we are judged  by our customers and others, not only for our technical ability to solve photographic problems, but also for our…

Lesson 31: Page 03

This first image is of a rafter on a Grand Canyon rafting trip.  He wore a visor during the whole trip and his curly locks hung out over the brow…

Lesson 31: Page 04

In last image you can see the adjustment here for the blue channel.  Again I tweak this to taste.  That’s basically how you do a cross processed look with a…

Lesson 31: Page 05

Happy Holidays I have at times, been a very prolific stock photographer. This image represents yet another idea that hit me one day.  It has also been a huge selling…

Lesson 31: Page 06

This image was not that difficult to pull off but that’s because I live here and was able to set it up and wait for a very good snowfall.  I…

Lesson 31: Page 07

The next step was to add a drop shadow and I used the same technique that was mentioned in lessons a while back. Then using the lasso tool, went in…

Lesson 31: Page 08

Lesson 31: Page 09

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas! I cannot stress enough the importance of ideas.  Many professional photographers are consumed by the creation of visual images and the ideas that go with them and…

Lesson 31: Page 10

But since Photoshop is my new best friend, I knew there was something I could do and I decided to start playing with the images.  In the end, I chose…

Lesson 31: Page 11

My Man Fletcher There is a great fella in town here named Fletcher who looks like a young Bob Marley. I have used him as a model in many shots…

Lesson 31: Page 12

Lesson 31: Page 13

Lesson 31: Page 14

  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…

Lesson 31: Page 15

Lesson 31: Page 16

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…

Lesson 31: Page 17

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…

Lesson 31: Page 18

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…

Lesson 31: Page 19

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. …

Lesson 31: Page 20

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.

Lesson 31: Page 21

Lesson 31: Page 22

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…

Lesson 31: Page 23

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…

Lesson 31: Page 24

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…

Lesson 31: Page 25

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…

Lesson 31: Page 26

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…

Lesson 31: Page 27

   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…

Lesson 31: Page 28 The Porcelain Portrait Skin Effect

Watch how we processed this portrait for the porcelain skin effect