Techniques and Tools

In part 1 of this series, we took a good overview of the basics of creating monochrome images in Lightroom.  Today we are going to delve a bit deeper into a few techniques you can use to create magnificent monochromes and more.  So without further ado, let us jump right in.

Toning and Duotones

First off, let’s look at using Lightroom’s Split Toning feature to bring some color back into our images.  This is incredibly easy, and can add some feeling to you black and white image.   I’m sure you have seen and used the split toning function before, but it really shines when applied over a monochrome image.

Keep in mind that the colors do not have to be contrasting to make an interesting image.  Two complimentary colors can accomplish a wonderful effect as well.

In the Develop Module, scroll the Right Toolbar down until you come to the Split Toning panel:

You can see that it offers a few options.  First click on the color box to select a foreground color.  Get it in the ballpark of the color you want applied:

After it’s selected it will apply a color cast over the image, applied mostly to the highlights.  Adjust the Hue and Saturation of the Highlight Toning until you like the results.

Next, apply the same Hue and Saturation to the Shadow Toning:

You have created a single color tone for your image.  But you can go further with even more desirable effect by choosing two different colors.

Start with the Highlight Tone again, select a color and adjust the Hue and Saturation again.  Now for the shadows, select a contrasting color and adjust the Hue and Saturation to taste:

So now we have created a nice contrast of colors in our otherwise monochrome image, but it may seem unbalanced.  That’s where the Balance slider comes into play:

As you pull the slider to the left, you increase the amount of toning applied to the shadows, whilst reducing the toning of the highlights.  Push the slider to the right, the inverse occurs.  Adjust this slider until you like the results.  You have completed your duotone image:

Keep in mind that the colors do not have to be contrasting to make an interesting image.  Two complimentary colors can accomplish a wonderful effect as well.  You can also apply two, slightly different tones to the Highlight and Shadow, creating an image that has great depth whilst still looking as if it is a simple toned monochrome.

I almost never make a toned image by setting the Highlight and Shadow to the same value, I usually have at least the saturation altered; with less Saturation in the Highlights and more in the Shadow.  Experiment and you will find a toning technique that best suits your personal vision.

Selective Color

Selective color is one of the monochrome techniques that is most used in photography today.  There are two ways to do this; one can be done exclusively in Lightroom while the other will require Photoshop.  First we will explore the rather simple Lightroom only method.

Start this image out in color, and select the Local Adjustment Brush tool:

Set its mode to Saturation and bring the Saturation of the brush down to -100.  Select an appropriate brush size for the desaturation of the parts of the image you wish to convert to monochrome:

Enable Auto Mask, bring feathering down to 0, Flow to 100 and Density to 100:

Now start filling in the areas of the image you wish to remove the color from:

Auto Mask should do a fairly good job of preventing you from desaturating your subject, but can cause other colors to linger as well.  If this occurs, simply let go of the mouse button, align the brush tip centered on the offending colors and start filling in again.

This process will render good results, but with the aid of Photoshop you can do much better.

To do the Photoshop method, first make a virtual copy of the image you want to process.  Take one copy and convert to monochrome with the Grayscale Mixer, tune it as if it were going to stay monochrome.  With the other, adjust the color of the subject you want to focus on until it is how you like it.

Once both are complete, Control-Click the two images in the film strip.  When both are selected, right-click on the selected images to bring up the contextual menu and select Edit In:

In the sub-menu, choose the last option, Open as Layers in Photoshop:

Lightroom will proceed to launch Photoshop and load the two images up as separate layers in the same image.

Once in Photoshop make sure that the monochrome layer is on top of the color layer.  You should only see a monochrome image:

Now you need to remove the parts of the monochrome layer that cover your subject.  There is a multitude of ways to do this, but I am going to choose the most straight-forward method and use the eraser tool to remove the top layer:

Remember that if there is one way to do something in Photoshop, there are probably a hundred other ways, many of which are better than this method.  So go ahead and you the Eraser as a Brush with 100% Opacity and 100% Flow.  You can adjust them as needed:

This method provides you with much more control over the monochrome conversion, but if you are happy with a desaturated monochrome, stick with Lightroom and use the first method:

I use the Photoshop method exclusively and it is one of the few image manipulations that I rely on Photoshop for.

White Balance

It may seem counter-intuitive, but white balance can have a major impact on your images.  This is a simple adjustment that can make a world of difference in your image.   It functions as a variable color filter for your monochrome conversions.

To get a feel for how the Temperature and Tint sliders affect you image, apply them to your image while it is still in color.  As you see the different color casts you create think of how that will be converted by the monochrome process:

A red cast applied with white balance will create a very dark image when you convert to monochrome and reduce the Red slider in the Grayscale mixer:

Once you have a feel for how it effects color, set the slider back to normal and convert your image.

After you complete you basic conversion, start moving those sliders around until you like the image:

You can use the White Balance tools to enhance detail, eliminate extraneous detail, darken and lighten your conversion:

The more you play with white balance in monochrome images, the more you will get a feel for how it will alter your image and will become an invaluable tool for monochrome work.

Grain

One downfall of monochrome conversions in Lightroom is the lack of a tool to introduce artificial grain.  You can always go to Photoshop and create grain, but it would really be great for Lightroom to have the option.

All is not lost though.  If you know you intend to make a shot into a monochrome image before you take it, and you know you want it to have a pronounced ‘grain’, increase your camera’s ISO setting.  As you take it higher the sensor will create more noise, which you can use to simulate grain.

Don’t go all out and set your worst ISO for noise, set it in the middle.  ISO 800-1600 on newer cameras will have enough noise to let you enhance it in Lightroom, while having low enough noise to still have a good image.

Once shot, and converted to monochrome in Lightroom, you will want to increase the Exposure in the Basic Tab a bit:

This will enhance the noise a bit to begin with.  You can tone it back down with contrast if you need to.  Now scroll down to the Detail Tab.

First set both Color and Luminance Noise Reduction to 0 and then apply the sharpening tools until you get the noise to where it looks appealing:

You have now done as much as you can to produce a ‘grain’ in Lightroom.  It’s not perfect or even desirable, but if you don’t have good plug-ins for Lightroom such as Nik’s Silver Efex Pro, it is about as good a grain as you are going to get.

X-Equals Monochrome Toolkit

Finally, I have a present for everyone.  Over the past year of creating film emulations over at LifeInDigitalFilm, I have spent a lot of time designing monochrome tools to simulate a bit of the printing experience.  When I started writing this series of articles, I got those tools back out and started refining them to create a set of presets than work together to produce images that simulate the effect of tradition wet prints from a black and white darkroom.

This toolkit includes 27 presets to help you in your quest for magnificent monochromes and each preset is designed to be stacked together to create your desired effect.  There are a few groups of presets in the file and they can be applied in any order.

First we have the x=film presets.  These five presets are designed to simulate generic styles of film:

• x=film+infra-red: Creates an image that simulates the response of Infra-Red films.
• x=film+ortho: Creates an image simulating Orthochromatic film which is sensitive to only green and blue light, also the first style of black and white film to be mass produced.
• x=film+pan: Creates an effect much like that of most modern B&W films.  Panchromatic films are sensitive to the entire visible light spectrum.
• x=film+ortho-pan: Simulates Orthopanchromatic film. Much like Pan film, but less sensitivity to the reds in an image.
• x=film+pan-super: Simulates Superpanchromatic films that have an extended red response.

Then we have eight x=filter presets that simulate the effect of different colored filters on black and white film.  Their names are self-explanatory:

• x=filter+aqua
• x=filter+blue
• x=filter+green
• x=filter+magenta
• x=filter+orange
• x=filter+purple
• x=filter+red
• x=filter+yellow

Next we have the seven x=paper presets that simulate the different grades of contrast possible with Variable Contrast (VC) photo paper:

• x=paper+VC-00: Creates a very low contrast image that is very soft
• x=paper+VC-0: Another very low contrast setting and is less soft than 00
• x=paper+VC-1: Low contrast and soft
• x=paper+VC-2: Creates a balanced image with medium contrast and tone
• x=paper+VC-3: Create a higher contrast image that is slightly sharp
• x=paper+VC-4: Creates a high contrast image that is sharp
• x=paper+VC-5:  Creates a very high-contrast image that is extremely sharp

Then there is one x=print preset x=print+lith which simulates the effect of a lithographic print shot on B&W film printed on Lith paper.  This preset creates images with low contrast and low detail.

Finally we have six x=toning presets that simulate different, traditional toning techniques:

• x=toning+copper: Creates a rich orange toning
• x=toning+cyanotype: Creates a light blue toning
• x=toning+palladium: Creates a slight metallic toning trending toward brown
• x=toning+selenium: Creates a metallic toning trending toward blue
• x=toning+sepia: Creates a subtle brown toning, but you probably knew that
• x=toning+uranium: Creates a light reddish-brown toning

These presets are designed to be used two or more at a time.  First apply an x=film or x=filter preset to your image to create the base monochrome conversion.

Then apply an x=paper or x=print preset to apply the tone curve, contrast and clarity.  Finally if you wish to tone your image apply an x=toning preset.

These presets are designed to give you a quick creative boost to your monochrome workflow.  They were created through observation, not fancy analysis of color, so they are not 100% accurate – but what digital version of an analog medium ever truly is?

Hopefully the techniques I covered will help you develop your monochrome skills further and the X-equals Monochrome Toolkit will help you create beautiful images quickly.

If nothing else, the toolkit presets can let you test out various monochrome looks on your image before you decide which way to go.

They should provide you with an excellent starting point for any image.  If you have any questions or issues, feel free to leave a comment below.  I will help out in any way I can.

Michael W. Gray – LifeInDigitalFilm

+Monochrome Mojo – Mixing in Grayscale – Part 2 of 2

It’s not hard to get a lot of photos in Lightroom … and I do mean a LOT of photos.  Ten-thousand, twenty-thousand, one hundred-thousand. I’ve seen some pretty big catalogs. What do you do when you need to find one of those images?

… when photographers starting migrating to digital storage, most of them stuck with the old folder method.

In the old days, we had prints in labeled notebooks or slides in well-organized file cabinets. Old habits die hard, so when photographers starting migrating to digital storage, most of them stuck with the old folder method. While keeping images in folders does narrow down the process of finding the photo you’re looking for, it’s far from perfect.

Take this photo, for example:

What folder would you put that in? Well, it could certainly go in a “skiing” folder, but what if I wanted to look at all of my photos of my friend Brad? He and I mountain bike and kayak together, as well. What if I needed to find all of the images of this local ski resort, or the specific brand of snowboard he’s carrying? I’d have to make multiple copies of this image to keep one in each relevant folder. No, thank you!

When I stop and think about it, my images rarely, if ever, fit into a single category or folder. That’s where keywords come in.

What are Keywords?

Keywords, also known as “tags,” are words or phrases that describe an image or portion of an image. For our photographs, keywords are stored in comma-separated list. That means that “brown bear” is one keyword and “brown, bear” is two keywords.

In Lightroom’s Library Module, there are two panels on the right that help you manage your keywords.

The Keywording Panel lists the keywords applied to the selected image(s) and allows you to easily add keywords to images by typing the word or clicking on the Keyword Suggestions or Keyword Set lists.

The Keyword List Panel contains a hierarchical view of all of the keywords you are using or have used in your catalog as well as any keywords you may have imported or added manually.

Choosing your Keywords

How you use keywords, or “tags,” on your images depends a lot on your specific needs. When choosing keywords, I ask myself, “how might I need to locate this image in the future?”

Typically a good keyword is one, single word.

For the image above, I’d definitely include the keywords “kayak.” “male,” and the name of the paddler. Since I may want to market this image to the manufacturer of the paddle, the keyword “Werner” is important to me. If you don’t sell your photos, then that keyword may be irrelevant. Photographers selling stock, however, may want to include additional keywords such as “splash,” “droplet,” and “fear.”

What Makes a Good Keyword?

Typically a good keyword is one, single word. If your keyword is more than one word, make sure that’s really necessary. If it’s more than two words, you could almost definitely refine it.

What keywords would you give this image? I’ve seen too many photographers try to use keywords such as “mountain lion reflection” or “mountain lion drinking” to describe images like this. Those aren’t keywords; those are descriptions.

The keywords are:

• mountain lion
• reflection
• drinking
• pond
• triangle
• green
• brown
• water

If I want to find an image of a mountain lion drinking, I can do just that using the keyword list above. If I commit to a compound keyword such as “mountain lion drinking,” I’ve really limited my flexibility in the future.

In reality, I use many more keywords than most photographers I meet. Because I teach photography, I use keywords that help me find images that demonstrate the Rule of Thirds, motion blur, depth of field, and more. Though those techniques are important to most photographers, they rarely need to find an image that clearly illustrates the Rule of Thirds.

Raise your hand if you recognize this photo. Many of you will know it as the (probably over-photographed) Avalanche Creek in Glacier National Park. Here are my keywords for the above image:

• creek
• waterfall
• rock
• motion
• moss
• red
• green

Why don’t I have keywords such as “Avalanche Creek” and “Glacier National Park” for that image? That’s probably the first thing I’d think of if I were looking for this image.

I don’t use location names in keywords because there are other metadata fields that are much better suited for those purposes. The Location, City, State/Province, and Country metadata fields are where I store this important location information. That may not be the best answer for everyone. Let’s say you were putting this photo online for sale as stock. You’d want to make sure that you had “Avalanche Creek,” “Avalanche Gorge,” and “Glacier” as additional keywords on this image to help others find it.

Applying Keywords

There are too many ways to apply and edit keywords to discuss them all in this post. The easiest way is to select the image or images to which you’d like to apply keywords and type the keywords you want to add (one at a time, hitting the Enter or Return key after each one) into the “Click here to add keywords” box in the Keywording Panel.

Tackling the Job

Chances are most of us don’t have as many images keyworded as we’d like. Looking at your vast image library with barren keyword fields can be a bit intimidating. Don’t sweat it, though. Start with broad keywords on groups of similar images, then narrow it down. Or just make a commitment to diligently keyword all newly imported images from here on out and go back and tackle an old folder or two now and then. You can do it.

Scott Rouse – TheLightroomLab.com

Scott Rouse is an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE), photographer, teacher, and graphic- and web-designer in Missoula, MT. He is the creator of and co-contributor for TheLightroomLab.com, a website featuring free tips, tricks, tutorials, and news for photographers using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

The Name Game – Keywording and Tagging in Lightroom

Black and White photography is one of the simplest yet one of the most powerful visual arts there is.  The stark contrast of the blacks and whites uncover a certain truth that lurks in an image, a truth that color often times obscures.  For the first decades of photography, color was artificially introduced into an image, until the first color films and processes came about.

Today we are faced with another quandary; creating stunning – impactful black and white images from our digital cameras.

In quite the turnaround, now we are faced with the need to remove colors from our images, as opposed to introducing colors.  However with the modern digital darkroom making great monochrome images is insanely simple, especially with Lightroom.  By focusing on some key tools in Lightroom you will be creating great black and white pieces in no time.

… we are going to go right for one of Lightroom’s strongest and most versatile tools, the Grayscale Mixer.

So let’s jump on in and start digging around Lightroom’s Black and white tools.

It goes without saying that everything we are going to use will be located in the develop module of Lightroom, so once you find an image you want to convert, open it up in the develop module.  For now we are going to ignore the old black and white standby of de-saturating the image, we are going to go right for one of Lightroom’s strongest and most versatile tools, the Grayscale Mixer.

First, make a virtual copy of the image you are working with.  This is not required, but it does help to have a color reference for you image, a virtual copy will provide you this reference.

Now look for the HSL/Color/Grayscale tool on the right toolbar:

Go ahead and click on the word Grayscale {keyboard shortcut V}:

This will automatically convert you image to a monochrome image – automatically setting the grayscale mixer:

Often this will give you a good result out of the box, but you can always make it better with some attention. The Grayscale Mixer creates your monochrome image by altering the response of each color channel in the list.

As you move a slider to the left, you are darkening a color’s response curve:

… the right lightens the color’s response:

You need to know where you want the blacks and whites to pop in your image, so you need to know what color channels have what effect.  Go ahead and start with red and work through the mixer, first moving the slider to the left and then to the right.  This will give you a basic idea of the effect of each channel.

Seeing the changes for yourself is the best way to get a feel for the changes that occur.  I will run through some of the color channel basics here though:

• Red – Has a slight effect on skin tones, can also be used to reduce or hide blemishes on skins.  Also has impact in floral and foliage photos, particularly in spring and fall.
• Orange - Has the strongest effect on skin tones, regardless of actual person’s complexion.  From pale to tan, black to white -most all skin tones respond to orange adjustments.  This is your first point of action if you are not satisfied with skin tones in your conversion.  Orange is also good again for nature photos, especially fall foliage.
• Yellow – Has a minor effect on skin tones, can be used to lighten teeth and eyes if needed.  Also has impact on grasses and other greenery.
• Green - Green is an important channel for outdoors, as it covers most all plants in some way.  It has little effect on people, but green has a drastic effect on landscapes.
• Aqua – Has effect on water and skies, although not as much impact as blue; also will be present in grasses.
• Blue – Biggest effect blue has is on skies and water and little effect elsewhere.
• Purple and Magenta – No consistent definable effect, however can make an impact on shadows and can have a surprising impact in natural settings.

As I said previously, you need to experiment to get a proper feel for each colors effect.  My observations are just that, my observations.  Those points are the most important to me – your style will dictate what is important to you.

I suggest a good ‘S’ curve for your tone curve, adjust the curve until you like the look …

So go ahead and play around with the color channel sliders until you get close to what you are going for.  Watch for area you feel could be further improved.  After you get you basic tone set, click on the Dragging tool in the Grayscale Mixer tool box:

This will give you a tooltip you can place in your image where you see the need for a more refined improvement.  Click on the part of your image you wish to improve, while holding down the mouse button, drag your mouse up and down.

The image will automatically be adjusted as you move the mouse, up lightening the image and down darkening it (Left and Right work as well).  This will allow you to adjust you overall image to perfect the tone, you can see what color channels are affected as you move the mouse, just keep an eye on the Grayscale Mixer as you move the mouse.

Now that you have your conversion more or less done, you need to pay attention to the normal development issues.  First and foremost for monochrome images is the contrast and tone curve of the image.  I suggest a good ‘S’ curve for your tone curve – adjusting the curve until you like the look:

Next you want to adjust the global contrast slider in the Basic tab to your tastes.

Bounce back and forth with these two until you get it perfect.  Don’t underestimate the importance of you contrast and curve, they are as vital to a monochrome image as the actual Grayscale Mix.

Now you are ready to put the finishing touches on the image.  By now you should have the image looking just about right.  The next step is dodge and burn the image.  Traditionally in the darkroom, each print would be hand printed; during exposure the photographer would often manipulate the exposure in parts of the image.

This was called dodging (lightening parts of the image by cutting off the light) and burning (focusing more light on part of the image to darken it).  The same can be done in Lightroom via local exposure adjustments.

Find a part of the image you want to adjust, select the Selective Adjustment brush:

Then color in the area you wish to dodge or burn.  After you have made you selection, simply increase or decrease the exposure setting for the local adjustment:

After any local adjustments are made, you need to sharpen your image and address the noise in the image.  You can choose to use the noise reduction tools to decrease the effect of noise in the image or to enhance them.  Oftentimes you may find you want to turn off noise reduction and sharpen harshly to enhance noise, simulating grain.

Other times you will want no noise and a sharp image.  Again still you may want to not sharpen much, leaving a soft image with noise reduction applied.  This is all a matter of taste and desired results.

Play around with these settings, but be sure to always pay attention to them, as every image is unique and will require special attention in this area:

By now you can see that you can get better, more precise results from using the Grayscale Mixer in Lightroom as opposed to simply desaturating you image.  This should get you on the way to creating great Black and White images, play around some and see what you can get.

For now, get a good grasp on these basic tools and start cutting you images down to raw emotion.  Color can sometimes overtake an image, muddying its impact and meaning.  Black and white imagery removes this obstacle and opens you up to the rawness of the moment.

In Part 2, we’ll look at some more advance techniques to utilize on your monochrome images and some tools to make the task easier.

Michael W. Gray – LifeInDigitalFilm

+Monochrome Mojo – Mixing in Grayscale – Part 1 of 2

Before we begin

All of us here at X= have been big believers in using RPG Keys to not only process our client projects, but our own personal work as well. In fact, every, and we mean EVERY image that goes through our workflow(s) leverage RPG Keys.

I personally have had many a debate on the use of a system like this versus the standard keyboard + mouse or tablet + mouse combination alone. I think this model is outdated and far from usable provided you must adhere to a vicious cycle of using the mouse, keyboard, and sliders which introduces a lot of unnecessary distraction and friction to what should be a much smoother workflow.

… an hour saved in the editing of my projects is a multitude of dollars saved in the operation of my business

In short, we’re converts, and it’s not because this system is cool – but because it saves us time and therefore saves us money. To the professional or amateur photographer, this is about leveraging a razor sharp workflow with a tool that adapts to your unique approach to your editing, without requiring you to start over every time you create a new catalog or project.

I’m probably more bullish about this than most but I’ll tell you in my world an hour saved in the editing of my projects is a multitude of dollars saved in the operation of my business.

I’m looking forward to the chance to discuss in the comments below your experience with or questions about this system!

Tim Riley and the folks at RPG Keys are running an extended Holiday Special, so NOW is the time to get back all those lost hours editing, and get back to what you do best – SHOOTING!

Special thanks to Tim for taking the time to answer some questions about RPG Keys and how Photographers should and can leverage this system in their workflow.

What is RPG Keys?

RPG is a workflow solution for photographers looking to spend less time at the computer and more time enjoying life!  The editing process for a high volume studio takes far too long! Adobe’s Lightroom program lacks keyboard shortcuts for its image editing tools, and Photoshop has so many shortcuts it makes the average photographer’s head spin!

RPG LR: This program gives photographers push button access to the editing and navigating tools of Lightroom. With these keys you can edit in the Library mode and the Develop mode of Lightroom without using your mouse to control the adjustment sliders or to activate your favorite presets.

RPG PS: This program gives photographers push button access to the major image editing tools of Photoshop in an organized and effective keyboard layout. Gone are the days of memorizing ridiculous shortcut combinations in photoshop. RPG PS also allows photographers who enjoy using Bridge the ability to rank and preview they images the same way they could using Lightroom.

Where did the idea come from?

When our studio (Riley PhotoGraphic) first purchased Adobe’s Lightroom program, we quickly got frustrated that it was 90% mouse driven. This means that we had to use a mouse to edit our photos rather than key strokes.

Imagine typing a letter using only 1 finger. It is slow! Now consider how fast you can type with all 10 fingers.

The RPG key product was designed so that we could get the hell away from our computer and do what we love. SHOOT!

Editing using a mouse is like typing with 1 finger – RPG is like editing photos with 10 mice at the same time.  It is just so much faster!

We run our studio with an emphasis on profit, and one way to increase profit is to spend fewer hours at the computer and more time networking, marketing, and shooting. The RPG key product was designed so that we could get the hell away from our computer and do what we love. SHOOT!

How do the products integrate into Lightroom and Photoshop?

Well … If I told you this, the cat would be out of the bag … so to speak.

But the basic idea is that our programs increase the functionality of the native Lightroom and Photoshop applications.

• Lightroom’s Library Module: Our keys control the quick develop buttons + grab presets by name.
• Lightroom’s Develop Module: Our Keys control the LR sliders + grab the retouching presets by name.
• Photoshop: Our keys grab scripts and PS actions by name, leaving you the ability to modify our actions to your liking, and leaving you all your F-keys to activate your own actions.

Plus we have the RPG Launcher app which is a major time saver for those people editing in PS on a daily basis.

For a sample workflow video on how Tim uses RPG Keys head on over to their site.

How does a photographer leverage RPG Keys in their existing workflow(s)?

To answer this you must consider the value of your time!

If you worked for someone else, how much would you make per hour?  $20? $40? $50?

As a business owner, this is what you should pay yourself. In my studio I make about $300 an hour when I am out taking photos and about $10 per hour while I am editing. So you can imagine that I am more profitable while I am working with clients taking photos.

The RPG product allows me to edit my client’s photographs faster and focus on the parts of my business I enjoy – marketing and shooting.

As a wedding photographer I have also found that print sales have increased dramatically with my RPG products.

Try this!

If you shoot a wedding on a Saturday & take Sunday off -  Get up early on Monday morning and sit down with your RPG KEY and a cup of coffee. If you are quick like me, you can edit an entire wedding by 1pm and have the photos online by 2pm.  Post a link to Facebook and email the wedding party letting them know the photos are online.

When your stuck in the office editing, you are losing money by the minute.

We post a 48 hour sale to encourage print sales as well.  The idea here is that you want to strike while the iron is hot. On Monday, people are still excited and full of emotion from the wedding.If you can get them to place an order while they are emotionally- linked, you are more likely to get that big order – hence the 48 hour sale.

How can photographers find out more about RPG Ketys?

Check out the RPG website at http://www.rpgkeys.com

Photoshop: MAC and PC users can enjoy a free trial of the RPG Launcher application.  It’s a super simple solution for photographers using PS in their workflow.
Lightroom: PC users can try the new RPG mini LR3 application for free.  Use your number pad and the new RPG mini application to test drive the RPG way of life!

Parting words?

Running a profitable photo business is all about the photographs. The more you are with clients and out shooting, the more money you can make. When your stuck in the office editing, you are losing money by the minute.

GET OUT AND SHOOT!

Maybe RPG can help you with this … maybe not … but the point is the same – learn to edit faster and you will make more money and enjoy your business so much more!

Tim Riley – RPG Keys

+Gear Review – RPG Keys – Explosive Lightroom Power

Once upon a time if you wanted to take a photo, if had to be shot on film.  You would buy a roll, load you camera and take you pictures.  Afterwards you would take the roll to the photo lab to get developed and you would finally see your photos.

The rise of digital photography has all but killed that process, creating an era of inexpensive, instant gratification allowing you to take hundreds of photos with no concern for running out of film or having to get the rolls processed.

The modern digital age of photography provides us with more convenience and abilities than ever before.

Film photography should not be ignored though.  Kodak, Fuji and Ilford continue to create new film emulsions still to this day.  There is a certain feel that is evoked by photographs taken on film, a look that many strive to accomplish through emulation, using tools such as Alien Skin Exposure 2, Nik Silver Efex, and even my LifeInDigitalFilm presets.  These tools are fine, but still cannot convey the nuance of film.

The only sure fire way to get the film look is to shoot film, but that is not what we are here to discuss.

What I want to propose is using film photography as a tool to improve your digital photography.  How do you do this you ask?  Consider this, Digital SLRs allow us to shoot without consequence.  With massive memory cards we can shoot hundreds of photos at a time limited only by the size of the card and the cameras battery life.

I feel that this makes a lot of photographers a bit lackadaisical about their photography.  We take many images, often not worrying about composition or image quality, reminding ourselves that we are shooting in RAW and can always fix it in post-processing.  This leads to a multitude of waste images lying about.

I guess what I am getting at is that digital can cause us to get complacent and lazy… I know my first DSLR caused me to get that way (it may have even been my old Kodak DC20 digicam from way back when).  It took film to snap me out of my haze.

I started out in photography with film back in high school.  Within a short while of picking up my DSLR, I found myself yearning for the look of the films I once used, which led me directly to Alien Skin Exposure 2.  From there I found Lightroom and decided I wanted non-destructive film emulation and set out to create presets to assist in that goal.

This posed a problem, as I needed a reference, so I picked up my old Minolta Maxxum 7000, bought up film and started shooting film to collect data for my emulations.  Within weeks I was again hooked on film and found my DSLR relegated to portrait sessions and weddings.

A funny thing happened though.  After spending months working primarily with film cameras, I found my paying gigs more productive than before.  I discovered that my images were better composed and I had a much higher rate of keepers from each session.  Lightroom made it obvious as I looked back on past sessions in comparison to the more recent ones.

I had become a more disciplined and altogether better photographer.  That change occurred directly from film and its expense and limitations.

If you are looking at your Lightroom catalog and you are finding that you are having more rejects than good images, you may want to consider taking the Film Challenge.  Get yourself a film camera.  You probably have an old SLR around.  If not, an SLR compatible with your DSLR lenses is most likely easy to find at reasonable prices or borrow one from family that has an SLR lying about.

Grab the camera and load up with a quality film, go all out and get some Kodak Portra, Fuji Velvia or some Kodak T-Max, don’t cheap out on film as you want to make great images.  You have met your first limitation of film, expense, good film can set you back five dollars a roll.  You money buys you about 36 shots, so you need to make them count.

Now, with only that roll of film, go on a photo outing.  Don’t take any other cameras, just the film camera.  Now you have to confront the limitation of the roll, your 36 photos.  You have no backup, just 36 shutter actuations.  Go out and shoot your hike, or trip, or sporting event.  Always keep your frame count in mind and make each shot count.  Focus on your composition.

Focus on exposure.  If a shot looks like a real winner, spend three frames instead of one and bracket up and down a stop.  Don’t get trigger happy, as you can shoot 36 frames in minutes (you know you do with your DSLR), you have the rest of your day to document.  Forget about your digital gear, for the day film is king again.

Once you finish off your roll, which may take a few days if you get really picky about your shots, take it to your nearest professional lab.  If you don’t have one close, send off to one of the better mail order places.  Do not just run down to Costco or Wal-Mart.  Knowledge can make the difference in processing and is valuable.

Processing is the third limitation, it costs more money and it will be a while until you finally see your images (which can also be considered a limitation).  Order yourself prints and high resolution scans (unless you have a film scanner).  Now you wait.

Once you pick up you prints, open them up and see them for the first time.  You feel that feeling?  It’s called satisfaction.  If you took care with your composition and exposures you should find the vast majority of your 36 photos are keepers.  It is true that photographers used to be happy with one great photo in a roll, but how many were good?  Most of them were, just like the stack of prints in your hand.  Now take your disk of scans home and open them up in Photoshop, make the images perfect.

You should find that it requires a lot less work than normal to improve your images.  Film’s limitations helped you become more disciplined, and the more you shoot film the more cognizant you will become with your composition and exposures.  This brings us back to digital photography.

After you shoot a couple rolls of film and pick your digital gear back up, take it out on a photo outing.  When you get back and upload to Lightroom, you will probably see improvement in the quality of your digital images.  Personally I found my keeper rate jump from around 50% to over 80%, which fell in step with my average of about 28 keepers from a 36-exposure roll of film.

As I naturally started to look for better composition and exposure, I increased my overall editing speed as well.  More of the image was being made in camera than in Lightroom or Photoshop.  The visualization skills I enhanced while shooting film carried right over into my digital workflow.

My old Minolta and a bunch of film have turned out to be the best digital workflow tools I have used, sharpening my mind as a photographer leading to a more efficient digital experience.

If you do take the Film Challenge for yourself, I think you will find yourself picking up your old film gear more often than you would think.  There is a simplicity and natural feel to film photography, and you know what you get is what you get.  The limitations of film enhance your technical skills and your creativity simultaneously.

Add quality film to that equation and you will find you produce images with a feel unlike your digital images; not better, not worse, but different.  Then again, maybe I am just overly sentimental for film.

Michael W. Gray – LifeInDigitalFilm

+Improving Digital Photography with Film

Wow … yet ANOTHER month in the bag!

We are having an absolute blast getting the message of X= out to all of you and we are SO APPRECIATIVE of all the folks we are meeting along the way! Remember if you ever have any questions photography related or otherwise we would LOVE to hear from you!

We continue to have the pleasure of meeting many of you via Email, Twitter, and Facebook. And … we appreciate all your great ideas, compliments, and the AMAZING images you’ve all posted to the flickr group – keep it coming!

Whoa! … we did not expect this.

4 posts/series in particular have become X= Greatest Hits, and we couldn’t be happier! But while we pat ourselves on the backs we also ask that you provide comments and feedback while we hone in on these popular topics:

Color Profiles

Mike Gray bring us all the defacto starting point for understanding, implementing, and mastering Color Profiles in Lightroom:

• +PLAYING WITH COLOR – CAMERA PROFILES – PART 1 OF 3
• +PLAYING WITH COLOR – CAMERA PROFILES – PART 2 OF 3
• +PLAYING WITH COLOR – CAMERA PROFILES – PART 3 OF 3

Sharpening

Again who else but Mike Gray to prove that not only is Lightroom’s Sharpening tools as robust as Photoshop’s, but in may instances you can avoid the round-trip to Photoshop all together:

• +SHARPENING IN LIGHTROOM – PART 1 OF  2
• +SHARPENING IN LIGHTROOM – PART 2 OF 2

Retouching

I’m just lazy sometimes and I don’t want to go leave Lightroom for Photoshop – I don’t wanna’!

• +WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING PHOTOSHOP – RETOUCHING 101

X=Image Kit

Throughout the last year or so we’ve had the pleasure of creating and sharing a series of extremely popular Lightroom Presets via the X=Blog. 13,000 download later and we KNOW you all like what you see.

In case you haven’t picked these up, we’ve taken all our Presets and ACR profiles and packed them up into one nice and easy download. It’s what we like to call the X=IMAGE KIT because it includes all the foundation presets we use to bang out killer black and whites, mimic some great films, and alter the mood of any image. As always, these will remain free of charge, licensed under Creative Commons – Attribution 3.0 (USA)

• +X=IMAGE KIT

Get Inspired

The other day I was clicking through our previous Photo Profiles and I was reminded how lucky we have been to gain access to not only great images, but the business, technical, and philosophies that go into the amazing work being produced by our past alumni. Take a moment to reacquaint yourself with some amazing talent and their no-nonsense advice!

• +JOSHUA CARROLL
• +BETH JANSEN
• +MICHELLE MOORE
• +JASMINE STAR
• +TOM HOOPS
• +MELISSA RODWELL

Dennis Hays Rocks!

Our good friend Dennis Hays over at Photo News Today {or on Twitter @dhays} brings us 2 great reviews this month:

• +BOOK REVIEW – Photoshop CS4: Photographer’s Handbook
• +GEAR REVIEW – Sigma 18-250mm f3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM

Dennis’s Twitter feed REALLY is a must-read … staying in the know is just the beginning of what you’ll get our of this killer resource!

Guest Bloggers

We’re constantly on the lookout for new insights and approaches to the photography business and the business of photography so drop us a line if you want to make your voice – and opinion – heard!

A special X=Thanks goes all to ALL of you!

As always, none of this happens without the support, feedback, and assistance from YOU. Thanks for another GREAT month!

+JULY – NEW AND NOTEWORTHY

I wanted to review this lens due to it’s extreme ratio – 18mm to 250mm, a 13.9x zoom range. As designed for digital cameras with APS-C/DX sensors, the perceived zoom range for my Canon is 28.8 to 400mm (1.6 magnification factor).

Sigma Wide Angle at 18mm

Sigma Telephoto at 250mm

You can find a lot of technical data about this lens at various sites on the Internet, so I wanted to come at this review from a different angle; how it would be used and the feel of using it.

This is not a lens that high-end professionals would use and I don’t belive it is designed for that demographic. I see this lens fitting in with the enthusiast/hobby category or maybe someone that is a weekend pro (semi-pro?). If you travel on holiday, this lens should be in your kit. As such, you need to pack a only a few accessories, such as a small, light-weight tripod, memory cards and an extra battery for your DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) and you are ready to go.

The extreme ratio accommodates everything from landscape and interiors to subjects off in the distance, available only with a medium-high zoom, such as this.

That this lens has built in optical stabilization (OS), only adds to its virtues. With careful use, you could get images at the top end of the zoom without using a tripod or garner a few extra stops in lower light situations. The OS is powered by the camera’s battery, therefore, leaving it on constantly lowers the amount of images from one battery charge (hence, the mention of carrying an extra battery while on vacation).

Sigma Hand Held at 250mm – OS Off

The OS is easily toggled on and off by a switch on the side of the lens. Once on, line up your subject in the viewfinder, press the shutter half-way to lock in focus, wait about a second for the OS to grab hold and fire away.

Sigma Hand Held at 250mm – OS On

The HSM auto-focus motor is one of the quietest I’ve used on third-party lenses and I didn’t have any problems with it locking on a subject, either in the near or far range of the zoom. In average or better light, the time to focus was quite quick, perfect for that fast grab shot.

This is a rather heavy lens to use for an extended period, as I found out when I shot all the individual and group pictures for a dance academy. Young people, from the age of 4 to 15, stepped in front of me for five hours one weekend afternoon and I found, at the end of the session, holding the camera still took some effort, as my wrist and hand felt the fatigue (good time for the OS – however I forgot about it during the shoot).

As with a few lenses of this focal length, there is bound to be lens “creep” while carrying it, such as on a shoulder strap. Thankfully, Sigma has thought of this and there is a lock push-pull switch on the lens housing, to hold the lens at the 18mm end of the zoom range. Quite convenient.

This is a nice size lens, at only 4 inches (101mm), which makes it easy to pack and carry, but the weight of 22.2 ounces (630g) needs to be considered if you are going to be using it all day.

I still stand behind my recommendation of this lens being a good all-around lens for the advanced amateur and weekend pro and an excellent choice for the traveller.

While the suggested retail price is $800.00, retailers such as Amazon.com and B&H Photo have it for $529.00.

Dennis Hays – Photo News Today

+GEAR REVIEW – Sigma 18-250mm f3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM

Anyone that has acquired Adobe Photoshop and/or Lightroom, with the intention of editing their photography, has found themselves deep inside these programs with almost infinite options.

The “Grand Dame” of image editing programs, Adobe Photoshop, has grown over the years and can be found in a plethora of industries. Like any worthwhile endeavor, learning how to use Photoshop can be daunting and learning to use it for digital photography is, for some, beyond their capabilities. Since this application is used for imaging in more fields than photography, the number of commands and techniques available can be paralyzing unless you have a someone or something to lead you through the labyrinth.

Stephen Laskevitch’s Photoshop CS4: Photographer’s Handbook is one of the many purported guides to Photoshop’s treasures for digital photographers. However, what Mr. Laskevitch has done is create a foundation, from which to build a succinct understanding of concepts, before delving into linear methods of working with your images; a workflow. This, in my opinion, sets this book apart from many others, as it holds your hand through the steps necessary to bring your image from the camera to a final “master” image. Photoshop CS4: Photographer’s Handbook uses both Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2 as elements in the workflow to bring forth the best in your photography.

There are those which rarely leave Photoshop and those who stay inside of Lightroom and, then, there are some, like me, that frequently bounce between those two applications. I am not new to Photoshop; starting with version 2.5 many years ago and I’m not new to photography, film or digital. In keeping an open mind, I find I learn something new about imaging all the time.

Mr. Laskevitch’s entry chapters in the “Terms & Concepts” and “System Configuration” areas are full of information worth a read, even by professional photographers. The “Organizing and Archiving Images,” “Global” and “Local Adjustments” are mandatory areas we all need to understand before getting into some of the more esoteric material. I can’t stress how important organization and storage is for us; to be able to find that one image, months or years later can be easy with the proper technique.

If there is one area of concern I have about this book, it is that Mr. Laskevitch provides his workflow, which, I admit, is quite logical, but his isn’t the only workflow. However, I feel it is better to follow his, in the beginning, if you haven’t settled on a particular method and, from there, develop your own style and technique. As I am quite experienced in both of these applications, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, I did find some of Mr. Laskevitch’s flow to be quite worthy of investigation and, subsequently, incorporated his into mine.

So, this is a book spanning both those new to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom and those of us who have been using the applications for many years. Any book that can shave hours off a digital imaging workflow is worthy of shelf and desk space (after all, what is your time worth?). “Photoshop CS4: Photographer’s Handbook” by Stephen Laskevitch is one such book.

Photoshop CS4: Photographer’s Handbook
Stephen Laskevitch
Rocky Nook

ISBN: 978-1-933952-42-0
US: $39.95

Dennis Hays – Photo News Today

+BOOK REVIEW – Photoshop CS4: Photographer’s Handbook

I’m constantly on the search for the smoothest and quickest way to process images.

That’s it, nothing fancy about it.

I like speed, accuracy, and quality. Can they all be wrapped into one workflow that can take care of the majority of my shoots? – I certainly think so!

This little gem of a workflow has been in my bag ‘o tricks for quite some time. It’s quick, easy, and works in both color and/or black and white modes.

I’m exposing this particular workflow because I think there are numerous ways to attack portraiture work, and I’d like to know more about how those of you out there are leveraging any particular techniques I might consider or that you’d like to share with our community.

We’re 100% open source here at X=, this is our workflow, no surprises or hidden agendas – this is how we do it.

Chime off in the comments below!

As always, let’s start with a quick before and after:

You’ll notice some edge effects on the final image. These were done using Parker J for Photographers Edge Actions. I LOVE them – and I’m not on their payroll either, I just dig their product! I’ll discuss in detail how I am using these actions in the later portion of this post.

Now let’s look at the original image:

Since I’ll be converting this to black and white, I’m happy with the color of this shot pre-conversion. If you’re a stickler for color, I STRONGLY suggest you create a camera profile for your lighting conditions as a way to save you time and effort in your future workflows. Mike Gray has taken color profile creation to the next level.

A few issues I want to fix in this image:

• clean up blemishes on the cheeks and nose
• overall – smooth out the skin
• increase exposure
• increase the blacks

First I’ll send this shot into the dreamy black and white universe I like to call X=SUPER+PUNCH:

Through this conversion process, the blemishes have been somewhat resolved. This is partly because the X=SUPER+PUNCH preset does bump the exposure and black up a bit through this process. But let’s say you don’t use the preset. Where would you attack these issues?

I’m a firm believer that in these instances the Exposure slider is your friend. If you are hesitant to tweak your exposure across the entire image, Lightroom allows you to work in what is called ‘target adjustment mode’ (or what I often refer to as ‘direct edit’). This will allow you to select just those areas where you want to increase exposure (such as the skin tones), while leaving the rest of the image unchanged. I discussed the use of this tool here.

Here’s our image after some more (positive +) adjustments to the exposure:

Exposure and/or targeted adjustments will only get us so far in our example. Now it’s time to attack those blemishes with the Spot Removal tool. By using keyboard shortcut N while in the Develop Module, we can make the bulk of our remaining blemishes disappear:

Now we’re looking REAL good:

Now, before we call it a day and pat ourselves on the back, I want to take a moment to introduce a technique for smoothing skin that is by far the easiest way to get your feet wet with this type of retouching.

The truth is, even in the most complex of jobs this technique pretty much does it all for me!

Te begin, head over the the Develop Module (shortcut key D), and select your Adjustment Brush (shortcut key K):

I set the brush up with the following settings:

• Clarity: -100 (this softens the brush perfectly)
• Size: 11.2 (set this based on your needs)
• Feather: 72 (this determines the fade on the brush from the brush edge outward to your image)
• Flow: 78 (this determines how much of the effect is applied as you repeatedly brush over the image)
• Auto Mask: (confies brush strokes to areas of similar color)
• Density: 100 (controls the transparency of your brush strokes)

With this minimal set of settings you have an extremely powerful retouching tool. Now it’s time to rock!

I normally to run the Adjustment Brush over-and-over the image in particular areas to ‘build up’ the effect, which is why I think the Feather , Flow, and Auto Mask settings are important to get dialed in properly for your image and the effect you are trying to achieve. For even more control over the ‘build’ adjust the Density slider as needed.

With my settings in place, I start on a medium gray portion of my image:

… and work my way to the light and dark portions of the skin:

You’ll notice the areas more saturated in red define where multiple brush strokes have been used to soften the skin. If you use a Wacom Tablet or something similar you’ll especially love how free-from you can be with this tool.

You can preview your work by turning the red overlay on or off by pressing shortcut key O.

And with that we have our final image:

So we really DON’T need no stinking Photoshop to do some highly targeted retouching on any image – and in a non-destructive manner!

BUT – to do border effects and the like, you have to head on over to Photoshop. We’re going to leverage Parker J’s for Photographers Edge Actions in this workflow but you could substitute any action fo that matter.

Allow me to explain how I go about adding that special flavor.

First off, kick your image over to Photoshop using Cmd+E (Mac) or Ctrl+E (PC):

Ahh, there we go, now let’s get down to business. Make sure you have your desired action loaded up (in this case we have Parker J’s Edge Actions):

I am REALLY liking the IS Sloppy Knockout action since it knocks out the edges and gives me a very dirty rough edge. I simply select the run button and the action asks me to select from a folder of prebuilt Photoshop files that include the edge textures:

And our good friend Parker J has a bunch of KILLER edge effects we can use:

… or EXTEND by creating out own Photoshop textures – simply saved out as PSD’s into any folder we choose!

In this example, I choose isko_25.psd:

And when I do so, the action will ask me to align the border:

… which I’ll do using the Free Transform Tool by hitting shortcut key Cmd+T (Mac) or Ctrl+T (PC):

Once I have the border scaled and rotated to my liking, one hit of the Enter key, and it’s MAGIC time!

And … DONE!

Workflow’s are like recipes – the key ingredients are crucial to the meal, yet the blending of those ingredients is where the unique flavors come together to make that meal special and unique to your style – which is exactly what we have explored here.

I’d like to hear more about how you leverage Lightroom for retouching, and at the same time I hope I’ve opened your eyes to some of the complimentary activities that can be leveraged between Lightroom and Photoshop without requiring much additional work to add some great final touches to your images.

Sound off in the comments below, and please share your work on our Flickr Group!

|Brandon Oelling
x=photography+consulting – image+workflow+technology+business

+WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING PHOTOSHOP – RETOUCHING 101

All photos © Joshua Carroll

How did you get started?

I took a surprisingly normal route into the whole photography business. I started at the age of about 17, studied it in school, hated Biology and Chemistry and despised Business Studies (despite being rather good at all of them). So naturally I went to an arts college. I studied it for a couple of years doing your usual college-style photos, with zero budget and very little sense of style or taste. After then went about creating a style of my own.

I could tell a rather more dramatic version of events, but I think that since this is what it actually boils down to, this is how I’m going to tell it. The arts world is so full of sensationalistic stories. I think it’s good for people to know that you can get somewhere without having to be incredibly fortuitous. Hard graft works. All I did really was stuck with it and believed in myself. Make your own luck.

What is the single-most challenging component of your business?

Organization. When it comes down to it, the hardest thing to do is find that magic day when everyone can come together. I’m careful when organizing shoots, I don’t like people coming from one shoot straight to mine, they’re often drained and they tend to be prepared to settle for less. Being picky can be hard, but I think it’s worth it. But when you’ve got the right people at the right time in the right place, everything sort of takes it’s own course.

I suppose that choosing people can be tricky as well. People can choose to represent themselves how they want and often talk themselves up a lot, which is often required to get the big jobs. But it also means that it can be difficult to tell who actually has the connections to get you the stuff you want to shoot.

How do you attract new customers?

Mostly by word of mouth. I’m quite picky when it comes to work, which probably means I could be earning a lot more than I do. But I think that working with people I don’t want to work with would be doing myself a disservice – I find it often saps creativity rather than adding to it, so I end up doing something that I’ve done before and playing it safe – which I don’t particularly like doing.

I’m quite lucky in that people who work with me seem to pass on my name a fair amount. So I’d say my way of attracting new customers is keeping my existing customers happy.

I’m impressed at the amount of business some people can generate with social media sites.

All photos © Joshua Carroll

How are you leveraging technology in your creative process?

Goodness, how DON’T I leverage technology would be an easier question. I use Photoshop to sketch out ideas, I use Action Method to help plan shoots, I use Aperture to basic editing, I use Photoshop to do anything that needs to be a little more extreme. I often wish I could write applications for myself so that I could make my workflow even shorter. I have loads of little applications I’d love to make. Little things that would just make my life that little bit easier.

I also keep a massive amount of RSS feeds coming through, from Paranaiv, Contributing Editor, Thanks for the Submission and Foto Decadence. Just some of the blogs I find invaluable for inspiration.

Also, as someone who hates cutting things out of books (I have OCD) I keep a folder on my desktop which I regularly fill up with inspiration. Images I’ve just dragged off the net that made me go “Oooh…” at the time. I find it far easier than bookmarking because otherwise I’d fill up my bookmarks with so much stuff that I’d never be able to find anything.

Do you leverage any Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to generate business?

I’ve been a little bit slow on the uptake on this front, I really only use Facebook when I absolutely have to. Twitter I joined mainly for social reasons, I’m only just getting to grips with how it can be used for business! I have quite a few friends that I keep track of on there so a lot of my tweets are social.

I’m impressed at the amount of business some people can generate with social media sites, but I haven’t gleaned that skill yet. I might have to sit down and learn it some day. I used to be a big deviantART user. I no longer have the time to keep it updated, which is a bit of a shame – but I don’t think it represents my target market very well, and I don’t know if I’d generate any business from it anyway.

What is your favorite camera and lens to shoot with?

Oh, I’m a real lens-o-phile so I could go on for ages about this! My Leica is my true love when it comes to cameras, hence my Twitter username. I shoot stuff which I don’t show people, a long term project.

And that’s all shot with a Leica M6 and either a 35mm f/2 Zeiss Biogon or a 50mm f/1.4 Summilux – the Summilux is beautiful, with bokeh so creamy you could melt when you see it – it’s almost as old as I am and it’s still going. It’s seen so much and it still has so much to give.

But my real workhorse, and a lens which is a bargain for the price, is the Canon 24-105mm f/4 L – make sure you test one before you buy it though, there are some lemons out there.

It’s an easy studio choice, means very little switching between lenses and it’s sharp from 24mm to 105mm, so I can move around and change the flatness of the field as I wish. I love a lot of L lenses, but this one stays on my camera for a very large portion of the time.

I know that a lot of people love Hasselblad, and I think that they’re beautiful cameras, but I don’t feel it suits me or my style. I’d like to shoot 5” x 4” sometimes, there’s a real art to it and I love how much you have to slow down to use it. Give me a digital 5” x 4” and I’d love it! Unfortunately, I can’t quite justify the costs of the film at the moment. So that’s on hold.

And I want to put in a good word for the Yashica T3 and T4, I use them as on-the-go cameras that I can take anywhere and I’ve taken some lovely portraits with them. It’s a real snapper camera, and I used to be so against that.

I thought that if you don’t have complete control over your settings you weren’t really making the photo. But ‘not thinking’ is sometimes a good thing. The simplicity of being able to just shoot reminds me to experiment.

Photos are like icebergs, you only really see 10%.

All photos © Joshua Carroll

I really like your use of light and the dramatic effects you get with your setup, can you explain how you achieve this?

Photos are like icebergs, you only really see 10%. You’d be amazed at the amount of photos where someone is just out of the frame with a piece of white foam-core. But a lot of of my setups are deceptively simple, two long softboxes and a large softbox or a beauty dish – and the two long softboxes are on the background. And flagging. Blocking light is just as important as creating it.

The best advice I can give is start with a base and build up. I always start with a very simple setup. Just one light. A softbox or a beauty dish, maybe a snoot. I look at how it works with the material, what it highlights, what it brings out, what’s left in shadow. I move it about until I’ve found the basic highlights, the basic shape.

I then add light, using snoots, beauty dishes, softboxes, whatever I feel is appropriate – there’s no set formula to what i do, I just try to keep a general ‘feeling’ throughout the shoot. I slowly increase and decrease the power of the output on each light individually until I’ve found the balance I need. The last thing I choose is the background, the last thing I decide is the tone that is best going to highlight and compliment whatever is in front of it.

A lot of people do this the other way around and go background first, but I find that when I think about it, doing the backdrop last actually makes more sense.

Often, the fewer lights you use, the more dramatic the effect because you naturally get harsher shadows and highlights. You can tell in one of my shots that it is shot with just one beauty dish, just by looking at the floor. I think it just worked nicely, it gave it the feel I wanted.

Poses also add a lot to the feel of a shot, dramatic lighting is only half the story – you can’t expect to light something and for it to magically be dramatic. You can use the same setups that I use for fashion for portraits and get quite a natural feel with some of them. So I think I also have to say a big thanks to my models for the dramatic effects, especially Alison. She was a real trooper.

Some of the poses we did were not easy to hold in those dresses (we are talking some clothes that weighed between 30 and 50 lbs). You’d never know that she was such a sweet girl who arrived in a cute battered leather jacket with a bit of a pixie cut.

How do you inspire yourself?

Many ways. Magazines are great as a source of inspiration, I particularly like Volt, Wonderland, 125, Noi. Se, Tush and Vogue Italia. If I take a bag out with me, likelihood is I have 3-4 fashion magazines on me. I spend far too much on magazines. RSS feeds, like I mentioned earlier, are also a fantastic (not to mention far cheaper) source of inspiration.

I love sitting in a quite café and studying people’s lighting – light is our medium as photographers and the more you understand it, the more you can control it and make it do what you want. I sketch out how  think they might have done it, how I might modify it to get a similar effect, but more in my style.

What gets me going is a designer’s clothes. Gareth Pugh makes me go all weak at the knees. As does Alexander McQueen. I love seeing a good fashion designer’s work, it always makes me want to put something together. I try to keep up to date with a lot of the catwalk stuff. I look up stylists online, see what they’re doing. Some stylists out there are incredibly

What do you say to those folks looking to get into the business?

Work hard and be honest. There’s always someone out there that’s charging a cheaper rate than you. The thing is, cheap is cheap – and charging a cheap rate can often say something about you, whether you want it to or not. It’s worth sticking to your rates and being worth what you charge.

And on the line of being honest -  if you’re not straight with people, people won’t be straight with you. Being bitchy helps no one. If you’re not a nice person, people won’t want to work with you, especially if it’s a long term project.

A kind word can work wonders, but mean it sincerely – compliments thrown about mean nothing. Mean what you say and say what you mean.

All photos © Joshua Carroll

Parting comments?

Work with good people. I kid you not when I say that a good stylist can make something out of nothing (I have a preferred phrase for that, but I’m not sure if it’s appropriate for publishing!). It’s not cheating to hire someone to delegate to, it’s plain smart – I couldn’t get hold of Marko Mitanovski’s clothes myself, so I got someone who could to do it for me. You don’t have to do everything yourself.

It’s amazing how much other people are willing to help out when you say the words ‘fashion shoot’ – don’t be afraid to take advantage of this, it’s a key that can unlock some useful doors.

Go the extra mile. Even if it only works out 3-4 times out of ten, those times will stand out to potential clients, they’ll know that you’re really going for it. Successful risk taking is one of the biggest winning moves in almost any business.

And finally, love what you do. If you don’t love it, don’t do it. I can’t stress this enough. It’s what keeps you going when the chips are down.

Insert your shameless plug here:

I have a website – http://www.joshcarroll.co.uk/ which shall be updated at some point when I have a bit more time.

Also, check out http://www.krop.com/joshcarroll/ – they have the space to host my images nice and large, which I think is brilliant. They do great portfolio hosting.

In August, check out Page Fashion Magazine – http://www.pagethemagazine.com/ – my Shapes&Shadows set will be published with them. It looks awesome in print. So grab a copy!

All photos © Joshua Carroll

Postscript

Joshua is one of those artists who knows precisely where he’s headed and where his passion is.

This shines through in his work – and show us all exactly what passion, perseverance, and purpose can do when you put your heart and soul into it!

|Brandon Oelling
x=photography+consulting – image+workflow+technology+business

+PHOTO PROFILE – JOSHUA CARROLL