The Wonder Of Light

On another forum I frequent, one topic that came up for debate, was how long photographers spent retouching images. Of course, given the variety of photographers on the forum, it came as no surprise that answers varied from anything between no time at all to 3 hours plus per image. In the case of the 3 hours plus answers, the  degree of retouching was quite extensive including altering body shape For any of you that have followed my blog to date, you’ll probably have noticed that I’m an extremely lazy/efficient person, and whilst I love the creativity that Photoshop offers me, the idea of having to spend 3 hours per image just horrifies me. So I thought I’d give people an insight into my editing/retouching process.

Firstly, I think it’s important to draw a distinction between what I consider post processing and retouching. For a digital work flow, particularly where the photographer is shooting RAW, a certain amount of post processing is always needed. Basic image adjustments like contrast enhancement, WB adjustments and sharpening are all necessary steps. However, these are steps that can be applied on a batch basis to a set of images, where as retouching is very much image specific. Retouching involves cloning/healing of spots and blemishes and any other enhancements that are unique to every image.

For the post processing steps, I have introduced a large amount of automation into my work flow, by creating  various Photoshop actions and then assigning these actions to buttons (the colours on the right of my Photoshop workspace above). This allows me quickly apply the same settings time and time again (this is the laziness in me coming out!). My work flow is also non-destructive, so I make very heavy use of layers to enable me maintain the original image as well as the being able to control the degree of how much each editing step is applied to the final image.

The first step in my flow is obviously RAW conversion. To date, I use ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) to convert my RAW files and I’m more than happy with this process. In terms of tweaks at this stage, the main adjustments here are WB adjustments and slight changes in exposure. I’m a stickler for trying to get things right in camera, and by doing so I can really minimise the need to make too many tweaks at this stage. Once the shot is converted and within Photoshop, I now start the retouching process.

My first step is actually genuine retouching. This is very much a manual step where I use the cloning, healing, dodge and burn tools within Photoshop to remove stray hairs, sensor dust spots, skin blemishes and generally enhance contrast around the subjects eyes. In addition to this, I also now use the Portraiture plug-in from ImageNomic to assist me in the cases where models have bad skin. I can not emphasise enough though, the value in shooting a model that has a very good skin care regime. I have worked with models in the past with flawless skin, reducing the need to retouch. In addition a good make-up artist can also go a long way to reducing the time needed in retouch. The better ones also watch for things like stray hairs during the shoot, once again reducing the amount of time needed later on. There is no replacement for getting it right in camera! As part of the retouching process, I also generally change my hue/saturation to some degree. Luckily the work I do is creative, so I don’t need to stick to accurate skin tones – there is lee way and I often make use of that

Time wise, this step can obviously vary quite a bit from image to image, but if I were to estimate an average time, I’d certainly say it’s no more than 10 to 15 minutes. Considering I don’t typically produce 1000′s of shots per set, I think this is a very manageable amount of time. Obviously, for a shoot like the Liffey Descent, it wouldn’t be remotely possible! Once the retouching is complete, I now push the image through my normal post processing steps:

• Defog – boost contrast using un-sharp masking. Sometimes referred to as high radius, low amount sharpening.
• Sharpen – usually applied globally to an image but then masked out of areas where I don’t want to sharpen
• Vignette – I normally vignette my images to some degree. More often than not I do this with actions, but from time to time, I do this manually – i.e. as part of retouching.
• Add a black key line.

These steps are all assigned to actions and take no more than a couple of seconds per image. Once they have been completed, I save the image as a PSD layered image. I then convert the image to 8 bits and save it as a high resolution image before finally resizing it for the web and saving a web version (the one that graces my blog).

So from start to finish (RAW file to high resolution JPG) on average I can have an image “completed” in less than 15 minutes. Obviously some can take considerably longer and others considerably shorter. I know it’s been mentioned already, but I really don’t think there is any substitute for getting things right at the time of capture rather than needing to rely on heavy pixel editing later in the flow. Good models with good skin and the right figure for your project, good makeup artists, good lighting, good exposure and good sharpness all mean less time in front of the screen afterwards.

Related posts:

1. Skin Retouching – I’m converted
2. Do You Really Need Photoshop?
3. My Photoshop Actions
4. My Photoshop Actions
5. My Attempt At Beauty

Tags: colour, dublin, erika, flash, iveta, model, monika, photoshop, retouching, tanya

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 7:02 pm and is filed under blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.