Cornellison

I was given this shot from a photographer, Lee at Kaptured. He shot it several years ago and we wanted to see what I could do with it. It was nice to get my hands on a high quality headshot image. I have been challenging myself to not use blurring techniques on skin whenever possible. I do not like the mannequin look. I did use a little bit of blurring on a layer with the blend if sliders restricting it tightly. Take a look at the full size image and you will see there is still very nice skin texture present.  The majority of the skin work was only some dodging and burning and color corrections. And I used some selective contrast techniques on the lips and eyes to bring out their color and texture. I quite enjoy making eyes “sing” without them looking fake.

And where it started.

I found these images I retouched when I was at WongDoody in Seattle. I worked under a very good retoucher, Charlie, while I was there. I learned quite a bit from him and from the art directors that pushed us to get the most out of all the images we worked up.

These images are for T-Mobile, thus the cell phones. Much of the retouching consisted of getting skin tones to be even and pleasing. We spent much time replacing what cell phones were in the models’ hands to match the current special for the instore print pieces, which I also built many, many of. For the times we had to replace cell phones in images, we just used our little digital camera to photograph to “new” phone. First we hoped we had the right model of phone on hand, then we placed the cell phone in natural light and tried to get angle of light to match as close as possible. I remember the first campaign I worked on was shot on 120 size negative film and it could be a real challenge creating grain structure on the “new” phone to match the film’s grain. I also remember a funny moment when I had to retouch a woman’s armpit skin folds (see final image in this post). It was something I had not think to look at, but that’s advertising.

These are some older images from when I used to work on an ill-fated shoe brand – You by Crocs. Crocs purchased a small fashion shoe company and put their comfort material in. Since I haven’t worn a pair of pumps in awhile I can’t personally speak for their comfort. Though my wife can, we have a few pairs in our closet and so do several of our friends.

The shoes were named after famous locations around the world. Since flying around the world and doing shoots all over the world, though desirable, was not in the budget. So, we found background images we liked and photographed models in studio and dropped model images into the backgrounds. Lightworkx Photography was the Christchurch based photographer on this project. There is a wider variety of models based in Auckland, so we actually did the shoot up there.

This first image is for the Positano shoe. This image needed a fair amount of work. Three images of the model were combined, one for her extended leg, one for the rest of her, and one for the shadows she cast. The usual clean up work was done on her. The biggest bit of work on the background was creating decking for the left side of the image and removing the deck chair.

This image is for the Monaco shoe. A similar amount of work was needed on this image as on the Positano. Foreground was added so the model could sit in the image correctly in scale. The high flying cowboy was removed and background added. I replaced the luggage she was sitting on and added another piece. The background colors were pulled back so the fair skinned model didn’t get lost.

I must be honest, this image for the Cape Cod shoe fell together quite easily.  The main work was getting the shadows, color and contrast correct so the model looked like she was there.

This shot was photographed by a local studio for a concept. I initially did a quick retouch of it because we had little time to show the client the idea. I’ve had some extra time lately, so I wanted to give it another go.

- final image

- before

These are some shots from another concept stage of a campaign. I was responsible for the retouching on these as well as the photography.  I created a makeshift studio in the workroom using some fluorescent shoplights as well incoming sunlight. The versions with soft edges were shot with a LensBaby. I combined multiple exposures for different portions of the bottle. I also used my coworker’s makeup mirror to light the label. I confused her a bit when I asked to borrow it. The light streaks on the last one were created fully in Photoshop.

Every year we create the look and feel for the U.S. Army sponsored NHRA and NASCAR race teams. Finally, this year I was involved in creating the main images.

The vehicles were photographed with the background plates already selected. So as much as possible the lighting was tailored to help the car “feel” like it was in the background. That’s just the first step to merging the car with the background. Many variables add up to bring all the separate shots together: color temperature, saturation, contrast, degrading the studio shot vehicle image a bit to match the stock photo’s quality, adding dust, adding blurred wheels from a separate shot, creating realistic shadows, and on and on. In the end, I was pleased how these shots turned out.

- the final images

And here are the starting pieces.