- IF YOU WANT TO GET INTO
COMPOSITING...
“Study how light works, how a camera sees objects
and space,” says Brian York. “Become good at
painting in Photoshop. Make composites for practise,
and always refine the way you do things and lay out
a file. Buy a monitor made for colour-critical work
and learn to use a Wacom tablet.
“Most of what I do involves basic tasks; just done
with a lot of finesse. Things I use a lot are brushes,
Curves and Smart Objects. I have found it valuable to
become good at creating detail from nothing, and
brushes are instrumental in that. I have a huge trove
of brushes that I have created for various things over
the years. Many people use Levels, but Curves gives
you a lot of finesse over contrast and saturation that
is just not possible with levels; especially when
dealing with skin tones.”
© Sharon M. Atkinson, CARE for Sandy, Sayreville, NJ“Be patient,” advises Rob DiCaterino, a high-end
digital imaging specialist. “Photo restoration can
be slow, painstaking, time consuming, and yes,
even boring, but good results are extremely
satisfying and worth the effort to both my clients
and me. It’s win-win. Zoom in close and pay
attention to detail. Global filters are usually too
heavy-handed and destructive; use layer masks to
apply them locally instead, as needed. Understand
histograms and the info panel, and use spatial
frequencies to your advantage.
“Successful retouchers are also proficient with
a pen tablet, use profiled and calibrated displays,
understand colour theory and management, and
create Actions to increase efficiency. They are
interpreters, translating clients’ notes into the end
product. They are good at sales, marketing, and
customer service in order to attract and retain
happy, paying clients. They are responsible
enough to work out realistic deadlines with clients
up front... and stick to those deadlines. They trust
the info panel... and their eyes. They handle
rejection well. And they always continue to learn.
“My motto is, ‘There are ten different ways to
accomplish the same thing in Photoshop.’ I learn- KEEP LEARNING
as many ways as I can so I have more options to
approach any given situation. Some retouchers
might struggle through a situation using only one
or two techniques, but I’ll know some additional
ones that allow me to complete that step more
quickly. That’s one of the things I love about what I
do – retouching fulfils the part of my brain that
craves problem solving and logic, and allows me to
achieve many personal victories on a daily basis.” - MASK OUT
“Using a Wacom tablet and pen, I set a brush at 90% Hardness and a smaller size and go all the
way around the object at 200% zoom, painting black on the layer mask with an opposite-coloured
background behind it,” explains Brian York. “If, for example, I am masking out a bottle on a white
background, I put a black background solid colour layer behind it, and then I know it will look great
on anything. Some people get caught up in a lot of Photoshop trickery to get a mask, but for me a
mask is about how the edges look visually when cut out. This direct visual process allows me to
inspect every edge, and once I go around an object like this I know it is perfect. I’m a bit obsessive
about masks, and want to know that it is right. However, in saying all of that I don’t discount
sophisticated techniques in getting masks; I just prefer this method most of the time.”
“The biggest challenge in photo restoration is having
to reconstruct missing or destroyed parts of an
image,” says Mark Gilvey. “When there is little or no
source material to work from, this can be difficult to
work with. I had a photo of a brother and sister like
this. Some people looked at the damage in the lower
right corner and thought it was an ice sculpture, but
it wasn’t. The photo was just missing emulsion. I had
to reconstruct the entire area of his plaid coat.
Basically, I guessed at what it would look like on his
side vs a sleeve. I sampled certain areas onto new
layers and pushed and pulled them until they looked
close. I think I put 20 hours into this one image, going
way beyond the client’s budget, but I stuck to their
budget because I wanted to see if I could do it. I
wasn’t going to let it beat me!”- RESTORATION
© Photographer: Clint Blowers© Photographer: Taylor CastlePHOTO EDITING