Architecture photography post-production for Vieler International.

Half year ago we did a product photo-session for Vieler International.

Now Andre Vieler asked us to shoot exterior photos of the whole plant. We used a fork lifter to raise the photographer to a height where was much less perspective distortion.  This works much better then any tilt/shift lens, I wish we could have such lifter for all of our architectural projects:-)

Here I’ll show you how I did a post-production, some parts of work flow. Here is the image before and after:

Mouse Over to see Before and After

Architecture photography post-production and retouching

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Portrait retouching manual

It is not to easy to find lessons or tutorials how Pro prepare images of models for  magazines and advertising. I try to accumulate information what I  learn from different professional retouchers in this tutorial.

I do not pretend to “guru” status, you can correct me. I just want to learn how to do sublime retouching and post-production and share my knowledge with you.

This is an example of fast work-flow for a portrait retouching and post-production for print or web. If you like to learn this process in more details you can find a bonus links below.

Mouse Over to see Before and After

Portrait retouching and post-production lesson

Portrait retouching and post-production lesson

1 step. Clean Skin

Continue reading Portrait retouching manual and bonus links

Is the white background really white?

or how to make a white background (RGB:255.255.255) and prepare image for a catalog print

Step 1. Finding not white areas of the background

  • Convert photo from Raw using Raw Converter
  • Duplicate layer
  • Create New fill ore adjusted layer/Curves:
Create new fill or adjustment layer

Create new fill or adjustment layer

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Our first studio workshop and master class

Studio lighting for fashion and beauty photography workshop.

  • Location:               AKELstudio – Atlanta  based photography studio.
  • Photographer:     Alex Koloskov

We had a great first workshop and master class experience and got beautiful photos of our students:-) More technical information about studio workshop and lighting set up please read at Studio lighting for fashion photography

In this post I will show the pictures we took during the workshop. Enjoy! All comments are welcome!

Mouse Over to see Before and After

Studio portrait lighting setup

Atlanta Photographer Alex Koloskov, workshop (Ira)

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Lens distortion and perspective correction in architecture photography

This article is for those who do not have  tilt shift adapter or TS lens and still do architecture photography.
I’ll show you how to correct perspective distortion using Photoshop. Camera lens distortions occur frequently when taking pictures of architectural subjects with a wide-angle lens and the need to use an external program. Distortion will always have place when  we shoot tall buildings, tilting the camera upwards.  There is no way (unless you have TS adapter or lens)  to get  vertical lines to be vertical on a picture, as it will fall in the middle.

However, you can easily correct camera lens distortions using Photoshop or other photo software.

Below you can  find list of software for lens distortion and perspective correction and tutorial how to fix it in Adobe Photoshop

How to correct perspective distortions of an image using the Adobe Photoshop Free Transform Tool.

Before lens distortion and perspective correction

Before lens distortion and perspective correction

After lens distortion and perspective correction

After lens distortion and perspective correction

All you have to do is:

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How to determine overexposed and underexposed areas using Photoshop

note: This lesson will be  useful for photo retouchers, who will be dealing with partially overexposed image, where important to see exactly where overexposed areas is.  For example, if you need to get completely white background, etc.

Couple years ago we found that a histogram on the camera or different software’s don’t show overexposed areas correctly. Here is why: camera histogram will use JPEG to evaluate, even if you shoot RAW. So, it is inaccurate by definition.
When I’ve  tried to find the answer in Internet, I get no luck, there are only tutorials and lessons how to fix this overexposed areas in Photoshop, but nothing about how to  find these areas correctly.

So this tutorial about how to find and determine overexposed and underexposed areas using Photoshop.

Look at this image:

image-with-overexposed-areas

Some areas are overexposed here. Let’s check where are these areas:

Continue reading How to determine overexposed and underexposed areas using Photoshop

How I prepare images for web in Photoshop

It is very easy. I know, most of you know how to do it. But may be some of you find something new in this tutorial. Let’s start. Open your photo that you want to re-size and adjust for web.

Step 1Manual Levels adjustments.

In this step we will make the image more bright, contrast and crisp.

Image ->Adjustments -> Levels
Level adjustments in Photoshop

Level adjustments in Photoshop

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How to create a copyright mark on your photos.

Mark your images as your own.

There are many methods how to make copyright or watermark on images. Most popular way is to create action and apply it to all images at once, but sometime it is hard to make it fit nicely both vertical and horizontal  oriented images. You can find such tutorials in internet . I’ll describe the method what I use while preparing photos for blogs or forum.  The advantage of this technique is that you can put your copyright text  in a better  place for each photo. Here is a simple way to use brushes in Photoshop.

Final photo with copyright

Final photo with copyright

Continue reading How to create a signature or copyright mark on your photos.

How to choose LCD monitor for photographers and professional graphic designers.

There are many parameters you can find in a specification to monitors, and most of them would be very important for you to take into consideration .
But most of manufacturers or sellers don’t provide the  information regarding  what type of panel they used in  LCD monitors. However, such info extremely important when you have to deal with photography or video.  You may probably know that the best LCD panel for photography and design is IPS type: best color reproduction,  same color on any viewing angle is possible only on this type of LCD panel.

Continue reading How to choose LCD monitor for photographers and professional graphic designers.

How to create High Key Photography Effect in Photoshop

Naturally, High Key portraits should be done with a studio lighting and it is good to have  at least three light sources, plus  reflectors.  Photographer for a purpose overexposing most of the objects in a scene, making them look just pure white. Very few shadows can be left on a model’s face.

However, with the mister PhotoShop in charge, we can have the same effect on a regular, normally exposed image.  Below I’ll show you how to do
a pseudo High Key photography using Photoshop.

High key effect made in Photoshop

High key portrait created in Photoshop

Continue reading How to create a High Key Photography Effect in Photoshop