How to shoot watches like a pro: new AKELstudio LIVE Masterclass announced!

This is the announcement of our next LIVE Masterclass. More details please find at Alex Koloskov’s blog.

LIVE Masterclass will be completely free, but recorded video will cost $49. Video will include bonus; a retouching  for the watch.

Below is the image before and after post-production. Similar photo we will do on our Masterclass.

Join us  Sunday 24 of October 2010, 4PM Eastern time. The link to LIVE broadcast is on AKELstudio main page, top menu: AKELstudio LIVE! You have to have an account to get there, member login is on top of the page.

Mouse Over to see Before and After

AKELstudio product photography, watch lesson masterclass

AKELstudio product photography, watch lesson masterclass

How and where learn High End Photo Retouching. Tips and resources.

If you believe in self-education (like I do), you don’t need to go to a school or college to become a retoucher, you should only know the right places where to find an information and spend many many hours, days and years for practice. I can help you with right resources where you can learn the High End retouching techniques. Hope it will save your time, energy and money (I wish I had these links couple years ago:-)

Most helpful and friendly community for retouchers is RetouchPro.

RetouchPro hosts a  regular  live, interactive masterclasses where you watch a guest retoucher’s desktop as they work in real time. You can also ask questions for the guest retoucher.  These live events usually cost only $10 and for this money you will get a ton of useful information.

Free tutorials:

Continue reading How and where learn High End Photo Retouching. Tips and resources.

Senior portraits post-production and retouching. Before and After.




Big kids of our friends asked us to shoot their Senior Pictures for Walton High School Yearbook. During the shoot Alex had a chance to test his DIY Vagabond II and I experiment with several post-production and retouching techniques.
For some of the images I used this tutorial: The Double RAW Conversion Tutorial from Calvin Hollywood. I really like the double RAW conversion method and use it often.

Here is the result:

Studio portraits

Mouse Over to see Before and After

Studio portrait photography, Atlanta, GA

Studio portrait photography, Atlanta, GA

Studio portrait photographer, Atlanta, GA

Studio portrait photographer, Atlanta, GA

Continue reading Senior portraits post-production and retouching. Before and After.

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

Continue reading Architecture photography post-production and retouching for Vieler International.

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.

Raw Image Processing or How to Choose a RAW Converter

Recently we discussed why professional photographers shoot RAW, not JPEG. As we know, RAW format requires additional processing for converting the image to JPG or TIFF. This can be done by using RAW converters. In this article, we’ll discuss a few important points about selecting a RAW Converter.

What types of RAW converters exist and how to choose a RAW converter?

Adobe Camera Raw screen shot

Adobe Camera Raw screen shot

Let’s start…

Continue reading Raw Image Processing or How to Choose a RAW Converter

Optimizing Photoshop CS4 Mac Performance for Digital Photography

How to optimize the new Photoshop CS4 and how it differs from CS3 regarding performance.

Macintosh Performance Guide

for Digital Photographers and Performance Addicts

Great source for MAC users
Also you can find here research and reports extending your photographic equipment, technique and art.

5 Tips for Successful Product Photography

What Every Photographer Needs to Know to Make a Perfect Product Photo

I receive many questions about how to capture and make flawless, clean images. Below are some guidelines on how a photographer can achieve excellent product photography results.
Continue reading 5 Tips for Successful Product Photography