Photo Retouching
It's very rare to take a "perfect" picture. There are so many different factors, many of which are beyond the control of the photographer. This is where programs like Adobe Photoshop come in handy.
I have been doing photo retouching since 1997 and have used every iteration of Photoshop since Version 7. Below is just a sample of a few before-and-after photos that I've cleaned up, recolored, composited, and/or color-corrected.
Roll-over each image to see the original photo.
This is a good example of color correction (over-exposed image), clean-up (stray horse hairs and manure in background), and aesthetic recoloring (the bridle color was changed from brown to red). After retouching, you can't tell that the original photo was taken in overcast lighting conditions. This photo was taken at The Catskill Animal Sanctuary of Saugerties, NY. |
This is a scenario where the small size of the props was causing depth of field issues with the camera. The solution was to create a composite by shooting the foreground separate from the background and then merging the two images. |
This prop featured multiple mirrors that would reflect off one another, so one blemish would turn into 6. Though the lens was cleaned prior to shooting, some artifacts were inaccessible and therefore had to be cleaned up in post. This thing was like dealing with a hall of mirrors. |
This is an instance where the shot composed required two identical props (the pipes), but only one was available. The final photo was generated by shooting the right side of the photo first, then shooting the left side with the same prop, and finally creating a composite in post. |
Another optics nightmare! The shot was full of lenses and therefore full of reflections - including the various light sources. The challenge was to eliminate these reflections while still leaving the objects with some natural shine. This photo required retouching, compositing, and even rebuilding the top lens. |