Lay Off the Photoshop

[JanJan]

I would like to start a new thread called “Lay Off the Photoshop”, that are geared towards people who take awesome shots or obviously knows their stuff, but then ruin it with their Photoshop skills.

I particularly know one who really knows his stuff photography-wise. He attended a photography school in the early 80’s back in the film days and after many years working in finance, he went back to doing photography part-time He know a lot about studio photography, and even spouted out terms that I didn’t know existed (which made me feel dumb), but when he showed me his Photoshop work, he was better off leaving his pictures just SOOC. He would add different backgrounds in Photoshop, which doesn’t look clean at all. He admits that he’s still learning it, though.

I don’t want to link his work because he just hired me for to shoot 2 events. One just passed a couple days ago, and I’m 2nd shooting a bar mitzvah in a few days. I MIGHT grab some of his images from his website, though, and will just block his name.

[cameraclicker]

I used to shoot slide film.  You get it right in camera, or you toss the slide.  You don’t find out if your shot worked until the film has been developed and mounted in a slide frame.  On the other hand, you don’t have someone in a lab messing with your print.  I chose the film I was shooting based on the way I was hoping the final result would look.

Once in a while I would need prints and prints from print film look better than prints from slides unless you use a very good lab, so I sometimes shot print film, but not often.

In 2002, I purchased a Nikon CoolPIX 5700 which came with Photoshop Elements 1.  Since then I have upgraded through several cameras and several versions of Elements and finally upgraded to Photoshop.  Lots of time and money spent in the pursuit of a better looking photo!  I know a few cool tricks but the reality is that I probably use less than 5 % of what Photoshop can really do.  Doesn’t matter.  It does what I need it to do and I can get what I want done with a minimum of aggravation.

And, I’m comfortable with computers and CAD software having written software since grade 11, and using CAD to lay out printed circuit boards.  Working with folks in the phone industry, we have seen people who were not introduced to computers until later in life tend to be hesitant about trying out software features.  Your photographer will get it figured out.  It will just take some time and experimentation.  Scott Kelby’s Photoshop books were a big help getting started.  Adobe has some YouTube videos that are also pretty good.  Others have put up videos that may or may not be helpful.

[JanJan]

I finally got a chance to go on his website and do some screenshots. I made sure to remove the watermarks.

The “before” shot of the bride and groom is nice. The lighting is great. But when he removed the background and replaced it with a beach scene, it looks tacky.

View post on imgur.com

I don’t know why he had to super-impose newborns into a flower. When he showed me this on his phone, I didn’t want to say anything.

View post on imgur.com

I don’t get the blue smoke/clouds and lightning.

View post on imgur.com

He says he’s pretty comfortable with Photoshop, but he should not put this on his portfolio. It just looks tacky in my opinion. He should stick to what he’s good at and what he went to school for….studio photography.

[cameraclicker]

I like the chocolate and (is it) whisky photo.  The hot dog is interesting.  Others like the pool at noon, avocado, cantaloupe, etc., seem slightly off.  Later I think I will sacrifice a tomato.  His background looks green against the black of his web page.

The guy with camera and cigar smoke is good.  Actually, most of his photos of people are good.  His page must use flash.  It took a long time for it to get going.  I went for a shower and when I came back it was much happier.  That probably hurts him for anyone who is just surfing.

I think I prefer the kiss on a beach to the sunset kiss.  The babies in a flower is a bit much, as is the cheerleader.  I see you needed a wider seamless roll for the cheerleader.  A good background for her would be out of focus stadium with fans in seats.

 

[Bill]

He has a zenfolio account, and yes they do use flash for their slideshows.

Some of his work is good and some not, some tacky as well. He definitely has a lot of photos on his site but they seem to be all over the place. His main issue is organization.
I think he needs to sit down and categorize that jumbled mess of a site. If I were a client and trying to look for my photos, I would be pissed. You have to assume or dumb down a site to allow the non-internet savoy person be able to navigate with relative ease.
His site has the option of a client access page, I know because I have a zenfolio account. Photos I shoot are organized into their respective groups, client photos are organized by name, type of shoot, date and time.

[JanJan]

Here are some more that I think would have been better if they were left alone. I wish I could see the originals though.

https://scontent-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/998788_586228898085807_1505590063_n.jpg
https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/156461_459451897430175_2010791769_n.jpg
https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1380541_608200409221989_525313168_n.jpg

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