I was recently asked: “Are you opposed to photographs of human emotion getting touched up so blatantly, rather than capturing a better natural shot? Does touching it up make the photo lose some value?”
We retouch all our images, but retouching is meant to look natural. Years ago, a Broadway theater would display its stars in a very glamorous photograph. You knew they were manipulated, but they were beautiful. People wear make up, for example. Women wear lipstick. I guess that lipstick could extend beyond the lips, or be very extreme in color, like green. But when applied naturally it is an effective enhancement not a distraction.
There are many steps to image enhancement. Some are time consuming and some can be done easily and quickly. Some can be batch processed and affects many images at a time. Some involve local adjustments, and others involve global image adjustment. Some are more a matter of personal taste, while others may be more universal. Some can be and should be done to the image that is presented as a proof. Some can only be done after the client orders a specific image because the work is just too time consuming. Ultimately any image can be improved after it has already been manipulated. The only limitation is time, and that usually should relate to investment and significance.
What are your thoughts on this question? Leave a comment below.
Photo Prose
Gary Rabenko
Album design – Part 3 Feeling the Image.
Artists must work by feel. More photographers refer to themselves as artists. Less work by feel. Most work by habit. Feeling is essential. A sculptor feels how much to press here or add there. A musician feels how fast, or slow, hard or gentle.
Some event photographers have no patience to read, they have flat out told me. That impatience extends to images as well. It takes time to read an image. A photographer must recognize the potential. See that moment of greatness. Be sensitive to an expression that is building.
For album design, I have to feel the images letting them transport me somewhere. Designing any collection of images is much like crafting poetry. But what does the word design mean? What thoughts have gone into page presentation that elevates the viewer’s experience beyond that which a single powerful image might have already conveyed? I have watched persons design albums using software that boasts speed and gimmicks, but offers nothing in the way of feel. Instead of poetry, with a sound and feel, such albums are interrupted prose – a popular form of poetry of this last century requiring no meter or cadence of sound but rather words juxtaposed sans grammar! Such design has your meaningful imagery interrupted by garish graphics, meaningless motifs and foolish frames that could not possibly amplify the moods of the subject.
Each image has the potential to communicate some feeling. Most look for what they see in an images. Some can actually get a feeling from the image. That feeling is created by a whole host of things beyond the average viewer’s awareness. There is the look in the eye, the expression, body language, color or lack thereof, the direction of light, the quality of light, the contrast in light and dark, the color balance of the light, the composition and placement of elements in the photo and more. Adding additional graphics, and design elements to and between images, must be done with a sensitivity and feel for the images themselves. The better way I mentioned in my previous article goes beyond just getting the job done. It involves feeling each step of the way, and reasons for everything. It began years ago, long before digital. Left with a few must shots to use and many others to consider, I would do albums of hundreds of images. My process back then, in ancient photographic times, is no less valid today.
First I would spread the several hundred paper proofs out on tables so all were visible. Then donning headphones and locking all distractions out, I would get to work while listening to some favored classical music. The next step would be the most important, and the hardest. I would spend time with the photos – doing nothing! That is right. I would look at them. But not think at all about them. I would let my mind go blank. And look at them some more. I was not looking at all the photos. Many would come later. I needed to have an idea. I needed to have a start to the book. I needed to feel where I was going. Usually there would be ten to twenty options as a way of starting. Each choice like in a chess game added some options and reduced others. For several hours I would just pace back and forth… I might have been studying the images, but no, I was doing the opposite, I was giving them a chance to speak to me, and that can only happen if I can move mentally to a space where I am not thinking of the image but just coming upon the image as I might come upon a person as we cross the street from opposite sides. There is a feeling you get that is just… I like to say …honest from the gut feeling. Going beyond the visible to what I could hear in the images, to how each spoke to me. Eventually the feelings from each image would clarify, and after a few hours I would have the first ten or so images that just felt so right. Over the next two hours things would accelerate and the feeling would get stronger and like a building tornado have me picking up one image faster than the last as the book took on a voice of itself.
Books have chapters. Each section of the event would be its own little sub creation with a lead in and a lead out that too felt just right. I was combining images on a page. But some pages were panoramic prints spanning both left and right page. Rubber bands and paper clips were used to keep the many images intended to be on the same page, together. And proofs folded in half designated panoramic treatment, where a sole solitary image actually spanned both pages! What a mess! The great thing was that every client got feeling from the arrangement. Every client approved the design because it really was a design where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. It was alive. It spoke to the viewer. That kind of design was valuable. And in that, the word design certainly meant something. Removing one image would affect earlier and later pages.
Today’s album designing software are digital tools that speed and simplifies album design. Having tried the best and the cheapest, I can say, that none are a substitute for heart, mind and thought. All can easily distant one from any feel. Advertisers claim photographers can design an album in fifteen minutes and most albums are made that way today. But if it is worth viewing it needs thought and thought takes time. Personalized album design, the way it could be, takes two to three days’ time – to do it with feeling. That is design worth reading and investing in.
Gary Rabenko may be reached at gary@rabenko.com. Rabenko Photography & Video Artists is located at 1001 Broadway in Woodmere.
Photo Prose
Gary Rabenko
Easier Album Design: Part 2.
If you do not see a difference between two photos, pick either. Let the photographer choose best amongst small differences. He cannot choose different poses because that is a subjective opinion. Perhaps many should be used? If you have an opinion go with that. If your opinion is that you value the artist’s judgment then he should be happy to suggest what you will enjoy. And you will take that suggestion.
Know what the album is to be. Don’t make elaborate lists and notes, only to use 60 out of 3000 images! Just pick the loudest ones, the strongest ones, some nice moments – great shots and call it a day. Or pick the large groups, add the memorable quirky shots and the key moments. Or let your photographer do it. Today, albums can have 200 -300 images. But images alone won’t make a great album if there is no thought to their use. True design takes heart, time and thought. Maybe there needn’t be much thought. Shots can speak for themselves. That is fine. That is a book to hold your favorite images. It is not a design.
Ten percent of a heavy shoot or 20 percent of a smaller shoot is a good average for book use representing unique, different, meaningful, and must get moments, emotional expressions, formals and décor. I can pick five to six hundred images that I propose to use in the album design. Clients can nix any, add more and indicate essentials to use. I then design the book of 200-300 images that included all their musts and others that work best. Clients have gotten back to me in a few hours easily approving, adding and nixing images online! Or, specify the few shots you hate, and the few shots that mean so much you insist they are used, leaving others up to the photographer. Again, with 200-300 images, this works because it represent the full spectrum of the day’s actions and emotions –something a pro can choose.
Starting albums with 50, 60 or even 100 images, often means leaving out the most interesting shots, or leaving out the traditional shots. And this is where we get into the adding of images that bogs things down. A photographer cannot conscientiously leave family members, and great moments or emotions out.
The ground breaking moment for me came years ago, when you would get a box of 200 -500 proofs, then meet to arrange the proofs in album order. Some cared how the story was told. Making a great album was much more than merely choosing favorites, but choosing those that worked together! We would be shuffling hundreds of paper proofs. Each album page turn, would raise more questions and lead to more time consuming research into “what goes best with this?” Or “can you find something where we face the other way”, and of course “what do you think?”.
6pm to 1 AM I shuffled, searched and sequenced paper proofs following the clients concerns with my creativity, till we both were beat. Next day that successful business man called. “This is the third of our children’s weddings you have done for us, and G-D willing, you will do the next one, but we came right after work, and it took till 1 AM – I do not know what the answer is – but there has got to be a better way!”
Finding a better way, meant not designing the book with the client and defining what it means to be an artist? People are different. Some want hand holding. They don’t want a mind or an eye attached to that hand. They do not want a better vision. They have their own. They do not know about composition or storytelling. They just want their favorite photos in some order. And they want to feel they are making the right decision. Their contract had no relation to how many emotions and moments were recorded, or how much they would love the photos. At contract time, they said, “let’s see how the photos come out, we can always add more”. So they took a small contract. Later after all the other event venders are paid and their jobs long finished, the photographer’s work in some ways is only beginning.
For some, the original starter contract defines everything. Others know it is only the start. And for those who knew they would want a masterpiece at the outset, the contract can be all you need with everything included. Adding any image, even if it is as important as the grandparents, or the groom full length, or a dramatic bridal shot that should be in the studio window, can be interpreted as irritating cost and often is not appreciated.
The better way realizes that there are two kinds of albums. One pays attention to all the subtleties, and the other just collects pictures. One has the basics, another values the icing, toppings and accents. One is predictable – a binding of photos, the other is passionate. One is simple and the other can be a work of art, or it can just be a bigger binding. All clients deserves customer service. A studio member should review their album for glaring errors, answer questions and try to help place their photos to make the book as nice as possible within contracted amounts. On the other hand, a true design involves time, thought and feeling. It has a value in itself. The word design, like the words create, write, and sculpt, can involve much, or little. The hardest part about choosing your images is either finding images you like from a bad photographer, or eliminating images you like from a good one. But assuming you liked your photos, either decide to have the photographer use an abundance of images, or pick the essentials and do not sweat the details. You will enjoy the album, the photography and the whole experience much more.
Gary Rabenko may be reached at gary@rabenko.com. Rabenko Photography & Video Artists is located at 1001 Broadway in Woodmere.
Photo Prose
Gary Rabenko
Many try to design an album after the event by selecting their favorites. Those then are given to the studio, with the words: “OK, here is my selection, make the album!” That is like asking a speechwriter to write a speech, with the instructions, here are my favorite words, use only them!
If you selected the right photographer you should have the fun task of starting to tell the story. It should be fun. It should also be fast. But as many find, it can become a horrific nightmare if not approached properly. Then it can be a non ending chore in which nearly all interest in the project is lost, and the photographer is reduced to being a clerk and production manager, trying to manage a production without production values! It is unfortunate that most projects are not completed in a few months. Your album is the studio’s best advertisement. The year of your event, is when the album should be completed for you to enjoy.
Depending on the studio’s quality level, and purpose in life, your project may be just another job, or it could have been an important investment in time and talent, and the image proofing was just the beginning of masterpiece creation that now needs your approval to complete.
A better studio can have more options. And may not be able to proceed until they are sure how to proceed with you; after some consultation.
In the basic approach, many important concepts are never considered. The advanced approach is all concept. Here are some of the important ones to consider. I am dwelling on the advanced approach first, because while some do book a photographer saying that photography is not really important, and that they only want basics, if you are reading this, you may care more and want the album to reflect the depth and breadth of the event, its participants, and the craft of photography today.
There is no such thing as the best image… it all depends on where it is used, and how? A great image should have some personality and emotion. A complete story needs little and big words, and your album needs main and secondary images. The album design involves combining images, of varying shapes to fit the page shape. It involves contrasting emotions, and complementary supportive emotions. True album design involves artistry at many levels.
Sensitivity is needed in feeling the image, not just seeing it. Many industry professionals have a big problem with that concept. They are so intent on looking at an image, they have lost any openness to feeling it!
Image emotion is created by shape, color, contrast, density, expression, and position. Combining images create emotions that are different from their parts, and should be more interesting but if not done with care, will be corny, foolish and random.
Proofs either in paper or digital form, are not finished images. They are not retouched or manipulated to reflect the photographer’s intentions, nor are they adjusted yet for use with other images. Today, some studios manipulate certain images to suggest what can be. Other images, or those proofed with a different manipulation might in fact work better on a particular album page.
Proofs are the raw gems. Proofs are the rough natural ingredients from which the finished gourmet meal can be made. How images are tweaked, depends on how they are used. How they are used depends on where and with what they are used, and what else in total is going to be used. So you see that everything is based on everything else, and as you sit and stare at the images, you cannot possibly imagine how it may or may not be needed in the design.
You know who your friends are, and which outfit you liked best. You know what relatives are not on speaking terms any more, and what part of the simcha was most meaningful to you. But actually, you may not know what years later will be most appreciated, or what your photographer could really do with an image that you are about to discard?
You say you know what you like. But until you see the result, you won’t know how you like it. The photographer has serious questions as well. Suppose a week is spent designing and determining images, and you do not like it. How does the studio get compensated for its time?
Over the years, I have seen many albums where the client invested heavily in lots of images, but the album had no style, contained much duplication, had images poorly retouched, corny digital effects, and color that was all over the place, or just plain dull! That client had no idea of what could have been. Sadly the studio was ignorant as well.
Some studios will sit with the client while discussing each and every image. The client feels that this hand holding will lead to a great result. It won’t. To feel the images requires silence, solitude, concentration, focus, and time. Much time.
Even a straightforward album, with one image on a page, should be approached in an emotional way. Instead of choosing your favorites, start thinking about how the album should begin. What mood should the first images produce? What unexpected surprise could the viewer find on page two. How does page three continue the story?
If you want the studio to help you arrange your album, consider what you really want them to do. Do you want someone to tell you what you like? Hmmm? On the other hand, if you feel you can really trust the photographer to give you heartfelt advice, and that he knows his craft, then perhaps you could just pick your favorites and let him pick the rest. Anyone can sequence the images you’ve chosen, but that does not mean they will work well, unless you planned your selection. On the other hand, if he has style and substance, you might do best to let him add whatever he believes you need to do the kind of album you will love later at any cost.
Next week: Easier image selection.
Gary Rabenko may be reached at gary@rabenko.com. Rabenko Photography & Video Artists is located at 1001 Broadway in Woodmere.
Last time, I asked about your photographic priorities. Here are some additional aspects to think about.
Some studios give loose photos—prints—like an 11” × 14” and wallets. The exact sizes can vary. But some include that in all packages. Others do not because it raises the price somehow and should not be the deciding criterion. If you do not absolutely love the photography, then a few more photos won’t make a difference. What do you think? How important is this to you in making a decision?
Some studios give more proofs. Are 1,000 proofs not worth as much as 1,500? Are paper proofs better than files on a CD? If you get the files on a CD and can print the paper proofs yourself, getting just the ones you want, does the studio need to make those proofs for you? Is there a value to doing so? Maybe fewer proofs are worth more? Would you rather have 1,000 better photos, or 2,000 that include second-rate shots you need to edit out? Suppose instead of the 1,000 better photos, you had 2,000 photos all just as good—does that mean you will be happy having so many more great images in your album? Will you use more images in your album if you get 2,000 good shots instead of 1,000? Or will it mean that much more effort to cut down the number of proofs, to the same small number that will be in your album?
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Great imagery is the goal. Once we have it. What can we do it? How can we make the most of it? How can we enhance it to make even more powerful? How can we combine images that best work together? How can we edit the video to make it more powerful in less time. What different album treatments, styles and approaches will work best for your Bar Mitzvah or Wedding Photographs. How can your family portrait session be best presented in an album or on the wall? In this section of my blog we will discuss how to approach choosing your photos after the event. What kind of interaction with your photographer might work best for you, and what might undermine a great set of images or great video footage. Editing video is similar to editing an album. This section will dissect today’s attitudes and approaches in both album design and the editing of videos that today may be called cinema, motion, film, and movie making.
