Technical details

Camera: Canon EOS 5D MkII
Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Standard Zoom Lens
ISO: 1000
Aperture: f/3.2
Shutter: 1/100

Before & after

Credits

Photo: Lauri Laukkanen Photography
Concept creator & model: Jen Brook
HMUA & model: Donna Graham Mua
Assistant: Richard Powazynski Photography

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The First and The Last

The very first photo shoot of the tour also became the last image to be released. But we are definitely glad we waited. The photo was based around Belgium Retouch Artist Chester Van Bommel. I can only image the pressure of retouching a portrait of a professional retoucher. It is a fine art that goes far beyond technical skills of the average Photoshop user.

“I learned through this process that it wasn’t about the new techniques, about which buttons to click. What really mattered was the vision behind it. As a creative, you want people to hire you because you are an artist, not because you are a technician.” ~ Von Wong

Behind the Scenes – Bringing Dreams to Life | The Mind of a Retoucher

Setup and Post-Processing Retouch

The more work done in camera during the photo shoot, the better chance you will be able to realize the image during the post-processing phase.

When shooting a large space, avoid distortion created by wide-angle lenses by stitching together several shots using a prime lens. For this image, Von Wong used a Nikkor 50mm f1.8 on a tripod with his Nikon D700 . This allowed the vastness of the space to be communicated without making it look malformed.

When a space has a lot of natural lighting, from say – missing a roof, additional lighting can be accomplished fairly easily. Here you see a pair of speed lights in a soft box as a backlight and an umbrella as front fill to light the subject. Additional frames were taken without the subject with the speed lights on the floor to light the arches for more definition and depth.

But that is only the beginning. After 60 hours of retouch work and a massive 8Gb+ Photoshop file, the concept was built piece by piece, literally. The results – dreamlike.

To see more from this photo shoot, click here.

For the Gear Heads

Nikon D700
Nikkor 50mm f1.8
SIRUI T-2205X (Lovinpix.com)
Pixel Pawn
Explorer Mini Battery Pack by Innovatronix
SB-900
SB-700

Photography and Retouch: Von Wong and Chester Van Bommel from Artsome
Video: Erwan Cloarec – Visuals

Until Next Time . . .

Stay Inspired ~ Jules

CREDITS: Photographs by Von Wong have been used with permission for SLR Lounge. Do not copy, modify or re-post this article or images without express permission from SLR Lounge and the artist.

The post Behind the Scenes | Retouch Art and Bringing Dreams to Life with Von Wong appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.

The Video

The Original Images

The Final Image

The SLR Lounge Preset System

The SLR Lounge Preset System is designed to enable users to achieve virtually any look and effect within 3-5 simple clicks. From basic color correction, vintage fades, black & white effects, tilt-shift effects, faux HDR, retouching, detail enhancing, and so much more. The sky is the limit with what has been dubbed the most powerful and intuitive preset system available. Click the link above to learn more/purchase!  The SLR Lounge Preset System is now available for both Lightroom 4 and Adobe Camera Raw! (Bridge CS6)

You can also purchase the SLR Lounge Preset System as part of the Lightroom 4 Workshop Collection.

The post Beverly Hills Montage Wedding Portrait – Weekly Edit Season 2 Episode 4 appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.

JPEGmini is a popular app that does this for your image files, until recently it was only available on the web or Mac OS. Windows users were stuck with the web app, which works just as well as the desktop app but is a little slower since it all happens over the web. That all changed recently and JPEGmini is now available for windows as well!

You learn more about JPEGmini from their website and you can buy it as a digital download from B&H for only $19.99. A pretty good deal if you ask me!

Why You WOULD Want To Use an App Like This

This is a HUGE space saver, it can allow you to save upwards of 3-5x as many photos on the same hard drive as you have now. But its powers go way beyond just space saving, it is also an app that you need to have if you want to upload your images to your website.

Have you ever wondered how some big websites can upload images at such high quality but still have the images load quickly without slowing down the website? I racked my mind about this for a long time, and that’s when I found JPEGmini and other similar services. Simply convert the photo before you upload and you will have the highest quality possible at the lowest possible file size. Which means your image will load faster and won’t bog down your website.

The other big pro is that you can use this to archive jpegs of client images without having to take a loss in quality.

Why You WOULDN’T Want to Use an App Like This

Saving space is great and all, but there is at least one big reason why you would not want to use an app like this. The biggest reason is that if you are planning on doing any sort of editing for these images you will not have the same latitude you did from the original file and since your editing capabilities are already pretty hampered by the jpegs it would not be recommended to do any sort of professional level editing on these images after being minified.

What is your take? Would you use an app like this for archival images? Or just for web uploads? Or Not at all? Let us know in a comment below.

The post Reduce Image Size By Up to 5x with No Quality Loss with JPEGmini appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.

Many of these tips may also be applicable to previous versions of Adobe Bridge, for those of you who have CS5 or CS4.  The main difference between Adobe Bridge CS6 and all previous versions is, of course, the new process version that has completely revolutionized RAW (non-destructive) processing techniques.  While this makes Adobe Bridge CS6 (and Adobe Lightroom) extremely powerful, it does mean that things like presets are NOT compatible between the programs.  (The SLR Lounge Preset System, for example, is created for Adobe Bridge CS6 and Lightroom 4 ONLY, because it relies on the 2012 Process Version to function)

If you process high volumes of RAW photos, we highly recommend a Bridge or Lightroom workflow that is maximized for speed.  Both of these programs use what is called “non-destructive editing”, and allow you to batch edit large volumes of images at once.

While many photographers use Lightroom as their primary workflow tool, Adobe Bridge CS6 is extremely useful for many different reasons, and here at SLR Lounge we use both programs side by side!

The Video

1.) Open ACR Without Photoshop

The first thing you want to do is configure Bridge so that it can use the Adobe Camera Raw interface without needing to also open Photoshop.  To do this, go into your Adobe Bridge Preferences and look in the General tab, as below:

Once you check the box for “Double Click Edits Camera Raw Settings in Bridge”, you will be able to use Bridge independently of Photoshop for browsing archives, grabbing a quick RAW photo here and there, etc.  If Photoshop doesn’t have to “fire up” each time you need to process a random image in Camera Raw, you’ll save computer resources and your overall workflow will be much more smooth!

2.) Edit JPG & TIF Images Alongside RAW Images

Another very handy option is for those of you who ever have to deal with editing JPG and TIF images.  As advanced as RAW image processing has gotten over the years, many people still color correct their JPG, TIF, and PSD images the old-fashioned way- in Photoshop!  In addition to being restrictive and time consuming, this is a “destructive” editing method, as opposed to RAW processing which uses non-destructive editing.

There are many options for editing JPG and TIF images, but for example if you only need to edit one or two JPG images here and there, it would be incredibly annoying to have to create a Lightroom Catalog every time you need to process a random JPG or TIF photo.

So in Adobe Bridge, go into your Camera Raw Preferences (which are separate from your General Bridge Preferences) and set the options for JPEG and TIFF Handling to “Automatically open all supported…”.

Now, whenever you need to perform color correction to your JPG photos, and you would prefer to use the non-destructive RAW interface that you are used to, all you have to do is double-click on your JPG or TIF images in Bridge.

(Alternately, if you hardly ever need this function but would like to access it from time to time, turn this option back off and then simply right-click your photos and use “Open in Camera Raw”…)

3.) Enable Automatic 100% Previews for Rapid Browsing and Culling

One of the awesome things about a RAW, catalog-based workflow is the incredible speed with which you can browse, cull, and process your images.  Indeed, just like how Lightroom has “render standard/1:1 previews” in it’s Library options, Adobe Bridge also has 100% previews and high-quality thumbnails!

Designating both “Always High Quality” and “Generate 100% Previews” will cause your computer to always perform these actions every time you open a new folder.  Once the previews have all been generated, you will be able to breeze through your photos and even view 100% previews instantly for checking sharpness / focus.  You may need to clear your cache every now and then if you have a smaller hard drive and you edit tons of photos, but in general it is usually not a concern.

Of course just like Adobe Lightroom, it takes a considerable amount of time to generate 100% previews for thousands of photos, for example maybe from a wedding, so we recommend letting this process run overnight before you do your editing.

4.)  View Images From Multiple SubFolders At Once

Here is one trick that many Bridge users don’t know about, and that is the “Show Items From Subfolders” option.  To enable this option for a folder, click on “View” in the main menu and then click “Show Items From Subfolders”.

Doing this allows you to view all of the images from a single “Parent Folder”, without having to move all of your images to a separate folder.  This is extremely practical for certain people like timelapse photographers where you really want to organize your photos into separate folders, but you also want to be able to view them all together sometimes.

Note that enabling this feature is a one-time, temporary action that un-does itself as soon as you click on any other folders.  If you move from one folder to another you will have to re-enable “Show Items from Subfolders” over again.

5.) Use “Select All” in Camera Raw, Then De-Select While Editing

This last one is a little difficult to grasp at first, but the best way to explain it is that you simply want to avoid performing the same adjustments twice.  If you’re working on a high volume of photos that were shot in similar lighting conditions, then most of your editing can be done in batches.

Use the “Select All” tool in Adobe Camera Raw, (or just hit CTRL-A or CMD-A) …and start editing your first photo.  Once you’ve got your first photo perfect, CTRL-click that first photo to de-select it from the group of all photos.  This will automatically bump your main image preview to the next image.  If the next image is nearly identical to the previous image, (such as in this case) …then you don’t even need to edit it!  Just CTRL-click that image as well, and move on to your next image.  As your lighting or exposure changes throughout the images, maybe you’ll have to bump one or two settings up or down, but the main idea is that you’ll always have the adjustments from your previous image applied.

This is akin to the “Paste Previous” option in Adobe Lightroom, which is of course one reason why many high-volume post-producers choose Lightroom.  However if you don’t want to clutter up your Lightroom catalog with hundreds or thousands of images that are very similar, such as from a timelapse or a stock catalog, this is an awesome way to go.

Conclusion & More!

As much as we love using Adobe Lightroom, a catalog system has a few key areas of inconvenience that are solved beautifully by a straightforward browser app such as Adobe Bridge.  So it is a very good idea to integrate Adobe Bridge into your long-term workflow, and these five tips will great convenience and speed!

Take care, and happy clicking,
=Matthew Saville=

The SLR Lounge Preset System

The SLR Lounge Preset System is designed to enable users to achieve virtually any look and effect within 3-5 simple clicks. From basic color correction, vintage fades, black & white effects, tilt-shift effects, faux HDR, retouching, detail enhancing, and so much more. The sky is the limit with what has been dubbed the most powerful and intuitive preset system available. Click the link above to learn more/purchase!  The SLR Lounge Preset System is now available for both Lightroom 4 and Adobe Bridge CS6 Camera Raw!

You can also purchase the SLR Lounge Preset System as part of the Lightroom 4 Workshop Collection.

The post Top Five Tips for Bridge CS6 and Adobe Camera Raw appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.