Dec 19

Holiday Sale + Round-the-Clock Creative Education Streaming at CreativeLIVE.com

What does a stream of non-stop 24/7 creative education look like? It looks like http://www.creativeLIVE.com/live looks for the rest of 2011. That’s right...24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the rest of the year, you can check out the most popular segments of streaming video education (there's even a published schedule on that page...) on lighting, fundamentals of photography, studio setup, gear, Photoshop, Aperture, Lightroom, InDesign, fashion photography, wedding photography, portraiture, retouching, filmmaking,... read more ›
510 reads
Oct 10

Preset Photo Adjustment Follow Up — Debate is Split, Scott Chimes In

lift-and-stamp
It’s been gratifying to see that the great preset debate from my earlier post is not isolated to this office, instead there seems to be a lot of interest in this topic and a fairly even split in favor of and against using adjustment presets.  The majority of comments landed somewhere in the neighborhood of “I use them in moderation in order to get initial settings or ideas, then custom tweak from there.” This is... read more ›
704 reads
Oct 05

Preset Photo Adjustments: Instant Gold or Drab Repetition?

Adjustment_Presets
Scott here. Many of you know that I'm the primary retoucher here around the Chase Jarvis studio. I was surprised to get into a fairly spirited debate the other day with some of my co-workers. The topic? Adjustment presets and plug-ins in Aperture or Lightroom or Photoshop. I’ve got a strong opinion on this, but this experience has once again reminded me that there are a thousand ways to skin a cat and that my... read more ›
1.3K reads
Aug 19

Photoshop of Horrors: Vogue Mag Forgets Body Parts, Do You Care?

Happy Friday. Over at Vogue magazine, it seems the retouching crew was a little remiss with Mario Testino's shot of Kate Moss and her daughter Lila --seems they...er...left off a few of her daughters fingers. Or worse, that her daughters fingers actually fused into her mom's back. So, we all know Photoshop happens. They're in there taking out zits and making people skinnier than they really are, and taking out wrinkles and on and on.... read more ›
1.3K reads
Apr 01

Who Stole My Hair? [Happy April Fools’ Day]

Happy April Fools' Day. Here in the ol' USA, today is an unofficial holiday where gags, jokes and general tomfoolery are played on/between/amongst friends. In true fashion, there is plenty of said tomfoolery happening around our place. In a totally bizarre turn of events true fashion, it seems that some members of my crew have shown up to work today styled-up to look like one another. Here are a handful of mugshots. If... read more ›
508 reads
Mar 03

Photo Editing 101 – Surviving the Tidal Wave of Data

Aperture Photo Editing
[Scott here with another guest blog post.  Today I hope to save you some time and heartache by giving you the nuts and bolts of editing large volume shoots...] Painful memories I have: My first breakup, my first deceased pet, my first time moving, but perhaps most painful of them all is this; my first attempt at editing 15,000 photos.  Such overwhelming volume, such slow progress, so many similar photos.  Why, oh why, did they... read more ›
13.3K reads
Jan 11
Dec 20

Tips on Black & White Post Production [Scott’s Guest Post]

--- Since each of my staff are experts in their own right, fielding a growing amount of questions from you fine folks--and it's nice to get a change in perspective--you'll be seeing more and more posts from these talented people in weeks and months to come. Today, Scott takes the reins and answers a popular question about making great black & white images, with a case study to show you how. Take it away Scotty...... read more ›
10K reads
Aug 19

Scott’s Guest Post: Play-By-Play Post Production on This Popular Photo

[We have received hundreds of questions asking how this shot was post produced, so we thought it would be fun--and a good use of this blog as a central conversation point--to do a post about it. A play by play. So let's join our retouch guru Scott as he walks us through this popular shot of mine from the desert in Dubai....take it away, Scotty...] It’s fair to say that a number of Chase’s images... read more ›
7.6K reads
Jul 27

How to Shoot a Fancy Stop-Motion Commercial on the Cheap (-ish)

Have you seen the recent viral ad from Levi's of a guy walking across America wearing Levi jeans? Pretty simple, but pretty cool. [Maybe the walking thing was inspired by this similar concept in Toronto?] Anyway, this video here shows us how they pulled it off using just one camera, a tripod, 14 days, a few thousand photos, a few thousand miles, a protractor, a string, and a bit of math. Sign me... read more ›
5.2K reads