Blog | 54 - Halo Effect
| Freelance Photographer in St Ives Cambridgeshire: Food & Drink Photography; Commercial Photography, Product Photography & Packshot Photography; Event Photography; Portrait Photography; Corporate Photography & PR Photography; Engagement Photography & Wedding Photography and Photography Training Courses in Cambridge, Huntingdon, Peterborough, Bedford, Ely, St Neots, St Ives and London. Professional Photography Services in St Ives, St Neots, Huntingdon, Bedford, Peterborough, Ely & Cambridge. | |||
 
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Alistair Grant Freelance Photographer Cambridge & London |
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bokeh photographic: Blog No: 54 → TIP: Click any image to view in LightBox |
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Halo Effect We’re only into April and I have already completed several re-shoots. That is, I’ve undertaken jobs originally shot by other photographers after being approached by clients who weren’t satisfied with the quality of the initial work. You might think that I would consider this a good thing. After all a job is a job. Not so. Every time a client requests a re-shoot confidence in photographers is eroded. This doesn’t help anyone. Moreover, it also means that clients have less money to spend on future campaigns thanks to the costs of extra photography. The need for the re-shoots can be partly explained in that most of the photographers originally commissioned to undertake the work were ‘professional amateurs’ who quoted low. Of more concern is that some jobs had been undertaken by professional colleagues albeit ones not directly known to me. If approached to undertake a re-shoot I always ask to see the original images, without necessarily needing to know the identity of the photographer, so that I can see first-hand what - if anything - is wrong? I also ask if the original photographer had requested a photography brief (if not already supplied) and what questions the photographer asked of the client. I never fail to be amazed at the number of shoots that take place without a brief which at the very least serves a checklist to ensure everything is in place for the shoot. If you are a regular reader of the Blog you’ll be aware that my perspective is that professional photographers don’t have a monopoly on producing a singular ‘wow’ image. However, we do have a monopoly on consistently producing wow images and in (consistently) producing wow images in difficult conditions. Most of the product and packshot images I was asked to give a second opinion on were characterised by common and entirely preventable problems such as not correcting white balance or not balancing flash to ambient light. However, I want to highlight another issue: ‘clean’ selection. I’ve regularly heard it said that one of the characteristics differentiating professional from amateur photographers is that the former use the ‘manual’ pen tool to select areas or objects in post-production whereas the latter use ‘automatic’ selection tools. Manufacturers promote the idea that it is easy to select using automatic software tools such as the magic wand in Photoshop. In my experience this is rarely the best option for say extracting a product image onto a different colour background. Automatic selection tools aren’t very precise and so a lot of fiddly ‘add or subtract’ mouse clicks are needed to improve the selection. An important point is that the selection may look fine at normal size but when magnified irregularities will be seen. In contrast the pen tool, which requires manual tracing around the area/object whilst zoomed-in at high magnification, gives a much better result. There is a rub. When using the pen tool you work on the interface surrounding the area/object to be selected which I refer to as the ‘halo’. The pen tool improves precision but is dependent upon a good halo to trace around. A good halo isn’t achieved in post-production but through effective lighting at the time of image capture. Rather than concentrating only on the lighting main features of the product such as labels it is equally important to check the lighting of the any interfaces that will be involved in post-production selection. This presents a challenge for inexperienced photographers as it requires meticulous attention to detail especially at colour/material/shape intersections. Shooting tethered to a laptop is obligatory as only high magnification of the image can reliably identify problems. The image here shows a near perfect halo at 500% magnification which gives a clear template for the pen tool. If you’re thinking won’t a good halo also improve the precision of the magic wand; feel free to have a crack, magnify the result, and get back to me. |
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Call Alistair Grant on 07775 365507, Email [email protected] or click Booking Enquiries if you have any questions or would like to make a booking. |
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bokeh: "the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens" Freelance Photographer offering Food & Drink Photography Cambridge; Commercial Photography Cambridge, Product Photography Cambridge & Packshot Photography Cambridge; Event Photography Cambridge; Portrait Photography Cambridge; Corporate Photography Cambridge & PR Photography Cambridge; Engagement Photography Cambridge & Wedding Photography Cambridge and Photography Training Courses in Cambridge. Also covering: Huntingdon, St. Ives, Ramsey, St. Neots, Peterborough, Bedford, Stamford, Newmarket, Sawtry, Alconbury Weston, Brampton, Hartford, Warboys, Houghton, Wyton, Godmanchester, Hilton, Hemingford Grey, Hemingford Abbots, Fenstanton, Whittesley, Yaxley, Needingworth, Somersham, Chatteris, Ely, Bar Hill, Grafham and Buckden. |
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bokeh photographic - Alistair Grant | Freelance Photographer | Cambridge, London, UK Food & Drink Photography | Commercial Photography & Product Photography | Corporate Photography & PR Photography | Portrait Photography (inc. 'Active Portraiture', 'Naturally You' & 'Poptraits') | Event Photography | Engagement & Wedding Photography | Photography Training Courses & Camera Tuition | Videography & Film Production Tel: 07775 365507 | Email: [email protected] |
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