Are made by George Jardine.

I use Photoshop and Lightroom every day. I have pretty much exhausted the “how” of color correction and retouching with those tools. What remains to be learned is the interesting part, the part that I get from watching good thinkers attack problems— their “why”, their approach and perspective. It’s different from mine, and it gets me thinking in ways I haven’t before. His videos are perfect for that.

He’s thoughtful and precise; not all jokey and digressive. He has a good, subtle voice, and sounds like someone with whom you could have a really great conversation.

Here’s a good free one  on B&W conversions to get you introduced to the man’s excellent style.

“The editor of Vogue has accused some of the world’s leading catwalk designers of pushing ever thinner models into fashion magazines despite widespread public concern over “size-zero” models and rising teenage anorexia.”

Go read the rest.

As long as the pendulum swings, I’ll have work.

Interesting take on the ethics of retouching.

Click here. I’ll figure out how to do the direct embed later.

HDR is all too often over-the-top, sort of illustrated looking. I’ve done it myself—there’s a strange pull to see how Three-Dee you can get those clouds to look. But it can also be more subtle, and that’s what we are shooting for in the Grand Theft Lego series. (Yes, there are more to come)

Partner in crime David Pahl shot twelve exposures of each element, and I merged three to five of each together so that I had complete control over the amount of light falling on every part of the shot.

A little dodging, a lot of burning, some serious pounding on the color, and we got this:

(click images for bigger versions)

Thanks to Jay Roth, James Pelz and Tom Pounders for all the help and ideas.

David Pahl and I worked on a Valentines Day Project for Pure—Check his site for details and the “After” version. It was great working with someone who so thoroughly understands what I need in order to make the post-work perfect. P.S. Props to Pure for getting the advertising mentioned in the news on all three networks, all the local papers as well as the WSJ and NYT. Amazing bit of PR, that.

Interesting post over on theonlinephotographer about retouching and responsibility. I like Katrin Eismann’s solution to the problem (read the comments). What is your take on this issue?

You know who you are.

The rumor mill is gearing up to grind out all sorts of nasty stories about Unilever and the Dove ‘Real Beauty’ campaign. Retoucher Pascal Dangin’s comments were placed in the wrong context on the New Yorker website, and a bunch of people are jumping up and down claiming that the photos were retouched. (The New Yorker profile, by the way, is quite amusing. The writer, Lauren Collins, seems inexperienced, in love with Dangin, and gullible. “He has been known to work for days tinting a field of grass what he considers the most expressive shade of green.” Puh-leeze!

The real story, parts one and two, is available on the AdAge website.

Why do so many assume that the bad or unpleasant is the truth?