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The Memory Card Reader From Hell!

Thursday, May 29th, 2014

Professional photographers and amateurs alike have many things in common in this digital age:  our cameras put the images we take on digital media, such as Compact Flash cards, SD cards, or similar devices.  Some of the different methods for extracting the information from these cards are to run a cable (usually USB) to the camera from the computer and we instruct the computer to copy, transfer, or import the images to the computer’s hard drive(s), or we take the digital media card out of the camera and place it in a reader that serves the same function.  Some of us have built-in slots in our desktop computers that will accommodate various kinds of cards.  My last two computers have had the slots built in.

I’m a professional photographer and videographer.  For many shoots, I go on location and have several Compact Flash cards that fit in my still cameras, and the images I shoot are stored on the CF cards awaiting transfer to my computer’s multiple hard drives.  Since I usually can’t reshoot the images, and there is much more security in the redundancy of having the files on different drives, I store my images on several external drives simultaneously.  Hard drives do fail.  There is no excuse for losing a client’s images.

The critical point, however, is that much can happen to the information on the cards during the transfer process.  Pulling a card out of a camera that is turned on can corrupt the card, as can pulling a card out of a reader during a copy phase.  So, I breathe easier once the images have been copied or imported to my first hard drive without a hitch.  Until I have the images on more than one hard drive, however, I keep the images on the card, as well, for backup in case something bad happens.

I recently got a wakeup call, and it was just by chance.  I had been using the CF card slot in my PC to copy files from the card to the computer.  I didn’t have a job for a little while and I had left the images from the last shoot on the card in the camera after first copying them to several drives on my computer.  I put the card back in my camera after copying it.  I usually copy to my main drive first, add keywords, my copyright, etc. to the meta data, and then copy all that to a couple more external drives for security.

About a week after I had copied the images on the card I had put back into the camera, I went to reset the camera’s settings for the most likely settings for my next shoot.  It showed I still had images on the card, so I hit the view button to see which images were on the card before deleting them, AND, HORRORS,  THEY LOOKED BADLY PIXELATED!  I looked at several of the images in the camera and most had this problem.  I hit the magnify button, and they looked sharp again, but when going back to the “fit on screen” image they again looked pixelated.  All I had done was to copy them to the hard drive on my computer.  The images that had been copied to the hard drive were in no way affected, but the card seemed to be corrupted.  That never happened before.

Luckily, I had already uploaded the finished job to the client the day before, so I knew that the images in the computer were not corrupted.

As a pro, I can’t leave anything to chance, so I had to find out whether the card was bad, the camera had a problem, or what had screwed up the images while the card was in the computer.

My first test was to shoot test images to see what was happening.  Once shot, I looked at each at the back of the camera.  They looked normal.  I turned off the camera, popped the card, and put it in the built-in PC reader.  I copied the files to a folder on my desktop, and made sure it was finished copying.  I removed the card from the PC.  I made a second folder on my desktop.  I then used Photoshop to view the images in the first folder on my desktop.  They looked OK.  I put the card back in the camera and turned the viewer on, and they were corrupted!  I took the card out of the camera again, and put it back in the PC and copied the same files to the second folder on my desktop.  I clicked on the first image in Photoshop and a dialog box popped up saying that Photoshop could not read the image format.  The card was corrupted.  Period.

I had an old external USB 2.0 card reader I used to use before having built-in slots, so I dusted it off and plugged it into an open USB slot on my computer.  I put the card in the camera again and formatted the card.  Again I took some test images.  I took the card out of the camera and put it in the external reader.  It took longer than the built-in reader, but there weren’t that many images.  They copied perfectly.  I took the card from the reader and put it back in the camera.  I turned on the viewer, and the pictures looked normal, not corrupted.  I shut off the camera and again removed the card.  I again copied the files to another folder on my desktop – they could be opened in Photoshop and looked normal.

I determined that the built-in reader in the PC was corrupting the images while copying.  I don’t know why: was it software, or hardware?  I determined that the best way around the problem was to not use the built-in slots again on this computer, but to bypass them.  I had lost faith in them.  However, the USB 2.0 external reader is incredibly slow.  I also use my readers for HD video on SDHC cards, and it takes forever to import video files.  So, I decided to buy a new USB 3.0 external reader.  I found one on B&H’s website for $14.95 (with no shipping) at http://bhpho.to/SVr845 .  I ordered it and tried it out with all my different media from different cameras.  It seems to work well, and it is blazing fast compared with USB 2.0.

The moral of the story is:  Don’t be complacent about your digital photography equipment.  Don’t assume all is well without checking it out occasionally.  I could have gotten a bad surprise if I hadn’t looked at my camera, and taken action.  Being a pro, you’ve got to be on your toes!

– Gary Silverstein

Tags: 2.0, 3.0, camera, card, CF, CF card, commercial photography, Compact Flash, corrupt, corrupting, corruption, drive, file, files, hard drive, image, memory card, PC, pixel, pixelated, professional, reader, SD, SDHC, still, stills, USB, video
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Bracketing With Hot Lights And Available Light . . .

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

In my last post, I discussed bracketing of exposures.  Today, let’s talk about bracketing with hot lights.  Hot lights are a continuous lighting source and should be regarded as available light, just sometimes very intense, and very bright.  A majority of hot lights are of incandescent color temperature, adding a warm or yellow tone to your image.  In most modern DSLRs, there is a setting for tungsten or incandescent light which compensates for the warm tint by adding a blue or cyan tint to the image.

Instead of using the incandescent mode in the camera for white balance, I prefer taking one exposure with a gray card in the image and setting the gray reading for all the images I take in that series with my editing software.  Outdoors, my cameras are very accurate, so the automatic white balance setting works just fine.  Indoors with a mix of lighting, a gray card or an Expodisk is the ticket.

Now, back to bracketing with available light and hot lights.  My cameras will do up to nine bracketed shots (different exposures of the same image) automatically.  Some cameras only allow three images for auto bracketing.  If you desire more exposures for either HDR (High Dynamic Range) images or for layering the images with these cameras, the way to facilitate that is to do it manually.  As in my last article, adjust the exposure by putting the camera in aperture-priority mode, setting one aperture and changing the shutter speed to bracket various exposures.  My choice is to use 2/3 of a stop difference for each of my brackets.  You may like 1/3 stop, 1/2 stop, 1 stop, or ? bracketing stops instead.  If doing this manually, try to get one optimum exposure, i.e. the one picked by the camera as the overall best exposure, and make the same number of exposures brighter and darker on either side of the optimum exposure.  Also, if doing it manually, you will have to put the camera on full manual for exposure, then set your aperture where you want and vary the time for the brackets.

The reason for bracketing is that the latitude for digital images is about 5 stops with detail and no digital “noise.”  When lightening darker areas in a digital image, one sometimes runs into noise, either color noise which looks likes flecks of red, green, and/or yellow in that area, or luma noise, which looks like flecks of black snow.  Noise is usually unacceptable in commercial work and for stock images.  The answer is to bracket and take images in which even shadow areas are light enough to have detail without the need to lighten them, and to blend them into the finished image, either with HDR or layering and masking in computer-editing software.  Conversely, blown-out areas of one image can be recovered from a darker bracketed image, and give detail to blown-out areas.

In summary, bracketing with available lighting or with hot lights is basically the same, and white balance should be checked and adjusted should the need arise.

-Gary Silverstein

Tags: bracket, bracketing, brackets, commercial photography, editing, exposure, exposures, hdr, hot lights, image, layer, layering, lights, photography, Photoshop, professional, software, We Shoot Photography, weshoot.com
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The Difference A Background Can Make . . .

Monday, October 1st, 2012

In the days of film, a professional commercial photographer had to be very careful of the backgrounds that would be used in his/her images.  Retouching was expensive.  Shooting an item for use against another background from the one it was taken with could be a labor-intensive multi-step process.  A spot on a high-key (pure white) background  could be touched out on the negative, and a nightmare undertaking on a transparency.   Today, of course, images are taken digitally and manipulated by editing programs, like Photoshop.  One of our most recent shoots involved large, heavy industrial products.   In film-days past, we would have probably used a seamless white background to shoot the product and spent a lot of time with product placement.  The items to be photographed were round, between two and three feet in diameter, and each weighed 500 or more pounds.  Five views were to be taken of each.  That means that either the item would have to be moved on the background, or very carefully lifted by a hoist onto the background.  We would have to be careful of marks left by the items where they rested on the paper, and some method of keeping such round items from rolling off the surface would have to be employed and kept out of sight.

So, pre-planning for the shoot is still important, even in this digital world.  We opted to not use any type of manufactured background per se, but to only use white reflectors in strategic places to reflect light or add a highlight where we desired.  Not using a background simplified the lighting somewhat in that a roll of paper or fabric didn’t block out the light from behind each item.  We were going to photograph the items in the factory environment with the idea that we would isolate the image in Photoshop, and put it on another, more desirable background.

Lighting was done with our powerful studio strobes, and the modeling lights on the strobes gave us an idea of how the lighting would look in the finished image.  We shot with soft-boxes to give a square look to our lighting in the highlights, as umbrellas just wouldn’t cut it here as these products were light-reflective.  We planned to keep the camera stationary, move the lights as necessary, and rotate the product for the five different angles the customer required.  Since the objects were circular,  and we wanted to keep all the images the same size, we had to plan how to keep that proportionality.  Think of a coin stood on edge.  The widest the image would have to be is a little more than the diameter when one of the faces of the coin is toward you.  When the edge of the coin is nearer to you, the size of the image could change, but we wanted to make them all the same size for the client’s ease of putting together several views of their product.  Also, we had to be far enough away to assure depth of field when we were shooting the views that showed part of the object furthest away.  Editing programs have great sharpening utilities, but a severely out-of-focus image cannot be brought back.  You can easily blur parts of a sharp image and make it look good if needed for the effect, but the reverse isn’t the case.  So all this had to be figured out in advance.

Now, let’s go on to the backgrounds for the images.  Since the area or table on which the items were shot was in a fixed location, the background for each image (as produced by the camera) would have been a toolbox and other parts of the assembly plant.  So we made it so that we and our client could “lift” the item off the background and put it on any other background or even a video.  This is done by means of a “clipping path.”  This is a very labor-intensive process.  It means that I use a Photoshop tool to painstakingly trace out every edge of the product at anywhere from a 100% to a 300% enlargement.  Once I have outlined every hole, edge, and cranny, I “select” the item alone and make a layer of it to put on other backgrounds.  I include this clipping path with the image, so the client is able to do the same.  Now, you may ask why I do so much work, as some of the editing programs have become pretty sophisticated and make an easier selection with other, faster tools.  Well, the answer is this:  I have used these editing tools, and sometimes there are errors in the program choosing what is part of the item and what is not.  It may not be noticeable on a small jpeg on a website, but it will stick out like a sore thumb on a 30X40 enlargement at a trade show.  That is what separates a pro from an amateur.  Below are an original view of one of the products, and a few different backgrounds that I feel work well.  Each background below was created in Photoshop, but other backgrounds could be used, as well.  Remember that whichever one a client chooses, I include the clipping path so they can put it against another background if that is their need.

As you can see, the product image looks at home with any of the backgrounds.  Keep this in mind as you plan your next shoot.

– Gary Silverstein

Tags: camera, commercial photographer, commercial photography, http://weshoot.com, Marketing, photographer, photography, Photoshop, professional, reflections, video
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Expanding your capabilities . . .

Saturday, September 17th, 2011

Here’s one of our promo videos!

All professional photographers should strive to increase their capabilities.  One of the ways is to embrace video.  A lot of wedding photographers have done this as this gives them more ways of generating capital.  Being versatile is very important.  But there are costs for doing this.  Let’s talk about video and where it figures in. 

In the film days, a professional photographer could buy 2¼” medium-format cameras to do weddings and portraits, or a 4″X5″ (or bigger) large format camera to photograph architecture and products.  This was a huge barrier to entry to amateurs, with the huge cost and learning how to work with what were mostly manual systems.  Unless an amateur or student was particularly well-heeled, he couldn’t purchase this equipment.  He would have to work with the less expensive smaller format 35mm cameras, that were also more expensive when moving up to the high end.  A budding pro would have to work his way up, sometimes working as an assistant for an established pro.

In the past, architectural clients wouldn’t hire someone who couldn’t give them large-format transparencies or negatives.  It shut out a good many photographers.  It was a barrier to entry.

Then digital still photography became the norm and the cameras evolved into something very capable of producing a very large and sharp print.  And the price started dropping.  The barrier to entry was being lowered.  And digital had another perk.  Editing software came into its own.  The one with the highest regard is Adobe Photoshop.  It is not cheap for the current version.  But there are some lower-cost alternatives that don’t do as much.  A barrier just fell again.  More amateurs call themselves pros.  Now, the competition is very heavy.  It is hard for the clients to tell who can do the work or not.  The Internet is awash with images.  Some may steal an image and say it is theirs.  Others shoot all the standard stuff photographers take as a hobby.  Flowers, landscapes, people, boats, cars, etc.

A commercial photographer does more with the images he creates.  You wouldn’t hire someone to shoot your company’s expensive product to show it in its best light, if the photographer only showed you a portfolio of beautiful sunsets, would you?

You would want to know that the photographer could get great detail and sharp, clear, well-lit images of products as seen in his/her portfolio.

Since we already have extensive experience at commercial photography, we add video to the mix to increase our versatility and do more for our clients.

Video is a whole different animal than still photography.  You have all the things that a still photographer has to think about, plus movement and sound to deal with.  And editing videos is more complicated than it has ever been as there are more tools to work with. While a lot of video cameras will do a great job of recording what is in front of them with just the press of a button, editing them is way more than trimming a clip and placing it on the end of another clip.  And, everyone watches TV.  If you want to see what is possible, look at the intro to CSI Miami.  It is a mixture of stills, video clips, and moving graphics. It probably took months to put together and it is over in less than a minute.  HD video files are huge.  A one-minute HD video in QuickTime format is around a gigabyte in size.  You need a computer with some real horsepower to harness the expensive software that it takes to get something really professional.  Rendering time can run many hours.  Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop Extended, and a legion of other programs come into play.  And the learning curve is steep.  High costs, a lot to learn . . .  Now, there is a barrier to entry. 

If you haven’t already, take a look at our video at the top of this post.  As you can see, it adds a dynamic dimension to our professional commercial portfolio. It is a great way to show off our portfolio and for a client company  to promote itself, as well.

– Gary Silverstein

Tags: barrier to entry, commercial, http://weshoot.com, photograph, photographer, professional, promo, promotional, still photography, value added, versatile, versatility, video, video editing, videographer
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“Photography is so easy . . . Why does a pro charge so much?”

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

Note:  This article explains why pros like us charge what we charge and why we get it.

First, the long answer.

Photographers in the “ business” of photography don’t view their business as a hobby. The motivating factor is income. The average hobbyist – a nonprofessional – sees photography as an enjoyable pastime, and receiving money for their photography, although a nice addendum, is not the reason they engage in the activity. A hobbyist can be at several levels, from a novice to an accomplished photographer, but a pro has to always be at the top of his or her game to compete. After all, no professional photographer’s client wants to pay for sub-par images.

An amateur may show his shadow or reflection in the final picture, while a pro would never think of submitting such an image to the client. A nonprofessional photographer – an amateur – takes snapshots. “Click!” A pro may take a quick shot, but he or she quickly calculates variables to get the best possible shot, from the sun’s angle, to shadows, to exposure. To avoiding including as little as possible of his or her shadow so as to be less difficult to remove post-shoot. Getting closer to the ground or framing the subject through another object may not only get a more enticing image, it may as well eliminate the photographer’s shadow. Every little detail of an image is considered while shooting. Visualizing the image as a finished product, in two dimensions on a computer screen or in a print, is an essential part of the professional’s job.

Let me provide you with an example of work we do for a particular client to help illustrate the mark of – and the necessity for – a pro. This client, an out-of-state advertising agency, commissions our work for their client (a bank), sending us to many locations a year to shoot specific subjects (and other subjects we deem suitable) in the community around their branches. From our submission, our client chooses a number of images to be displayed in each branch for which we shoot. Requirements for these shoots include high-resolution images in a vertical, black and white, gray-scale format. If our images are submitted by FTP, they can be high-res jpegs; if delivered on DVD, they will be tiffs. No horizontal or color images (not even as sample images) will be accepted, so every sample image we send has been first converted to black and white. We have done a large number of jobs for this client because we deliver what they want, what they need. They expect artistry in taking the images and artistry in executing the post-shoot processing of each of our images.

Let me lead you through the workflow on the assignments we do for this agency. With the assignment comes a list of specific things in the community to shoot. We travel to the community, some as near to our studio as one hour, some as far as a day’s drive. We arrive in the community with maps we have printed up from our research of subject matter our client has shown primary interest in, and then we drive around to locate other targets we see as appropriate for this client. Leaving before sun break may be necessary for some objects of interest, knowing that a low-sun angle may cause our shadow to appear in the image, and conversely, if we are facing the sun, flares may occur (especially with a wide-angle lens), resulting in noisy silhouettes or blown-out skies. We are sometimes asked to shoot on a deadline in the rainy season, meaning diminished shooting days and hours. While shooting in the rain with its accompanied white or gray sky (cutting contrast, for just one example) can be dealt with, mist on the lens will ruin an image and must be carefully monitored. We also don’t typically shoot higher than 400 ISO, as this usually introduces an unacceptable amount of video noise to the discerning professional eye, especially in the shadow areas, but sometimes it must be done.

A discerning professional eye also abhors low-light conditions, so a portable flash mounted on a flash bracket is a necessary part of the equipment bag. One never knows when having a little more light could come in real handy.

You may ask what’s the big deal about shooting black and white. Simply set your camera to black and white, right? Well, after some experimentation, I found that our Nikon cameras’ black and white mode still shoots the raw images in color, and the camera is merely adding a black and white filter to the image. If I take the image in b&w mode, I can remove the b&w filter in Nikon’s raw editor, Capture NX2, or if I run it through Camera Raw in Photoshop CS5, it doesn’t see the filter that was put in by my camera, at all. So, I don’t even bother shooting it in b&w in the camera. I add it later as a layer in Photoshop CS5, which gives me more options in the look of the image.

So, let’s say that I take a close-to-perfect image. What happens then? The amateur can take the memory card to a camera-store kiosk to output to disk or print – enhanced to the kiosk program’s ability. Or, the amateur can elect to work on it himself, let’s say with Photoshop Elements, a relatively inexpensive program that produces good results. Great for the amateur photographer but a program which pales in comparison to the immeasurably more professional Photoshop CS5 and the raw editing of the aforementioned Nikon Capture NX2 – both incredible programs costing – and worth – much more.

Using the raw editor, I weed out the images that are not up to the caliber I wish to present to my client. Yes, even pros have camera movement, out-of-focus and under- or overexposed images. These are discarded. During the shoot, we take several images of the same thing, one of many differences between a pro and an amateur. This backup is further enhanced by using two different cameras and, when possible, two different shooters. One camera has the long zoom (18-200mm), and the other has an ultra-wide angle zoom (10-20mm) lens. If for some reason the subject isn’t captured successfully by one photographer, it is captured by the other. Consequently, we have several versions of the same subject from which to choose the very best for the client to select from.

All images that pass muster are then further evaluated with the raw editing program. Adjustment of density (lightness and darkness). Selection of the most accurate and impressive color. Saturation. And mild sharpening. The images are then converted to tif images, labeled with our copyright and other information from the image metadata.

Another place a professional such as myself is different than an amateur is hard-drive space. Hard-drive space is a commodity to me. I buy new one-terabyte drives to replace those that fill up. None of our professional images are erased to make room for new images. All work is stored on multiple drives. There’s never enough backup. Images are lost by the client – disks are misplaced – more times than I wish to count. It’d be death for my business if all I saved an image to was one drive and I got that fateful call from a client, and had a drive failure. In the long run in terms of both time and money, it is cheaper to save an image to the hard drive in perpetuity than it is to burn it to removable media (CDs and DVDs). This, of course, adds expense to the business. But it makes me more efficient. And takes up less room in my studio.

I now take the color tif images I made in Capture NX2 and bring them up in Bridge, the sorting program that comes with Photoshop CS5. Next, I open a number of them in Photoshop, magnifying each image to 100%. Having a powerful computer system with lots of processor horsepower and ram to run these programs is of immeasurable value, increasingly necessary to the professional with a large workload. I am currently running an i7-950 processor, and 12-gigs of ram with eSata internal drives and USB 3.0 external drives, a time saver for the loading and processing of the high-res images delivered by my cameras. Again, a necessary business expense. When efficiency and high quality are needed, sparing no expense is first on a professional’s business agenda.

At 100% magnification, I scrutinize each image for imperfections. A dust mote on the sensor can have the appearance of a fuzzy “ball” in the sky, and it needs to be touched out. If a distracting shadow or reflection was also captured in an image, that will need retouching work, as well. If a building’s sides aren’t straight (a distortion caused by the lenses and the angle taken), I will bend the image to make them so, if it enhances the look. Even if our client doesn’t demand it, cigarette butts and other things that distract from a good-looking image are removed to make it a better image. Providing a client with the best – from the image samples to the finished product – is a mark of a professional.

At this point, it is time to turn the image into a psd, or Photoshop, file. I then use a “black and white adjustment layer” in Photoshop to take away the color. Oftentimes, the b&w image will look “flat,” lacking contrast. There are several software filters available in Photoshop. Years ago, when using b&w film, a photographer might use a colored filter to enhance an image. A red filter, for example, will produce a dark or black sky with white clouds. Infrared film will produce white foliage. Photoshop has filters that mimic these traits in a b&w digital image, and can be modified as well. Or I may choose to add contrast or a light or dark sky, or make a “soft-light” layer and darken or lighten some section of the image only. The image is then saved as the layered psd file in case additional changes have to be made. At this point the image is still in color with adjustment layers. Once I am happy with the image, I “flatten” all the layers to one and save it as a gray-scale tif in another folder. When all of this is accomplished (my last job with this client totaled 107 and took several days), I prepare the images for my client. I use an “action” in Photoshop to automatically save a reduced-size version of each image in another folder as a low-resolution jpeg, and then I prepare another folder for additional backup. I then bring up every image in that folder in Photoshop, and use a brush “stamp” to put our “We Shoot” watermark on every one. But I am still not done. I then make a single “zip file” of all of these images to transfer to the client by FTP or into their drop box. I advise them, usually by email, that they’re ready to see, and they unzip the file with their unzip program to see all the images. I then await their notification of the image numbers they want in final high-resolution, sending them the images on disk, via FTP, or to their drop-box.

Why does a pro charge so much? When photography is so easy? Besides the photographic and post-production time and expense involved in making a successful image, it’s more than just love of the art. It’s knowing our work will make our client successful, increase their return-on-investment, and keep them coming back for more.

And the short answer is, being a professional – being able to provide high-quality photography to a client – costs money. We fulfill a need for a client who needs high-quality images, and we need to make enough to continue to provide high-quality business to our client. It makes our client money, and it makes us money. A successful image goes a long way in helping to sustain a successful business – a professional business – for our client and this pro. A win-win for all concerned.

-Gary Silverstein

Jpeg made from unedited raw image

Jpeg of raw image after editing

Jpeg of final black and white image

Tags: black and white, color, commercial photographer, photographer, photography, professional, professional photographer
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Losing track of why we market!

Monday, July 5th, 2010

My partner and I frequently hear, “Professional photography is not in the budget.”  Or, “We have no budget for photography in our marketing.”  But the issue that keeps cropping up for me is that I think these companies lose sight of what is really important.

First, if a company is marketing itself, how many of them think that prospective clients really have time to read a lot of text about their company?  Since most marketers know that time is of the essence, photographs say a lot more than words do in a short period of time.  If the company markets itself with substandard images, e.g. underexposed, blurry, or just plain amateurish shots, what does the prospective client think?  The client subconsciously thinks that what this company does is shoddy work and it is mirrored in the substandard images!  The real problem is that the selling company sees gre at photography in the light of what it costs as an expense instead of what it costs for the bottom line.  Why do you think Target spends so much money and time on those TV ads?  Great photography translates to a fatter bottom line for Target.

The other day, I received a brochure in the mail from a local hospital.  It had a number of what I would say are stock shots:  happy, smiling people dealing with the hospital as patients or employees.  To the untrained eye, this was acceptable.  However, the only image of the hospital exterior itself was taken by someone who could best be described as a novice amateur.  While the image appeared sharp, it appeared severely underexposed under the awning in the area of the front door.  It looked for all the world like someone ran outside with their point-and-shoot camera and got an image to be used in the brochure.  It was free, a no-cost shot.  But, was it really?  The people who took this shot were either unwilling or unable to get something better.  As a pro, I would have taken several exposures of the entrance, at different exposure settings.  This would have allowed me to cut the contrast and make the entranceway almost as light as the building by combining the shots to make a good one, either by HDR or masking techniques.  The resultant image would have made the doorway a much more inviting look.  Do you want to walk into a doorway in darkness?  Hospitals are scary enough, without making the image appear foreboding.  How many patients won’t contact this hospital, just because this image puts them off psychologically?  If they lose just one, it will cost them more than hiring a good pro photographer, considering what healthcare costs these days.  And I’ll wager they’ ve lost more than one client.

So, the end result is that while the hospital saved on not hiring a pro photographer, it cost them much more out of their bottom line.  All because they forgot one thing.  Good marketing isn’t about how much you spend on it, it’s about how much you get back from its execution.

If you are going to spend money on any marketing pieces, make it count.  Go for the best paper, printing, graphics, and text.  But above all, don’t stint on the photography.  It can make or break the rest of what you are trying to do.

-Gary Silverstein

Tags: advertise, advertisement, advertising, business, Marketing, photographer, photography, professional
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We Shoot Blog Kickoff – about black and white photographs

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Today, very few people are using film to create their images, and commercial photographers were early adopters of digital photographic equipment.  I was one of the early ones.  So, I was faced with the question: How does one make a black and white image with a digital camera?  I can’t speak for all cameras, of course, as there are so many different ones.  Some cameras have a facility built in to take a b/w photograph.  We have an older point and shoot camera that doesn’t seem to have that capability.  It also shoots only jpegs.

Our DSLRs, or digital single lens reflex cameras, on the other hand, are able to shoot in a b/w mode.  Here are some caveats.  When shooting a jpeg image in b/w mode, the effect is permanent – I am unable to find a way to reverse the format once the image has been taken and it is black and white, should I desire the image in color.  We have Nikon DSLRs (this is our choice, and not an indictment of other brands), and they are also capable of shooting a “Raw Image.”  Raw is usually a non-destructive format, meaning that changes to the image can be deleted and the image returned to the state in which it was taken.  Raw is usually the choice of professionals, as there is more digital information left intact in the image, like color and density, than there is in a tiff or jpeg.  Raw images can be manipulated by computer software a lot more than the aforementioned tiff or jpeg, and a raw image can be converted to other formats after manipulation.  Here’s where there is an advantage to shooting raw:  even if the camera is in b/w mode, I can again get a color image from the raw format.  It seems the b/w mode is a filter in the camera, and if using the Nikon Capture NX2 software, it shows the image as a black and white, but the filter can be removed by the software.  Other software, like Photoshop CS4 doesn’t even see the black and white filter, and shows the raw image as one with the original color!  If taking a jpeg image with the same camera, the b/w effect is permanent!

We have a client, an advertising firm,  who wants all the image samples we show them and the images they order in black and white, gray-scale.  This is a lot of work, but it has its rewards.  We have gotten great expertise in doing this, and we have a lot of images that can later be used in color or black and white for other things, as well as stock.  These images are non-proprietary, meaning they aren’t of the client’s product, property, or personnel.  They are images from the world around us, and are used in an editorial way

So, what is our workflow for this client?  First, we shoot the images with a high-resolution digital camera, in color.  Then we process them in the Nikon raw editor, Capture NX2.  We tweak the color and density in this program and convert them to color tiffs.  Next, we open the tiffs in Photoshop CS4 where we further process them, removing flaws, lightening and darkening specific areas on the image.  Now, there are several ways to make a black and white image from color.  We prefer using the black and white adjustment layers in CS4.  It gives us a lot of ways to manipulate the image for contrast, density, and even filters the image like it was shot with a filter on the camera lens.  Want a dark or black sky with white clouds?  There are filters for that! (There’s an app for that!:-) ).  After getting what I want in the look of the image, I convert the image to a gray-scale tiff.  After I am done with the multitude of images I have created in this manner, I use Photoshop to batch the images to low-resolution jpegs, and put our copyright and/or logo on the sample images. This keeps unlicensed use from happening.

Next, I make a zip file out of all the sample images, and send them on to our client over the Internet, so they can choose which of the images they would like for their purposes.  Once they let me know what they want, I can either put them in a zip file and send it to them over the ‘net, or burn them to a DVD and send them via carrier.

That is just how we deal with one client.  Black and white photographs are abstract, different, and fun.  They are also a lot of satisfying work.

– Gary Silverstein

Tags: b/w, black and white, commercial, photographer, photography, professional
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