Apple held a conference today hosted by his Job-ness. As everyone expected, the aptly named iPad was announced. There’s been a lot of the usual hype over the release of this glorified plus-size iPhone. The big question is whether this new device will truly change the way we interact with digital media? but until we get our hands on one the jury is out… here’s the full run down:
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Fresh of the presses. I just put up five sweet new Before and After’s in the CJ portfolio. The Interview magazine images are up as well and the late breaking national ad campaign, “Pierre Again.” Check em’ out
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Another fun interview shoot with photographer Stephen Rose for the August 2009 issue of INTERVIEW mag. I was on the streets slinging hard drives and laptops (aka. digital capture) and back in the retouching suite before you can say pesto gnocchi. Stephen stopped by the studio to go over some color idea’s and the rest is history.
Styling by MIGUEL ENAMORADO
featuring musical genious by MIRROR MIRROR, MATTEAH BAIM, SUCKERS, CAUSE CO-MOTION! and the NAKED HEARTS
This Popphoto magazine article recently ran, a rather candid interview that I did a few months back and I thought it would be fun to post it here for those of you who don’t know me personally. It says a little about how I got evolved in retouching / digital capture and wee bit about how i work. The whole article is long-ish so I included a few of the more major excerpts.
-written by Aimee Baldridge
Sagmiller remains a great believer in being guided by core artistic concepts in his digital work. “I know the inside walls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as I know the controls on a camera,” he notes. Sagmiller describes this balance between technical ability and artistic understanding as a requirement for high-quality post production work. ”Photographers come to you not just for your technical know-how,” he explains. ”they’re really after you because of the specific decisions that you make. “You’re only as good as what you decide to retouch and decide to not retouch.”
Like his general arts eduction, the technical training Sagmiller received acquainted him with basic principles and tools, instead of focusing on particular software brands or products. Although the training process could be tough at times, he insists that it gave him an ability to pick up new software easily, which has always paid off in his professional life. ”We were expected to know a piece of software within a few days. They just threw it at us, ” Sagmiller recounts. ”You had a project you had to finish, so it was kind of trail by fire.”
While Sagmiller began his studies with a strong interest in 3D graphics and computer animation, and feels that he has benefitted from his experience with the complex software used in those media, he found that spending all of his creative hours in front of a computer monitor didn’t suit his outdoorsy nature. ” There was this moment when I just sort of cracked,” he recalls. ”I took a film and video class that had digital photography components, and I was so excited to touch a piece of steel. I took one of those C stands and tweaked a knob. I got to move it and see the light actually change, as opposed to moving a light in my three-dimensionally rendered computer image. That was just it for me.” Combining on-set digital capture work with postproduction work allows him to balance his interest in digital tools with his need to interact with the physical world.
But working on location doesn’t just suit Sagmiller’s personality. He feels that being on location not only enhances his value to the photographers he is working with, but also improves the quality of his retouching.. ”There are all kinds of problems that I can solve being on set that were very difficult to solve with post effects alone,” he explains. Understanding postproduction techniques and printing allows him to make stronger recommendations about lighting, processing, and exposure during the shoot. He also notes that just being on set and hearing the comments of art directors and stylists gives him information that helps him meet client’s retouching needs. ”All those little comments don’t always make it into the notes for the retoucher,” he remarks. And by being on the spot, Sagmiller can answer questions that the photographer or other techs can’t necessarily address about what can and can’t be fixed in post how much it will cost, and how making changes to the set can reduce the postproduction costs. That not only makes him more valuable ot the photographer bust also makes the photographer more valuable to the client.
palmaire by Tema Stauffer
Artist and master printer Tema Stauffer is teaching a color printing course at ICP (International Center of Photography) this fall. A short look at Tema’s work either in person at the Daniel Cooney gallery, or on her website will tip off her uncanny sense of color and her firm grasp on american photography.
Tema also writes a wonderfully personal blog which accounts her work in progress and a bit of critical dialog and news about the photo community. She is the assistant curator at culturehall, which is a hot bed of all kinds of interesting contemporary art, which is worth checking out.
I’ve spoken with Tema about the class and it sounds like it will be a healthy mix of printing practice, critique, history of color photography, and dialog about contemporary artists.
Tema comments, “I want to make the course more interesting that just printing, printing, printing … though the emphasis will be on producing work.”
If you’re intrested in more info about Tema’s course head over to ICP, you can download their course catalog here. The course name is COLOR PRINTING: BIGGER AND BETTER.
It starts mid-October, sign up quick this one will fill fast!
We spent a day on the beach working with the talented Stephen Rose, for this awesome swim story in Interview Magazine. (see above.) Stephen had us join the team to help carry over and refine his film based style using digital capture. We set up a great location tether and download station on location for digital capture and delivered final retouched art direct to Interview. It’s was a blast working with an all star team.. can’t wait for the next one!
Photography STEPHEN ROSE
Styling LAETITIA DE L’ESCAILLE ( she is clearly a genious. Look at those knit combos! )
Art Direction M/M (Paris)
Funny Caption: “That loincloth-and-fur look works. Conan knew it, Pocahontas too. Skin on Skin is definitely in”
The 24 Patch Classic ColorChecker has been in use in photography since 1976 and sometimes I would swear it just came out yesterday because very few professional photographers and retouchers have a clue how to use it and read it. I’ll go over the most popular uses of the ColorChecker in detail below.
The Classic ColorChecker has 4 main uses, White balancing (neutralizing/color correcting) images, Judging exposure, setting highlight and shadow points, and confirming correct monitor profiles. It can also be used to create camera profiles and to set key and fill light ratios. However the 24 patch target is best used as a reference color check. We recommend the ColorChecker SG for building critical digital camera profiles.
Save yourself the headache! Color Tips that will serve you well:
White Balance: click on the 3rd grey square from the left, Patch #21
To further neutralize color shifts: color correct (not using the temperature and tint sliders) the white and black patches to read Equal RGB values 243, 243, 243 and 52,52,52 respectively.
Note: Perfectly neutral images can be great for color reproduction and still life imagery but I’ve found that with portraits and landscapes I prefer images with color shifts. Our split-toning tutorial Covers creative shifting of highlights and shadows in ACR.
Signs of color balance issues, from X-rite: ( formerly Gretagmacbeth )
- Check patch numbers 6 and 11. If there is a problem in the blues or the yellows, these two patches will reverse.
- Check the blue patch number 13. This patch will turn purple very easily if there is too much red (warmth) in the lighting.
- If the greys remain neutral but the above patches have changed, then you have either a blue, yellow or red problem.
Checking exposure/ highlight and shadow points:
This is done simply by comparing the color checker numbers with the readout numbers in photoshop or your digital capture software. Examine the photographed ColorChecker’s white and black patches to see if your exposure is close to their values 243 and 52, if not adjust the exposure on the camera to get closer to those values. Again these are only guidelines and you may aesthetically prefer the image darker or lighter than these “correct” values.
Note: That i listed RGB numbers for ease of use in digital capture software. Whenever possible I recommend using LAB. This is the data pulled from the GretagMacbeth L*a*b* D50 data instead of the sRGB values they put on their pamphlets.
RGB/LAB numbers and Reference images
For a full list of ColorChecker numbers check out these handy digitally rendered ColorCheckers in RGB and LAB from Bruce Lindbloom. ( click on info, then RGB reference images)
Babelcolor Also has corrected LAB values for 16bit Profoto color space for all you high-end retouchers out there. download here
Note: all colorchecker values are relative to D65 illumination. So if your chart is lit heavily with another color temperature, like tungsten, your numbers may stray from the target values. This is why using spectral data is important. Because spectral information gives you the ability target the numerical color values more presisely no matter which type of light you’ve lit your ColorChecker with. Warning, this can be a little confusing if you’re not familiar with color management. You can download the spectral data here
Happy color checking !!
My new friend Kate recently posted some beautiful drawings of classic cameras. Like this wonderful Polaroid land camera which looks to be a early 70’s vintage Highlander model 80A.
See more on her blog http://allnsundry.wordpress.com/draw-something/
Polaroid Highlander
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