Timothy Armes' blog

Photography as I experience it…

Archive for August, 2010

Of Portfolios, Post-Processing and “Getting it right in-camera”

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

As a commercial photographer I sometimes find myself in a bit of a quandry.  Here’s the problem:

  • I aim to deliver images that separate myself from the crowd. Post-processing and retouching thus form a critical string to my bow, allowing me far more self-expression than I can achieve otherwise. I’ve written about this previously.
  • I put my images into my portfolio, and these attract the attention of potential clients. When I’m hired, they’re hiring me in part for my ability to deliver the certain style of imagery that I use to promote myself. A good portion of that style is due to this post-processing work.
  • The client then asks me to deliver images that have not been retouched – they often prefer to retouch in-house in order to have more creative flexibilty and to keep costs down.

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Anatomy of a shoot: the swimmer

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

I’ve just completed a shoot that I’ve been planning for a while and I thought it would make a good choice for another anatomy.

Previously I’ve described shoots in which I was working towards a very specific end result – this is the most common scenario for a commercial photographer. In this case however the shoot was less restrictive – I was aiming to get 2 or 3 strong images for my portfolio and to gain more personal experience with underwater sports photography.

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