Retouching

50 Years of Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The Natural History Museum will be releasing a book this month looking back at the last 50 years of “Wildlife Photographer of the year”

It is a compelling  book that charts developments and trends in the photography of wildlife over the last half century.

The book is edited by Rosamund Kidman Cox and I was delighted when she asked my to help prepare the image files for publication.

I worked very carefully and slowly on the more problematic historic images to bring out their authentic nature and present a consistent high standard across the sections of the book.

You can read more details of the book here:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/business-centre/publishing/books/art-and-history/wpy-50/index.html

 

New developements

As a retoucher I’m very sensitive to the different needs my clients have when commissioning work, all the way from the strict standards of Wildlife Photographer of the Year to the “anything goes” fantasy composite.

As a result of many years retouching I have developed a very keen sense of when images have been manipulated.

With the advent of Ultra High Definition video it looks like we are in for an interesting time where the tools and techniques of still and moving images start to merge.

I don’t mind the girls spots myself, but the techniques used are scarily good (be sure to play this in HD full screen for the best effect):


4K movie / Beauty retouch from foton inc. on Vimeo.


Age Reduction FX from foton inc. on Vimeo.

New Eizo CG303W monitor at Copyrightimage

I have recently invested some £2,500 in the business by purchasing a high end 30″ Eizo CG303W wide gamut display. The primary purpose of upgrading my older Eizo CG211 monitor was to get better pre press softproofing of greens and blues and therefore make better CMYK separations for some upcoming client book projects. I can do this as the new monitor covers some 98% of the Adobe 1998 gamut against the (approx) 70% coverage of the CG211 it replaces.
The new screen also allows for faster editing and retouching as I can see more images in Lightroom or Bridge and more of a single image at one time (the image above shows 100% 1:1 views of the same photo).
Colour evenness across the screen is extremely good (no visible difference), there is a slight left to right brightness gradient of approx 13 cd/m2 when set to 80cd/m2 but this is within quoted tolerances.
Some 19 years ago when setting up the imaging department at Tony Stone Images I had to return a 30″ Barco Graphics Color Reference monitor for a 20″ replacement because there was a HUGE colour difference between the left and right hand sides of the monitor. The fact that the 30″ Barco CRT monitor cost £12,000 in 1990 would indicate that things have progressed significantly since then and almost (but not quite!) makes the price of the Eizo seem reasonable.
By investing in the new monitor I can continue to work to the very highest industry standards and at the same time keep my production work flow operating efficiently and enabling me to offer very competitive retouching rates.
A monitor such as this one would be overkill for most clients to purchase, an Eizo 24″ would suit most needs but contact me if you need help in choosing.
Stephen