Advertising Photography: From Pre- to Post-Production
You'll get Douglas' unique take on everything from client interaction, pre-production, and assembling a creative team to his lighting techniques and method for coaching portrait subjects to get the reaction he needs. Then, meet Douglas' personal retoucher and expert compositor, Justin Paguia for the post-production process.
Release Date: 2011-12-12
Lessons
Introduction
<p>Douglas introduces you to the product at the center of the advertisement he is creating, and discusses the concept and themes for the day's shoot with the client.</p>
Duration: 5 mins 14 seconds
First Location Pre-Production
<p>An advertising shoot is a team effort and collaboration with the retoucher, makeup artist, photo assistants, and actors before the shoot is critical to the success of the final product.</p>
Duration: 11 mins 59 seconds
Wardrobe Selection
<p>There's more to wardrobe then just getting dressed. When you choose clothing you always need to think about the story you are telling.</p>
Duration: 3 mins 45 seconds
Scene One Photo Shoot
<p>After all the elements of the shoot are in place it's time to engage with the actors, tweak the lighting, and nail the shot. The shoot from the first location will serve as the foundation for the final product.</p>
Duration: 9 mins 2 seconds
Second Location Concept
<p>Douglas goes above and beyond with a cool cast of characters for a scene that will later be dropped into the screen of the product featured in the advertisement.</p>
Duration: 2 mins 19 seconds
Second Location Pre-production
<p>Say hello to "the General" as Douglas works with the car's owner to place the central subject of the shoot into position, and then visualizes the elements needed for post-production with Justin.</p>
Duration: 4 mins 33 seconds
Scene Two Photo Shoot
<p>While the makeup artist prepares the actors, Douglas discusses the lighting set up in great detail. Fire up the fog machine and enjoy a ring-side seat for a really fun shoot.</p>
Duration: 10 mins 42 seconds
Post-production on First Scene
<p>After the shoot is over it is time to choose photos and elements that will go into the final image. Justin creates a rough composite in Photoshop to visualize how all of the elements go together before the detailed retouching work begins.</p>
Duration: 17 mins 11 seconds
Finessing the Composite
<p>Break out the Pen Tool and watch as Justin blends the composite of the background, the actors, and the product into a single image.</p>
Duration: 14 mins 5 seconds
Completing the Base Composite
<p>Douglas discusses the photographer-retoucher relationship while Justin continues blending the composite. Shooting with post-production in mind will make you a better photographer.</p>
Duration: 9 mins 43 seconds
Retouching and Color Correction
<p>Retouching the subjects and color correcting the image come after the composite has been blended. Learn great retouching tips for removing wrinkles in clothing, adjusting colors, and balancing tones of the various elements for a more believable final image.</p>
Duration: 9 mins 25 seconds
Tweaking the Background
<p>Using separate elements–background, actors, product–allows each to be adjusted individually. Adding a blur, saturating color and darkening the sky makes the primary subjects pop off the background.</p>
Duration: 7 mins 3 seconds
Post-production on Second Scene
<p>Just like with the first scene, the elements of the second scene need to be blended together, followed by basic retouching to improve subjects' appearance and remove distractions.</p>
Duration: 14 mins 59 seconds
Putting it All Together
<p>Color corrections are the last step before the scene from the second location can be dropped into the screen of the advertised product.</p>
Duration: 18 mins 2 seconds