The Photo Shoot Process

Monday, May 20, 2019

I attended another Canon Workshop. Photographer Ian Spanier summarized the basics of photo shoot, from start to finish.

1. 1st Step—it is important to plan your photo shoot beforehand. Put everything you need together, write every step in a daily journal notebook to detail your work schedule, and draw a plan for your photo shoot to organize the lighting fixtures and other tools. Arrive early at the destination, around 45 minutes early to set up your equipment, meet the people, and familiarize yourself with the place.
2. 2nd Step—After the photo shoot, export your photos to Photoshop. Or, go to Photoshop and import photograph to work on editing it. He demonstrated clipping masks, dodge & burn overlay, and other masks, which I have done before, but I still need to look it up in my Photoshop text to remind myself of the steps. Also, play with filters, effects, colors and tools to make sure the photograph and color looks right.
3. 3rd Step—You can use Cloning Tool, Healing Tool, and Cleaning Tool to erase stray hair and threads, fix erase blemish and scars, lighten bags under eyes, brighten eye color and white in eye to make eyes pop out more are just some of the features you can do during editing to perfect your photograph. There is also Eraser Tool, which I seem to use a lot on Photoshop. The Eyedropper Tool can help you sample colors and find the right color shade that matches skin tones and hair color in the photograph. You can also play with the overall colors to improve the colors in the photograph, such as add needed shade or maybe add some light or sunlight. You might even want to bring out shadows for drama in order to add depth to your photograph.