Friday diversion- well, not really diversion... Vendor/Clients

secrets- fine art printmakers. (shhh. Rowena Otremba.)

Any photographer from the Boston area who's been around a while, like back when we were all shooting film, knows, or knows of Rowena. She used to own Zona, that mecca of a color lab in Cambridge...

Now, Rowena is still around. Just where, I can't say, but suffice to say some of the best, most demanding photographers in the world (*cough-ANNIE*) know how to get hold of her if they have a big show.

OH! look what I just HAPPENED to have lying around...

Smart Object RAW Processing and Pixel Institute Reunion

'Way back in the early years of the 21st Century, at around 2002, under the auspices of EP Levine's, Ted Dillard teamed up with Steve Brettler (EPL Pres. Emeritas) and Jay Calum (EPL Co-Owner) to create the Pixel Institute- a group of classes tailored to the working professional photographer, and built to help photographers transition their processes and equipment from film to digital capture.

It was a resounding success, and we still hear comments and compliments about how those classes got people off the ground, shooting, understanding the process, and using the tools to get the most out of their work. Hundreds of photographers attended the classes, some we see every day, some on rare occasions, but all part of the EPL extended family. From those humble beginnings, the Pixel Institute continues on today...

Time marched on, and brought with it exciting developments... one of which was the release of RAW Pipeline- which started as the humble Pixel Institute companion text, Digital Imaging Masterclass. That book, edited and published by Lark Books (Sterling Publications) was followed by three more- Color Pipeline, Smart Object Pipeline and Black and White Pipeline. All four books have the same clear, concise, and photographer-centric approach to explaining the digital tools and processes, and RAW Pipeline was awarded a spot in Shutterbug's "Top Digital Imaging Books Of 2008; This Year’s Digital All-Stars".

On June 6th, at the Griffin Museum, EP Levine's and the Pixel Institute are proud and excited to sponsor a triple-treat book signing, (RAW, Color and Smart Object Pipeline), talk by Ted on RAW processing, and reunion of the Pixel Institute Alumni! We hope you can make it to hear where the RAW process has evolved to- Smart Object RAW processing- meet and greet old friends, and celebrate how far we've all come!

Ted will discuss all the tools and techniques you need to use and understand to get the most out of this remarkable process.

- Understanding the RAW file
- Controlling Camera RAW
- Understanding and using Layers
- Masks- what are they, how to make, modify and use them
- Building a process, learning to visualize

Whether you’re new to digital photography and RAW file processing, or you’re a seasoned pro, join us in this in-depth overview of a complete system of working- a system to fulfill the vision of the photographer.

Members $35. Nonmembers $45. RSVP by June 1.
http://www.griffinmuseum.org

Date: Saturday, June 6, 2009
Time: 9:00am - 12:00pm

The Griffin Museum of Photography
67 Shore Road
Winchester, MA

Phone: 7817291158
Email: photos@griffinmuseum.org


About Ted-

Ted's career in Photography spans over three decades, from his first work in his grandfathers darkroom, through his early work for the local newspaper, college yearbook and through 25 years of commercial and advertising work for a national client base. He, along with almost every other commercial photographer in Boston, bought his first camera from Phil Levine, in 1972. He has exhibited nationally, and has taught at the Maine Photo Workshops, New England School of Photography, The Art Institute of Boston and Northeastern University, and was the Digital Imaging Specialist at EP Levine for 5 years, up until 2006.

Ted is currently the Pro Digital Editor at Head2Head Reviews, a new, and unique digital photography website. Look for the launch soon at www.h2hreviews.com.

For a complete profile, see LinkedIn at:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/teddillard

inspiration- Photojournalism is my passion - Eliane Laffont

(Eliane en route to Griffin Focus Awards, with husband, Jean Pierre Laffont, and Presenter Jean François LeRoy, founder of Visa pour L'image Festival in Perpignan, France- photo: Martha Marsden)

Truly the most profound inspiration I've had in one 15 minute stretch of time.

"Photojournalism" is a word that evokes heroic stories and the call of adventure. It is a mirror of the world and a witness to its time. When Jean Pierre, and I - along with our French partners - created the photo agencies Gamma in 1968 and Sygma in 1973, we wanted to redefine the nature of photojournalism, reveal and explain the world's great events and consciously built a new platform. And it was not by chance that these two photo agencies grew so quickly. We were successful because we invented a new way of reporting the news and a new way of working with photographers that, despite many challenges, is still alive today.

At Gamma and Sygma, we did not see the photo as mere illustration for a text. Photos stories were developed. Photographers emerged from their anonymity, and for the first time, their names were credited beside their photographs. Photojournalists were recognized as creators. Furthermore, they were no longer employees of newspapers or magazines, they became co-producers of their images. Photographers and their agencies shared cost and revenue. With the closing of Look and Life Magazines, the agencies photographers, not the Magazines staffers supplied the International News and most of the printed media global needs. Paris and New York became the world capitals of photojournalism, the hubs that sent great images to editing rooms around the world.

During this time, I had the privilege of working with some of the greatest photojournalists in history. I want to mention a few, because their stories and mine are intertwine.

First, I want to mention The late Eddie Adams who photographed the Vietnam war and years later spent months documenting a story that was even more important to him: the heart-breaking images of Vietnam's boat people directly changed America's immigration policy toward a people that we would have otherwise abandoned. When President Jimmy Carter gave visas to hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese boat people, it was largely because of Eddie Adam's photos. I also had the honor of working with Douglas Kirkland, who gained unprecedented access to the world of directors, actors, actresses on and off the sets. With Lauren Greenfield, who documents the contemporary landscape of American girls, sometimes in disturbing details. With Gianni Giansanti, the unofficial photographer, who, for three decades captured Pope Jean Paul II private moment with artistry. With JP Laffont, foreign correspondent whose photos of "child labor" around the world helped reinforce the UN laws on children at work. With Allen Tannenbaum who, like Woody Allen, reminds us that there is always something exciting going on in NY City. Allen also gave us, just a couple of days before John Lennon death, one of the last photo session of John with his wife Yoko Ono. With Helmut Newton, who revolutionized fashion photography and invited us into his strange dreams and fantasies. Over the years, I am very proud to have worked with the greatest photographers, Paul Fusco, John Bryson, Steve Schapiro, David Hume-Kennerly, Pete Turner, the Turnley brothers, Annie Leibovitz, Richard Avedon. And in some ways, working with these photographers was the best part of my work, but I equally loved to cover the world's most important news events. Our book about the first Gulf War, "In the Eye of Desert Storm" published by Abrams, received the Leica Medal of Excellence for outstanding achievement in the category of Photographic Book in 1992 and the 24 photographers that covered that war, working outside the official chanel, were celebrated in magazines throughout the world.

Within five years we received four Pulitzer Prizes:

* 1991: Greg Marinovich (Spot News) Burning man in Soweto, South Africa
* 1994: Paul Watson (Spot News) Dead US soldier dragged in the street of Mogadishu, Somalia
* 1994: Kevin Carter (Feature) The unforgettable photograph taken in Sudan during the famine, it shows a small girl crouched in the bush and behind her a vulture waiting.
* 1996: Charles Porter (Spot News) A fire man holding an infant during the Oklahoma city bombing.

Ironically, while the 1990s and early 2000s were a period of great creativity and accomplishment, the ground was shifting beneath our feet. With great rapidity, the photojournalism business became less about photojournalism and much more about business. Everything was turned upside down as the world's news outlets de-emphasized international reportage in favor of fame and gossip. Following Princess Diana for a few hours brought in more money than six months in Africa covering the AIDS story. As most of the press was conglomerated into giant media corporations responsible to shareholders, budgets were cut, the price of the images collapsed, in-depth reportage was replaced by small interchangeable photos and pictures of famous people were all that mattered.

The increasing value of celebrity photos had disastrous consequences: increasingly aggressive paparazzi, then tougher laws regarding "respect for privacy" and finally what the French call "le droit a l'image" or a celebrity's exclusive rights to own and control their own images. Today - specially in Europe - "le droit a l'image" has become a legal reality with enormous repercussions that hinder the freedom of the press.

Another more profound change took place: Starting in the late 1990s new technologies - digital cameras, cheap storage and the internet - radically redefined the profession and led to important changes in the way photojournalism is produced, distributed and consumed. The digitization of photojournalism also opened the door to massive industry-wide consolidation. The conversion to the digital image, the conversion of millions of pictures from film to digital and the transmission and sale of photos over the Internet was essential if we wanted to survive. Unfortunately, this conversion required what was for us a huge amount of money that we didn't have. When we looked for outside capital, the banks balked. So, like many independent photo-agencies, selling out became our only option. We probably should not have been completely surprised to discover that, in this new corporate Online mega companies, primary concern was not necessarily the art of photojournalism. Photographs were called "content," and photographers: "content-providers". A victory for marketing, finance and technology, but the world of photojournalism had shrunk into something less heroic.

Given this rather depressing state of affairs, is photojournalism dead? I would say: certainly not. But in this brave new world, photojournalists need to reinvent themselves, need to understand how the public consumes images and identify new revenue streams that will allow them to produce the important stories that have become increasingly scarce in the mainstream media.

There is a new generation of entrepreneurs and photojournalist who care deeply about the art of photojournalism. And make no mistake about it, great photojournalism is still happening every day. You just have to go to "Visa pour l'Image" in Perpignan to see photo stories of incredible quality from courageous photographers who are still managing to travel the world and inform us with their vision, less documentary more impressionistic. We need to open new doors, the press alone cannot support such a heavy burden, there are new areas to explore: books, specialized reviews, galleries, festivals, auctions, prizes, the support of foundations, multimedia events and certainly museums.

These are difficult times. But no, photojournalism has not spoken its last words yet. The bottom line is this: As long as photojournalists believe in photojournalism, there is hope.

Vive le photojournalisme!

Eliane Laffont
May 7, 2009, Winchester

...via the Griffin Museum, here.

TED Commandments: "10 rules every speaker should know"

Tim Longhurst found, at long last, the TED Commandments- the list that all TED speakers get, engraved on a stone tablet. To wit:

1. Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick
2. Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before
3. Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion
4. Thou Shalt Tell a Story
5. Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy
6. Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.
7. Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desperate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.
8. Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.
9. Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.
10. Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee

Tim's great blog, here.

The Shoot Diary- PhaseOne C1Pro v.4

Back in the day, PhaseOne built a medium-format digital back system that set the bar. Every manufacturer- digital back and DSLR, had some variant of the basic process- control the camera, control the workflow, control the colors, process and output the files. As the systems evolved, they all began to resemble one original, and powerful package- PhaseOne Capture.

When the leading DSLR manufacturers were offering software that was billed as professional, but resembled more of a consumer product, PhaseOne saw the need to step up where the OEMs were missing the boat. They introduced C1Pro- adapting their rock-solid software to the professional DSLR market. As they had with the MF DB market, they set the bar for the camera companies, and changed workflow for everyone.

It’s been a while since I’ve taken a look at C1Pro, but I had a big shoot with a Canon 5DM2 that I needed to tether to my laptop. I thought it was a great chance to revisit C1Pro. Ironically, I was using it for the same reason I looked into it when it first came out- rather than simply process the files, I needed to shoot to the workstation with a DSLR and move fast. Photoshop couldn’t do it, the manufacturer’s software was too flakey, I needed a MF DB solution: C1Pro was the natural, well the only, choice.

Let me first say I was delighted to plug the camera in, turn it on, and immediately get a solid connection in C1Pro. I was concerned, from reports that there were issues with new operating systems (I’m running the latest version of OSX, historically, a practice that is asking for trouble with some Phase versions in the past) as well as a new camera model. Oh. Did I mention this was at the job, with the client there, with no room for error? The processing path was seamless, and easily set up to suit my standard habits.



The interface was so similar to the original it was actually a surprise. Version release after version release from other companies, and you have to completely re-acquaint yourself to the locations of the tools and the workflow. The cornerstone of the PhaseOne workflow is the simple, sequential button array in the top left corner of the workspace. The feeling was like sitting behind the wheel of a new, snappy car. Everything looks sweet, and there are a whole mess of buttons you have to figure out, but the basics, like the steering wheel, gas, brake and shift are all right where they should be.



Even better, a few really handy shortcuts are easy to find, too, like the keyboard shortcuts for triggering the capture, zooming, deleting and all the other little things you need to do repetitively. It’s been a long time since I could jump on a system and look like I’d been using it for months, within about 15 minutes. If you’re fussy about the workspace, there’s a feature right out of Apple’s Aperture- click the gear in the far, upper right corner and you get this interface to customize the toolbar.



This isn’t the only feature I’m seeing here that resembles other packages. Lightroom and Aperture both have clearly made their impressions on the developers at C1Pro, and one of the most interesting places is with the use of “Variants” in processing. That is, you can make alternatives to the processing settings without creating a completely new file. Here’s how that works.

When you’ve selected a file, hit F2, or Image>New Variant.



This makes a new thumbnail that you can process differently. (Here I’m showing a pretty intuitive, and powerful hue/saturation control, making a subtle change in the red-orange mapping.)



The thumbnail shows the new processing settings, and I can save out of that without having created a new RAW file with new processing settings.



There is a ton more here. Just the briefest look around and we’re seeing some pretty sweet job organization features, processing presets, and some very nice processing standards. The files look solid coming out of C1Pro at the defaults- I did no color or contrast processing at all, other than the basic click on the Colorchecker to set the white balance.

It’s a package that has clearly been on the pulse of current offerings, responding to professional users, and is still setting the standard. More than a shooting solution, it’s a great editing package too, but needs some retouching tools, like cloning, healing, burning and dodging to really step up to where Lightroom and Aperture.

Above all, it did the single most important thing I needed it to do. I turned it on. It worked… effortlessly.

Phase One C1Pro 4 processing tests

Evaluating a RAW file processor is a slippery slope. As I'm fond of saying, the RAW file is not the "digital negative", it's more the digital "latent image", an unprocessed source of all the image information, available to the photographer to process to taste. The negative, after all, has already been processed, right? And then there's that matter of taste.

The slippery slope comes from that issue of taste... you really need to look at processing RAW files in the context of what you prefer, what you like, rather than what is "best", or "more accurate". Think about film here. If accuracy was the key feature of a film, why would we have so many different emulsions? Every film, and RAW processor, renders the photograph differently, so the key to choosing is to find the one that works best, for you.

I find that I start with Adobe Camera RAW as the standard against which I measure most other processing software. It's the most common, it does a very good job making acceptable files from most cameras. The defaults are completely acceptable starting points for processing, and a good place to work from in comparing other software. My strategy is going to be to pull a test file into Camera RAW and process it at the default settings, and do the same with C1 Pro 4, and see how they compare.

I'm simply going to open the file, use the defaults, and click the gray patch on the ColorChecker to set the white point. Above, is the C1Pro screen, below is the ACR screen.


There are more differences between the two methods than I expected. Based on my last testing, I've always thought of C1 to be a fairly conservative, middle-or-the-road philosophy to file processing. Phase likes to keep to a less-saturated, by the numbers target, almost a flatter file. What I'm seeing here is a strategy more committed to the Phase philosophy- an accurate, and yet "snappy" file. Here's what I mean...



Here are my two files in Photoshop (processed as TIFFs). The first, most obvious thing we're seeing in the Photoshop file on the right, is what seems to be an overall cast of yellow, as seen most clearly in the bulletin board color. Even the grays, which I clicked as neutral, seem to be favoring a warm tone. Strangely, though, the red patch on the target looks more magenta than the C1 file- a common issue with many cameras, and one that affects skin tones... if red has a magenta shift, then Caucasian skin will not be quite so nicely rendered. The Adobe file may feel "prettier", by being warmer overall, but the Phase file seems more accurate.

I always think of music and speakers here. Do you want a speaker system that makes your favorite music sound best? ...or do you want speakers that are perfectly accurate, and reproduce the music exactly as it was recorded? The debate rages on...

Now here is something that was a little bit of a surprise to me. These comparisons, again the Phase on the left, the Adobe on the right, show a significant difference in sharpening levels at the default.



Phase has always gone for a snappy, sharpened look. The earlier versions of C1 played this down, but it seems like they've gone back to the original premise- an aggressively sharpened file looks better at first impression than a more conservative sharpening. At least, now, you can turn it down or off. Back in the early days, you couldn't.

The interesting thing is that it does look nice, on type, and with fine detail. However, take a look at this. Same deal, Phase on the left.



Here's where the aggressive sharpening bites you. What should be a nice continuous tone of gray has become grainy. The file sharpening has grabbed artifacts in the file and emphasized them to the point that the file now seems to be almost noisy. For every action... you know the drill.

My conclusions? You really have to decide what package brings you closer to where you want to end up, finally. For me, in a commercial environment, I'm more concerned with how the file looks, fast, with minimal processing. Because of the color accuracy and the initial sharpness impressions, I'm certain that the client will be more impressed with the Phase files, and, of course, I can always turn the sharpening settings down. For the highest quality, non-commercial processing, I'd probably do Adobe, figuring I'm at a more flexible starting point, and I can also use my Smart Objects in the RAW workflow... but that's for files that I'll fuss over for weeks.

Phase One has done a great job. The package is now a mature, full-featured system, they've been listening to the users, and C1 Pro continues to define what a RAW processing workflow should be. Try it our yourself, they give you a 30day download, and also keep in mind every camera model will give you a little different result. What I've seen with my little Canon G9 here, you may see differently with your Nikon D700.

Above all, use the right tool for the job.

Phase One Capture One Pro can be downloaded, with a simple registration, here.

secrets- how to improve the performance of any lens. (The Lens Hood)

Here's the secret. The enemy of Optics, especially in photography is a simple thing. Flare.

A crappy plastic lens has a lot of flare, and can focus an image on the lens or sensor but has a lot of dispersion- flare- and gives you the effect of looking through dirty glasses. A good lens, with good glass and coatings, minimizes that. Expensive lenses are built using designs that are decades-old, and the cool new stuff a modern lens brings to the table- rare-element coatings, extra-low dispersion, etc etc, is simply stuff that controls flare.

Flare comes from light coming from the subject, but also, from stray light hitting the glass surfaces of the lens. Any light at all that hits the glass on the lens will create flare. Period. If you can see the lens, light is hitting it, and flare is happening. All the engineering that goes into your lens is there to fight that flare. You can have the best, most expensive lens made for your camera, but if there is light striking the glass, you're losing much of the value of that lens.

Back in the days of Leica and Nikon 35mm cameras, I often heard it said that Nikon lenses had amazing color, but Leica lenses had contrast. That is, they had more tonal range, truer and richer rendering from light to dark, making them so ideal for B/W photography. Guess what they had? You got it, better control of flare...

Want to know the secret of lens performance? Eliminate what flare you can. How do you do that? Use a lens hood.

Wow. No. Really. That's it.

Think I'm pixel-peeping and splitting hairs? Look at these examples.



I shot a few images with my Canon G9, with and without a basic lens hood. Here's what they look like in Camera RAW. At first glance, they look pretty much the same, but on the first set, let's look at the lower corner. There's a distinct circle of flare from the inner barrel of the lens.

Without hood:



With hood:



On the second group, there's more a more general, and common, effect of flare, an overall cast, lightening the image, but most obviously adding lightness to the shadows. Here's the first image without the hood, and the second below it, with the hood.

Without hood:



With hood:



Now, look at the histogram, you can even see it here. The shot without the hood has shadows with higher values, and a more compressed tonal range. The shot with the hood has deeper, more defined shadows.

Without hood:



With hood:



For around $20, you can take a decent lens and make it look good. You can take a great lens and get every drop out of it that the designer intended.

Use your lens hood!

B/W Pipeline excerpt: The Paradox of Palette: Black-and-White Digital Photography

Art, for all arguments and discussions, is about expression. Artistic expression throughout history is as linked to the medium as it is to the artist. Even if we look back to prehistoric artists, making images of animals on caves in Lascaux, the work we see is a melding of the artist’s vision and the tools at hand. The beauty found in these primitive cave paintings is not only about the colors and forms—it is about the ability of the artist to express these forms, feelings, and sense of the subject using the simplest tools and pigments.

I have a favorite story about Pablo Picasso. The story goes that he was living in Paris, and for a while was short on money. He had developed a following, and he could sit down in a café and pay for his meal by dashing off a simple drawing with a pencil on a scrap of paper. Picasso was, among other things, a master of line. I can only imagine those sketches—I’m not sure if any survived, but I have been fortunate enough to see (and photograph for the collector) Henri Matisse’s personal collection, including some very personal drawings by Picasso, almost nothing more than doodles on the back of a finished work. They were beautiful in their innocence and simplicity, but also their expression. These works possess an undeniable mystery precisely because they are so compelling and expressive. Four simple lines on a piece of paper can elicit the beauty and mystery of the human form.


The black-and-white medium was the essence of photography for a very long time. It may be surprising to learn that the first known permanent color photograph was taken by James Clerk Maxwell as early as 1861—a mere 40 years after Joseph Niépce created the first photographs. It wasn’t until 1935—and the introduction of Kodachrome—that color became a viable, popular medium.

Black-and-white photographs as fine art are often distinguished as “expressive,” “sensitive,” and “creative.” Why is this? It is the limits of the medium and the photographer’s ability to work within those limitations to express a vision. Much of the power of a black-and-white image lies not in its representation of reality, but in its interpretation of reality at the hands of the artist.

And here is the first rub in photography: Photography, especially color photography, is commonly described as realistic. Colors are said to be “lifelike,” “true,” and “real.” An image is often trusted—and, I would argue, mistrusted—to be a representation of reality. Right there is the issue with photography as fine art: If a medium is reality, then how can it also be an expression of the artist’s vision?

By its very nature, black-and-white photography neatly skirts this issue. The fact that a black-and-white photograph represents colors with shades of gray makes it an interpretation, rather than a mirroring, of what the artist sees. It is the simplification of the palette and the limitations of the medium that give the image its power of expression. Take this one more step, into the world of digital photography. We now have a tool—Adobe Photoshop—that has almost unlimited power in producing images and effects that mimic and recreate “reality.” We are able to create photographs with as much color depth as our eyes can perceive and print them with a larger range of colors (or gamut), more than we ever could achieve in the traditional darkroom. We can record the world with astounding fidelity.



One of the beautiful things about digital photography, and the RAW file in particular, is that our creative process has shifted more to the act of combining pieces of an image rather than capturing the image, the negative, and working with what you’ve captured. I can make a digital photograph in color and reproduce it in color, black and white, or any other interpretation of that original image by manipulating the RAW file. Throughout this discussion of the various techniques and processes of digital black-and white photography, you’re going to have to decide exactly how much you want the medium to limit you, and how you’ll use that limitation to fulfill your vision. Whether you shoot in full color and control the image throughout the RAW process and subsequent image adjustments, or you use a camera that can only shoot in black and white (a “dedicated grayscale” camera), you will learn to harness its limitations.

It’s a decision you have to be aware of, learn about, and make for yourself.

class- Get SMART! Smart Object RAW Processing filling up!

Class is coming up, May 17th- see the link below for sign-up info.

The digital camera changed photography because of the RAW file.

For the first time we could work, and re-work the “digital latent image”- the image as it came through the lens without any built-in processing. We can access that image through Camera RAW and process it countless ways to fulfill our vision. The RAW file remains untouched.

Enter Smart Objects.

Smart Objects let you get to that RAW file simply, easily and efficiently, and with all the versatility and control of the Layer and Mask workflow. The Smart Object RAW workflow is truly the most important, powerful and adaptable workflow for RAW file processing.

In Get Smart! Smart Object RAW Processing , we’ll discuss all the tools and techniques you need to use and understand to get the most out of this remarkable process-

- Understanding the RAW file
- Controlling Camera RAW
- Understanding and using Layers
- Masks- what are they, how to make, modify and use them
- Building a process, learning to visualize

Whether you’re new to digital photography and RAW file processing, or you’re a seasoned pro, join us in this in-depth overview of a complete system of working- a system to fulfill the vision of the photographer.

Sunday May 17th, 2009 from (9AM-1PM)
at:
ASA Photographic Studios

Imaging Workflow Analysis Case Study: Ross-Simons

Here's an interesting story of applying processing standards to streamline production:

Ross-Simons, one of the country's most successful fine jewelry retailers, faced a staggering challenge. They support 14 retail locations, an online store (named a “Top 500” site by Internet Retailer Magazine in 2005), and a quarterly catalog, first mailed in 1981, that now tops 60 million catalogs mailed all over the world every year.

With all of this size and scale, they are selling the highest quality jewelry. Color, size, cut and polish are all critical to the customer, and Ross-Simons needs their photography to show it all, accurately.

While some companies can have in-house photo studios, the sheer number of products in the Ross-Simons catalog and limited time-frame means that multiple photographers all over the country are all working on various stages of the projects. Jay Dunn, as VP of Creative, was seeing a huge degree of variation in the photography coming in from the studios. Considering each studio was using different cameras and different practices in processing and delivering the files, it's no wonder. In an industry where the difference between a fine gem and an average stone can be a few points of color, the images had to be spot-on, regardless of their source.

“In our last catalog run we spent over 600 hours for post-production Photoshop time in color adjusting file standardization and retouching. We really felt that we could cut that in half if we could somehow standardize the Color Management and processing…It’s not that we’re unhappy with the photographers’ work. In fact, we feel we’re partially to blame. We just have never been able to tell them what we want." - Jay Dunn, VP of Creative at Ross-Simons

Jay had worked with Michael Oh and the Tech Superpowers team for help deploying a new hi-res design workflow in Jay's previous position at Brookstone, but this time the project was even more complex, and an entire series of catalogs depended on results.

Huge Challenges

This was a huge problem that had many challenges. The first one was simply to isolate each of the factors that was causing variations in output.

First, the photographers used different cameras - a Leaf Aptus75, a Valeo 22, a Sinar 54, and even a Nikon D200, with software that was just as varied. Since there were over six different makes and models of cameras, lenses and lighting, Ted Dillard, head of TSP Imaging Services, had to synchronize the color rendering of each camera to match the others. In this case, it wasn’t so much an attempt to match the cameras to any "industry standard", more that they needed to match each other.

Second, Dillard and the Ross-Simons teams recognized that the problem wasn't simply the photographers: a complete end-to-end, or "Capture-to-Press" solution, was needed. So collaboration and agreed standards were key. In this case, the best way to make sure that this was reasonable and understood was to bring all of the vendors together - 24 people in all - at Tech Superpowers to review process, standards, and best practices in a full-day meeting... to form a consensus.

Third, once this consensus was reached, Ross-Simons needed to give the entire team a set of guidelines - from exposure, capture and processing settings to scaling, sizing and color management standards - right out to prepress and proofing, including a communication "loop" from the press back to the photographers. Ted was able to create a capture, RAW-processing and color management workflow that worked from end to end, and establish lines of communication to reinforce, and correct, the process, during the process.

"Ross Simons' problem was very common, but we had an unusual opportunity to create a new solution. Rather than apply a fix after the fact, by trying to profile the cameras - a notoriously inaccurate and ineffective approach - we elected to go to the RAW files and standardize the processing at the capture level. Each studio had a set of guidelines for file delivery, as well as individualized processing settings to assure one camera would look like the next, regardless of the make, model, lens or lighting used." – Ted Dillard, Imaging Services Manager

Huge Results

Using our experience and training in RAW file processing as well as our considerable experience with the individual digital camera systems, TSPIS was able to minimize the differences in color, contrast, and look between all of the cameras, and a standard of file quality and specifications between all the studios.

"When I reached out to Tech Superpowers, what I needed was the insight of a professional photographer, fused with the knowledge of the digital and technological advances, to create a cost-effective, efficient, multi-user, multi-city, photography and asset management workflow.

They far surpassed any expectations I had… [and] engineered a strategy that allowed photographers and color houses in seven different cities to align to standards and protocol that created speed-to-market and cost advantages worth large dollars to our organization." – Jay Dunn

Given the cost of a trained Photoshop artist, cutting 300 hours for each one of four catalog runs per year... well, that's a solution that you can take to the bank.

site- Evolution of Photoshop

This is even more on the lifeline of Photoshop... with screenshots of splash screens, tool palettes, workspaces and such.

Feel like I'm in the Wayback Machine!

www.hongkiat.com, here.

NEWS FLASH! Back on the street...

HEY HEY HEY!

As of May 1, I'm officially resuming my "self-employed" status, after a 10-year hiatus!

...quittin the day job, finished the last of the four Pipeline books (Black and White Pipeline, looks AWESOME- thanks to Kara and Ginger) out on the streets again, but this time as a freelance writer (Contributing Editor, H2Hreviews.com, launching soon), teacher and consultant.

It's been ten years, almost to the month, since I made the decision to close my studio and start work in the digital photography arena as an Imaging Specialist at Calumet in Cambridge. I then moved to EP Levine where I founded the Pixel Institute and started on the very first incarnation of the RAW Pipleline, (Digital Photography Masterclass, printed on a laser printer and stapled together), then to Tech Superpowers, where I founded and managed the Tech Superpowers Professional Imaging Services- providing workflow training and consulting for clients like Lane Bryant, Ross Simons, a host of photographers and agencies.

Looking back, four books later, and watching the maturation of a completely revolutionary set of tools, it's been an incredible journey at arguably one of the most important points in the history of photography. I'm amazed at how many wonderful and talented people I've had the chance to work with- co-workers, associates, peers, students, and clients.

I'll be continuing a lot of the work I've been doing... consulting, training, writing, and even a photography shoot here and there- there is simply nothing like actually working with a piece of equipment when a client is hanging over you to get a real perspective on how it performs. I'll be switching a lot of the tech posts over to the h2hreviews.com "Pro Digital Blog", and as soon as it's up, I'll be linking to that here.

In addition to all that, I'm going on the road, literally, to talk, teach, speak, and evangelize RAW workflow in general, and Smart Objects specifically... If you're interested, email me at ted@teddillard.com to set up a date.

...there's lots more to come! There's a crap-ton of work to do, and I'll be updating the site as time permits. Wish me luck, and see you soon!

...and this vid of Willie seems just perfect:

friday diversion: somehow appropriate this May Day

tease- Phase One Capture One Pro

Working with it this weekend, Canon 5DM2 and 1DSM3. Will report. Sweet lookin ride, so far.