Because we buy with our eyes, better photos always win. It’s only a question of who has them.

The vast majority of photographers and graphic designers are only familiar with a minimal number of the tools and commands that are available in Photoshop. Rich is both an internationally recognized commercial photographer and a Photoshop expert. This provides enormous advantages to his clients, both in the speed of delivery and reducing costs. His extensive experience as a commercial photographer and his Photoshop expertise provide him with a wealth of approaches to choose from to achieve the desired image.

Almost all of Rich’s images have some enhancement done in Photoshop and other applications. Below are some before and after images that illustrate some of his capabilities.

This digitally enhanced photograph was created by compositing several images  that were taken over a period of a couple hours. The inside was photographed after sunset so detail could be seen inside the building. Then additional retouching was done to remove the car; add flowers; enhance the sky; pump the color; subdue the computer screen; clean the curb; etc. Because Rich is both a commercial photographer and a Photoshop expert he’s able to do it all invisibly and believably.

The only other way to do this is to completely light the inside of the building with studio flash units that are triggered remotely by radio. This requires a crew and much more time to set up and break down. Even then, it’s extremely difficult to get the lighting to feel natural.

 

Rich was given a prototype to photograph for use in a trade show display. The prototype was rushed out and lacked the desired fit and finish that the final product would hopefully have. When you blow up a photo for a trade show display the camera sees flaws that often aren’t very noticeable to the naked eye. Enhancing in Photoshop is a must if you want images that are at least as good as your competitors.

 

Watches present complex problems for photography. When the lighting is great for one portion of the watches surface, it will make other areas look terrible. The watches crystal reflects the light back with a glare when the lighting is best for the hands and the hour makers. A leather band requires completely different lighting than the metal bezel. Because of this, each section of the watch is lit independently of other areas. Numerous photos are then expertly blended together in Photoshop to give the illusion of simple lighting. There is a huge advantage to having the photographer and the Photoshop expert being the same person. Without the proper source images, the Photoshop expert has little to work with and the resulting image can look like a painting. This image was composited from about a dozen images, each with different lighting. The before image in this before after slider was created to bring out the highlights on the right edge of the watch.

 

This image was created for an ad announcing the merger of two oil refining companies. Pour photos were added; the background was removed; the color of the oil was changed; printing and internal reflections were removed from the flask; the single neck was changed to two; type was added and curved to the flask; ripples added to the oil surface; reflections created; etc.

It takes more than what a product photographer or a Photoshop expert alone can do to get these results. Usually for advanced projects like these a photographer will be teamed with a Photoshop expert with the Photoshop artist being present at the photoshoot and the photographer overseeing the retouching. This doubles the amount of man-hours that are required when one person can do it all.

 

Rich was given a layout to match for a brochure cover for a major bandage manufacturer. The brochure differentiated their product by their superior non-stick layer incorporated into their bandages to make removal possible without re-opening the wound. They wanted photography instead of illustration so it could more realistically give the feel of wide angle distortion and feel much more real.

The before image shows what Rich was given to photograph.

 

The owner of several diners called Rich the day he bought this existing diner. He’s had tremendous success using Rich’s photos in his ads for his other diners and wanted to book him immediately so the ad would appear in the next monthly issue of Philadelphia magazine.

He was going to start renovations immediately, but had Rich add them to the photo so that they would appear in the ad that would be in the next issue.

This is a flashlight designed for firefighters. The taillights make the firefighters more visible to each other.

This digitally enhanced photo was composited from four images: the flashlight by itself to light the product to best advantage; the model holding the flashlight in the same position; a shot for the forward beam and the last for the rear lights. They were then composited in Photoshop, including moving the switch down ever so slightly so it was visible below the fireman’s glove. Then additional work was done to fade the image into darkness to allow for white text; subdue the red in the bottom of the fireman’s coat; stretch the coat under the light; and enhance product details.

The above image shows one of the images used in the composite. Since Rich is a Photoshop expert he was able to plan out exactly what and how everything needed to be photographed to achieve the final result.

 

Rich often is called on to photograph large pieces of industrial equipment on location. This piece was not quite completed, but was due to ship out to South America in a couple of days. He made it look like it was shot in a studio and fabricated the missing panels in Photoshop to complete the unit.

 

Rich was hired by a major water utility to take photos that showed the major investments that they were making in improving their infrastructure. When he arrived at this deep pit below street level there was a tremendous amount of dust that was billowing out of the hole.

He climbed down into the pit while the men had paused to rest. He placed them where he wanted them positioned and instructed the jack hammer operator to just use it for a few seconds so as to not get too much dust into his lens. As it happened, he was on solid rock and there was hardly any dust created at all. No matter, Rich used his expert skills at Photoshop to re-create it.

Rich was contacted by a real estate developer client in Georgia requesting that he drive to a nearby state to photograph an industrial building that they had just completed. They said that it was finished and ready for photography. It was important to get the photography done quickly because brochures and other marketing materials had to go out quickly to potential buyers since the carrying costs of the financing were enormous.

Rich drove to the site and found that the landscaping wasn’t finished. In addition, the tree closest to the camera was dead. He knew that these things would be taken care of before anyone interested in buying the property would arrive, but the marketing materials couldn’t wait. The leaves on the dead tree were hand painted by Rich in Photoshop.