How to turn this into this. The trick? Lots and lots of Photoshop.

FAKE IT ‘TIL YOU MAKE IT:Photography for Designers

or

How To Take a Turd and
Shine It Up Real Nice

By Guts & Glory

Disclaimer: We are not photographers, we are graphic designers. This is the down and dirty way we take photos in our studio and spruce them up to (almost) look like a real photographer took them. Or at least, close enough!

OUR PHILOSOPHY

• Photography is a Magic Trick: Photography is often seen as an accurate record of reality, but almost all photos are manipulations of the world using techniques both in the lens and in processing to suit the photographer’s vision. The beauty of a well executed magic trick is that you don’t see how it’s performed, and a good photo is a very well executed magic trick.
• Know the Basics: There are tons of basic photography tutorials online that will give you a good foundation to creating a decent image. Better yet, find a local photo studio or store that offers classes.
• Work With What You’ve Got: You’re not a photographer. You’re a designer using the skills you’ve got to construct an image to suit your needs. We’re here to tell you that is A-OK! No judgements.
• Photoshop is Your Best Friend: This is the most powerful tool in your designer toolbox to get you a good image. Proper color balance, contrast and saturation can get you very far.
• Fake it Til you Make It: As you grow in your career, your budgets should increase and include resources for working with professional photographers. Or if all else fails, make friends with a photographer and trade services.

THE SETUP & THE GEAR

• Recruit a Buddy: You can do it on your own, but if you recruit a buddy, you’ll have someone to help with with the setup and adjustment of your set while you’re focusing on what you’re seeing through the lens.

This is where the magic happens.

• The Studio: We use our conference table to set up most of our shoots. But you can use pretty much any large, clean, flat surface. Just make sure you give it a good wipe down before you start working.
• Invest in a Good White Seamless Background: This will give you a much cleaner surface to work off of in post production. Tape it down using painters tape to prolong the life of your seamless paper and protect your wallet.

A roll of seamless paper (top) should be secured with painter’s tape to prevent tearing when you’re ready to roll it back up. (bottom)

• Use Window Light When Possible: It’s even, balanced, throws nice shadows, and will make your shots look like an episode of The Barefoot Contessa.
• Buy a Basic Lighting Kit: Doesn’t have to be fancy. B&H has a great selection of entry level kits that will get the job done for under $200. We could probably use a strobe light but that becomes more complicated to use than a set of hot lights. The helpful people at our local photo store recommended we upgrade the lightbulbs from the standard kit to higher watt bulbs. More light means more information to work with during post production, and you can’t really have too much light. We also have a reflector/diffuser kit that you can get for $50.

Pro tip: Hang out at a photo shop and ask questions. Most people are more than happy to help outfit you with gear that fits your needs and budget.

There are a wide range of lighting kits to suit all manner of budgets and experience levels. Strike a conversation with your local photo store to find what best suits your needs.

• Good Camera, Better Lens: Pretty much any camera will do. Mine is from college and is over 10 years old. My iPhone probably has more megapixels than this SLR. But a good lens will change everything. We picked up a Nikon Nikkor 40mm Micro lens for around $250 and it takes beautiful photos for super tight closeups and midrange product shots.

This camera is practically an antique. But slap a good lens on this bad boy and it’s almost as good as new!

THE SHOOT

• Handheld vs. Tripod: Use a tripod if you need consistency between shots or don’t have enough light to shoot handheld shots. In my experience, the slowest shutter speed you can usually hold a camera at without getting a blurry image is about 30 if you have a super steady hand and hold your breath while depressing the shutter button.

You’ll need the steady hand of a surgeon to keep your photos from blurring if you choose not to use a tripod. Take a deep breath and take multiples shots of the same composition. Be sure to use your buddy as a spotter when you need to stand on your swivel chair to get up high enough. Safety first.

• Stay Organized: I watched a photographer friend on a client shoot once and was amazed at how organized he was with all of his gear. It made the shoot run so much smoother than if everything was strewn about willy nilly, and things get messy fast when you’re constantly losing things and tripping over stuff. It’s dangerous and inefficient.
• Arrange Your Composition: For this shot, we wanted a nice grouping of all of the elements. We’re going to replace the background and add a wood texture background (that I found on this great design resource site, or you can shoot your own) so I want to make sure I’m squared off directly above my composition.
• Shoot in RAW Format: This gives you the most flexibility once you start to pull everything into Photoshop.

POST PRODUCTION

• Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself: Before you break down your set, dump your photos onto your hard drive and make sure you have a decent amount of images to work from. The biggest thing you’re checking for is that they’re in focus. You can do a lot of wizardry in post, but you can’t bring a blurry photo into focus. If you want to get fancy, you can tether the camera directly to a laptop while you’re shooting so you can view the images as you’re shooting them.

Not even Photoshop can fix a blurry image, so be sure to check your images before breaking down your set.

• Break it Down: Once you check your photos for general OK-ness, break down your set. You’ll be happy you did it now rather than at the end of your day.
• Pre-Process Your RAW Files: Use the RAW dialog box in Photoshop to adjust overall color balance, temperature and contrast. A real photographer will balance color before they take a single image, but I have no idea how to do that so I get close enough during the shoot and then fix it at this step.
• Watch your histogram (the box that looks like a bunch of mountains and valleys) and try to keep most of the mountains in the middle of the graph without clipping the highlights or the shadows off. You will continue to refine the color balance and contrast using Levels, Hue/Saturation and Curves once you pull the image into Photoshop but right now you’re looking for a good, middle of the ground image. Not too contrasty, not overly saturated, not overly blown out. Now you’re ready to bring your pre-processed image into Photoshop.

From crap to meh. Photoshop allows you to pre-process RAW files for broad adjustments to color balance, temperature, and contrast.

• Always Use Adjustment Layers: Using layers allows you to work in a non-destructive editing way that gives you the most flexibility and allows you to adjust the image back and forth until you arrive at something you’re happy with.
• Levels, Curves & Hue/Saturation: These are the 3 main tools I was taught to use in processing. Use Levels to adjust the individual color channels to affect the overall color balance of your image and Curves to adjust contrast. Generally, a nice smooth S curve will give you a good amount of contrast without appearing blown out. After you’ve adjusted the color balance and the contrast, add a Hue/Saturation layer. I usually increase the master contrast a bit, and then use the individual color dropdowns to affect any additional colors individually (eg. saturating red or blue while desaturating yellow).

Adjustment layers will allow you to preserve the original image, so if you make a mistake it’s easy to go back to fix it.

• Pen Tool Trumps Magic Wand: Use your pen tool to create clean cutouts or selections, and zoom waaaay in to make sure you’re getting an accurate edge. It takes a bit more time up front than using the magic wand, but it will give you a much cleaner selection. I often find when I use the magic wand, I spend more time trying to clean up my selection than I would if I’d just spent the time to draw a clean cutout with the pen tool to begin with. Once you have your selection, use a mask rather than delete your background. Apply a .5 or 1 pt gaussian blur to your mask to soften it slightly and help it blend more realistically into your background.

Zoom zoom! Take the time to use the pen tool rather than the magic wand. You’ll save time in the long run.

• Get Granular: Create individual selections and adjustment layers for areas you want to adjust contrast or color on separately. In my image, the dark photograph was adjusted separately from the rest of the image since it was so different.
• Shadows: I’ve used a combination of the drop shadow layer effect and hand drawn shadows to mimic the original shadows created by the paper. Good drop shadows can make a huge difference in creating a realistic looking composite image. Using separate layers for your shadows will give you the most flexibility. Set your shadow layers to multiply so they realistically blend with the background.

FAKE IT ‘TIL YOU MAKE IT

By now, you should have a pretty decent image. It’s not museum quality, but it should be more than enough to give you a good image for your portfolio. This is not to say that there isn’t a huge difference between what you and I can do, and what a professional photographer can do.

LEVEL UP

Nothing beats the work of a pro (right), but when that isn’t an option do the best you can with what you have and Photoshop your way to success (left).

The image on the left was one we shot in house and edited heavily, and the one on the right was shot and edited by Marshall Troy, a professional product photographer with years of experience. There is a clearly a HUGE difference in quality across the board, (not to mention his wizardry with water) but the one we shot in house served us quite well for what we needed it for.

IN CONCLUSION

Next time you find yourself faced with the daunting prospect of taking your own photos, take a few deep breaths and remember that you don’t have to be a pro to pull together something decent. With a quick trip to your local photo store, a steady hand, and the power of Photoshop you too can fake it ‘til you make it.

This article will appear in Flaunt by Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio. Flaunt is a book for design students as well as young, experienced, freelance, and independent designers on designing effective, compelling and memorable portfolios of creative work. The second edition — currently in development with a publish date of May 2015 — will include a new section on how designers photograph their work, including this piece from Guts & Glory.

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