Dear Abby says tog can PS photos

Photog4Christ

I just read today's Dear Abby. Someone wrote in concerned that the Matron of Honor has a beard. Anyway... Abby says:

...your wedding photographer can always "Photoshop" the fur away

I have my thoughts, but I wanted to hear what you had to say before I share.

sweet caroline

Photog4Christ wrote:

I just read today's Dear Abby. Someone wrote in concerned that the Matron of Honor has a beard. Anyway... Abby says:



I have my thoughts, but I wanted to hear what you had to say before I share.

I hate it when people make assumptions that photoshop is full of easy tricks that anyone can apply. To do it well and make it look natural takes skill.

Caroline

Flyinggina

I am a great believer in post processing to make people look their best - but my approach is to make them look the way I see them, not like some different person altogether. A sharp lens captures everything equally (subject to lighting) but our own eyes don't see every little "flaw."

As for the woman with the beard, leaving aside the difficulty of removing it in PP, even considering such a thing to make sure the wedding photos are acceptable shows a lack of respect and concern for the matron of honor's feelings. She is obviously a good friend of the bride's, beard included.

I say, let her keep her beard and Abby should have said so too.

Of course, if the woman in question would like pictures of her to be altered for the wedding shots, then it is simply a question of whether it is really possible to do it well in pp (which I doubt) and how much time and effort would be involved

Would the bride insist on removing a birth mark?


Virginia

mmmatt

Photog4Christ wrote:

I just read today's Dear Abby. Someone wrote in concerned that the Matron of Honor has a beard. Anyway... Abby says:



I have my thoughts, but I wanted to hear what you had to say before I share.

It would be easier to clone a dinner jacket on her and a pipe in her mouth and tell everyone it is Uncle Fred.

Matt

bdcolen

Photog4Christ wrote:

I just read today's Dear Abby. Someone wrote in concerned that the Matron of Honor has a beard. Anyway... Abby says:



I have my thoughts, but I wanted to hear what you had to say before I share.

TOTALLY up to the bride - or whoever hired the photographer. But before I posted anything anywhere anyone other than the guests could see, I'd ask the MoH if she had any problems with having her images posted publicly.

Blurmore

I too get a kick out of how EASY people assume PS is like there is a PS button on my laptop, or a fix this face action. Yeah it depends on how fuzzy she is. I remember the first time I was told by my mentor that certain ethnicities known to have large schnozes should only be photographed waste up or further on the dance floor (this was with a Medium format TLR). My objection was that, "Hey these people know what they look like, they look at themselves everyday" His answer? By photographing them close up, you are "pointing it out" so mostly they don't want to be reminded that they have some extra in the nose department. Go figure, thats why he's making 7k plus a wedding, and I'm not.

Photog4Christ

I agree. I just wanted to see what everyone else would say.

I was tempted to write to Dear Abby (just to vent) but what good would that do anyway.

marikris

Photog4Christ wrote:

I was tempted to write to Dear Abby (just to vent) but what good would that do anyway.

I actually thought about doing that as well - not to vent, but just so she can be better informed for next time. I figured I could send an email and simply say that there's a thread dedicated to her Dear Abby answer. But I wasn't sure if being more blunt was the way to go, so I stalled the email lol.

Photog4Christ

marikris wrote:

I actually thought about doing that as well - not to vent, but just so she can be better informed for next time. I figured I could send an email and simply say that there's a thread dedicated to her Dear Abby answer. But I wasn't sure if being more blunt was the way to go, so I stalled the email lol.

Well, people do write her to correct her or share other opinions all the time. There would be no harm in writing her. After all, she is just an advice columnist, not an expert in photography or any other given field. She admits that sometimes she doesn't always advise the right thing. If we wrote to her so as you said "...she can be better informed..." It will be in her column and Dear Abby wouldn't be the only one that was being informed.

Matthew Saville

Photog4Christ wrote:

I just read today's Dear Abby. Someone wrote in concerned that the Matron of Honor has a beard. Anyway... Abby says:



I have my thoughts, but I wanted to hear what you had to say before I share.

For $100 /hr, NO PROBLEM!!! I don't see what the fuss is about clients thinking everything is possible in photoshop. IT IS.

The REAL situation here is client expectations. If you've got a bride who expects you to deliver EVERY SINGLE photo to her with 5 lbs taken off, a mustache removed, wrinkles smoothed, whatever, ...you're getting off on the wrong foot altogether.

Photographers need to spread the word on GROUND RULES for photography and photoshop. MY policy for example is:

If it's an error *I* make taking the picture, such as a tilted horizon or a totally bad white balance, I'll correct it before I give you the image disc. Or sometimes, if there's a really killer location that I specifically want to shoot yet there's an exit sign or trash can prominently in the background, I'll remove that for free because it's kinda my "fault".

But EVERYTHING ELSE, the stuff that is not my fault, ...that is something I only begin to think about when someone is willing to pay MY PRICES for a print.

My point is, everybody should be creating this understanding and expectation among clients. Because you're right, photoshop is not easy sometimes. I've done some pretty tricky stuff in my day. What it comes down to is whether or not you're getting paid. And I guarantee you, if you're promising brides a whole collection of 500 fully retouched photos, you're going to burn out FAST unless you're getting paid like Yervant. (In which case you just pay someone else to do the retouching...)

=Matt=

rainbow

"Abby" and the others assume that the Matron of Honor is deficient in her looks. If the bride selected her as MoH, then she should be able to deal with her desire for the MoH to change her appearance for the wedding (including the column's suggestion for a "spa day"). If the MoH chooses not to modify her appearance (reasons are unimportant), then it likely would be insulting to her to now modify her appearance in post processing.

Photoshopping gives us tools to work with. It does not give us the wisdom to know when to use them.

kpmedia

Abby should stick to emotional advice, and leave technical advise to the pros.

smc1972

AMEN!!!! Those expectations should be discussed well before the first image is captured. I offer proofs fairly inexpensive - but they are just that. What u see is what you get. If you want the retouched ps'ed and perfect photo, buy a real print. I also price everything below a 5x7 the same. I'm debating doing the same with 8x10 and smaller.

I guess my whole responses in a nutshell is that I'm not wasting my time ps'ing 500 or more photos for you to only print 15 of them. Seriously.

Matthew Saville wrote:

For $100 /hr, NO PROBLEM!!! I don't see what the fuss is about clients thinking everything is possible in photoshop. IT IS.

The REAL situation here is client expectations. If you've got a bride who expects you to deliver EVERY SINGLE photo to her with 5 lbs taken off, a mustache removed, wrinkles smoothed, whatever, ...you're getting off on the wrong foot altogether.

Photographers need to spread the word on GROUND RULES for photography and photoshop. MY policy for example is:

If it's an error *I* make taking the picture, such as a tilted horizon or a totally bad white balance, I'll correct it before I give you the image disc. Or sometimes, if there's a really killer location that I specifically want to shoot yet there's an exit sign or trash can prominently in the background, I'll remove that for free because it's kinda my "fault".

But EVERYTHING ELSE, the stuff that is not my fault, ...that is something I only begin to think about when someone is willing to pay MY PRICES for a print.

My point is, everybody should be creating this understanding and expectation among clients. Because you're right, photoshop is not easy sometimes. I've done some pretty tricky stuff in my day. What it comes down to is whether or not you're getting paid. And I guarantee you, if you're promising brides a whole collection of 500 fully retouched photos, you're going to burn out FAST unless you're getting paid like Yervant. (In which case you just pay someone else to do the retouching...)

=Matt=

Art Scott

not always the most Articulate......
Dear Abby,

In reference to the Maid Of Honor with facial hair .....Photoshop is not always an answer....first of all there is no magic remove facial hair from MoH button......as one of my fellow Drginners stated it would be easier to clone in a pipe and dinner jacket than to remove all of the facial hair.....

Depending how dark the hair and light the skin can cause problems, just the way the hair looks....there are so many variables it isn't even funny.....not to mention if the Photographer may not be a Photoshop guru and he/she may actually have to have other people doing his post work to do his shooting schedule and that may not be included in his post processing contract.....also having to do this to 500 or a few thousand photos before showingthe proofs to the B/G can slow the work flow to damn near a complete halt.....what should have been given to B/G in a week or 2 may now take a month and a half (or longer) and there goes the credibility of the Photographer. Every minute of post processing cost the photographer money....we try to get out photos correct in the camera so we do not have to go into Photoshop for anything besides turning that .NEF, .CR2,.MRW,.3rf, or any other raw file into a jpg for printing. A RAW file is nothing more than a digital negative or transparency if you will....but if do our work right during a shoot we do not have do a lot of post processing and in this the B/G need to offer to pay more for the special circumstances of this type of processing without hesitation.

You need to read what several Pro Photogs have to say....we are all on the same forum but scattered across the world.

Digital Grin link to the Dear Abby Thread......

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=135546

if not clickable cut and paste into your browser....

Thanks
Miffed Wichita Photographer


Sent in tonite thru the dear abby website..................

MissB

blhahahahahahhahahahahahaha!!!!!! I know.. totally unprofessional but I just couldn't help myself!!