How Photoshop Changed my Photography

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Posted July 13th, 2011 by Caleb Macdougall No Comments »

Hey everyone, Matt Kloskowski here again. Thanks once again to Scott, for giving me his blog for the day. Ive had a topic Ive been wanting to write about for a while, so here goes: How Photoshop changed my Photography. Its not what you think though. Ive heard plenty of stories of how Photoshop is a game changer because of the ways that we can now enhance our photos so quickly. We can make blue skies bluer, green grass greener, remove blemishes, clone out wires, etc… But my photography-life-changing experience is a little different.

I Started with Landscape and Travel Photography See, I started with landscape and travel photography. That was my favorite. Landscape and travel is what got me excited about taking my camera out of my bag. I sound like a total dork, but Id have a hard time sleeping the night before I was going someplace cool to shoot. I steadily picked off some must-see places that I had always wanted to photograph. To this day, I still love landscapes. They dont talk back, I love the peaceful feeling I get when Im standing in front of a beautiful place like Mesa Arch, Moraine Lake, or Multnomah Falls and soaking it all in.

While teaching in Dubai, I spent some time at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. Words cant describe what a beautiful, pristine, quiet and inspiring place this was to photograph.

Switching to Portraits I slowly started to make the move to portraits. A friend asked if Id take some photos of his family. Then a friend of his friend asked the same thing when they saw the photos. And it grew. Before long, I found myself shooting a number of family portraits. To this day, I still love to capture family moments.

I also found I really enjoyed it. Especially when kids were involved. The kid in me really liked the challenge of getting them to smile and laugh. And I guess (because of the age that I must act), I really seemed to make a connection with the kids I was photographing That eventually led to me doing some studio and lighting work too. But something was missing for me. Believe it or not, it was the art of post processing. Im a Photoshop Guy and Ive chosen this as my career because thats what I love to do. I realized that the deeper I got into portrait photography (while artistic in its own way), the further away I got from being artistic with Photoshop.

Something Changed A couple of years ago I saw a cool ad for Mountain Dew. It incorporated a skateboarder with motion graphics. I thought it looked so cool so I sat down one night and created this composite. I was hooked.

It hit me like a bag of bricks. Bam! I immediately realized, compositing is what I want to do more of. But that was just the beginning. I knew right away that this would change the Photoshop side of my life. But what I didnt realize, is how it would change the photography side of my life.

Will You Get to the How Already?! See, as I got more and more into compositing, the entire world became fair game for compositing/photography opportunities. The more Photoshop work I did, the more I realized that sure, I can create smoke in Photoshop, but it never looks as real as the real thing. Not to mention, its too time consuming. So Id rather shoot a photo of smoke and drop it in. Sure, I can create dramatic clouds in Photoshop with brushes and filters and all, but its much easier to photograph dramatic clouds. Then I simply make a Clouds folder and put those photos in it, so I can find them when I need em.

Take Your Camera Everywhere! Ive often heard people say this. Honestly though, I was a total light snob. If the light wasnt great, if I wasnt in a studio, or if there wasnt some kick ass scenery right in front of me, I didnt bring my camera. I was so used to only pulling out my camera for beautiful landscapes or in the studio, that I let everything else pass me by. But now, anything is fair game. Alleys, fences, brick walls, empty parking garages, city skylines on bla hazy overcast days, garage doors, dogs, water fountains (because you never know when you need water coming out of a water gun), you name it.

Heck, I even take photos of cracks in the street because you never know where youll use them

My artistic side in Photoshop has caused a place for an entirely new world of photography opportunities to open up to me. Id never put my tripod down in the middle of a tunnel to take a photo. I mean, why? Its only a tunnel right? And it wasnt even a good looking one to begin with. But when you add a motorcycle (that was lit in only the way you could light it in the studio) to the tunnel, now weve got something.

Now I get to put my passion for photography, my desire to create something, and my passion for Photoshop together. Not just sharpening and color correction. But really sitting down and being artistic, as I put a composite together. The light sources, the shadows, special effects, all that stuff. Things that we need to know about in photography I can now work with in Photoshop too. I love it!

So, have I stopped shooting landscapes? Absolutely not! I still love shooting travel and landscape photos. In fact, if you walk through my house, thats what I have on my walls. Personally, no matter what composites I create, no matter what portraits Ive taken and no matter how much I may like the lighting on on one of my subjects, Id have a hard time putting a photo of a person (whos not closely related to me) on my walls at home. Thats just me though. But if its on my wall, it is either a spectacular place Ive visited or a photo of my family. So landscapes will always hold a close place in my photography portfolio. But now, because of Photoshop, my camera gets used so much more.

Thanks again to Scott and everyone here for giving me a few minutes of your time today. Im so passionate about this stuff that I actually just wrote a book called Photoshop Compositing Secrets (Amazon (link) | Barnes & Noble (link) | Kelby Training (link)). If any of this stuff sounds interesting to you, I hope youll check it out. Have a great weekend!

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