BTS Video Lecture. The Making of Drabbles

[bill_wadman]

<p>For those interested in post-production/compositing sort of stuff, I gave a lecture a month ago on the making of my <a href="http://www.williamwadman.com/drabbles/">Drabbles portrait series</a>. I've posted a 45 minute video lecture on the creative process of making the series as well as get-you-hands-dirty layered photoshop document stuff. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/16627418">http://www.vimeo.com/16627418</a></p>

<p>Hope you guys find it interesting. Spread it around. Thanks.</p>

<p>-bill wadman / www.williamwadman.com</p><div></div>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Thanks for posing this, Bill. The whole process to get to the final look of the image is mind boggling and interesting.</p>

<p>Photography by collaboration. Boy that opens up a lot of photo purists centric questions. Don't it?</p>

<p>Wonder what percentage of the creative work was done by Bill and the two Photoshop assistance he mentioned?</p>

<p>Your process reminds me of how Norman Rockwell did his Saturday Evening Post covers. There's a book that just came out by his son illustrating in detail how Norman hired a photographer to shoot large format film composites of partial scenes Norman staged himself and later projected on canvas to trace out in charcoal pencil for the final painting.</p>

<p>I guess these Drabbles fit under photo illustration category where the dividing line between photo and illustration isn't so obvious.</p>

<p>Pretty darn amazing results for someone with no formal training in photography and limited Photoshop experience.</p>

<p>Do you find the High Pass filter "Xerox" contrast halo look throughout the entire series distracting? Wish there was a better way to make images "pop" in Photoshop without having to rely on that look. It's darn difficult to spot in long edits until you walk away from the computer and come back to be shocked by the artificial contrast.</p>

[bill_wadman]

<p>Hi Tim-<br>

<br /> Actually I think you misunderstood some of what I was saying in the video.<br>

<br /> I did have a couple of assistants on the shoots, but they were in a "hold this light over here while I shoot" sort of capacity. I do all of my own shooting and all of my own post production.<br>

<br /> And while I would agree that I have no formal training in photography, I wouldn't say that I have limited Photoshop experience. I've been using Photoshop for about 15 years since version 3.0 as an Art Director in advertising. That said, much of that time was spent using it as a design tool rather than for retouching photographs. Plus I find that people that are self-taught think a bit more out of the box.<br>

<br /> Other than that, I'm glad you enjoyed it and hope you send it to friends who might like it as well.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Sorry for the misunderstanding, Bill.</p>

<p>I couldn't sit through the entire 45 minutes and jumped to the middle looking to find detailed steps taken in Photoshop only to find you casually mentioning 50-20 masking and compositing layers without going into detail of the construction of them.</p>

<p>Was trying to see at what point the High Pass contrast/tone mapping effect was implemented and if it was intentional or (what I suspect from my own experience) induced by an adaptive optical phenomenon of the eyes from staring at a transmissive display for long periods of time. In edits on my own images I find Curves, Clarity and Contrast in ACR are dangerous tools sometimes because of their immediate affect on the image before my overall perception of the image can catch up to it.</p>

<p>I think the most telling about the how's and why's driving your post process is your statement about not knowing exactly what the final image will look like as you get into it, pretty much like painting a picture. There's room to feel your way around, have some fun in discovering little nuances within the creation process not often associated with the automated feel of digital.</p>

<p>Your approach to photography (or image creation) is from an art director's perspective it seems where some pre-visualization of the image similar to mental storyboarding or sketching I'm guessing is somewhat implemented. Since each image is pieced together from scratch I wonder what drives the decision making for choosing each element and arrangement in the final composition. It implies you already have an image in your head before the first shot is taken.</p>

<p>Do you do sketches of each image before starting out?</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Here's the contrast/tonemapping effect I was referring...</p>

<p>http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/MechanixIllustrated/4-1953/kinescope_photos/kinescope_photos_0.jpg</p>

<p>Kinescope or what we used to get copying continuous tone photos on Xerox copiers back in the '70's. It's showing up in a lot of digitally processed images lately. I'm just trying to see if it's intentional or by accident.</p>