Retouching
Real life—photography's source—rarely arranges itself exactly as desired. On the day that it does, it may be the medium, analog or digital, that doesn't play along. Chances are, at some point the skillful manipulation of a photograph will serve the greater good of a project.
In the analog age this work was done in darkrooms, through the skillful handling of light, and with pen and brush. In the digital age, the methods for photo manipulation have become stunningly complex and versatile. What has not changed is the need to make the manipulation look natural. Like book editing, or record mastering, photo retouching belongs to the disciplines that shine through their transparency. When the job has been done correctly, few will realize it was done at all. Having retouched, restored, and reconditioned hundreds images for reproduction as part of my work as a designer and illustrator, I am pleased to now offer high-end retouching and image restoration as a stand-alone service. From subtle image enhancements, such as color balancing for optimal reproduction in print, to dramatic image manipulations (see case studies below), I take pride in providing this largely invisible, though sometimes invaluable skill. |
Case Study: The AFI Desk Reference
The American Film Institute Desk Reference is an encyclopedic history of the movies whose section openers feature dramatic, full-bleed photographs. Beyond editorial relevance, the opener image's effectiveness depends on how well it, 1) fits within the proportions of the spread, 2) works with the floating text block, and 3) bridges the center area lost to the book's binding—affectionately referred to as the gutter.
A production still of director Werner Herzog, seen on the set of Fitzcarraldo, was nearly perfect for the "Movie Crafts" opener. If positioned just right, Mr. Herzog would retain his fingertips and the gutter would neatly divide the space between the director's face and the riverboat. The image stood to work like a charm, but for one detail: the photo was not wide enough to allow the image to bleed on the right, in keeping with the design format. 
Original Photo
The decision was made to extend the image on the right by cloning portions of sky, foliage, and river bank. The photo’s essential content, dynamic composition, and intent would be kept intact, while the full-bleed style would bring the opener in line with the style of the rest of the book. Since the viewer's gaze is directed toward the left side—thank you for pointing the way, Mr. Herzog—any image manipulation performed on the opposite side stood a good chance of going unnoticed. 
Retouched Film Still (with added texture right)
The vertical strip on the right features an extra half inch of foliage, sand, river, and various bits of clutter plundered from other areas of the photo and artfully grafted into place. Cheeky? Perhaps. Doctoring with photographs raises issues—technical, ethical, aesthetic—that are well worth pondering. Like any surgical procedure, the benefits must be weighed against the potential drawbacks. In the case of one Peruvian river bank, I felt the intrusion was both warranted and successful. |
Case Study: Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble |
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Photographer Paul LaRaia spent many nights as the proverbial "fly on the wall" in a converted barn in Woodstock, NY—the home and studio of Levon Helm, legendary drummer of The Band.
What had started out as Levon’s jam sessions with friends eventually became the hottest ticket in town when small, exclusive audiences were invited to attend. For nearly a decade, a stream of luminaries from the worlds of rock, blues, and jazz found their way to the "Midnight Ramble," as it became known, to perform with Levon and his all-star band. Paul’s photos eventually found their way to a New York publisher, who asked me to design a hardcover book around them. In the absence of a traditional manuscript, the photos were grouped thematically and sequenced to create a narrative flow of their own. The featured photos were paired with testimonials from some of the musicians who had performed at the Ramble. This gave the reader more context and created accents that helped the flow of the book. Photographing a concert performance presents a formidable challenge. It takes providence and skill to capture moments worthy of reproduction in a book. The lighting can change frequently and is rarely ideal. Shooting from up close, the photographer may find the audience, or the performers themselves, less than enthusiastic about his/her/their presence. Shooting stealthily from the back, with a zoom lens, may result in photos that are blurred from longer exposure times and unsteady hands. Even if our hero/ine should get to park themselves in the front row, the last obstacle between them and their subject may just turn out to be a microphone stand. This was the case with one particular image from the Ramble that I felt could benefit from a little surgery. 
Original photo
Retouched photo
The contrast has been adjusted, the skin tones have been warmed up and, last but not least, a microphone and boom stand have been moved away from guitarist Jimmy Vivino’s hat and (in the background) from saxophonist Erik Lawrence's face. In the absence of an alternate frame of the same scene, this solution proved less complex than removing the microphone stand entirely, but still allows key elements, such as the performer's faces and hands, to be seen with less intrusion. 
Case Study: Woodstock FAQ
The FAQ series of books covers a wide range of pop-culture topics, serving as an introduction and overview to each subject.
The volume on the 1969 Woodstock festival features a cover image of singer-songwriter John Sebastian, on stage, facing out an audience of four-hundred-thousand plus. Shot in wide angle from behind the drum kit, this photo by Henry Diltz beautifully encapsulates the moment. It gives a sense of the massive scale of the event while also capturing color and individuality, in the form of the singer's tie-dye shirt, sandals, and acoustic guitar. Significantly, the point of view—from behind the stage—makes the image as much about the event as about the performer. The key to effectively conveying both—individual performer and historic, massive crowd—lay in scaling and cropping the image to the six-by-nine inch frame of the book cover. I found that my favored crop would include not only the desired elements but also a gleaming, chrome-plated boom stand on the lower right. If left untouched, this diagonal white line, topped off with a large black dot, stood to draw more attention to itself than it warranted. 
Henry Diltz's unretouched, full-frame photo
An intrusive element confined to a single plane—foreground, middle ground, or background—can often be neutralized by simply blending it in with its background. The Woodstock boom stand, however, traces a line straight through foreground (concert stage), middle ground (camera man), to the background (crowd). Brightening or darkening alone would not suffice to minimize the stand’s presence. Not without simply creating a different type of distraction. While the boom stand speaks to the realism of the scene—it was there, after all—there are other elements in the shot that cover that base more subtly. I decided to eliminate the boom stand completely—no offense intended, Mr. Diltz–and fill the void left by its removal through the artful grafting of adjacent elements. The wooden stage was easily “repaired,” thanks to Photoshop’s powerful cloning feature. A stroke of luck was that the white diagonal bypassed the camera man’s face. Rebuilding a face that's in focus gets into more challenging and dubious territory. As for the faces in the crowd, they were more easily cloned from other parts of the photograph. The key to effective retouching is to have unified texture, which includes matching the coarseness of the film grain. 
Retouched photo (detail)
With the boom stand gone, the viewer's gaze can move with ease between book title, subject and background, and take in incidental details such as the bar stool or the bare-chested camera man. The color and texture of these elements blends well with the overall image, which allows the viewer's focus to remain where it should be. In order to provide a more effective background for the title typography, a color fade was added to the hazy, white summer sky. A black fade was deemed too gloomy, so the fade was done in purple, which only seemed fitting for the subject. ---- Within the confines of a cover, a photograph effectively becomes an illustration; a role player alongside title typography, series logo, and all the other elements that make a book cover. Its highlighted position leaves little room for non-essential elements, let alone those who disturb the overall compositional harmony. While a photograph itself may be the equivalent of a symphony, when placed on a book cover this same photo may find itself having to play by the rules of a pop song. |