Week 9’s theme in Photoshop – The Art of Compositing was “nothing is out of bounds”. We discussed some of the things we can do as artists and photographers to not only keep our skills fresh, but also how we can challenge ourselves to think outside of our normal sphere and really stretch creatively. As a sort of case study, we took a look at celebrity photographer Michael Grecco. Michael took a dramatic left turn from his normal life of shooting clients like Steven Speilberg, Martin Scorcese and Kanye West and decided to produce a coffee table book about the porn industry called “Naked Ambition“. His creative challenge, as he put it was “how to shoot a book about porn, without shooting porn”. He wanted to humanize the myth and portray the culture surrounding the taboo. He shot the entire book in 3 days. Over 13,000 photographs. The book was a huge success. The book was so successful, in fact, that it spawned a documentary film which has been very well reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, the Hollywood Reporter, the San Francisco Chronicle and a host of others. As a result of thinking “outside the box”, a whole new chapter has opened up in Michael Grecco’s career. He gave himself a creative challenge to solve that could have just as easily backfired and ruined his career…but he had to do it. He had to mix it up a little to continue to grow.
One of my favorite artists, Robert Rauschenberg, would regularly change his entire creative process when what he was currently doing became either easy or routine. He spent his entire career trying to come up with new projects to challenge his own creative vision and develop new techniques to communicate through his art. As a result, he has an incredibly rich and diverse body of work. Isn’t that the attitude that we all should aspire to? I try to approach my art, my job, my class, virtually every area of my life as if there will always be something more to learn. In my creative life, I know I’ll never take a perfect photo, or paint a perfect canvas. But I’ll keep chasing it and trying to capture it for as long as I’m able to hold a camera or a brush. That’s what it’s all about, gang…the journey and what you learn along the way. Okay, enough of me waxing poetic over my love of the creative process. Back to the wrap up!
I gave a little sneak peek at my next class, Photoshop for Photographers, which will be Wednesday evenings starting June 24th. I demoed a technique for selectively removing color cast from your photos using Adjustment Layers, Layer Masks and the Fade Brush Tool. Very cool stuff with a high degree of control and flexibility.
The second half of class, we began creating our own “out of bounds” composites. We had to move through it a bit more quickly than I would have liked, so I’ll be doing a video tutorial of the process either tonight or tomorrow.
Next week will be a recap of everything so far and a couple new additions to your toolbox. We will also be starting work on our final composites so…DON’T FORGET TO BRING PHOTOS FOR THE FINAL COMPOSITE PROJECT. If you are unsure as to what to do for the final project, take a look at the PDF’s from the class sessions. Each week, the initial slides in the presentation are for you. They are to inspire you and get you thinking about what’s possible with Photoshop. We’ve learned many of the building blocks over the last nine weeks, and now it’s time to unleash your own imaginations and create something fantastic!
Links:
Micheal Grecco
This Year’s Girl
Out Of Bounds Composites
Don’t forget Photoshop World in Vegas, October 1-3 at Mandalay Bay
Thank you for continuing to attend…Now just do the work!
