Action Packed
When it comes to time-saving and creative actions and presets for Photoshop and Lightroom, photographers are spoilt for choice. And retouching mastery is reaching new and impressive heights. Nikki McLennan chats with both users and creators to gain an insight.
Historically, wedding and portrait photographers have set themselves apart from their competitors through their unique photographic style, their personality and the experience they provide to clients during a shoot. Currently our love affair with Photoshop actions, digital artistry and retouching, exclusive to the digital era, is reaching incredible heights, and producing finished images at incredible speed and with techniques that would have taken photographers years to masters in the pr-digital era. Our love affair with Photoshop actions, digital artistry and retouching is defining the style of many professional photographers across all genres.
Capture speaks with AIPP Master II Photographer, Robyn Miller; Barb Uil, the creative force behind Barb Uil & JinkyLife; Vicki Bell, an AIPP Master I Photographer and Kevin Kubota, a photographer with 25 year’s experience and creator of actions, Asuka Books and Lightroom presets. In this feature they share insights, expertise and inspirations
Where should we draw the lines with actions and retouching?
Barb Uil: Retouching is an incredible skill, and in fact a form of art. Digital artistry for example, takes retouching to a whole new level.The likes ofAlexia Sinclair, an incredible Australian artist, and others whose works comprise of digital artistry and photographic skill show us that really, the only line is in our heads and, let’s face it, the client’s budget. I love retouching and it is certainly a huge part of my work as I use it to enhance and bring life to my photography.
Vicki Bell: I don’t think we need to draw the line. It’s just another creative tool that is part of the process. Part of it is photography and part of it is the interpretation: Photoshop is like using a paintbrush. I see Photoshop as being parallel to a painter’s brush or an artist’s tool.
Kevin Kubota: I think the idea of "too much" really has to start with the photographer, their particular style and how they position themselves in the industry. I approach my art of photography as just that, an art form –just like any other. This means I can use any means necessary to get my message or vision across. There are no "restrictions" or even ideas of "too much" when it comes to art in general, so why should there be on photography? I approach photography as a photo impressionist, not a realist, so I guess that opens the door for me a lot more than it may for others who consider themselves journalists or realists. There is no right or wrong way to approach it, as far as I'm concerned, but of course if you are a journalist you have a responsibility to portray life as accurately and realistically as possible. Other than that, I believe your imagination should be your only limit. As long as your paying clients understand what your style entails, then I think it is completely fair, and often more profitable, to do whatever makes you, and them, more satisfied with the images.
Robyn Miller: Actions are as liberating as they are limiting. You can use them to your advantage to create consistency and an efficient workflow, but if you don’t adjust them to suit your own style, you risk producing a garden-variety product.
As the industry continues its exponential growth, it’s imperative that photographers see themselves as artists, take pride in their product, and offer a unique style to their clients. This can, by all means, be achieved with the use of actions. But it also requires having a sound knowledge of Photoshop, which will offer you an enormous advantage. How can it be up to anyone but the artist’s themselves to determine where to draw the line with actions and retouching? The beauty of an image is that it is in the eye of the beholder, and that is what differentiates us from one another. If you’re using actions and your clients love your work, more power to you.
Is one ever “cheating” with actions or retouching?
Barb Uil: Actions and presets for Lightroom and Photoshop are just the same asshortcuts used in Excel and Word.Obviously these shortcuts are likely not the answer to the end result, however they certainly help us speed up the process and are great tools. Today, photographers still set themselves apart from their competitors through their unique photographic style or approach, their personality and how they deal with clients during a shoot, and of course, retouching, as it is simply another way of pushing the art-formfurther and an incredible skill to have.
Vicki Bell: I liken photography to cooking. It's like you are given a foundation cake recipe and then you add your own flavours and decorate it in the way you love best. Some people like to make it all from scratch and others like to buy packet mixes and pre-made decorations. Both versions can still taste great. In whose eyes is it cheating anyway? It's just another creative process? Actions are there to add in the sugar and spice, if you like. Creatively, you still have to make decisions on what actions you choose or how you'd like the touching to be.
Kevin Kubota: Photographers are cheating themselves if they don't use them! On the other hand, I guess you could say they are "cheating" if the viewer doesn't realise they are seeing a retouched image and they are expecting that it is not retouched. We should be clear with our clients what we do, and also be very content in saying, "Yes, I am an artist, not a documentary photographer, and I complete my art both behind the camera and in my post processing”.
I've been a portrait and wedding photographer for nearly 25 years and I've yet to meet a client that doesn't want to look really good in their photos. We do have to be sensitive to over-retouching and the effect of promoting false perfection in the media, but a little clean up work never hurt anyone. Again, it depends on your style and how you position your art in your industry.
Robyn Miller: An action has about as much input into a brilliant image as the camera. It’s not cheating. If every action worked with every image then we might have a debate. I enjoy experimenting with new actions, and have often used them as a learning tool for working out how to achieve a particular ‘look’I was trying to create.
An action is a reflection of developments in photography, and if correctly integrated into your workflow, significantly reduces post production time. There are quality actions on the market now that are quite sophisticated; they work much quicker than I could.
Who has inspired you to create such fantastic images?
Barb Uil: My background is in the child care industry and I am a mother of 4 littlies. My work is inspired by children and their wonderful imaginations. They put no bars and draw no lines on what is possible. In fact, the creativity of a child and their limitless imaginations and free play draw so much inspiration for me. They are incredible. It is not until we are adults that this kind of boundless thought is caged in by the “rights and wrongs”.
Vicki Bell: I recently did a workshop with Brooke Shaden, ideally loved her philosophy. She is not oppressed by too much technology. I love her freedom and her ability to tell a story quite purposely. Another inspiration is Bella West, from the UK.
Robyn Miller: The history of art. I am a regular at the National Gallery of Victoria. But I also find inspiration in lifestyle magazines, movies and music. Joyce Tenneson will always be my greatest inspiration.
With photographers all having access to the same actions, will originality be sacrificed?
Robyn Miller: If you just run actions because they are on trend at the moment, and don’t understand how to tweak them to suit your needs, there’s every chance that your images may look more like an Instagram post than artwork.
Vicki Bell: There is always going to be a trend, whether it is with fashion or whatever, but we are seeing this as photographers. Our audience are unexposed to the saturation of these trends such as vintage or film effects, so therefore that’s exciting and fresh for them. What is going to make a customer choose one photographer over another is their personality, what they have done, who they are. I believe that there will be a revival of simple, classic portraiture. Everything goes full circle eventually and there will be a return to single capture imagery, rather than too much composite work.
Kevin Kubota: While we all want to think of ourselves as "unique", the fact is that photography has evolving trends and styles, just like fashion and any other highly visible social outlet. Clients will see photographic styles and looks and want that same look on their images. If that style is something we also like, and they want it too, then work with it. I think it is unreasonable to expect every photographer to come up with their own unique look and never to follow trends or styles set by other photographers. We all take something from what we see and adapt it. Of course, it is ideal to strive for originality as much as possible. I also believe however, that as much as we think we might be completely original, there is probably someone out there who has done something similar before us. Originality and creativity is moulding other ideas and influences we've absorbed and blending them in our own unique way.
No time to waste
If we exclude news and documentary images, most would agree that the most spectacular pictures have usually benefited from some level of enhancement in post processing. After all, improving images after capture is nothing new, and darkroom experts have been doing it since the very beginning. The best examples are retouching and enhancement are done with such craft and skill that it takes the very sharpest of eyes to determine exactly what’s been done and where.
Kubota reminds us that even before digital retouching, artists, including those we consider “traditionalists”, like Ansel Adams, for example, would spend hours in the darkroom fine-tuning their images to convey their message and artistic vision.
Already burdened with a heavy workload, and far more hours spend staring at a screen than they’re happy with, wedding and portrait photographers have benefited greatly from actions and presets that not only allow them to greatly speed up their workflow through batch processing, but also apply a certain look and feel to images based on action recipes that they’ve concocted.
While many professionals off-the-shelf actions, others take a different approach. “I have actually made up my own by modifying pre-existing presets according to what feels right for me,” Bell says. Robyn Miller has also created her own actions to maintain her style, but also likes experimenting and trialing new actions. Satisfied with the actions that speed up workflow, Miller says that she doesn’t use them for her award or exhibition images. “I am always trying to create something expressive, unique and meaningful to me,” she says. “There is something innately rewarding and satisfying as an artist to be in total control of your own vision.”
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Action |
Web link |
Effect/purpose |
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VSCO | vsco.co |
film effects, colour and black and white |
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Alien Skin Software |
plug in for colour and black and white film |
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Exposure 7 |
plug in for PhotoShop with a bunch of time saving actions |
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Florabella |
creamy, velvety, lens flare |
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Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 |
black and white film effects, grain, borders |
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Nik Color Efex |
slide film effects |
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Greater than Gatsby |
rich, moody, dramatic |
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Itty Bitty Actions |
soft, romantic, vintage, dreamy |
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InstaLook package |
modern vintage |
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Daily Multi Vitamin |
punch and colour boost |
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Kubota Light GlowSoft Vibrant |
colour snap and skin softening |
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Doll Face |
natural smoothing of skin |
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Digital Fill Flash |
paint light where it’s needed |
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Sharpen KPD Magic Sharp |
all round sharpening tool |
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Portrait Professional |
Portrait enhancement |
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Red Leaf Studios |
film solutions, vintage soft tones |
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Renamy |
multiple layers renaming |
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