How do you make a supermodel look like a Supermodel? You can do it in several steps. Not so easy steps, I have to warn you, but absolutely doable. Last weekend, for example, during the 2-day Celebrity Glamour Portrait Photography workshop I conducted at the Philippine Center for Creative Imaging (PCCI), I demonstrated to my students some essential steps of the post-production process that I do after the shoot. Using one of my shots (featured above) of Anna (from CalCarrie International Models) that I took during the workshop, I presented the step-by-step method I follow to process the image from the RAW file produced by the Nikon D2Xs camera that was wirelessly transmitted into my 17“ Apple’s MacBook Pro as I shot it. First, I imported it into Apple’s professional post-production software called Aperture, and then I enhanced it inside Aperture, and then brought it to Adobe Photoshop CS3 for fine digital editing, and then prepared the output. By doing the entire process, I was showing them how a professional photographer can integrate several essential and key digital tools, and make them all work seamlessly. This is a direct demonstration of what it means to shoot for the digital darkroom.
