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8-bit Versus 16-bit in Photoshop (or How I learned to stop worrying and love pictures with smooth skies)
The first in a continuing series published at Big Swing called Zen Photoshop
So, what’s the difference between working with an 8-bit image and a 16-bit image? Short answer: a lot of color.
Most articles about 8- and 16-bit imagery begin by explaining what a bit is, what bit depth is, and what you get when you add up all the numbers.
Well, I can hardly keep my eyes open reading the technical stuff. I’m an artist, not a mathematician. Let’s leave the mechanics to the engineers, and focus our attention on how a basic understanding of bit depth can enhance your aesthetic vision and potentially speed your workflow.
Upcoming at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops
Mastering Photoshop: Retouching, Compositing, and Masking February 21 - February 27, 2010
For more information or to register by phone, call the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops at (505) 983-1400, ext. 11. → Register online
From the Course Catalog: Designed for photographers and artists who have hands-on experience with Photoshop, this workshop encourages a deeper understanding of composite, enhancement, and simple photo illustration techniques.
At the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops
Stephen Yadzinski is teaching Photoshop Retouching and Composite intensive at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops March 25th - 27th 2009.
Emirates Bus Wrap Takes Off
Continuing their promotion of nonstop service to Dubai, Emirates airlines needed a bold campaign to show off their luxury cabins. Working with Boston-based ism, they settled on a clever concept: dressing ho-hum New York metro area commuter buses up as sleek Airbus a380s.
At the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops
Stephen Yadzinski will be teaching Adobe Photoshop: The Next Step at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops January 12 - January 16, 2009.
ASMP seminar with Stephen Yadzinski
ASMP NM event: Some Of My Favorite Things
When: June 30, 2008. 6:30PM social, seminar from 7:00-8:30PM
Where: Santa Fe Community College, Jemez Room
The Program: Stephen Yadzinski will share the Photoshop tricks and techniques he uses every day in his photo illustration studio. With a focus on portraiture and editorial style imagery, we will explore color correction, layer organization, retouching and composite techniques, selection modification, and converting RGB images to CMYK for publication.
Emirates Superboard Goes Live
Teaming up with our old friends at ism in Boston, Big Swing just completed illustrating Emirates Airlines’ Toronto superboard imagery.
Think making a giant 16’ by 65’ superboard from low-quality files can’t be done? Big Swing says think again. We used the Emirates Airlines’ low-quality files to create lush imagery that says luxury to the thousands of people who pass by it each day.
Kristen Ashburn and Big Swing create an image for Madonna’s UN fundraiser
As you may have heard, Gucci, Raising Malawi, and UNICEF held a fundraiser last night to benefit impoverished children in Africa.
The event featured photographs by our longtime client and friend, Kristen Ashburn. Kristen’s images are simply arresting, and have inspired us to step up Big Swing’s involvement in charitable works.
Kristen Ashburn and Big Swing worked together to create an image for the event.
Joel-Peter Witkin Hires Big Swing
We recently started working with photographer Joel-Peter Witkin.
Some of Joel’s new images require basic composite work, and we are frankly honored that he’s chosen to work with Big Swing.
Type It 4 Me: The little app that makes life a whole lot easier
Last week, David Pogue of The New York Times used his weekly video segment to demonstrate a couple of Macro Software applications.
Pogue’s presentation was great, and it inspired us to tell you about a little piece of Macro Software Big Swing uses every day: Type It 4 Me!
Feathering a selection using Photoshop CS3 (and why the Refine Edge dialogue box is cool…)
Since the release of Photoshop CS3, I’ve had several people ask me the same question: Why doesn’t feathering a selection work like it did in CS2?
Just Finished: Images from Africa by Kristen Ashburn
Big Swing prepared documentary photographer Kristen Ashburn’s images for publication in the most recent issue of Vanity Fair. Africa, a special issue guest-edited by Bono, is on newsstands now.
Kristen’s photography is at once powerful, jarring, subtle, and beautiful. It’s a true privilege for us to work with a photographer creating such important images. Below are a few examples of Kristen’s work, and you can see more of her photographs at her website.
On the Schedule
Stephen Yadzinski will be teaching four courses with the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in 2008.
Photoshop: The Next Step will be taught three times throughout 2008. Those dates are: January 14-18, April 14-18, and May 12-16.
Beginning Photoshop with Lightroom for Photographers is scheduled for February 10-16, 2008.
As we get closer, I’ll write more specifically about the workshops. In the mean time, here’s a little more info:
A little Mac Pro peace of mind (and why you should use MacScan too)
A couple of weeks ago, my G5 Power Mac blew up. We still haven’t figured out what happened, but it seems to have been a hardware failure of some kind. We were in the middle of a very large project, and could not be without an imaging machine for even a single day. Thankfully both drives were unaffected, and a local electronics store had a Mac Pro in stock. We were up and running in about 6 hrs, and made our deadline.
Just Finished: MGM-Foxwoods
Working with ism in Boston, we Just finished a new image for MGM Grand and Foxwoods.
The assignment: Create an image using the supplied stock elements. The main changes were to the image’s color palette and mood, the sunglasses shape and reflection, and add the MGM Grand logo too the side of the sunglasses.
More and more, composite imagery is being made completely of stock components, and we’re quickly becoming accustomed to the sometimes-quirky (I’m being polite here) quality issues that arise with stock photography. As far as we’ve seen, the issues persist with imagery from all stock collections, and increased cost does not mean increased quality.
I don’t want to get too technical, so all I’ll point out is that a good illustrator can do a lot with an image that might be considered less than perfect … and patient persistence can yield stunning, and affordable results.
Privacy Policy
Stephen Yadzinski and Big Swing are dedicated to protecting your privacy on the Internet.
Our client, project, and download pages are protected by salt encrypted password access —a method of Internet security that and offers a very high level of security.
At bigswing.us, your images and client information are protected and will not be shared with other organizations for commercial purposes.
The Big Swing Story
Big Swing offers photo illustration with a push: our unique blend of aesthetic talent, technical chops and knowledge of the industry. Our services are tailored to agencies looking to better service their clients, maximizing advertising dollars and bridging the talent gap between original images and the finished product. We also serve some of today’s top fine art and documentary photographers, working as a partner to help them push their images to the next level.
Since 2001 Big Swing has created arresting imagery for clients including the Barbados Tourism Authority, Emirates, The Learning Channel, and Toyota. And we haven’t forgotten our fine art roots. We work with some of the world’s top photographers, including Joel-Peter Witkin and Kristen Ashburn.
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