I N T R O D U C T I O N

Although studio environments allow for great lighting control, and the opportunity to achieve exceptional photographs, the advent of digital imaging affords the photographer far greater possibilities to create exquisite images and the tools to accomplish this are almost limitless. Yet, regardless of these many wonderful advances, only those photographers who possess natural flair and immense visionary skill with an eagle eye for detail are able to achieve the most beautiful results.

It is hard to believe that just over a couple of decades ago, everything was shot on film, and due to the limited resources, in a sense studio photography was far more complex, because a photographer had to achieve the result on a single sheet of film, albeit often hundreds of frames were shot to achieve this. And although masking could be applied in the later stages of production, none of these techniques could ever achieve the level of accuracy as offered by programs such as Photoshop or Lightroom today.

These days a photographer can ‘assemble a single shot from many taken discarding those elements of a single shot which do not yield the right effect and replace that section with one more  closely matching his vision. Indeed, as compared to expensive film, shooting many images costs nothing, hence there is no restricted budget, other than the creator’s time.

But in the end, regardless of the many tools are available to facilitate superb images, it is the photographer’s vision and skill which will ultimately determine the final result. It is what transpires in the post production phase which will determine whether an image is a winner or a flop, so regardless of advances in technology, it is only the true master who is able to create images which take our breath away.