WS – You have some unique post processing methods, can you explain your look?
SL – If I told you I’d have to kill you! Ending up with an eye-catching photograph starts way before an image even gets to a computer. Unfortunately with digital photography, the mind-set is that an image can be taken into Photoshop to be ‘fixed’, but I can’t stress enough the importance of a correctly exposed & composed image even before the digital file loads up on your computer screen. If your image is under or over exposed, Photoshop is not the solution. That image will always be poor quality and editing it often brings out more of the existing flaws. A truly professional photographer always starts his or her process in-camera, not in post-production. Paul and I started out using film, not digital, and we’d spend hours in a darkroom developing film and printing images. The darkroom was the original ‘Photoshop’ and shooting on film was a great foundation for our photography career. Some of the techniques we use in Photoshop are simply replicating darkroom techniques such as dodging & burning or vignetting. Other than those basic processes, our images do have a unique look to them and I’ve been asked if it’s HDR (High Dynamic Range), but it’s not! It looks like HDR, smells like HDR, feels HDR but it’s not HDR! We use a technique that brings out the detail, colour, and contrast in an image, all of which can be achieved to some extent by correctly using curves, levels & sharpening in Photoshop.
WS – What makes the perfect shot?
SL – Is there a perfect wave? Isn’t there an endless chase for that ‘perfect’ wave? I’d say the same is true for every photographer who is truly passionate about what they do. There’s always an eagerness to shoot something more extraordinary and create the next best image. I think if you rest on your laurels in anything you do you stay static, become stagnant and never progress. To be honest though, I don’t even know if a photograph which is totally out of your control can ever be perfect but one of the most important aspects to coming close to that illusive perfect shot is good light. Light is a key element in photography and ‘seeing’ the light and utilising the light when you’re shooting is the difference between a professional photographer or a snapshot photographer.