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Life Before Photoshop: Caddy Collection

Look ma no Photoshop.

Look ma no Photoshop.

For all my fellow photographers that fell in love with taking photos in the digital age, there was actually a time when you had to create everything in the camera. A time when you had to take a roll of film out of a canister and load it into your camera; compose, then focus all by yourself.

Now, you don’t have to do anything but bring the camera up to your eyes and click the shutter. If something ain’t right, well don’t worry because you can “fix it later”. I’ve heard this exact quote a lot in my online classes with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet.

Don’t think for a minute that I’m some old-fashioned, medicare card-carrying gray-haired old man that has not kept up with the times. I might be old and gray, but I assure you that I’m fairly good with Photoshop and use it all the time; on just about every photo I take.

I like creating as much in the camera as I can because to me that’s what a good photographer does. If there are things that I have no control over, or can’t fix before I click the shutter, I have no problem working on them in post-production.

In the photo above, I was hired by a man who collected Cadillacs. He wanted a poster to put up in his office, and he wanted to show the cars in his front yard. I scouted the location to determine whether it received morning or evening light, and determined that a late afternoon shoot would provide me with the best and latest light.

I set up my camera on a tripod and arranged the Cadillacs while looking through the viewfinder. The hard part was arranging the cars so they would reflect light, but not be blown out. It took the entire day to do it. I brought out a hose and we wet down the driveway to catch any reflections I could while creating a sense of depth. Knowing that I had a small window of light, I waited until it was the way I wanted then took the shot.

All this was created on one piece of film.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule, also follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/barabanjoe/ Come shoot with me.

JoeB

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