Category: Photography

The Permanence of Pictures in Today’s Digital World

On Episode 70 of The Edge of Innovation, we’re talking with photographer Al Pereira about what it takes to be a great photographer and the permanence of pictures in today’s digital world.

Show Notes

Advanced Photo’s Website
Contact Al Pereira
Find Al Pereira on Facebook
Find Al Pereira on LinkedIn
UPI – United Press International
The Eagle Tribune
How To Get Your Drone License
FAA – Becoming a Drone Pilot
The Amazing New World of Drones Podcast
Link to SaviorLabs Assessment

Sections

Photographing With Drones
Photographers Should Be Great Leaders
Websites and Photography
Photographers As Communicators
Memories Matter – Why You Should Print Your Pictures
There Is No Excuse! – Finding Time To Print Photos

The Permanence of Pictures in Today’s Digital World

Photographing With Drones

Paul: Well so now, I know it’s been a couple of years now, but you’ve been in drones.

Al: Oh, yes. I actually got certified by FAA to fly them.

Paul: Okay. So you’re a certified drone pilot. But you didn’t want to fly drones so you could just fly around and look at neighbors’ pools and stuff. You know, look at power lines or something. You did it because you thought you could make a business out of it of taking cool photographs of businesses and offices and sites. So how has that been going?

Al: I’ll tell you. The drone industry has taken off. The business side of Advanced Photo, the drones has taken off. I do a lot of real estate pictures and videos. And it seems that every week, I get more and more jobs with not just taking photos of the inside of the house but also we need the video, and we need drone photos of the outside of the house. So in the last month and a half, I’ve actually ended up getting like six more real estate agents. And I don’t want to overdo it, but it’s in a comfortable kind of stage where I can handle the work.

But that’s not where it stops too, what I do. I actually do virtual tours of houses. So that’s a new technology that hasn’t been out that long where, if you are familiar with the way Google works when you find a street and you can walk down the street, it’s similar to that. You can do a complete 360. But the quality, it’s like you’re in that house. The grain of the woods is so sharp that you could almost touch it. That’s how much reality it is. And you capture the photographs from that, and it’s magazine ready.

Paul: Wow. That’s cool.

Al: That type of quality. So from drones, the virtual tours… I mean, there isn’t much that I don’t do and I don’t love doing. Everything. One of my realtors that says, “Al, I love working with you. You’re always excited every time I call you, and that makes me feel good. It makes me want to work with you.” And that makes me feel good.

Photographers Should Be Great Leaders

Paul: Well, it should. One of the things that I think differentiates you from a lot of photographers, and just from a lot of people, is you have a great personality. One of the things I think that’s important is, I’ve worked with a lot of photographers, and I know a lot of them. And a lot of people have been in a lot of weddings where you’re watching the photographer, and they’re sort of like saying, “Uh, move.” And doing this. And they’re talking with this diminutive voice, and they’re not saying things. “Look this way.” You know, there’s no energy. And I’ve seen you take control of a room. And, “Okay. Come on. Move over here. Look this way. Okay, I want you to tilt your head just a little bit this way.” And you’re directing them to make them look good. And I think that’s one of the keys for a good photographer is to be able to communicate effectively with the people you’re working with. And that is just so rare. I’ve seen it so much that it’s just all lacking.

Al: You know, I always had this philosophy. You get hired to do a wedding, and you have a job to do. Are you going to be a follower, or are you going to be a leader? In other words, when I get hired, I walk into the house. I gradually guide the bride from step A to B to C, and I get her to be on time from the house to the church, going down the aisle. A photographer, today’s photographers are not leaders, they’re followers. And they stand back and let the bride do the work technically on their wedding day. I just did a recent wedding, and it was amazing that the photographer would say, “Okay, what other picture do you want? What other picture do you want?”

Paul: And that’s not what they’re thinking about.

Al: And I was doing video at this particular wedding. I was like, “Oh, my god. I mean, how can this be? What’s going on?” And I call them “weekend warriors” because they really don’t know the poses. They don’t know the key shots. They’ll take 2,000 photos, but you’re lucky to get 100 decent ones. So it’s important that when you look for a photographer that you get a photographer that’s going to do the job and going to do the job without you having to think for them. They should know what needs to be done.

Paul: Right, yeah. And I think you’re right. Photography is leadership, and it’s coming in and saying, “You want this to look good. Let’s do it.”

Websites and Photography

So I’d like to touch on this. We actually just had Al take some photos for us for our website which you can see on the website. And we do a lot of websites for people, companies, whatever it might be. And I think the biggest problem with websites is bad photography or, even worse, is stock photography. It is just not what people are looking for. When they come to your website, they want to see pictures of you. They want to be able to identify you. So if you’re out there in business, and your website has stock photos on it, I would run as fast as you can to get a real photographer and get some taken. And don’t get, you know, the, the sister of the daughter of the president or something like that. “Oh, they’re, they’re good with a camera.” It’s not all that expensive to hire a photographer for a couple of hours, and you will get more photos than you could use. I will tell you, the conversion rate on real photos for people on websites, makes a huge difference.

Now what you can do is go and find some stock photos that you like the design of, and say, “This is the kind of photos I want you to make.” That will help. It will decrease the amount of time, but it’s an important investment. You could spend $1,000, $10,0000 on a website and spend that little extra money to get a photographer.

Photographers As Communicators

Al: With that being said, Paul, one of the things that I’ve found with previous jobs that I’ve had is the lack of communication. They’ll hire you, and they’ll say, “Okay, we need to have you go to a location.” Okay, fine. And you try to find out what it is that I’m there for, and there’s no communication whatsoever. And you get there, and you’re trying to figure out what it is exactly they want. So you ask questions. And sometimes, they get annoyed that you’re asking the questions. “Well, I hired you. Just do the job.”

“What am I doing?” I’m taking pictures, but what is the purpose of the photos?

So you hire someone, you really need to communicate to the point that, “Okay, this is for a website.”

“What’s the website about? What do you do? What kind of a business is it? Okay, your folks, do they have personality? I mean, are they willing to be in front of the camera?” There’s so much nowadays especially. The communication factor is so important.

Paul: Right. Absolutely. And I think that’s a good point, even for your website. What does it say, you know? You need to look at it. One of the most difficult things when you have your own business website is assessing what is it actually saying, because you read so much into it. So you need to almost sit down with somebody you don’t know and say, “Tell me what you think of this website. What does this company do? What do they want you to do?” I’ve done that with different people, and I will tell you, the difference of reaction between real photos and stock photos or real video. And also video is huge. Don’t underestimate that. A good video is worth so much. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Then maybe a video is worth 10,000.

Al: You know, one of the things that I always try to imagine is, “Okay, this is my business. What would I want?” I love eye contact with the camera. I love animation in a video or even in a photo, like for example, your staff. They love what they’re doing, and I want people to be able to see that. So the smile. It’s not always about being serious. It’s let’s capture that employee’s personality because you put that up, and people are going to say, “It looks like a fun, you know, place to work at.” And that’s more important than just having a snapshot, you know.

Paul: Well, I think what you’re talking about is relationships. What photos do is remind you of a relationship, whether it’s to a place or to people, or people in a place. And an effective communicator, that is called a good photographer, a good videographer. We want to tell stories, and that’s what photos do.

Memories Matter – Why You Should Print Your Pictures

Paul: Now we’ve also talked about this, just as sort of an aside, is it used to be that you’d have a closet full of slides or photos or the people that were a little more organized would put them in books. And they’d pull them out once in a while and look at them. That can’t happen anymore.

Al: Not unless you have a projector.

Paul: Or you put it on your phone, and you flip through them there. But it’s a very different experience. You know, it’s like looking at a two by three print.

Al: That’s correct. You know it’s funny. There are a lot of people out there that have old negatives in a shoe box or the slides. And I’ve always said, out of sight, out of mind. And what good are they in a shoe box? You should do something with them. And people say, “Well, what am I’m going to do with them?”

I say, “There’s a few things you can do. You can have them scanned in, digitize them. Now that CD or DVD that you have become negatives, your negatives.” Remember the old days when you would have a roll of film? You would get negatives back. Well, there’s no such thing now. But you need to back up your digital files. You can’t trust a computer. You can’t trust external drives.

Paul: That’s true, yeah.

Al: Even DVDs you need to really have a couple of them just in case.

Paul: Yeah. They’re not archival, as we call it.

Al: But, you need to do something with them. And then once you get them in front of you, then you say, okay, what do I want to print? Do I print them at least four by six and get that album. There’s nothing like having an album to sit down on the couch with a cup of coffee or at a table and look at photos. It’s not the same on the phone. It’s not. You’re lucky if you can find them, first of all.

Paul: Well that’s the biggest thing is you can’t find them. But I also have seen people now doing like a photo wall in their house where they’ll have just bunches and bunches of prints that they’ll put up and change them once in a while or move them around. But I just think that’s a great idea because we’re in this rush, rush world. But we have to stop and smell the roses and really enjoy the memories.

Al: Well, that’s important. If you read the paper or if you sometimes watch the news, in the Midwest, there’s a tornado; there’s a flooding. And it, it doesn’t surprise me, but I always hear, “I’ve got to get my photos. Those are my memories. You can’t replace memories. You can’t replace photos.” And they will almost kill themselves just to try to get those out of there. It’s different in this part of the world because everybody is so busy. They don’t think about the memories that they have captured—

Paul: Until it’s too late.

Al: —on their phone. Right. Until it’s too late. You know, I do slideshows for memorial services, and it’s rather sad that in the last seven, eight, almost 10 years now, I’ve seen less and less recent photos of the folks that have passed than ever before. So they’re scrambling to find anything they can. And it’s 20, 30 year old photos. They don’t look like that anymore. And one of the reasons too is, “Oh, I know we have photos, but we can’t find them. They’re on a computer, or they’re on a phone.”

Paul: Who knows where? On an old phone somewhere.

Al: Right. And it’s sad because those are your memories going forward. And I have also folks that have parents that have Alzheimer’s and so forth, and they come to me and said, “You know, the other day, I showed my mother this photo from my phone, and she had a beam in her face, and it’s like she remembered. So can you print these photos?” And you know what? It makes a difference in those people’s lives.

Paul: Yeah, it sure does.

Al: Because they look at it and, for some reason—

Paul: They remember.

Al: It kind of stimulates their mind as to when it was taken, how they were in the photo and so forth. So, people need to understand photos, that Kodak moment, still exists.

Paul: Yeah, it sure does.

There Is No Excuse! – Finding Time To Print Photos

Al: You just have to take the step, and there is no excuse — I don’t have the time — because there’s emailing the photos to your local lab, there’s uploading by going to their website. There’s so many different ways. Put them on a thumb drive. Go to the store. Put them in the slot, in the mail slot, with a note saying print all of them. You know what I mean? So, it’s a few seconds it takes.

Paul: Yeah, it is. It’s something very tangible. It’s very interesting when you hold the photo and if you haven’t experienced that — because you might not have any printed photos — give it a try. It’s really incredible. it’s something that’s just a neat experience.

Al: Just holding a photo. I mean, you can turn around and show it to a friend, and you can laugh. Okay, you could put it down and say, “You know what? Wait a minute. Let me go back and look,” where you don’t have to use your finger to scroll back and try to find it from a thousand pictures.

Paul: Yeah, there’s a lot more permanence to it and it just sits there and it’s a very different experience. I think it’s important for people to start.

Al: But you know what I have noticed in the last six months to a year that I’m getting a lot younger people coming in, especially when they go to college, they come in and they print a bunch of four by sixes so they can have it on their wall. And that really excites me because they look forward to seeing those photos once they’re printed, and they get excited, and they say thank you, you know.

Paul: Absolutely.

Well, we’ve been talking with Al Pereira of Advanced Photo in North Reading, Massachusetts. You can see his work by looking in our show notes and how to get in touch with Al and get to his websites. But it’s been a privilege to talk with you. Thank you for your time and we appreciate it.

Al: It’s been a lot of fun, Paul, and I really appreciate you having me.

Paul: Alright.

Al: Thank you.

Paul: Thank you.

More Episodes:

You’ve been listening to Part 3 of our interview with Al Pereira! If you missed Part 1, you can listen to it here and if you missed part 2, you can find it here!


Also published on Medium.

A Day in The Life of a Freelance Photographer

On episode 69 of The Edge of Innovation, we’re talking with photographer Al Pereira about what it’s like to be a freelance photographer and run a photography store.

Show Notes

Advanced Photo’s Website
Contact Al Pereira
Find Al Pereira on Facebook
Find Al Pereira on LinkedIn
UPI – United Press International
The Eagle Tribune
Large Format Epson Professional Printers
4K: What You Need to Know
Why Save Old Negatives?
Link to SaviorLabs Assessment

Sections

The Conundrum of Being a News Photographer
A Day in The Life of a News Photographer
Opening The Photography Store – “Advanced Photo”
If You Want To Stay In Business
Dealing With Digital Images
Color Perception
Printers in The Photography Shop
4K Video Cameras

A Day in The Life of a Freelance Photographer

The Conundrum of Being a News Photographer

Paul: So let’s step back. I’ve been a news photographer. And, you have this conundrum or question that comes up when you take pictures of bad things, and then you see it on the newspaper. I got a front-page article once about a very bad car accident, and you’re sort of like, “Well, am I taking advantage of that car accident? Or am I…?” How, how did you deal with that? I know how I did.

Al: You know, back then, news was different. And I’ve always believed that we need to educate people and not always in the good way because bad things happen to people. And if you shelter people, they’re never going to know what reality is. So I’ve seen good, and I’ve seen horrible things. And I’ve captured horrible things, and some of them couldn’t even be printed because it’s not allowed. I’ve always been a firm believer that people need to see reality. And when I took a picture of an accident, it was to basically educate people that it could happen to them. So, don’t let this happen to you. I dealt with it always in an informative, educational kind of way versus, “It’s a job, and I need to do it” kind of thing.

Paul: Yeah, that’s most of the photographers I’ve talked to that have been… News photographers have really focused on the fact that, it’s a hard world out there, and you’re not doing people any favors to not show them how bad a car accident can be. I think we can always all remember — at least I do from high school — seeing in class, the bus full of kids getting in an accident and how bad it was. And it was a certain shock value. But it’s really to show you that these are serious, serious issues and so it, it’s hard bringing good news — not just good news — bad news.

Al: Because that’s our reality.

Paul: Right exactly. And there is a lot to news photography that’s not just the accident. It’s the meet-and-greet and the ribbon cutting and the pinewood derby at the local Cub Scouts and things like that.

A Day in The Life of a News Photographer

Al: You know, it’s funny. I’ve always said I could be doing an accident one, one second, and then all of a sudden, I’m doing somebody’s 80th birthday party that’s newsworthy. And it was always exciting because you really never knew what you were going to get.

When I was working for the Eagle Tribune, one week out of the month, I’d be working the day shift. I had the second shift. And for some reason, that week was always busy for me. And this particular week, I went out on the road looking for something, and all of a sudden over the radio, police scanner, there was a report of a bear on top of a tree. Okay? These was in Lawrence, Massachusetts. So I said, “A bear…” So they dispatched a cruiser to give them the address. I went down there. Surely behold, there was a 250-pound bear on top of this one tree in downtown Lawrence in somebody’s backyard. It was tremendous. We had everybody from, the fire department, police department, the environment— You name it, they were there. And they finally had to tranquilize the bear, and the bear came down. We put him in the back of a truck in a cage. I actually followed them to the Berkshires to let it go. I was a good news photographer. I loved spot news because you never knew what you were going to get into. I’ve been in the middle of shootings.

Paul: I’ve never done that.

Al: I could tell you stories. But it was always fascinating what I did. And I really enjoyed it because the next day, it would be on the front page or inside, and I’d say, “I hope somebody takes this, for what it’s worth.” You know.

I’ll give you one funny story here, another one. North Andover, again, but this time, they were very, very secretive. And I heard 50 kids are going to be taken in. 50 kids? Okay. And then they actually gave the address out over the radio. And I took a reporter. I said, “I don’t know what this is, but we have to go.” It was only down the street from the Eagle Tribune.

So I see the few cruisers, very quiet. A few cruiser in front of this house. I park. I checked my equipment out of the trunk of my car. I put on my flash, get it all set. All of a sudden, I looked up. I’m facing the house. I looked up. On the second floor, the window opens up. At this time, one of the cops that was inside the house sees us, and he comes over to the door and puts his hands on his side, not saying anything. I looked up and there was a leg coming out the window. Okay? I snapped it. So there’s this leg and half body out the window. There’s this cop standing in front of the door. One snap. I said, “We’ve got to get out of here.”

I went back. It was shot. It was exposed properly. Now normally you would do five by sevens, eight by tens so the editors can see the next day. I did an eleven by fourteen print of this one here because it was spectacular. The next day I come in. I look at the front page. Three-quarters of the page. It was awesome. For like a month later, I was getting letters on sound off or compliments on the photo. And one of the sound off people said, “I think that’s my son coming out of that window.”

So that, you know, there’s good and there’s bad, and there’s funny and different and so forth. So it, it’s been a good career.

Opening The Photography Store – “Advanced Photo”

Paul: Okay. Alright. So it’s 1992. You decide to start a photography store.

Al: Well, Advanced Photo actually. I didn’t want to just start a photo store, and a photo store could mean anything. It could be a one-hour photo. It could be one-hour photo and selling equipment. It could be just about anything. But I wanted to make it kind of a specific thing. I didn’t want to get into cameras because there was just too many people, too many companies in the area selling camera equipment. I wanted to be a photo store that would be able to offer, services that other photo stores wouldn’t or couldn’t. But I also wanted to still continue doing the weddings and the portraits and the pet photography and so forth. So I opened up Advanced Photo with that in mind.

Paul: Okay. Yeah, because it is unique. I mean, you go, and there are the one-hour photo places. I mean, there’s the drugstores. And they get a high-school kid that basically pushes a button. And they’re trying to say they can do everything but there’s not a skilled person sitting between the computer and the chair—

Al: That’s correct.

Paul: —you know, who would have been in the darkroom years ago but who is taking the actual photo and making it different or fixing it. And so you do a whole bunch of services. I mean, I know you do, of course, weddings and photos and passports and portraits and commercial photography for products. And you’ll go on site and do stuff. But you also will fix photos, like an old, you know broken—

Al: Photo restoration.

Paul: Restoration and you do video, and so it’s really everything imaging based. You could almost change in to Advanced Imaging if people knew what that meant.

If You Want To Stay In Business

Al: Right. I’ve always said that if you want to stay in business, there’s a few things you really need to do. One thing is you really need to enjoy what you do. You need to consider everything you do like it’s for yourself. And by thinking that way, you’re going to do the best you can for all your customers. Okay? I’ve always been a firm believer that you explain to the customer the things that are the places where you, for example, if you brought a roll of film in, or nowadays, digital, for example. If it’s underexposed, overexposed, it’s not shop. It’s pixelated, it’s this and that… Well, what’s causing this? I was always want to educate my customers. 25 years later, I’m still there and for a reason. And I’ve always treated everybody’s work like my own.

I remember one time, I had prints on the floor, and a customer comes in and says, “What are all those prints on the floor?”

And I picked them up. I said, “These are my rejects.”

And he says, “Well, they look good to me.”

I says, “Well, no, see the color’s a little bit yellow.”

“They look good to me, Al.”

So I was a perfectionist. I’ve always been a perfectionist. And I’m a firm believer that you gotta go above and beyond for your customer. You gotta make them look good or better than what they really are.

Paul: Right. Yeah, well, they got to put on their best look. I mean, if they had spinach in their teeth, that’s not necessarily your responsibility. It was as a photographer. But it’s like, well, that’s not really pleasing, and it’s not going to reflect well on you when somebody sees it.

Dealing With Digital Images

Paul: Things have changed. But almost, the more things have changed, the more they stay the same. It, it’s easier certainly to deal with digital images.

Al: Not really.

Paul: Not really? Why?

Al: Because there’s a lot of clicking has to go on where you would get a roll of film; you’d process the film; you’d put it in a machine, and you would actually look at every image, and you’d push a button to make it go. Where it’s clicking; it’s mouse related, and it’s a lot more work than it was before.

Paul: Yeah, that’s true. We had some photos taken here a couple of months ago, and we wanted to reshoot them. And just to print them out was a hassle, you know. And if it were the old world, I would have had an envelope with four by six or five by seven prints in it. And so while it’s maybe easier, it’s less convenient. And so now it’s left to me to do that. And that gets expensive. Ink is expensive.

Al: You have to have the equipment that you never imagined you needed. For example, computers. I never saw myself with a computer in front of me. No background in computers. I mean, it was very confusing. But look at me know. I’m not a computer wiz when it comes to fixing them, but I’m a computer wiz when it comes to Photoshop and photo restoration.

Color Perception

Paul: Yeah, you sure are. And also color perception.

Al: Right.

Paul: That’s one thing that I’ve always been impressed with is, I’m a pretty good technician. I can technically do something, but you’ll walk up to a photo I’m working on, and you say, “That’s all red.”

And I’m like, “I don’t know.” You know, and then I let you just fix the color, and it’s just funny. I just— that just doesn’t click for me. I’m not colorblind. And once you point it out, it’s blatantly obvious.

Al: It’s right there.

Paul: But it’s not seen before it’s pointed out. And that’s, I think, the key. So that person that walked into your shop and saw a picture — “Well, it looks good to me” — well, I think there’s a lot of things that contribute to what makes a picture go, “Wow.” And it’s the things you don’t see. You know, it’s the little things like the background having a pole coming out of somebody’s head and all those kind of things.

Al: Well, you don’t fix them unless you’re the photographer taking the photo.

Paul: Right. Yes, exactly. Yeah. The pole…you can, sort of, maybe. But it’s a lot of work. But what I’m saying is that all those little subtle perceptions — you know, the color, the tilt or angle of the photo. Some of them can be “style,” but it really takes a good set of eyes.

Al: That’s right. You know, I’ve experienced a lot of different customers in my 25 years of Advanced Photo. And quite a few times my competitor’s machine would be broken, and folks would come in and say, “I have this, print, the negative here. Can you match the colors?” And every single time, I would look at the print that was printed by my competitor, and I’d say, “Well, could I ask you a question? Are your kids’ hair green?”

And they say, “What do you mean, they’re green?”

Well, can you look at the original here. And they wouldn’t see it. So I said, “Do you have a few minutes?” And I would turn around, and I would print it, and I would go back to them and not show them which one was mine and which one was my competitor’s. But I’d say, “Okay, here is is your print. Which one is the one that you brought in?” And they would always pick mine. Okay? They, don’t see color. They don’t see the imperfections.

Paul: Right. Well, they know it when they see it, but they just can’t identify it.

Al: Well, right.

Paul: And they say, “That looks better.” It’s like eating food. You know, it’s sort of—

Al: Well, when they see mine and when they see theirs, now they see it. But because they’re so used to what — oh, it must be me. I used to, “Here. Oh, that’s my camera.” And they told me, “it’s my camera,” when it’s really not.

Paul: Right. It’s not a camera issue.

Al: You know, there’s a difference between getting somebody’s job and sitting there, looking at every photo and making corrections as needed than it is just to push a button and walk away. And I don’t do that. I can’t do that. Never have been able to do that.

Printers in The Photography Shop

Paul: Right. So, now you have, it’s a tremendous investment. But you’ve got a printer that can print — what? — 48 inches wide?

Al: 42. I have one that can print 42-inch wide by life-size. I have a 24-inch wide Epson also that can print 24 wide by whatever size. Then I have two other printers. One is does from wallets all the way up 12 by 19. And other one will do from wallets all the way up to 8 by 12. But this particular printer, the reason I really bought it was because it does Christmas cards and folded cards, double-side printing and so forth which is spectacular quality.

Paul: That’s neat. So, you have basically all the services somebody could need when it comes to imaging. Now you also do video.

Al: Yes.

4K Video Cameras

Paul: Again, I’m sort of a techie, so I go towards the, the technical stuff, but I know you’re doing 4K video, which most people don’t have a way to even watch 4K, let alone even on a computer. But it will come. It will be there. It’s 4K video is basically HD times four. So it’s effectively having four HD screens, one on each corner. And so it’s a big picture with a lot of data but you have cameras that shoot HD and 4K and edit those. And you do that for… I guess you do it for weddings, but you also do it for corporate work.

Al: Yep. As a matter of fact, I just did a job yesterday for a Mother and daughter that came up with this great idea for inserting different things on the outside of their boots. So, for example, if you buy a pair of boots and it’s black, you’re limited in your attire. What they came up with a way to change the face of the boot by inserting something else that will go with your outfit. They actually, got asked to go on to a shopping network and also they have been featured in Good Housekeeping. So they came in yesterday. I videotaped them with their boots, explaining how it works and so forth, and I also did a portrait session on them for Good Housekeeping.

So, you know, again, you have to diversify. And over the years, I’ve diversified. You go to my website and you look at all the services that Advanced Photo offers. Technically speaking, it’s one person doing all of that — from wedding photography to video. Okay, well, I can’t do both, but I’ll do one or the other. Okay? Pet photography, corporate photography, family portraits inside or outside, photo restoration, scanning of slides, negatives. I’ve had the weirdest negatives according to certain people at, negatives that are made out of the metal thin.

Paul: Oh, yeah. Uh-huh.

Al: I’ve had those glass negatives, eight by ten negative. Those are huge. So I do all that, you know. I have had people bring in artwork valued at 100,000, 200,000, and they wanted me to make copies for them or even just digitize them. So I’m all over the place when it comes to my services.

More Episodes:

You’ve been listening to Part 2 of our interview with Al Pereira. Stay tuned for Part 3! If you missed Part 1, you can listen to it here!


Also published on Medium.

Tutorial Tuesday: How To Change Hair Color in Photoshop

June 24, 2014

Today, YouTheDesigner is going to show you how to change hair color in Photoshop. This is a pretty basic technique that uses some basic digital painting elements and uses some masking techniques. It’s fairly simple and easy to follow for even just beginners! What we’re trying to do is to turn the top image into the bottom image. Let’s get started! STEP 01: OPEN YOUR DOCUMENT We took a fashion stock photo courtesy of Shutterstock and opened it up in Adobe Photoshop. Make sure you use a photo with good lighting and and decent resolution so you can build up better quality results. STEP 02: Get the colors! We basically create a new adjustment layer by going to…

Original Article Can Be Found Here:

Tutorial Tuesday – How To Change Hair Color in Photoshop

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