Project Workflow

- Photographer sends event images send to Holzer team over server. 

- Holzer Internal Lightrooms a selection of Hero/Priority images and preliminary edits. Approved images exported for first pass of retouching and put on the server. 

- Retouchers download an assigned folder from the server, containing batches of 10-25 images at a time. Imperative to not work off the server directly — files must be downloaded to HDD to prevent syncing and performance issues. 

- Conduct the First Editing Pass, focusing only on masking the words and the sky and applying color edits.

- Completed images are exported as: 

low res
 72 dpi, 1800px on the wide end 
File name having a "_V1" at the end. 

- V1 images are sent to Erik/Internal for secondary review for Editing Second Pass, with case-specific markups provided via PDF.  

- Editing Second Pass focuses on word legibility, including cropping and other minor markups. 

- Completed Images for review are exported as low res, with the file name having a "_V2" at the end. This file naming schema continues for any repeated rounds of editing. Please edit so it’d be possible to be able to go back and match previous versions if requested. 

- After Internal has approved the latest version as complete, upload the layered file as uncompressed TIFFs to the server in “TONED” folder, Do not save as PSDs. Do not flatten. 

- May be asked to create a flattened save-as version in full size and low res JPGs to aid in handoff to vendors and publications. 

Editing First Pass

Matching colors similar to past images

Problem: 
Nighttime photos come with light pollution and wild color shifts from traffic and ambient lighting.

Solution:
The sky must be a nice rich shade of dark blue with some detail. Everything else opposite the sky (Buildings, landscape, people) needs to be in a similar shade of blue but slanted towards light purple. Batches should match as a set. Oftentimes, the photographer will capture the images after sunset and the installation continues into the evening — it is preferred that all sky appears to have been photographed at the same time instead of changing into blackness. Avoid getting too noisy in the details. 

Before / After

Editing step by step




  • Make a new layer to start masking the sky.  

    • Attempt with Select/Sky. 

      • If AI fails, use color range selecting the sky.

      • If Color range fails, use lasso or pen tool manually. 

    • Check the edge of the mask and manually add/subtract to what selections may have missed.

    • Make this layer into a group and label it “SKY” and move the mask onto the group. Delete layer. 

    • Copy and Paste the Curves and Color Balance layers from a previously completed image’s SKY folder into this group.

    • Adjust Curves and Color Balance if necessary to match what a completed dark blue sky looks like. 




  • Make a new Group and label it “BUILDING” to start masking the building.

    • Copy the mask from “SKY” folder and put it onto “BUILDING” folder.

    • Invert the mask. Use shortcut “Command + I”    

    • Copy and paste the Curves and Color Balance layers from a previously completed image’s BUILDING folder into this group.

    • Adjust Curves and Color Balance  if necessary to match what a completed dark building looks like. 




  • Make a new layer and label it “WORDS”.

    • Use Select/Color Range

      • Click on the whitest part of the words and slide “fuzziness” until you get a good coverage of primarily the words only with as little ambient white as possible.

        • What to watch out for: Sometimes going too far into the fuzziness, the color range will start to pick up too much of the glow around words, making it look more like a bubble. It is better to have less-solid but still sharp typography edges than rounded 

        • Protip: hold shift and click again on words to capture more of the highlight color range. 


    • Add selection to “WORDS” layer mask. Use lasso to select around the projected words and invert selection, fill the rest of the mask black so it’s only the words and any projected light masked.

    • Fill the layer with solid white. 

    • Ensure this layer is at the top of the layer hierarchy. 



By now your layers should look like this: 



Congratulations, you have completed Editing First Pass. Prepare image for review.

  • Save layered retouched full size image.

  • Flatten image

  • Reduce size to 72dpi, 1,800pixels on the widest end

  • Save-as a new JPG  with the file name adding a “_V1” at the end.

  • Careful not to overwrite layered retouched full size image when closing.

  • Send batch in for review. 


Editing Second Pass

Making projected words on buildings easier to read.

Problem: 

Projected words on buildings are quite easy to read when it's seen in person and/or on video as the brain does an amazing job filling in and tracking. However, in photography, a still shot brings a host of problems making it difficult to read and position the text on the building. There are various pains when it comes to making words easier to read so we review them case by case.

 

If there are:
- Slim pieces of letters/words visible on the top or bottom edge of the building.

Solution:
- Remove them with a new retouching layer above original image layer. 

Example:



If there are:
- Ledges and protrusions on the building splitting or cutting words as the projector is sending words up at an angle, but words would appear stretched out if filled in completely.

Solution:
- Make a new layer, lasso the gap between the words, add selection as layer mask, fill layer with white, set opacity to 40%.  

Before/After:

If there are:
- Pieces of letters missing due to window, ledges, obstruction, or projector cutoff. However, would not appear stretched out if filled in completely.

Solution:
- Find a matching letter in the WORDs layer in the same image or others in the batch. Add as new white layer and line it up on top of the missing letter space. Brush in the missing portion only so the rest of the word doesn’t look overlapped.

Before/After:

If there are:
- Words that may be difficult to read due to the softness of illuminated glow or on reflective surfaces. Sometimes we darken the glow around the words to make it sharp edged. 

Solution:
- If your WORDs mask is sharp edged already, make a new retouching layer, copy the WORDs layer’s mask and set as retouch layer’s mask. Invert the mask so edits apply around the letters. Set layer to “Darken”. Set brush opacity and flow settings to 15%. Using eyedropper, select a dark area on the wall near the letters. Brush across words to subtly darken the glow. Add noise to the layer until the brush matches the rest of the photo.

Before/After:

Before/After:

Layer Hierarchy Rules

Layers in order of appearance on Layers Window:  

  • Global Dodge and burn (If applicable)

  • White layer with masked words

  • Sky Colors

  • Building Colors

  • Any Retouching/markups edit layer (If applicable)

  • Original image layer

Example:


Rules

1: Colors should always be above all retouching layers for ease of adjustment. 

2: Do not edit original image layer directly or merge-down onto it. Maintain non-destructive protocols. 

3: When making a new layer to retouch image, always start with an empty layer. 

- Do not duplicate the original image layer and edit that as it’d blow up file size and makes retouching work unable to edit and move.
- Tools such as Healing brush, Stamp, etc should have sampler option be set to (sample: “Current and below”) not “all layers” or “Current layer” in order to contain the edits onto the retouching layer.