Welcome
to the


Photoshop or Not
Blog

Pho٠to٠shop - noun or verb?
Today Photoshop has become more than just a term to describe a program for editing photos. It has become a term for describing whether or not a photo has been manipulated to change the appearance from its original state. People frequently use the term "Photoshopped" in this way.


My name is Rob Resnick. I currently work as a Photoshop Artist at Image Studios, a commercial photography studio in Appleton, Wisconsin. In my spare time I enjoy photography, art and the outdoors. My job as a Photoshop artist has given me a new perspective in regards to images that we see nowadays. The line between reality and manipulation is getting harder to determine just by viewing a photo. I have created this blog in attempts to illustrate what can be accomplished with the use of Photoshop.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Barbicide Photo Shoot

Challenges often are a step toward personal growth. If we look back in life it is easy to see how much we have developed when faced with challenges. This image was a challenge for our photographer and for me as a Photoshop artist. The goal was to make this model appear as if she was underwater. The end result is quite convincing but took many steps to get there, from setting up the shot to layering all the pieces of the puzzle together. The shot eventually ended up being used on the website for Barbicide and in the process I learned new blending techniques which have lead to the discovery of new and interesting ways to apply these. What seemed to be a real challenge actually was an opportunity for growth. The next time you are faced with what seems to be a difficult situation, remember that in the end you will come out the better for it.





Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Senior Photos

I had the "opportunity" to photograph my nephews for their senior pictures recently. I asked them before we went out shooting to think of some areas that would be some cool spots to take their pictures. Of course when I got there they really didn't have much of an idea as to where they wanted to go. As a result, I had to put on my creative thinking hat and come up with some creative shots. I was pretty happy with what we were able to make happen but I thought it might be even more fun to take the shots I had and find some different backgrounds to drop my nephews into. here are a couple of examples of what you can do with a little creativity and the ability to make it happen.

Scroll over the images below to see the originals.






Monday, February 9, 2009

The Hulk

First and foremost, I have to thank Shane Van Boxtel for letting me use the portrait he photographed. It was originally used in an advertisement for a financial institution. They decided to convert the image to black & white and give him green eyes. I mentioned to Shane that I thought this image begged to have more done to it so we decided to have some fun with it. Shane went in one direction with it and I went in another. Both images ended up kicking some serious hulk. If you scroll over the image below you will see the original that we started with.
The final Photoshop file had 69 layers for a total file size of 300 megs. I started first with creating the Hulk figure by changing him to green, adding motion, and dirtying him up a bit. The next part was trying to figure out what background to put him in. This is where Shane and I went in different directions. I decided to play off of the energy that there seemed to be with the image. I had taken some storm photos last summer and decided to use that as the backdrop. I also photographed a couple of wind farms last summer. The wind turbines are quite fascinating in that they are so immense. It really makes you feel small in comparison. They are a representation of how we try to harness the energy around us. I added lightning and then decided it would add a lot of drama if it looked like everything was starting to overload because of the energy the Hulk was creating. I also applied some dramatic contrast and color tint to give it that extra feel to it. I hope you have as much fun viewing it as I did creating it and hopefully you will be inspired to create your own "Hulk".




Thursday, February 5, 2009

"Tricks Are For Kids"

People often ask us if we know any new tricks or what tricks we used on a project. Well there aren't any. Most people can't believe it but there are only techniques, no tricks, that help make it look like magic. I like to tell people "tricks are for kids". If you work hard and know the right techniques you can create the illusion that you did something magical.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

This section is dedicated to testing your skill in determining
whether or not an
image has been Photoshopped.

All you have to do is mouse over them to find out. Be careful though - the captions below the photographs will give away the answer so if you really want to test your skill make your decision before you read them.






I actually shot the Mustang and the F22 Raptor together as they flew overhead. I decided I really liked the shot but needed to give it some more drama so i got rid of the boring sky in the background and put in one with much more character.






This photo is of the Haceta Head Lighthouse in Oregon.
It happened to be one of those perfect moments where all the elements

came together to capture this shot.







Sometimes it's hard enough to get photos of birds, not to mention in a great location, so I decided to make the process a bit easier.






This image was shot for a client and we wanted it to feel more winter like. I decided to try some effects to make the trees look snow covered.






People think I added the kayaks to the tree but they really do grow on trees!







This image was taken in St. Marten in the Bahamas.
The village had these wonderful colored roofs and the
sailboat just happened to be passing by.







I liked the image of this farm with the old windmill and decided it would be fun to contrast the old with the new so I put in a wind turbine that i had recently shot and cleaned up some of the clutter to simplify the image.






This image was done for a client who wanted the freeway to look really busy so I took multiple
shots and combined them together to create a freeway that had lots of vehicles on it.






This image was a composite I worked on for our client. I added the truck to the background,
added dust and had to do some dramatic lighting to the background.








The client wanted this snowmobile dropped into a better looking background.







This might seem hard to believe but i actually was able to quickly snap a picture of this Gnome hanging around before he knew what was happening.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The Magic of Photoshop


These images were done by me at Image Studios

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Photoshop Trivia

Photoshop Trivia Quiz

Below are a list of questions for you to test you Photoshop knowledge.
The answers will be revealed at the end of the last question.



1. What year was Photoshop 1 released?

a. 1988 b. 1990 c. 1992 d. 1994

2. How many versions of Photoshop ha
ve been released so far?

a. 9 b. 10 c. 11 d. 12


3. How many different languages is Photoshop distributed in?

a. 5 b. 10 c. 20 d. 25

4. How many products are in the Photoshop family?

a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4

5. When was camera raw first introduced in Photoshop?

a. 1999 b. 2001 c. 2003 d. 2005

6. What was the current Photoshop icon modeled after?

a. The periodic table elements
b. M&M's
c. The Red Cross insignia
d. None of the above












1. (b) Photoshop 1 was released in the year 1990.

2. (c) 11 versions have been released so far.

3. (c) Photoshop is distributed in 20 different languages.

4. (d) There are four products under the photoshop name, Photoshop CS4, Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Lightroom 2 and Photoshop Express beta.

5. (c) In February 2003, Photoshop shipped with the Camers Raw 1.x plug-in, which allowed users to import Raw formats from different digital cameras directly into Photoshop.

6. (a) The periodic table elements.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Photoshop Transformation