Images taken in controlled environments for marketing purposes or any type of photo illustrations. Photo retouching/editing is permitted. Any composite, generative fill, or AI work done in post must be noted in the caption.
The client had requested motion blur for a Fast Track degree campaign and after a test shoot decided they wanted a higher key look on a white backdrop. Luckily, pixel stretching has come back into fashion.
Cougarettes dance team photo day at the football stadium.
Basic AI brush removal of little distractions.
Our photography team was tasked with replicating an AI mock up (gasp, I know) for a proof of concept advertisement campaign for our graduate programs. The parameters we were given were that the photography needed to be made on an overcast day, no artificial lighting, and look moody yet the subject should look introspective or aspirational. We were given a series of AI renderings that all had the overcast skies, blue and teal look.
This really stretched our post-processing abilities and our photographic eyes. Typically, we like to photograph students in airy and bright environments rather then dark and moody ones. We also like to bring supplemental lighting to enhance the image in camera. This really was a challenge of subtraction rather then addition for us as a photography team. We also learned that there were certain colors and conditions that did not render a great look for the post processing. No we did not use AI prompts to post process this image or slap on LUTS and call it a day. This was a ton of layer masking and hair pulling. We got really close to the mock up if not replicated it, like this one.
As prevalent and divisive as AI has become, this challenge was a good teaching lesson for us that it's just a tool and that at the end of the day it our job as photographers to make the image we are tasked with capturing...not AI...ever.
Setup shot of students interacting in the student center mall.
Any composite, generative fill, or AI work done:
slight keystone correction, and a subtle mask to help draw your eye to the center of the photo.
After the summer music camp concert, I asked the organist to stick around and pose for a picture, then ran up to the light rafters to get this angle.
Any composite, generative fill, or AI work done:
I did a little bit of masking to help draw your eye to his face, corrected the keystone so that the organ had symmetry, and removed some dust.
A student works with a plasma in a physics lab to promote the university's physics program.
Any composite, generative fill, or AI work done:
I needed to help the blue gel a bit with color and brightness, and I did general retouching, including removing a couple of distracting elements that didn't support the photo's story.
I had the rare privilege of photographing a 16th-century Torah, recently donated to the university seminary before it was put behind glass.
Any composite, generative fill, or AI work done:
While I didn't take it into Photoshop, I did clean up the background in Lightroom using Generative AI Remove so that the fabric the Torah was lying on blended with the seamless black paper (as well as removing a fill card that was in frame and dust from the fabric).
A promo shot for Shrek The Musical at Lees-McRae College featuring Lord Farquaad mid-performance with a wide angle on the stage to capture the action. Taken with a Canon R6iii and 16-35mm F2.8 lens at F2.8, 1/200th shutter, and ISO 500
The Bell Tower as observed through a compressed drone shot during a colorful summer sunset.
Detail from the new campus sculpture "One Wild & Precious Life" by Michigan-based sculptor Laura Teste.