On several magazine shoots I have assisted on, and done the retouching for, we were required to shoot the scene with specific retouching in mind to appease compositional concerns of the designer or art director.
In this shot for a California Home and Design story, the designer brought in art by a local painter that they wanted to showcase. Rather than put new holes in the otherwise pristine wall, we propped the painting behind the couch and later removed the containers we had used for spacing with Photoshop. This was one of the “hero” shots for the story so It was worked over heavily to remove all of the distracting elements and a color cast from the long exposure time, as well as adding texture back into keyed out lamp shades.
This photo is part of a story recently featured in Home Magazine. While shooting this scene the art director and stylist both expressed concern about filling in negative space under the desk, as well as styling it to be easily recognized as a work space. The solution… we raised the stool by placing it on drinking glasses, which were removed later, and the stool legs were lengthened to touch the ground. We also used the same laptop that the digital images were being captured to, later removing the cable that was connected to the camera.
