From head shots for electronic press kits to glossy 8-by-10 photographs for fans and band portraits destined for album covers, digital retouching abounds. Basic touch-up of a rock portrait begins with importing images into raster-based image manipulation software. The touch-up artist uses cloning tools and digital paint to erase skin blemishes and smooth out wrinkles, remove busy backgrounds and even make the subjects look thinner. In the case of the medium-format, large-format and slide-film stocks used by high-end portrait photographers, the touch-up artist may have to correct imperfections in the film itself as well.
Rotoscoping is a digital illustration technique borrowed from the world of 2-D animation. When an animator rotoscopes, she traces single frames of live action camera footage to create an animated equivalent. For illustrators, rotoscoping involves only a single frame. By importing a photograph into drawing software like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw, an illustrator can trace an image using vectors and create a close likeness to the subject while adding her own cartoon-influenced touches.
To achieve a nostalgic, retro look, some photographers use raster-based image manipulation software to emulate the visual qualities of a particular film stock. To mimic the grainy look of Kodak Tri-X, for example, a photographer might convert a full-color image to black-and-white and run a filter to give the image a grainy look. For Kodachrome, Ektachrome or other vintage color stocks, she could make slight adjustments to brightness, contrast, curves and color balance. Emulating film can also involve adding scratches, speckles or other imperfections to the image to approximate the look of a damaged negative or aged print.
From Andy Warhol's famed multiples to the black-light posters of Joe McHugh and Frank Kozik's subversive handbills, silkscreen posters and rock music have often gone hand in hand. To emulate a simple, two-, four- or six-color silkscreen design, begin by importing the source photograph into your raster image editor of choice. Run a desaturation filter, then boost the brightness and contrast. Use the selective color function to colorize the highlights, shadows and mid-tones separately from each other. Reduce or boost the contrast even further to increase or decrease the number of colors.