[interested_observer]

I found this interesting - and it puts advertising imagery in a whole new perspective... I do think that there is a bit more than just "retouching" going on here.

The reason I was able to go overboard for this retouching demonstration, is because this assignment was crafted exclusively behind-the-computer. Little to no camera work from my end here. It’s no secret that Photoshop is a big tool in the advertising/automotive world, and tweaking images to give a vehicle the most impact has been used for decades. In this case, a new 4×4 (badass) version of the Sprinter was being released, however the actual 4×4 model wasn’t available for photography. Considering *small* differences like wheels, badging, and ride height were the key differences compared to the 2WD model, retouching was an efficient route for this assignment.

• Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 4x4 Retouching

[redcat]

ah ha, welcome to the world of compositing not only ads, but all movie posters are composited this way ^^ it's very interesting to know what they did and how they did it
a good book about this : Photoshop Compositing Secrets by Matt Kloskowski (I read it and a lot of "wow, that's how it's done ? I can do that !" ^^)

[reeftool]

Pretty nice looking brochure. Since there was no access to a vehicle, he had no choice but to do this. It is one more example of the slowing demand for professional photographers. A top notch sales brochure can be put together by an office clerk with some PP skills and a few stock photos that can be cheaply licensed. I think this guy kind of screwed himself with this blog. Yes, he is a photographer and did do some work but is is also an outside vendor. You can bet right now that some penny pinching manager has brought up the idea of creating this in house for the cost of a CC subscription and they likely already have people on the payroll who know how to do this.

[RGlasel]

I think this guy kind of screwed himself with this blog

Check out his portfolio. He's screwing himself all the way to the bank. Not only does he do work for some pretty high-profile clients, the way his work "looks" is very eye-catching and current. Any penny-pinching marketing manager who thinks s/he has someone in-house who can do this will discover what Davis is worth when more than one employee disappears into a creative rabbit hole and only derivative garbage comes out. Until Davis' "look" becomes dated and boring (or he starts charging exorbitant fees), he can repeat what he is doing easier and quicker than anyone else and print money while he takes orders. It won't be the advertisers he has to contact to sell his services, it will be the freelance marketing consultants who are better at finding clients than producing content who will beat a path to his door.

"A top notch sales brochure can be put together by an office clerk with some PP skills and a few stock photos that can be cheaply licensed" Been there and done that and saved my employer tens of thousands of dollars, but only because the alternative was to not have the promotional materials at all, because of the expense of having it done externally. The brochure isn't the thing, it's the eye-catching product images that simply can't come from stock photo libraries that are worth a king's ransom. Once you have your own private stock of high quality product images, then you can churn out brochures, print ads, websites, etc. But you can't cheat on images of your own products, they have to be extremely accurate and appealing at the same time.