Art in the Time of Colony book, for Art Monthly

Original (left) / Retouched (right)

The book was photographed for a magazine review, hence to be printed on white with lots of words around it. The brief was to show a bit of the spine and a good amount of depth. To meet a tight deadline only one angle was selected for retouching. The JPG and PNG files were handed over within 2 hours.

It was shot as a long exposure in natural light with no direct light sources, and so no shadows were produced. This was in the interest of time as well as working well for the target medium. The white back panel produced correct edge reflection to blend realistically onto white later. The reflective grounding (perspex) leaves a natural reflection to add to a sense that the book is standing on top of the target page (although the angle and perspective of the object contributes more to the illusion). Out of frame were 2 black boards, on the right to preserve the blackness of the object, and at the bottom but gripped upward towards the lens to prevent bad reflections on the glossy cover. 

Basic retouching included, keystone correction (producing sensible vertical lines), contrast curve (a very BW biasing S curve), partial de-saturation (favoring BW while preserving bronze features), cloning imperfections, deep etching (feather by 4 all around, free select and Bezier tools), 3 basic layers (the object, the reflection at partial opacity, white background).

Art in the Time of Colony, for artmonthly.org.au mag.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108473766390167102000/albums/6190554281737770369