ServiceNow
Retouching Direction | Shoot Strategy | Custom Deliverable Workflow | Client Management | Project Management | Digital Asset Management Strategy
I worked with ServiceNow’s creative team on a commissioned series of portrait shoots meant to tell the human story of the impact of their products.
This project presented 3 distinct technical challenges.
The first technical challenge: they wanted to be able to plate the portraits on any of their brand colors, which ranged across hues and densities, from light grey to pink to green. They wanted the portraits to look environmental. I knew that if we shot on grey, the portraits would look stripped out. I advocated to shoot on a color that could be shifted to match to any of their brand colors.
I worked with photographer Peter Yang to find a background color that would create a streamlined post-production process. We chose a color that is the opposite of skin tone, so that it could be a quick move to demonstrate the background color shift on set and efficient in retouching.
The set wall was painted, and the shoot strategy remained through the next 3 years, encompassing 7 brand shoots, 1 employee shoot, and 2 executive shoots.
The second technical challenge was that the client needed layered PSD handoff with the subject, shadow & background on separate layers, so that their designers could bring them into their layouts and integrate graphic & type treatments. With the volume of imagery coming through and the tight deadline needs, we needed an efficient way to build the files.
I built out actions and processes to allow my retouching team to work quickly and collaboratively with a standardized layer structure and process both for retouching & finalizing the layered PSD deliverables. The process flexed as the client needs changed over a couple of years. The sets became more complex and the crew experimented with different shooting techniques & lighting setups, but the basic principle of our workflow remained.
Each image had to be handed off on 2-3 different brand colors, so I developed methods for my team to be able to quickly and efficiently move the background colors and spill on the subject so that each subject looked like they belonged in the environment.
The third technical challenge had to do with file prep for their annual industry showcase event, Knowledge. All files had to up res’d, converted to a specific CMYK and handed off still in layered PSD form for designer layouts. Because the shadows had to be delivered in multiply mode in order to integrate with design elements, the CMYK conversion created an issue - the white point was getting compressed so that the edges were showing.
Working with a pre-press specialist, I developed a process of converting the shadow through a separate LAB process into the correct CMYK profile and then integrating it back into the final deliverable file.
Photographer credit: Peter Yang