From time to time, we get requests from client candidates; they are usually unsure if they should use photography or go and take the 3D path and get 3D renders. So how can you decide if you need 3D design and render or go with photography?

When I first installed Photoshop on my PC, my initial intention was to do things that could be done in a dark room. My flat at the time didn’t have enough space to set up an actual darkroom. At the time, I thought that I could do most of the things I could do in a dark room with a film scanner and this software. It didn’t take very long for me that in a digital “darkroom,” a person can easily surpass what is achievable in a conventional darkroom.

Now fast forward 21 years; I do freelance photography editing work (I like to call independent visual post-production work); I receive all kinds of requests. Most of the time, photographers and ad agencies have a good grasp of what is achievable in a digital darkroom, but now and then, I receive requests next to impossible. I’m not counting the demands we see on TV series or movies, which I can summarize as enhancement requests. Of course, these are not possible; if an image is very blurred, we can’t just make it camera sharp. I would have told you that it’s impossible though Google has some papers, and they are working on AI solutions to remedy such issues.

It’s common that even as I act as a freelancer before hiring independent of my previous work samples, companies or photographers don’t jump and hire you. Especially photographers when they try to recruit you one of the questions I get from time to time is “where did you learn retouching from and how do you improve your skills?” at first these questions were a bit strange for me, I was thinking at the time “why do they care? If my work is good enough for their project, why do they care where I got it.”