Everyone believes they are a photographer these days. Since photos can easily be taken on a phone and instantly uploaded to social media, there is a temptation to believe that professional photography is easily replaced. However, there is a fine craft in professional photography that produces high quality images that cannot be duplicated by inferior equipment or by people who don't understand the use of light, lenses, angles, and retouching software.

Take a look at this photo, shot for Terex Corporation. This mixer truck had been built from its frame to its taillights at the Terex Fort Wayne Truck Manufacturing Plant. It was being shipped to its buyer in Wisconsin as soon as the body shop had all of its detailing work completed, which we thought would be around noon. We had a small window of time to get photos for the marketing department before the truck left the premises. It was a Friday afternoon. It had rained all morning. There was a delay. At 3:00 p.m. the truck was released to us to get photos. That included traveling to five locations for shots, keeping the truck clean despite the wet conditions, working out logistics and details. We did not have time for any errors. Our photographer knew how to work quickly and made sure we had the photos we needed. We were able to shoot at all five locations in two hours.

However, you can see that the day was not ideal. That is where retouching comes into play. We used Photoshop to build a new sky, take out power lines and fix the cracks in the pavement. Those are the obvious fixes. But if you look closer, you will also see the small details that made the difference in the final product. We took out the signs for the restaurants in the far right side of the photo. Nothing against Outback Steakhouse, but they were not footing the bill for the photos. Neither were the manufacturers for the construction equipment on the left side of the photo. Mud was removed from the flaps on the truck. The tires were darkened. There is a cigarette butt in the parking lot behind the back axle.

It's been said that the devil is in the details. That is very true of advertising photography, where one little slip up can derail the entire ad. The image is what sells the product. The simple truth is, if you don't know what you are doing in photography, it will bite you.