A Short Tour With Martin Evening

Martin Evening, the important early Photoshop expert whose books a lot of us learned from, sadly died at a young(ish) age in 2022. He wrote many technical books as well as numerous articles in magazines and online. There's one problem with being an expert of any fast-changing subject—it's rather difficult to leave a lasting legacy. He was important, though—and well liked, as you can read in his friend Scott Kelby's remembrance of him.

I found a video made at the Art of Photography Conference 2021 that goes into depth about "The Hits and Misses of a Creative Career." In it, Martin talks about his own work and life. Here are just a few of the insights that go by in the first 20 minutes of the 45-minute video:

—You can learn from models who have modeled for more famous photographers.

—Once you establish a coherent visual style with which you can be identified, people will more readily hire you to do do different kinds of jobs as well as similar ones.

—"Is it for the bank or the book?" That is, know why you're doing a job—to make money or to get a picture that will be useful for your portfolio. Both are worth doing.

—Doing portraits of celebrities, where you have only a few minutes with them, are very different from fashion shoots, where you have hours to prepare and shoot.

—A portrait of a jazz musician (Peter Brötzmann) was "photographed in my flat [apartment] by the way; there was no budget for a studio." We all make do!

—It's good for any photographer to have some sort of dedicated interest in a subject area (food, cars, hair, music etc.)—that way you gain experience in that world  and clients are more likely to hire you for your knowledge of what they do—and what others in their field do as well.

—If you experiment and find a new or different technique, you're going to need more than one example if you want to sell the idea to new clients.

That only takes us to about the twenty minute mark. Of course there's more, but you can watch the video for yourself.

Martin recognized that he was doing some things in-camera just at the time Photoshop was being invented that Photoshop would be very good at, almost as if he was pre-figuring the technology before it emerged. Of course he did go one to become a worldwide expert on Photoshop and Lightroom, whose many instructional books became central to the way photographers would use the tool. This is the one I most remember, although it's no doubt at least somewhat out of date now, at least in its particulars. (Lightroom had just come out and I was getting up to speed with it. I've never actually used it, though.)

The video is thought-provoking but also down-to-earth and practical. A nice way to spend some time talking shop with an influential teacher.

Mike

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Featured Comments from:

Matt O'Brien: "I have such a high regard for Martin Evening…discovered him as I tried to come to terms with Lightroom and Photoshop. Such a strong and positive influence to so many."

Comments

[Bob Johnston]

Many thanks for the links. I can't believe that Martin is no longer here to issue another update to his classic tome Photoshop for Photographers. It was easily the best reference book available. Why do so many of the good die young?

[Speed]

"Martin recognized that he was doing some things in-camera just at the time Photoshop was being invented that Photoshop would be very good at ... "

And Apple just put many of those "things" into the new iPhone 16 Pro.