When 35mm film was created, photographers no longer had to lug around 8xlO cameras to record images on glass plates. Bybee sees computers offering a similar advantage by giving people the freedom to create their views of the world on their desktops. Computers give Bybee the freedom to communicate the dreams and images in his mind. From the beginning Bybee approached photography as a business. Now he has decided to take more time to do the images, which he considers to be his own as opposed to purely commercial work. "I love the solidarity of the computer and the imagery that's in my head. I'm being more and more driven toward a sole-creation process."
For San Francisco-based photographer Gerry Bybee, Pablo Picasso's paintings have been an inspiration. Picasso Woman shows Bybee's use of digital manipulation to displace facial features and push skin tones and colors, yet he maintains photographic realism. The effect has visual and emotional impact.
The Digital Picasso:
Gerald Bybee Creates a
Distorted Look at Reality by Crispin Littlehales
The arresting portrait of a Picasso-esque woman that graces the current ads for Adobe Photoshop is mesmerizing and disquieting. The flounder-eyed beauty is the creation of San Francisco-based photographer Gerald Bybee, and it exemplifies his work. While using the full potential of digital technology, Bybee strives to keep a true photographic nature to his images so that they don't become too illustrative and lose their fine arts edge.
Pablo Picasso's style was a logical jumping-off place for Bybee, who appreciates the artist's use of distortion for emotional as well as visual impact. In his Picasso Woman (and its predecessor, Picasso Man), Bybee used digital manipulation to displace facial features and push skin tones and colors while maintaining photographic realism.
"I think the similarity between myself and a traditional artist or illustrator has to do with my vision of the world around me," said Bybee. "I see things in a certain way. It all comes from my background. I've done a lot of portraiture as well as technical and studio still life photography. I try to bring all those things together in the final result.

"My whole idea is to be able to evoke an emotion and grab the viewer. I want the lighting and the photography to be wonderful. The digital capabilities are another important tool for me, just like lenses or different formats of cameras or film. Even with these tools, as with everything else, you still have to start off with excellent photography."
Traditionally, photographers have manipulated images by whatever means available to them, Bybee pointed out. In his opinion, nothing done in traditional photography reflects reality. Rather, the photographer captures a split second in time. Digital capabilities expand on this by providing more technically advanced manipulations.
There is no difference, he said, between using special lenses, gels, or lighting and computerized images. "The only difference is that the public has always perceived photography to be real. Now, hopefully, we're just more honest about trying to pass it off as reality."
Bybee's work reveals a wide range of subject matter, style, and artistry. His approach and technique have evolved as digital capabilities have expanded. "My interest right now lies in a digital combination of portraiture and beauty. I like doing things that incorporate interesting faces and people, as well as products. I've combined the two in a way that I believe is very effective."
I'LL DO IT MYSELF
Bybee's plunge into digital retouching was out of necessity. While creating a series of ads for a client, Bybee shot the original images and then had them retouched by various
digital houses. In the middle of the campaign, tight deadlines drove him to experiment with retouching on his own Macintosh. Bybee's finished image looked as good or better than the work that had been done on the million-dollar proprietary systems. It convinced him that spending the extra hours on the Mac to digitally retouch images were well spent.
Bybee's images have a lasting impact. One of his early works, a portrait of a Dalmatian surrounded by spotted cats, continues to be a success. He still receives letters from people all over the world expressing their delight with the playful image. To make it, Bybee photographed the dog and cats, then turned the film over to Raphael Digital Transparencies in Texas. Raphael, who remains one of the most accomplished digital retouchers, was so pleased with the results that she used the finished image in a self-promotion piece with a caption that read, "An original among copy cats."
Other well-received, award-winning Bybee works include Picasso Man, which has been used as a promotional piece by a San Francisco printer, and The Scream (the first image Bybee made using Photoshop), which was created for a seminar on desktop publishing sponsored by the San Francisco Art Directors' Club.
Bybee's wildly distorted kids that appear in the Knott's Berry Farm ads were created with then-new Photoshop filters. It took the artist days of experimentation to produce the images. The technology, equipment, and Bybee's personal experience have advanced so quickly, however, that now he can achieve the same effect in an hour or less.
Bybee's self-promotion pieces reveal his fascination with a realistic and cubist representation of the human body. He's found that, while people are willing to accept this look in paintings or illustrations that obviously aren't real, they are alarmed to see such distortions in photographic images. For example, Bybee made an image to be used as a divider page for the 1995 Workbook. It's an almost classic Playboy-type beauty shot of a nude woman with a hand covering and reflecting part of her face. Nearly all who see it, he said, are attracted to it and repulsed by it at the same time. Another self-promotion piece called Nude Wave features a nude whose body looks as if it is distorted in a fun-house mirror. The idea came from his observation that, no matter how beautiful a woman is, she always seems to think some part of her body is grotesque.
ALL IN HIS HEAD
Reflecting on his career as a photographer, Bybee said, "I got into photography initially because I had all these images floating around in my head. While I couldn't draw them very well, I realized that I could get them on paper with a camera."
Bybee confesses that his fear of math is probably what made him turn to photography instead of a career in electrical engineering, as he had originally planned. In college, he discovered that, not only were photography classes much more fun than those in engineering but, also, he could make money by shooting weddings and other events. He studied communications and advertising, and was particularly drawn to the work of Irving Penn and Phil Marco.
After graduation, Bybee worked as an assistant photographer in various commercial studios in San Francisco and New York and continued to freelance. A move to Salt Lake City and good timing led to a lucrative commercial account, which soon grew into a studio of his own and an increasing amount of work for fashion and retail clients.
One of Bybee's most popular images was created for Knott's Berry Farm ads. It took him days to do the distortions on the then-new Photoshop filters. Now, he can achieve the same effects in an hour or less.
Bybee is fascinated by a realistic, cubist treatment of the human body. He has found that, while most people accept this look in paintings, they are alarmed to see distortions in photographic images like Natasha's Hand.
...from small design firms is that they try to make fabulous photographs from clip art or old stock photos. In his opinion, it's extremely difficult to combine pieces of stock photography. Also, most people do not have the resources to research images that might work together well.
SHOOTING TOWARD THE FUTURE
 
However, Bybee believes that a successful commercial project also serves as confirmation that his work is communicating effectively. Although he recognizes the validity of creating something purely for one's self, he has found over the years much more satisfaction in communicating his ideas, or the ideas of other people, to the public. "If you're not interested in communicating with other people, why put anything down in graphic form? Just keep it in your head and dream about it."
EQUIPPING A STUDIO
Gerald Bybee has been working primarily on a Macintosh platform. Occasionally he uses high-end systems through service bureaus for necessary backup. A Power Mac and a Silicon Graphics system are his most recent acquisitions.
An early adopter of new software programs, Bybee keeps in the forefront of technological developments. He runs both Adobe Photoshop and Barco Creator on the Silicon Graphics system. While Photoshop was, for a long time, his primary imaging software on the Macintosh and remains a system cornerstone, Bybee is now working with HSC Software's Live Picture, a program he believes will revolutionize the way photographers work with images. Bybee said he likes Live Picture, which is based on a functional interpolation technology system (FITS), because it allows him to work in near real-time on images in a resolution-independent file format.
Bybee has used a Howtek D4000 Drum Scanner but recently switched to a 5,000 dpi ScanView. The immediacy and convenience of scanners in the studio gives Bybee better information to work with and allows him to do quick scans of images, leave them on the drum, play with them, and then go back and rescan them to the resolution or color space he wants.
In-house work is output to dye sublimation prints for proofing. Outside service bureaus supply digital transparencies, although, ultimately, Bybee would like to output them in-house as well. He especially likes the Kodak LVT's output for skin tones and finds it the most photograph-like of any of the digital devices. Although the transparencies appear softer, they rescan well. He also uses the Fire 1000 because it enables him to interpolate and sharpen small files on the fly. The Fire creates sharp, snappy images that make beautiful display prints.
Bybee shoots mostly with a Fuji 680, giving him a 6x8cm format. He uses 4x5-inch and 8xlO-inch when he requires major camera movements. In general, however, he prefers the speed and quality of the 6x8 format because it scans beautifully for most of his files, providing very sharp images. He uses primarily Ektachrome or Fujichrome color film, even for gray scale work, because color transparency films are designed to be scanned, whereas black-and-white negatives can get too grainy during scanning. Black-and white prints also demand that the photographer scan from second-generation and low-resolution media.
Bybee hopes to use a digital camera in the near future. For now, he believes it's still too difficult to obtain the high resolution necessary for his advertising clients due to the long scan times or multiple exposures required by present digital cameras. When photographing people, he can capture and store many more variations on film during sessions with expensive models than he could on a digital system. However, within the next few years, he predicts the technology will improve enough to allow him to go totally digital at high resolution.
Nearly five successful years later, Bybee's frantic work schedule caught up with him personally and professionally. A divorce was followed by a new marriage. Then, what had begun as a year-long honeymoon and sabbatical in Italy turned into work. He and his wife Shaun began working as marketing consultants for an Italian cosmetics firm, and Bybee began shooting occasionally,. The two then moved to San Francisco in 1985 to set up a warehouse for the cosmetics firm and a photo Studio for Bybee. He gave up his other professional commitments in order to shoot full-time again.
REAPING THE BENEFITS OF TECHNOLOGY
Bybee considers his early experiences in both still life and beauty photography as key components in his work today. While candid about the commercial aspects of his photography, he also regards his images as an attempt to bring more humanity into the high-tech arena. "Photography has always been a means to make money, but it's also enabled me to participate in the creation of art and allowed me to explore the things that are interesting about life.
Bybee has observed first-hand the evolution of digital photography. In the past, ad agencies would look for skilled photographers to shoot pieces that the agency Could marry together seamlessly with the help of a technician and a prepress system such as Scitex. Now, Bybee sees these agencies increasingly using photographers and artists who are capable not only of shooting the original, but also of putting together, interpreting it, and modifying it as required to do the creative work. Then, after the creative process is completed, the agencies turn to the separators and prepress houses for the technical aspects of reproduction. As Bybee became more interested in the possibilities of digital transparencies and the early problems with pixelization, he added a Macintosh computer, Color Studio, and Photoshop software to his photographic equipment. Although he could do the majority of his work on the Macintosh, he also needed the power of a high-end system to handle high-resolution scanning and control.
Bybee's vision, coupled with his interest in and understanding of electronics, has set him ahead of many other photographers. While noting the obvious importance Of the computer, lie believes the second most necessary piece of studio equipment is a high-resolution drum scanner. Bybee uses his own scanner in the same way he would use his darkroom: to control color, compositing, imaging, resolutions, and making dupes.
DOWN THE DIGITAL PATH
For Bybee, his computer is liberating but sometimes the options available for a digitized image are over-whelming. In his opinion, this technological freedom requires more of a personal vision on the part of the photographer. It disturbs him that the advertising industry seems to believe that a digital assignment automatically involves a work group. Although some assignments do require input from a number of people, Bybee considers the photographer's personal vision to be the most important creative element.
As for software preferences, Bybee finds that Live Picture affords him the ability to work in multiple resolutions very fluidly, particularly on the Power Mac. He can make changes, composites, and exercise more brush control than was previously possible with other programs. Live Picture's robust features contribute greatly to Bybee's ability to be more illustrative and spontaneous in his work.
While taking full advantage of computers, scanners, and output devices, Bybee clearly recognizes that there's no substitute for good photography. He continually fights the tendency to do things digitally instead of photographically. In fact, he said, a major weakness in some of the work time to do the images, which he considers to be his own as opposed to purely commercial work. "I love the solidarity of the computer and the imagery that's in my head. I'm being more and more driven toward a sole creation process."
However, Bybee believes that a successful commercial project also serves as confirmation that his work is communicating effectively. Although he recognizes the validity of creating something purely for one's self, he has found over the years much more satisfaction in communicating his ideas, or the ideas of other people, to the public. "If you're not interested in communicating with other people, why put anything down in graphic form? Just keep it in your head and dream about it."
Crispin Littlehales is a freelance writer and marketing communications consultant based in San Francisco.
Electronic imaging Vol. 37 - No. 12 - 1994