Photographer showcase: Dave Hill

Dave Hill is best known for a very distinct look he created that amateur photographers everywhere are desperately trying to emulate, and software companies are eagerly writing plugins and presets to mimic it. It's understandable. The look, kind of an HDR-type effect, is really cool and his images are striking. Although even a quick glance at his work is enough to see it's not just the effect that's at play. Dave Hill's post-processing work is truly elaborate, incorporating compositing to an almost illustrative level. But his imagery begins with great photography planned from the start. No plugin will ever duplicate that in my opinion.

I'd recommend you spend some time on his website, where you can see a great selection of his photographs in relatively high resolution (for screen), which is very welcome considering many photographers don't like to post big images on the web.

090417 Girl on an Adventure - Behind the Scenes from Dave Hill on Vimeo.

Another great thing about his site is the Behind the Scenes videos he shares. I'm always interested in how photographers work in the field and Dave Hill's videos show pretty much everything, from his lighting setups to his interaction with models and crew. As a quick example, above is the behind the scenes video for the image at the top of this post. Really interesting stuff.

However, one thing I recently discovered about Dave Hill while listening to a LightSource Photography podcast was his series of black & white portraits. Wow. Really cool stuff. Anyone who's obsessed with the "Dave Hill effect" needs to have a look at these photographs. They are truly beautiful. It's a completely different style from his commercial work and it's great to see a photographer showing his personal work. I'm definitely a fan of Dave Hill.