Ironically you are your best lighting guy...

This is to all photographers that uses a lot of handheld lighting.  It's not easy training your assistants to the way you want with handheld lighting.  Firstly they must be really into this kind of stuff for them to really go into it and get better at lighting on a boom.  

Don't get me wrong, most of the guys I work with are good guys but even after years, I still find often that I have to go in myself and man handle the boom so that I get the light the way I visioned it.

It's true no one knows better than you do to how you want it lit, but unfortunately you'll never get to be your own lighting guy because you like to shoot handheld as well and if your assistant assists you with that then it becomes their photo and not yours.

Talk about tough...

Gi Yue

Images don't require photoshop to look good. The modern misconception to digital photography.

How many times have you heard a photographer say "it will look better once I tweak it in photoshop."  To be honest I have said that to a client.  When I look back at some of my most outstanding work, I have noticed that a lot of these images were stellar looking from the camera LCD to begin with.  

Many people have the misconception that modern dslr images need to be tweaked and edited in photoshop to look good, and if it's not a good photo it will be after post.  That is a very wrong concept to have in mind.  In fact if you look at many great professional photographers, their images look like 80-90% of the end result in camera.  

I noticed that there are two type of photographers today.  One that are photographers of light and one that are photographers/digital artists.  Because of the fact that digital photography has changed quite a bit in the last 10-15 years,  I can't really say which is right or wrong.  However, I can say I prefer a photographer that sculpts his/her photo with light than one that digitally illustrate what they want in PSD.  I am sure in the near future everything in digital photography can be digitally manipulated (if it isn't already) but the skill of photography and manipulation of light during the actual photography process will always clearly distinguish a good photographer to that of a great professional photographer.

A professional photographer has complete control of highlights/midtones/shadows in his/her photographs. The crucial elements in a photo which when properly controlled becomes the recipe towards a great photo (of course the artistic direction element is very important as well but I am only focusing on the technical aspect of an exposure)

If you have hired a professional photographer for an editorial or an engagement session and the pictures are not really that "wow" as he/she shows you from the LCD of their camera, don't be comforted by the words, "once I tweak it in Lightroom/PSD, it will look a lot better."  Be concerned, and judging from how far off the actual photo looks from the photographer's vision, ask yourself if you need to hire a different photographer.