Color is My Superpower
That’s why they call me ChromaQueen after all. 😊
A Kodachrome Slide & Photoshop
I recall the precise moment when my passion for color and photo editing took hold. It involved a badly faded Kodachrome slide.
Pictured in the photo was a smiling 5-year-old girl with bangs and waist-length braids hugging her red-headed and freckle-faced big brother as they sat on the front steps of a post-war suburban home.
This wasn’t just any random slide. It was a treasured family photo; a photo near and dear to my heart; a photo my Dad took one summer afternoon of my older brother and me.
It was the rescuing of that Kodachrome slide—the accomplishment of saving it from fading away and restoring the color back to its original glory—that ignited my passion for digital imaging.
My move from a studio photographer to a Digital Imaging Specialist began when I saw the possibilities of this new raster image editor called Photoshop.
Color restoration by Martha DiMeo / ChromaQueen.com ©All Rights Reserved—Photo Available for Licensing
Education & Career Path
If I had to sum up in one sentence the education I received at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology), it would be to say I was educated rather than trained. I learned how to learn. It is this approach to photographic education that gave me the skill set to continually evolve and advance in my career as technology dramatically changed the industry and the profession.
RIT & Hallmark Cards
After graduating from RIT, I landed a much-coveted position for a newly minted photo grad—staff photographer at Hallmark Cards. It was an extraordinary opportunity. I skipped the grueling, poverty-inducing route of photo-assisting, the usual route for a photographer just starting out. Instead, I was behind the camera 5 days a week shooting everything from still life and product photography, to photo illustration, portraiture, editorial, travel, and ballet photography.
Concept, Design, Styling & Photography by Martha DiMeo
I loved my job at Hallmark immensely. Had I not had roots on the east coast (Hallmark’s headquarter is in Kansas City, MO) and the immanent need to be near the ocean, I suspect I would have spent my entire career at Hallmark. But after 5 years in Kansas City, I took a leap of faith and left that position and moved to Rhode Island.
Magazines & Prepress Production
Fast-forward. After a few years of running my own photo studio, I transitioned into digital imaging. I saw the writing on the wall. The industry was on the cusp of changing drastically, so I made a concerted effort to keep up with the changes and learn the new technologies.
That effort landed me a 6-month project position with People magazine as a Digital Imaging Specialist. I took another leap of faith; I moved to New York City and signed a lease with the guarantee of only 6 months of employment.
The New Yorker
Timing and luck were on my side. Just as the project at People was wrapping up, an opportunity at The New Yorker magazine presented itself. I was the first hire for the new imaging department.
The magazine was bringing prepress production in-house. A key component of the new department was a digital photography studio. I was charged with implementing digital photography into the prepress workflow. My newly acquired skills in prepress and magazine production, from an intensive 6 months at People, combined with my credentials as a commercial photographer was exactly the right mix of skills and experience to lead the digital photography studio.
Reproducing Artwork, Precisely
Instead of photographic content, I would be working exclusively with artwork—2D and 3D originals.
Everything that you see in the magazine—all the paintings, illustrations, collages, and cartoons—would come through the imaging department to be photographed or scanned. We were tasked with producing press-ready, digital files that had to match the colors in the original piece precisely.
Working exclusively with original art allowed me to advance my color evaluation and color correction skills exponentially. (I can tweak an adjustment curve to nail a color like nobody’s business!)
Little did I know at the time, the ability to produce exact color matches (verses pleasing color that is often the criteria for photographic content) would serve me well in future endeavors. I now work with artists needing color-accurate reproductions of their paintings and sculptures, and I partnered in the early 2000s with Massachusetts artist, Melody Phaneuf, to produce a line of art gifts and art reproductions from her original oil paintings.
An open edition print of the oil painting, Rhythms & Glass, by artist Melody Phaneuf. Art reproduction, product photography, and photo retouching by Martha DiMeo; owner of the Boston-based retouching studio, ChromaQueen.com.
The In-House Model For Prepress
Other magazine publishers were realizing the advantages of in-house prepress production and adopting the model.
After The New Yorker, I accepted a position at Cahners Business Information (At the time, the largest B-to-B magazine publisher in the U.S.). I was charged with establishing and managing the day-to-day operations of the imaging center that served the nine titles and various supplements produced at the Boston location.
Educational Publishing & the Photographic Workflow
Next, a Spanish language textbook project provided the opportunity to work in educational publishing. I was hired by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) with the title of “Photoshop Color Separation Specialist”. The position grew out of yet another major workflow/technology disruption. This time the job was created because of the changes in photography and the photo editing process.
Photo shoots for a series of three Spanish language textbooks were done in many of the Spanish-speaking countries. The photographers, instead of delivering processed digital files, provided the publisher with thousands of unedited and unprocessed RAW files. The writers, editors, and designers culled the images down to what was ultimately used in the books.
An example from my educational publishing/editorial retouching portfolio. This photo is from a Spanish language textbook project for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Seemingly minor edits make a big difference. Notice how in the photo on the right—the ‘After’ photo—that by adding contrast to the woman’s face and color-correcting the skin tones, your eye is now drawn to her.
My role came in after the final selection of images was made and the design and page layouts finalized. I was charged with the processing and post-production of both the RAW files and all stock photos. I was responsible for formatting the images to the layout, color editing and color correction, retouching, image manipulation, and compositing.
Launching ChromaQueen
In 2007 I started formulating the idea for ChromaQueen. I saw a need, a niche to fill.
There were two huge influences—major changes to the design workflow—that created a need for imaging work to be done at the design stage rather than later in the process, at the prepress stage. Which up to this point was the norm.
The first change was the type of photographic assets designers now work with. Any given project could include stock images, commissioned photography, and client-generated images. When images are gathered from multiple sources, image evaluation is critical. Color correction and color editing should be done early in the design process if an efficient workflow, with the best possible results, is the goal.
Photoshop & The Creative Process
The second change was because of Photoshop itself, and the endless possibilities it affords the creative process. It is not hyperbole to say every photograph that appears in a book, magazine, on a website, in marketing collateral, or advertising is touched by Photoshop at some point. Many designers do some Photoshop work, but when it gets beyond the basics—editing that is more involved, time-consuming, or high-end retouching—they partner with a Photoshop Specialist. I launched ChromaQueen to fill that niche, to be that partner and collaborator.
The First Ten Years of ChromaQueen
Some of the clients I’ve had the pleasure of working with the first ten years include Pearson, Hachette/Da Capo Press, Double Ink, Mayerchak & Company, Elegant Publishing, Dinardo Design, Ross-Simons, Crownhill Packaging, Blow Birthday Cards, Juan Pollo, RISD Alumni Association, Graphic Artists Guild, (add)ventures, Orange Square, Beth Singer Designs, DKC/Land Rover, Tufts Medical Center, Brown University, and many independent photographers and designers.
I’m a contributor to CreativePro, Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines, and give talks and webinars on color management.
Just Getting Started
Keep learning; keep evolving. This is my philosophy for both my personal and professional life. Even after thirty years in the business, I feel like I’m just getting started. There is still so much more I want to do; so many things that pique my curiosity.
Black-on-Black and Beautiful Lighting
A shout-out to Boston-based portrait photographer Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano. She photographed the beautifully-lit portrait of me that appears at the top of this page and the portrait that appears on the 30-Second Bio page. ~Thanks, Sylvia!