When you first start out, you might not realize it, but every person you come into contact with – they are a potential client, they are potentially a person that you can build a relationship with, they are someone who you might start a company with. This piece of knowledge can take you far, and it did for 24 year old commercial photographer and creative director, Eric Phan. Eric got his start in photography documenting musicians, and eventually moved on to working on commercial projects for athletes, fashion brands, and more. In this interview, Matt Moloney sits down to chat with Eric Phan about his photography career from his start to where he’s at now. Continue below to learn more about Eric Phan. Getting Started Matt: So whenever I sit down and think about questions for interviewing creatives, I’m always drawn to the subject’s background – where your from, what you did for fun growing up, etc… Tell me about where it all started for you. Eric: Yeah, so I grew up in Upstate New York, in Rochester and I guess for me as a kid, I enjoyed playing video games like Call of Duty and I think that’s kind of what sparked my creativity. After playing video games for a little while, I got into make Call of Duty edits and montages and things like that. I would edit in Sony Vegas and just compile quick-scope clips, nukes, things like that just for fun. After I did some of the video game edits for fun, I didn’t really touch a camera or video ediitng for a few years. I think I got back into it in high-school; I started playing soccer and I had a friend that was really good, he was an All-American and he would make youtube videos and went viral a bunch, even got put in an Adidas commercial, so that was really cool to me and I started putting together a bunch of soccer videos. I made a bunch of unboxing videos and stuff like that with my brother and one of my friends, and then after that I never really thought about doing photo/video as a career until about half way through college. M: Once you got to college and became interested in photo/video again, were you consciously trying to do sports videos or work with athletes? E: It kind of just happened honestly. So, I used Photo Editing Services the camera in college at first to do social media stuff, but I wasn’t that good at it, but I was really passionate about social media and just putting stuff out there. I actually went to college as pre-Law / History major at St. John Fisher College and funny enough – the Buffalo Bills’ training camp is located there and I actually met most of those guys before I had ever went to a training camp to shoot. I ended up switching to Media & Communications right before my senior year but my first real photography gig was in my sophomore year, and it was actually for Migos – after that concert I was hooked. I knew who the opener was going to be and I told him, ‘let me shoot for you, I know I’m new but I’ll get you whatever photos you need’ – I just needed to get in because I knew I’d figure out a way to shoot with Migos after. I was super fortunate, I was put on very early, I met everybody and got close to them, and then second time they came back in town, I shot for them again, and they put me on to a bunch of other people. M: This was still in New York right? Was it a local venue? E: Yeah, it was a local venue that I knew about – the perfect spot and it just worked out really well. M: That’s so crazy that you say that because so many people always ask how to get involved with more concert photography and how to shoot more musicians and things like that and this is always a main point – knowing the venues and the openers. E: 100%, man – the local venues are always the best way to get started. They’re much smaller than big city venues, so you really have an opportunity to get closer to the artists and maybe even get backstage with the artists. At local venues it’s always about getting in the room and what you can say – everybody’s trying to do the same thing, it’s competitive so it’s really just how you stand out and differentiate yourself. Networking E: So the story of how I got in to shoot for Migos the first time is actually pretty funny. I knew the venue guy and so that’s how I got into the venue, but Migos’ private security wasn’t allowing any outside photography – you know how that goes. This is where the networking / finesse comes into play and all about how you differentiate yourself. I told Migos’ security guy, ‘listen man, you have a really dope job, people don’t understand that you’re traveling all over with them, you’re doing all of this cool shit too – let me document and capture you, too.’ He was really intrigued and gave me the go ahead. He basically said that if I took pictures of him on the job then I could get on stage, go on the pit, whatever I want pretty much. So the main security guard, Jamar, shoutout Jamar – he’s the reason I really got in the first time, and he’s even who invited me to shoot with them again when they came back a year later. I realized that he’s there for a similar reason as I am – he could be doing security anywhere else, but he chose to work with musicians and be seen and be respected for what he does just like I was. Honestly this is what really changed my viewpoint and perspective on networking because he’s one of the most amazing people I have ever met – he’s put me on to every big gig I’ve ever had up until like 2 years ago; he really put me on everything. I really didn’t even understand how much he was helping me until afterwards. Bring it back full circle, the morning after that first concert I shot for Migos, I get a phone call from Jamar saying to check Offset’s Instagram. Offset posted my photo the very next morning. To me, this was insane, this was like the second concert I had ever shot and everybody’s already posting my stuff. I had a bunch other people post my stuff before, but Offset posting it was just really crazy to me, that was my first real big put on.

I’m pleased to announce pattern rotation, automatic font activation, updates to Select Subject, Match Font, and more in Photoshop v21.2! Rotate Pattern Fills You can now rotate Pattern Fills in Photoshop using the new Angle control. Rotations are nondestructive and can be easily updated or reset at any time without any loss of quality. Rotations can be applied to Pattern Fill Layers, the Patter Overlay and Stroke Layer Effects/Styles, Shape Layers (including both Fill and Stroke patterns), and the Frame tool (Stroke > Pattern via the Properties panel). Photoshop ships with a number of preset patterns which you can use Philippines Photo Editor (Window> Patterns) or, you can create and apply your own. In the example below I will show using a Fill layer as well as a Shape layer to add a pattern to the canister and rotate it. • Add a Pattern Fill Layer by dragging a dropping a pattern from the Pattern panel into the canvas area. • To rotate the pattern (and access additional options), double click the Pattern Fills thumbnail in the Layers panel. Note: by default Photoshop clips the Pattern Fill layer with the photo layer which, in this example, doesn’t make a difference. If, however, you need to “unclip” the layer, target the layer and choose Layer > Release Clipping Mask. • In the Pattern Fill dialog, drag the Angle control (or enter a value) for the rotation, make any additional changes (such as scale), and click OK to apply. • Because the cylinder is a hard edged object, I used the Pen tool, create a path around the bottom portion. • Then, to convert the pattern into a Shape layer (masking the pattern from the rest of the image), I selected selet Layer > Vector Mask > Current Path . • Change the Blend mode to Multiply and decreased the Opacity of the layer as needed (to better combine the pattern with the photograph). To use a Shape layer to add a second pattern to the top portion of the canister, I selected the Pen tool and drew the shape. • With the Pen tool still selected, click Shape on the Options bar to convert the path into a Shape layer. • Double click the Shape layers thumbnail in the Layers panel to edit the pattern. • Drag the Angle control (or enter a value) for the rotation, make any additional changes, and click OK to apply. • Change the Blend Mode to Multiply and decreased the Opacity of the layer as needed (to better combine the pattern with the photograph). When using the Shape tools (Rectangle, Ellipse etc.) to create Shape layers, you can use the Fill and Stroke controls in the Options bar or the Properties panel to change Pattern attributes (in addition to being able to change the the attributes of the shape layer by double clicking on the thumbnail in the Layers panel). You can also adjust the angle of a pattern when adding Patter Overlay and Stroke Layer Styles/Effects. Note: If you are unfamiliar with how to create a seamless pattern in Photoshop, this video can help (How to Capture Patterns, Shapes, Colors and Gradients From Images in Photoshop). Adobe Fonts Auto-Activation Adobe Fonts are now automatically activated when you open a Photoshop document. In other words, when you open a document that contains Adobe fonts that are not installed on your machine, Photoshop will automatically find, download (sync), and install the fonts. This feature is really about what you won’t have to do anymore – you won’t have to see that missing fonts dialog on open, and you won’t have to select and relink fonts! Here’s how it works: • When you first open the file, in the Layers panel, you may see the old, familiar yellow warning icon on the offending Type layer(s), notifying you that a font used in the document is not installed. • Adobe Fonts auto-activation will automatically start. You’ll see a blue download-in-progress icon when your missing font starts downloading. When the font has finished downloading, the download-in-progress icon will disappear and the type layer is ready for editing. • If the font that’s missing is not a part of the Adobe Font Library, you won’t be bothered with the “missing font” messaging until you try to edit the respective type layer at which time you will have the option to substitute a font. • If you have both Adobe Fonts and non-Adobe fonts missing in your document, Adobe Fonts auto- activation will still happen automatically for the missing Adobe Fonts and, if the font is not a part of the type library, you will have the option to substitute the font when you try to edit the respective layer. Note: for a large number of non-adobe fonts, you can also select Type > Manage Missing Fonts. Select Subject The Select Subject feature has a new artificial intelligence and machine learning model which has been optimized for portraits (which happen to be the most-selected subject in Photoshop). If it identifies a person in the image, it will run this new model which is trained for difficult-to-select attributes (such as hair), creating a more accurate selection than ever before. Match Fonts The Match Fonts feature has been updated with a new artificial intelligence and machine learning model to support a greater number of fonts, vertical text, and detection of multiple lines of type. (Match Fonts automatically determines which pixels in the image are text, figures out what font it is, and then searches through your fonts to find the best match for that text.) To preview the results while using the Match Fonts command, create a Type layer with the desired text.