Home: Sebastopol, Calif.
Office: San Francisco.
Staff: One full-time technical assistant and a production/studio coordinator. Bybee hires out production and freelance assistance, while he spends more time handling the client contacts. His wife, Shaun, handles the accounting.
Major clients: 3Com, Adobe, AT&T, AutoDesk, Fuji, Gallo, Global Village, HP, IBM, Intel, Jergens, Levi's, Neutrogena, Nickelodeon, Novell, Oracle, PacBell, Pentax, Polaroid, Rizzoli, Saab, SGI, Sutter Home, Visa and Wells Fargo. Appeared in CA, Graphis, Photo, Psychology Today, Outside and Time magazines.
Photographic equipment: A 6-megapixel Kodak 760 — based on a 35mm Nikon body — that replaced his Kodak 560. "I just purchased a Kodak 645 Pro Back and Mamiya 645 system that is taking the place of my medium format film cameras," Bybee says. "I have a drum scanner — and have had for a long time — for film. Most of my files are on film, but in the last couple of years I've switched over to do as much as I can digitally. I'm trying to go 100 percent digital capture now."
Computer equipment: Software: Photoshop, Live Picture, Corel Knockout and Color Quartet. Hardware: "Top-of-the-line Macintosh imaging machines," he says. "I've got G4s, a Cinema monitor, a Titanium laptop — as much new [equipment] as my CFO wife approves." For output, Bybee is an ardent fan of the Fuji Pictrography system.
Working with digital clients: "Ad agencies and ADs do rough Photoshop low-resolution comps, etc., but rarely have the ability to do reproduction-quality imaging," Bybee says. "We try to interface with the production house when possible and provide finished RGB files that they can separate and work with at the highest resolution needed for the media specified."
Advice for aspiring studio shooters: "Follow your passion and instincts," he says. "Work harder than your competition if you have to. Be a constant observer of light. Your ability to see and record light will ultimately set you apart and define your style."
Website: bybee.com
