Cageraham Lincoln Memorial
The CLM Photoshop Test
When I first started on the IMDb ad-design team there were 4 people; by the time I left 6+ years later there was close to 30. Needless to say, we did a lot of interviewing/hiring in between. Early on, it became apparent that when some interviewees were asked what they would grade their Photoshop skill level from 1-10, they were…less than truthful. Having wasted time on people who embellished their skillset, we needed a way to suss out who was actually competent at Photoshop before taking a chance on hiring them.
As a solution to this, I came up with the Cageraham Lincoln Memorial photoshop test. The interviewee was given a photoshop document with a photo of the Lincoln Memorial, and a headshot of Nicolas Cage, with the instruction to strip Cages’s face onto the Lincoln Memorial, making it look as photorealistic as possible. The interviewee was given 10 minutes and specific instructions to use non-destructive editing techniques as much as possible (clipping/layer masks, adjustment layers, smart objects, etc.), as if someone later might need to change or tweak any edit made. On a team where dealing with huge movie poster .PSDs with potentially hundreds of layers was a daily occurrence, these skills were paramount.
At face value this perhaps seems a silly test, but in actuality was an excellent way to assess someone’s ability to execute photo manipulation, and also have them explain their process (and what they would have done given more time, e.g.). At this point it was usually pretty obvious who had the right combo of taste-making, overall technical skills, and an understanding of non-destructive editing in Photoshop (and who was spinning ye olde yarn).
At face value this perhaps seems a silly test, but in actuality was an excellent way to assess someone’s ability to execute photo manipulation, and also have them explain their process (and what they would have done given more time, e.g.). At this point it was usually pretty obvious who had the right combo of taste-making, overall technical skills, and an understanding of non-destructive editing in Photoshop (and who was spinning ye olde yarn).
