Learn to think about Photoshop while in the field shooting so that you capture the essential raw material for optimal digital enhancement. In the process, you'll push your photography way beyond what is possible "in camera" to produce fine art imagery that takes full advantage of a purely digital workflow. This is a very creative workshop that will leave you with a new arsenal of digital techniques.
Day 1: Shooting Essentials
This day is all about making sure you have a firm foundation to build upon during the rest of the event.
• Organize the elements of a scene into the needed, nuisance and neutral areas and learn to maximize the first, minimize the second and use the third most effectively
• See how your lens choice is often just as important as your exposure settings
• Shooting suggestions that will show you how to avoid lens flare, turn the sun into a starburst, make chain-link fences disappear and dozens of other essential techniques
• Essential gear selection tips, including the best way to store lenses, filters and accessories
• The three essential filters that should be in every camera bag
Day 2: Shooting & Processing Techniques
Here we'll concentrate on techniques that can be used almost everyday. These are the workhorse techniques that are often used on 30-70% of the images I shoot.
• Understanding Adobe Camera Raw (ACR): Knowing the true differences between the many adjustment controls available in the ACR is absolutely essential to producing high quality images. This includes such essentials as sharpen masking, camera profiles and the difference between vibrance and saturation.
• The difference between ACR and Adobe Lightroom
• High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography will allow you to capture the full brightness range of a scene and retain detail in bright and dark areas even under harsh lighting conditions like the midday sun. You'll learn how to process images for both a photorealistic/natural result or for a more illustrative look that will cause people to ask "is that a photograph, or did you draw it?".
• Professional panorama techniques will show you the essential gear and tactics needed to produce stunning panoramas. This includes finding a lens nodal point, leveling aids, pre- and post-processing techniques and much more.
Day 3: Processing to Perfection
Learn to transform a raw capture into a fine art masterpiece by developing a personal style that sets your images apart from others.
• Learn how to influence where a viewer will look in your images by manipulating color, contrast and sharpness
• See how color plays an essential role in how an image in interpreted
• Add depth to your images with selective tonal adjustments
• Essential adjustment and masking techniques
• Advanced retouching techniques to rid your images of artifacts, distraction and less than perfect content
Day 4: Fusing Photography with Photoshop
See how thinking about Photoshop at the time of capture can dramatically expand your imaging possibilities.
• Combining multiple exposures to minimize fog, smoke or noise
• Multi exposure light painting techniques that produce overly creative imagery
• time-lapse photography techniques
• Night photography essentials
• Combining multiple shots for maximum depth of field
• Varying the shutter speed in a single image
Day 5: From Focus to Finished
At the end of the week, we'll concentrate on perfecting your own images by working multiple images from start to finish and concentrating on the little things that make all the difference.
• Essential sharpening techniques
• File and layer management techniques
• Advanced adjustment ideas
• Finishing techniques
• Stylistic experiments
Equipment Requirements
A DSLR camera capable of shooting in RAW format, tripod and ideally a cable release... although you could get by without one.
*Schedule Subject to change
Just look at the before and after images before to see the difference between default settings and kick ass imaging:
