Oct 2, 2009 | Field Reports
The folks at NAPP have created in Photoshop World this amazing community. The community shares the common passion of visual communication and within that are more great conversations in a couple of days then one might have in a lifetime. I started the day with some great sharing with participants, the sharing going in both directions. I then had the great treat of listening in as Jay Maisel crited Joe McNally’s classroom shoot he just did the previous hour. Wow, that was cool as the smallest nuisance of Gesture and color were discussed. Then I had a great conversation with someone I truly admire, JP Caponigro before our Art of Digital. Then the perfect day was finished with this guy pictured, someone I truly love for his passion of photography and teaching, Jimmy D. He’s such a big lug with such a vast knowledge. Thanks Jimmy for all you do!
Oct 2, 2009 | Field Reports
So, what’s it like presenting at Photoshop World at 8:15 in the morning? Well, when I arrived at 7:45 to set up, the faithful were already in the room. Thanks guys! Even though you were there sleeping after being in line at 04:00 for Midnight Madness tickets
And what’s it like looking out from the presenter’s table….terrifying!
And when you come to crits at Photoshop World, this is what you face. Bring it on!
Oct 2, 2009 | Field Reports
The first day has come and gone and it was great! The Opening Ceremony was as expected, great, filled with laughs and excitement when some of the new features coming in CS5 (of course, it’s supposed to be a secret because who would ever guess CS5 is coming after CS4).
No body could hold still during the Keynote, especially our bud Terry White. Hey Terry, just how many different cameras where you shoot with? I saw a Nikon, a video camera and of course the iPhone, got a helmet cam going?
There’s a dear friend and BT Journal designer Margie making sure no one gets lost on their way to the fun. Yeap, Photoshop World is #1!
Yeap, that’s our own Stephanie on stage at the Keynote doing what she does so well. Congrats to dad, Dave Cross on his induction to the Photoshop Hall of Fame. Great guy, great teacher! mtc
Photos captured by Cooplix P6000
Oct 1, 2009 | Field Reports
The PSW Photo Safari is taught with my good bud Joe McNally. What’s the goal of Photo Safari? It’s two fold, instill the fun and passion in the craft of photography and teach a little light. We teach the light as it falls on the scene from above but even more with small flash. Here’s the photo from the flash session I taught, the last set.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP0814.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
The stage is pretty simple. Lanette is looking saucy and distant for the poor field hand Lane who has come in from a hard day’s work. At least, that’s the lame story I gave these two talented models to help them “get in the mood.” The light is pretty simple. Lanette has a SB-900 with 1/2 CTO pushing through a EzyBox. Lane is another SB-900 pushing through a 1/2 CTO and Honl 1/8 grid spot. All being driven by the SU-800. The mind twist for the folks learning was the fact the camera body is set to -4 exp comp! Why? The sky, I didn’t want washed out, no appearance sunset. I wanted, well, what you see and to get that, I simply underexposed it to submission. The flashes were set to +2 and everything else just feel into place from there. It was great fun and hopefully more folks will pull out their flash and play a little more with this creative light source.
Photo captured by D3x, 24-70AFS w/SB-900 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Oct 1, 2009 | Field Reports
Our Photoshop World Photo Safari was today and it was GREAT! We had the best group of folks along who made the day just fantastic! Along of course was our assistant Stephanie who didn’t have enough to do snapping like crazy with the Coolpix 5000 or video with the HF10 or helping participants, she also had to model.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP0712.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
We started off easy, doing a simple portrait with the 28f1.4 at f1.4. All we had to do was find some clear sky (no wires and the such) and go click. But that wasn’t enough for Stephanie. Nope, it was time for Air Stephanie
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP0750.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
One big difference this time was, Stephanie was jumping not for one camera but 65! Did it phase her? Not for a heartbeat! Not nearly as dramatic or humorous as the others we did earlier in the week on the coast of Maine, but it adds to the collection. This is a 1/2000 f2.8 FP flash fill photo. Where will that girl takes us next?
To all the participants who joined us today, my sincere thanks for making it so much fun. I challenged them all to find a spark for the day and find joy in just being out shooting and I can honestly say, they meet the challenge beautifully!
Photos captured by D3x, 28f1.4/14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
PS….Stephanie captured 11GB of video during the day, OMG! I’ve got to edit all of that and will and get it posted as soon as I can. Lord help us!
Sep 30, 2009 | Field Reports
We’ve only been to one meeting and already we’re learning new Photoshop stuff….cool! There are two challenges in Photoshop, learning how something functions and more important to me, how to use that knowledge to finish an image to bring more visual impact.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/Bay Hall.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
This is the final walk to our room, down a spooky hall from the Shinning. Finishing this image so you feel that spookiness the way I do required using Silver Efex Pro like I describe in the video and then adding a simple Curve. The Curve is a powerful tool I use ALL the time! What makes the tool so powerful? First, it’s gentle on pixels and as long as you don’t flat line, it isn’t breaking pixels. You’ll see here that I use the 10% grid. You get that by clicking within the grid while holding down the Alt/Opt key. I use that because moving the curve dead center to the corner of one grid is equal to about 1 stop of camera exp compensation.
What you see here is what a Curve would look like if you were lightening an image by 1/2 stop. This is the typical way folks work an image. I would like to suggest you do the opposite, darken an area around the area you want to look brighter. By doing this, you’re tricking the eye to see something brighter by association rather than by actually making it brighter. This protects highlight detail while making shadows darker. It’s a win-win finishing tool that I use all the time.
Well, it’s time to comb the hair and brush the teeth and headout for our famous Photo Safari. I know I’ll have more to blog from Photoshop World real soon. This is still one of our favorite events!
Photo captured by D3, 28f1.4 on Lexar UDMA digital film
