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Description:
This four-part class is structured around the ultimate goal of making
fine prints (from a digital file, or scans of film): from camera capture
and/or scanning, to manipulation in Photoshop, to printing on an inkjet
printer. A general overview of each step is followed by demonstrations
on actual images, with an explanation of the various tools and options
involved. This is a demonstration and discussion course, and you may
bring your laptop if you want to follow along. There is lots of time for
questions each step of the way. These 4 sessions are designed for the
beginner as a basic road map to help minimize the brain damage involved
in understanding where to start and how all the pieces of digital
photography fit together. This class is designed to give you an overview
of the equipment, processes and steps in the aesthetic considerations
and technical workflow of digital photography.
Class 1: The Camera
There are a million settings on your digital camera. Many of these can
be set once, or ignored. We will go through them all, and spend time on
the important ones. What they do, and how to set them. Tips for taking
good, colorful, sharp, well-composed pictures. Work in the field. Tripods?
Class 2: Theory and Structure of a Good Digital File
- Review and questions from class one.
- Further discussion of making good pictures. Lighting. Focus. Angle of view. Composition. Illustrative examples from Chris Brown's portfolios.
- The
theory and structure of digital files: pixels, resolution, file size
vs. image size, etc., levels and luminosity setting white and black
point, exposure, colors contrast. Understanding histograms. 24-bit
vs. 48-bit. Analog vs. digital. Basic color spaces and color
management. Goals for a good scan or camera file.
- Introduction to Photoshop: Opening, closing, saving files in photoshop.
- Straighten, crop, and spot. Initial levels/curves adjustments and color balance.- Menus, tools, palettes, layers and layer sets, channels, history.
Class 3: Making Your Photos Look The Way You Want Them To In Photoshop
- We will look at your pictures and talk about how to make them look the
way you want them, in the field and with Photoshop.
- Color theory: color perception color spaces RGB/CMYK/Lab/HSB. Color
management, preferences and settings.
- Adjustment layers vs. image
- Color tools: Fine tuning the image for printing using adjustment layers and layer masks. Adjusting value, contrast and color. Primary and secondary colors color balance. -Curves, levels, hue/saturation, etc. Conversion to black and white.
-Selections: tools, menu options, quick mask, modifying selections. Layer masks. Alpha channels.
Class 4: Printing
- Different types of printers, inks, paper. Longevity, color gamut,
contrast, detail, surface texture. Metamerism.
- Prepping the image for the printer. Unsharp masking. Size/resolution
adjustments. Tour of the Epson driver. Advanced settings. Media
types. Converting to paper profiles, and rendering intent. Epson
adjustments vs. Photoshop adjustments.
- Evaluating the print. Color temperatures of viewing lights.
Fine-tuning prints.
Presented as a Lecture-Style Workshop:
Affordable workshops designed to introduce a subject quickly and efficiently. Students can take notes from the instructor's projected computer screen, and/or bring their own computer to follow along.
Who Should Take This:
This is a meat and potatoes sequence to teach you all that is necessary to produce beautiful prints that you will be proud to frame and hang, it is not a workshop about all the tricks and flashy things that Photoshop can do. You should have access to Photoshop on your personal computer for this course.
Instructor:
Chris Brown has been practicing photography in Boulder for almost 40 years. His specialty is medium and large format, color landscape photography. He was the first photographer in Colorado to receive a commission in the Art in Public Places program, for his series "The Hydrologic Cycle: Studies of Water" which is housed at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has also done portfolios for the Earth Sciences Department at CU, and Boulder's Open Space and Mountain Parks. His prints are in numerous public, private and corporate collections, including the Denver Museum of Contemporary Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts.
His prints, which many people have seen during Open Studios, are superb, both technically and aesthetically. They range from literal to abstract, and convey a very personal, often transcendent view of our world. "I essentially taught myself photography, which certainly was the hard way to go. As a result I know the techniques inside and out, and how to explain them to others in a simple, clear manner and I love to teach. People tell me that my prints have a very personal, distinctive style not like any other photography they have seen."
After making Cibachrome prints in the darkroom for 10 years he began exploring digital inkjet printmaking, and this has fully enthralled him: "These prints are better in every way than analog prints: they are sharper, longer lasting, and the artistic control, well, really leaves the others in the dark!"
Chris has taught many photography workshops over the years, including courses for Anderson Ranch, Mikes Camera and Boulder's Lifelong Learning, as well as in his Boulder studio. He is clear and patient in his teaching style, and his classes are packed full of both information and philosophy. "The print is the final expression of your artistic vision, and a great way to share your work with others. Therefore my teaching of photography techniques always has the concept of the print in the background. Photography is a sequence of either cumulative successes, or errors, and my job is to make it the latter, so that the results show your artistry."
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