My TEDx Dirigo talk from 10/10/10 is live.
In You’re More Creative Than You Think You Are I show how you can create a synergy between skills you already have (writing, drawing, photography) to turbo charge your creativity.
Watch the other TEDx Dirigo speakers here.
Learn more about TEDx Dirigo here.
Find more of my favorite TED videos here.
Interested in printing on exotic substrates? Consider InkAID (inkaid.com). InkAID is a liquid coating that prepares surfaces for inkjet printing. Coating an exotic substrate’s surface will do several things. It will reduce dot gain, allowing the print to hold more detail. It will increase gamut, providing greater saturation. It will increase dmax, yielding a better black.
Artists are experimenting with many types of exotic substrates from aluminum, to acrylic sheets, to wood, to uncoated fine art and handmade papers. Basically, if you can get it through the printer and you can get the ink to stick you can print on it. InkAID helps the ink stick.
InkAid is easy to use. Stir it. Brush it on. Let it dry. Print.
There are currently five InkAid products. White Matte Precoat creates a white matte coat on any surface. Clear Semi-Gloss Precoat creates a transparent semi-gloss finish on any surface. InkAID Adhesive and Clear Gloss Precoat create a transparent glossy surface with two coats. Clear Gloss Precoat II creates a transparent glossy surface with one coat. When using clear coats, you can choose to let the coloration of the base surface show through (the material itself or a surface with an image) or you can coat it first with White Matte Precoat.
ping and handling.
Surfaces are water resistant and can be reworked with subsequent printings, over painting, or distressing.
You may be able to use ICC profiles for similar inkjet surfaces (if you get lucky), but it’s more likely that you will have to create new ICC profiles specifically for this surface to achieve the optimum results, especially if the final state of the coated substrate is not white.
InkAID is acid free and contains no optical brighteners. Nonstandard tests (hang samples in a window in direct sunlight next to other prints and compare) indicate longevity is roughly on par with similar inkjet prints. Longevity ratings obtained from standardized tests are not available as the variety of substrates being used today is so vast.
A liter costs $25. A gallon costs $65. A sample set (5 ounces of five products) is available for $21 plus ship
InkAID.com has a useful FAQ section answering many common questions about it’s use. The book Digital Art Studio: Techniques for Combining Inkjet Printing with Traditional Art Materials by Bonnie Lhotka, Karen Schminke, and Dorothy Simpson Krause is another source of useful information.
Find InkAid here.
Read more about the tools I use here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops here.
There’s a print spray that anyone making inkjet prints needs to know about – Premier Art’s Print Shield. It’s a UV water resistant lacquer that comes in a variety of finishes – matte, semi-gloss, and glossy. It offers protection from light, water, moisture, airborne contaminants, and fingerprints. It doesn’t produce any visible changes in the print, either in color or density or surface. It dries fast and doesn’t have a strong odor. It reduces burnishing and scuffing somewhat. Most importantly, it greatly increases longevity, in some cases by as much as 200%
Each $15 400ml can covers approximately 75 8×10” prints.
Henry Wilhelm has tested prints sprayed with Print Shield. Visit wilhelm_research.com for his most current data on longevity.
I spray all of my prints with Print Shield now.
Just like spraying a pastel, apply the fixative carefully. If the substrate gets soaked the surface may darken permanently. Instead of spraying the print directly, spray the air above the print and let the mist fall onto the print surface. Let the print dry for a few minutes. Then reapply.
Find PrintShield here.
Read more about the tools I use here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops here.
Every year I take an extended period of time to make new images.
These two images came through last night.
They’re part of my series Exhalation.
They’ll soon to be collected in a new Blurb book, portfolio, and exhibit.
Formally they explore giving symmetry a twist and white.
Thematically they suggest that the whole of nature can be seen as being alive.
The two source images are of Antarctic clouds and icebergs on the horizon.
Read more to see the source files … Read More
Desert Inspirations: Journeys Without and Within
The Desert at Death Valley
For me, the desert has always been sacred. It’s an environment so stripped down that I can’t help but feel closer to spirit. All distractions fall away and I’m left to observe my surroundings and myself, from without to within.
Upon first glance the desert is, well, deserted, and many people never get past that concept. But the more time spent, the more I notice, and upon closer inspection, that the desert is a complex, beautiful, timeless, spiritual place.
For the images in this book, I’ve taken source material directly from the desert; from the stones underfoot at Death Valley Canyon, to the salt crystals at Badwater Basin, the colored rocks of Artist’s Palette, to the brush on the edges of the road at Stovepipe Wells.
In the images themselves, you may see remnants of the undulating Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, the craggy peaks of the Panamint Range, or the shadows of Zabriskie Point, but most of all, I hope that you’ll also be able to see and feel the spirit of the desert come alive in these images.
Kathy Beal
2010
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With the new and updated Coach categories the Assignment Coach is so full of information that it’s like having a photo pricing seminar built into the program. You also get negotiating suggestions on how to deal with clients …”
Learn more about PhotoQuote here.
Find more business resources here.
Learn more in my Digital Printing and Digital Photography workshops.
Julieanne Kost discusses how the addition of color as well as supporting imagery can help reinforce the mood and message of a composite image that a single photograph may fail to do on it’s own.
View more CS5 Videos here.
Learn more in my DVDs Photoshop Color Tools and Photoshop Color Strategies.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.
“Paola Antonelli, MoMA’s curator of Architecture and Design, provides insights into where design is headed both as a creative discipline and as a tool for making sense of the world. In this interview, she talks about the vision behind her upcoming exhibit at MoMA, Talk To Me, “We may not think about it consciously on a day to day basis, but objects around us are always talking to us in both explicit and implicit ways. There’s the obvious directive of a stop sign or a traffic cone, but there’s also the unspoken messaging conveyed via the ATM machine, the alarm clock, and that shiny new iPad. Objects have always been designed with the idea of communicating their use and meaning in mind, and it’s this relationship that MoMA’s Senior Curator of Architecture and Design, Paola Antonelli, seeks to explore in her upcoming exhibition, Talk to Me, slated for summer of 2011.”
Learn more about Talk to Me here.
Sean Kernan talks about creativity and his creative life.
Find more on B&H Events here.
Learn more about Sean Kernan here.
Read my conversation with Sean Kernan here.
Read more than 40 of my conversations with photographers here.