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Justin Hartford – Distinctive Printing Style

Alumni, Printing, Workshop  Comment
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Justin Hartford perfected his black and white palette during a special session of my Fine Digital Print workshops this week. He’s printing his high contrast landscapes right to the ragged edge. Deep blacks with very faint traces of detail and very bright highlights with only traces of detail. He’s using those in localized planes not in the same object. This makes extreme dynamic range a visual code for space (recession/progression). This distinctive palette combined with a larger than classic scale gives his work a very contemporary look to a classic subject (the American southwest).
Tell him what you think! Comment here!
Check out my Fine Digital Print workshops here.

Charlotte Rush Bailey – Appropriate Scale

Alumni, Printing, Workshop  Comment
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Charlotte Rush Bailey printed her African portraits at a variety of scales in a special session of my Fine Digital Print workshops this week. It took physically experiencing them with her own body to find out how they were working. She held them up to her face. When the portraits are larger than life they take on a more graphic quality evoking mass media presentations. When they’re life size the representational quality of them is heightened. When they’re small the intimate quality of them is emphasized. Scale had a big impact on her subject. Only certain subjects function this way. Making life-size or larger than life-sized representations of vistas (landscape, cityscape, seascape) is often impractical if not impossible.
To a limited degree you can preview scale by projecting an image before printing. But nothing is a substitute for actually experiencing the final print. In addition to evaluating technical aspects of a print, it’s important to identify associative qualities as well. They can make a big difference.
Tell her what you think! Comment here!
Check out my Fine Digital Print workshops here.

Don Ross – Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Alumni, Printing, Workshop  Comment
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Don Ross knows that little things can make a big difference.  He brought many beautiful prints to a special session of my Fine Digital Print workshops this week. He was looking for “that extra something”. We identified one of the strongest images/prints that would give us a lot of information relevant to the rest of his body of work. Further resolving this one image would unlock the keys to how most of the other images need to be handled. How much saturation? How much contrast? How much sharpening? What kind of sharpening? Applied selectively? What paper? How big? He spent the better part of two days fine-tuning the image. At the end of it, he turned a good print into a great print. It was time well spent. “It’s a strange thing. When it comes to making really good work. It’s almost as if, little things make all the difference.”
Now that he knows how to resolve this one image, he knows how to resolve similar images. I’ll bet the next great print comes in a matter of hours. It was time really well spent.
Tell him what you think! Comment here!
Check out my Fine Digital Print workshops here.

NEC 2690WUXi Monitor

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It’s the best monitor I’ve ever used.
The softproofed image onscreen has never looked so accurate. This LCD monitor has proprietary hardware technology that compresses the highlights to more accurately represent images in print. The monitor has hardware calibration technology that virtually eliminates color banding and provides excellent color uniformity across the screen. An internal stabilizer keeps colors consistent and the screen brightness to a level that more accurately represents images in print. Most LCD monitors are too bright to simulate images in print as accurately. The NEC 2690’s wide gamut encompasses over 90% of Adobe RGB. And it’s high resolution.
26″    2690WQXi   $1199.99
30″    3090WQXi   $2245.99
My workshop participants get to see it in action and receive discounts directly from the manufacturer.
Read about it on NEC.
Read user reviews at Amazon.

Photoshop.com – A Glimpse of the Future Now?

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Adobe has announced Photoshop.com. What is it? Mix Photoshop Elements with social networking, online sharing (Myspace/Facebook), and online archiving with services and free tutorials to support it. Imagine Flickr with free online image editing. Then add mobile computing (on cell phones and PDAs) – Photoshop.com Mobile. It’s not a professional solution (fully featured, capable of handling high resolution – Lightroom or Photoshop) – yet.
Does this herald the future of all Photoshop products? Will we be renting rather than purchasing our software in the future? Perhaps our upgrades will be automatic and managed for us. This is speculative futurecasting. For now, find out what’s happening online with PhotoshopExpress. It’s too interesting not to check it out.
Check it out here.
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PhotoshopCafe – CS4 Learning Center

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PhotoshopCafe has launched it’s CS4 online Learning Center. Read an illustrated overview of new CS4 features. Watch four new free videos online – Retouch and Panels, Content-Aware Scale, New Interface, GPU Viewing Options and an interview with John Nack (Photoshop Principle Product Manager). It’s excellent content. It’s free!
Visit PhotoshopCafe’s CS4 Learning Center here.
Seen it? Like it? Comment here!
Check out my DVDs here.
Check out my upcoming seminars here.
Learn Photoshop CS4 in my workshops.

PhotoshopCafe – Lightroom 2 Learning Center

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PhotoshopCafe offers a Lightroom 2 online Learning Center. Read an illustrated overview of new Lightroom 2 features. Watch four new free videos online – Dual Monitors, Photoshop Integration, Smart Collections, Local Adjustment and interviews with Tom Hogarty (Lightroom Senior Product Manager) and Frederick Johnson (Lightroom Senior Marketing Manager). It’s excellent content. It’s free!
Visit PhotoshopCafe’s Lightroom 2 Learning Center here.
Seen it? Like it? Comment here!
Check out my DVDs here.
Check out my upcoming seminars here.
Learn Photoshop CS4 in my workshops.

NAPP – Adobe Photoshop CS4 Learning Center

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The Photoshop Guys at NAPP have put together some great short video tutorials that will help you get up to speed on CS4. Here’s the list.
Scott Kelby
Camera Raw Adjustment Brush
Graduated Filter Tool
Post-Crop Vignette
Corey Barker
3D Improvements
Mask Panel
Dave Cross
Bridge Updates
Content Aware Scaling
Matt Koslowski
Adjustment Panel
Dodge & Burn
On Image Controls
Live Brush Preview
Vibrance Adjustment
RC Concepcion
Dodge, Burn & Sponge
Blend Focus
Flash Panels
Zoom, Toss & Rotate
MultiTouch Gestures
See all the videos here.
Seen it? Like it? Comment here!
Learn Lightroom 2 and CS4 in my workshops.
Check out my DVDs here.

NAPP – Photoshop User Special Bonus Issue

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If you’re a National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) member along with your next issue of Photoshop User magazine, you’ll be also receiving a special free bonus “All CS4? issue of the magazine. Each time Adobe comes out with a new version, NAPP / Photoshop User produces a special bonus issue for members. There are lots of other benefits to being a member. Check out NAPP here.
Seen it? Like it? Comment here!