Epson Print Academy – Live – What It's Like

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Today, the Epson Print Academy is in Washington DC at the Hilton Crystal Palace.
What’s the Epson Print Academy like? Jack Reznicki hosts Track One. Jeff Schewe is ring leader for Andrew Rodney, Greg Gorman, Mac Holbert, and me in Track Two. Both tracks feature live sessions and informative videos. In track two senior product manager Mark Radogna (below) talks about the new HDR ink technologies. Henry Wilhelm talks about key issues in print permanence – see the full length here. There’s an Expo area. Jeff Greene of Microsoft makes a short presentation on Capture One 4 and Expression Media 2. Mike Wong of On One makes a short presentation on their plug-ins like Mask Pro and Focal Point. And there’s a Gallery; all the prints are printed with Epson’s new HDR ink.
Check back later this evening for afternoon additions.
Find out more about the new Epson printers here.
Find out about the next Epson Print Academy near you here.

Epson Print Academy – Wilhelm / Reichmann

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The videos for the Epson Print Academy are always rich. In the newly updated Track 2 sessions attendees get to see a 14 minute short cut of Michael Reichmann (Luminous Landscape) interviewing Henry Wilhelm (Care and Permanence of Photographs) on longevity. A lot of myths and misnomers are dispelled. It’s well worth scanning.
You can see and/or listen to the full 68 minute version here.
Find out about the next Epson Print Academy near you here.

Epson Print Academy – Downloads

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The Epson Print Academy Track 2 downloads contain dozens of PDFs, test files, and actions. They’re electronic. So they’re green. They’re portable. They’re transmittable. And they’re updateable. They evolve and grow as the sessions do. Items include Color Management (Rodney), Sharpening Workflow (Schewe), B&W Conversion (Gorman), Fine Art Workflow (Holbert), The Art of Proofing (Caponigro) and much, much more.
They’re for attendees only!
Find out about the next Epson Print Academy near you here.
Check out my downloads here.
Check out my Fine Digital Print workshops here.

Epson Print Academy – Atlanta 11/8

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The Epson Print Academy will be in Atlanta tomorrow Saturday, November 8th at the Renaissance Atlanta Hotel Downtown. It’s the first of a 15 city tour. Track 1 & 2 are both updated with new sessions. Track 1 is hosted by Jack Reznicki with live demonstrations and informative videos featuring industry professionals giving an excellent introduction to the medium.  Track 2 features advanced sessions by Andrew Rodney, Jeff Schewe, Greg Gorman, Mac Holbert and John Paul Caponigro. The gallery features images printed with the new Epson Stylus® Pro 7900 printers with UltraChrome® HDR inks. Attendees will be registered to win one 4880 printer (given at each venue) and one of the 7900 printer (given July 2009). At $79.95 and $149.95, these sessions are a phenomenal value. Don’t miss them!
Get more information here.
Find out about the next Epson Print Academy near you here.
Check out my Fine Digital Print workshops here.

The Fine Digital Print – Seminar – Total Solution

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Today I present a seminar The Fine Digital Print.
One of the things I discuss is that print quality is a product of a total a solution. It can be challenging to compare the many new offerings from multiple manufacturers. Breaking the systems down into their component parts and understanding what impact each has on print quality is essential to achieving a balanced well-informed viewpoint. Here are five items to bear in mind.
PRINTER
INK DELIVERY SYSTEM
PAPER DELIVERY SYSTEM
SELF-PROFILING
INK
DMAX & GAMUT
FAST DRYING
LONGEVITY & DURABILITY
SUBSTRATE
ISO BRIGHTNESS DMAX & GAMUT
COATINGS – DRYING AGENTS & BRIGHTENERS
LONGEVITY & DURABILITY
DRIVER
INK LIMIT
PAPER FEED
DOT STRUCTURE – SIZE & PLACEMENT
SEPARATION – WHICH INKS ARE USED WHERE
16 BIT
RIP – POSTSCRIPT COMPATIBILITY FOR VECTOR GRAPHICS & TEXT
PROFILES
HIGH QUALITY PROFILES ARE EASIER TO GENERATE IF …
PRINTERS ARE LINEARIZED (AT FACTORY) & STABLE
INKSETS ARE CONSISTENTLY FORMULATED
Check out my free Printing downloads here.
Check out my workshops here.

Extending Dynamic Range – Seminar – Contrast Ratios

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–
Today I present a seminar Extending Dynamic Range. Extending dynamic range is one of the fundamental challenges of photography since it’s invention. All forms of visual representation map the appearance of a high dynamic range scene into a low dynamic range medium (typically print). There have been many approaches to solving this problem throughout history. Now, with new technology, there are new approaches. HDR merges are popular now. In time, all of our imagery will be able to incorporate increasingly high dynamic range information.
Here’s a comparison of contrast ratios from very high dynamic range self-luminiscent objects to low dynamic range prints.
sun to starlight                                 1,000,000,000,000:1
human vision w/ dark adaptation      100,000,000:1
Spherocam HDR camera                    50,000,000:1
Brightside monitor                            200,000:1
human vision – single  view               10,000:1
b/w negative film                              10,000:1
typical DSLR                                      500:1
LCD monitor                                      400:1
CRT monitor                                      200:1
paper – best possible                        100:1
paper – typical                                   50:1
Check out my free downloads here.
Check out my workshops here.

Fine Art Workflow – Seminar – Barriers of Flexibility

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Today I present a seminar Fine Art Workflow with R Mac Holbert at PhotoPlus East in New York City.
Flexibility is one of the things we both emphasize in our seminars and workshops. Flexibility is an essential quality to preserve in your worfklow(s). You may change your mind in the future. You might have missed something in the past; you might learn something new; you might form a different opinion; things change and your workflow and files should be able to accommodate change. (Of course, this means allowing deliberate change not introducing unintentional change.) You want to be able to make a change as quickly and precisely as possible, without having to change everything
or repeat all your other successes. The practices you adopt in your workflow will determine how much and what kind of flexibility you preserve. Knowing what to avoid is as important as knowing what to do. Avoid practices that limit flexibility.
Here are 11 barriers.
1   resample resolution (lowering is worse than raising)
2   lower bit depth (8-16 bit)
3   convert to smaller gamut editing space
4   crop (mask instead)
5   erase pixels
6   work directly on the background
7   rasterize type
8   rasterize Smart Object and Smart Filters
9   apply masks permanently
10   merge layers
11   flatten
Can you name more? Comment here!
Check out my free download Barriers of Flexibility here.
Check out PhotoPlus here.
Check out my workshops here.

PhotoPlus East – Expo

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PhotoPlus East starts next week.
It’s the premiere photographic tradeshow in the US.
The presentations at manufacturer booths are free.
The seminars are fee based.
Both are are excellent.
I’ll be presenting a number of sessions.
Thursday, Oct 23
9-12             Fine Art Workflow (with Mac Holbert)(TA10)
3:30-4:15     Lightroom 2 – Fine Art Output (Adobe Booth)
Friday, 10/24
9-12              Extending Dynamic Range (FA7)
2-3                Epson Poster Signing (Epson Booth)
Saturday, 10/25
9-12              The Fine Digital Print (SA9)
12:30-1:15     Lightroom 2 – Fine Art Output (Adobe Booth)

Mary Virginia Swanson – Business of Fine Art Workshops / Seminars

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Mary Virginia Swanson is simply the best in her field – educating photographers about the business of art. Her knowledge of the diverse markets available (gallery, stock, publishing, etc) to artists is exceptionally broad and deep. Most importantly, she’s a passionate advocate for artists; she cares deeply about their success.
Mary Virginia Swanson just announced a new workshop in her hometown Tucson, Arizona.
“This workshop, led by Mary Virginia Swanson, will provide participants with an overview of the fine art photography market and how one can effectively target galleries, collections and publishers most likely to respond to their work. An understanding of presenting work to industry professionals via competitions and portfolio review events, as well as the value of attending Gallery Expos will be discussed. Examples of successful promotional tools with be shared. Ms. Swanson will bring an extensive library of reference materials and examples of successful self-promotion examples to the Workshop to share with participants.”
How good is she? Alec soth said, “Taking a marketing workshop with Ms. Swanson was a life changing experience.” That’s high praise from a fast rising art star.
Find out about the workshop here.
Find out about Mary Virginia Swanson’s seminars here.
Find out about Mary Virginia Swanson here.
Check Mary Virginia Swanson’s blog often for a a wealth of useful information.
If you’ve attended an MVS event? Comment here!