Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium, Master Collection …
What’s in all the different editions?
See this check list here.
Which version do you / will you use? Tell us why. Comment here!
The Epson Print Academy is gearing up for another tour. There are two tracks.
Track I programming includes …
Jack Reznicki seminars and hosts.
Video presentations by top industry experts.
Track II programming includes …
Andrew Rodney Color Management
Jeff Schewe Raw Conversion
Greg Gorman Black and White
Mac Holbert Fine Art Workflow
J P Caponigro 21st Century Dodging & Burning and The Art of Proofing
Video presentations with Michael Reichmann, Henry Wilhelm, and Epson Professional Product Managers.
Which track should you attend? Find out here.
Nov 8, 2008 Atlanta
Nov 16, 2008 Washington DC
Dec 6 , 2008 New York
Dec 13, 2008 Dallas
Jan 31, 2009 Seattle
Feb 7, 2009 San Francisco
Feb 21, 2009 Los Angeles
Feb 28, 2009 Boston
Mar 14, 2009 Chicago
Mar 21, 2009 Toronto
April 4, 2009 Minneapolis
April 25, 2009 Denver
May 3, 2009 New York
May 9, 2009 Los Angeles/Orange County
May 16, 2009 San Francisco
May 23, 2009 Vancouver
Get more details on dates and locations here.
Track 1 costs $79.95. Track 2 costs $149.95. This is one of the best deals around. Sign up now!
Check out Schewe and Reichmann’s video tutorial here.
Check out Holbert’s DVD The Dirty Dozen here.
Check out my DVDs here.
Check out my Fine Digital Print workshop series here.
If you attended the Epson Print Academy tell us what you liked and what you’re looking forward to. Comment here!
This morning Adobe announced CS4 with a web broadcast demonstrating many new features across the entire product line. In it, John Loiacono (senior vice president of Adobe’s Creative Solutions Business Unit) described CS4 as “The most compelling release in adobe’s history.”
Here are three stunning new Photoshop features.
1 Real time panning and zooming in huge high resolution files (440mp 2gig).
2 Creating spherical 3d images and easily compositing new elements into them.
3 Content aware scaling.
There’s much more!
You can find out about many of the new features on Adobe TV.
Check these videos out.
See Bryan O’Neil Hughes’ – Photoshop Bridge CS4 Feature Tour here.
See Zoranna Gee (Product Manager) show the new CS4 Extended features here.
The Russell Brown Show – Content Aware Scaling here.
The Russell Brown Show – Spherical Panoramas here.
(And yes, all of my workshops and seminars will be updated for Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4.)
Known for his engaging personality, “Johnny L” (senior vice president of Adobe’s Creative Solutions Business Unit) discusses his thoughts on the future of imaging and how Photoshop plays a part of that. He gets it. He really gets it. And he’s got an inside track on future imaging technology. Among the many key ideas he addresses is what I consider to be an extremely important issue, enriching the experience of engaging high density information (beginning of video 2). Check out these videos for a glimpse into the future and one of the minds helping guide us there.
And check back here tomorrow for news on an important announcement from Adobe tomorrow.
Are you ready for something brilliant?
Recently Rayhaan Traboulay interviewed me for his online magazine thirdeyephotozine. Here’s an excerpt.
RH I recently had a discussion with a friend about creativity within people. I
find that people either generally “have it” or don’t. I believe that you
can’t really teach it too much. Theres room for improvement and critiques
and so on, but I find it is either innate in someone or it’s not. Would you
agree or no?
JPC I disagree – strongly. To be a successful creative person in any field, it
takes perseverance, intelligence, hard work, skill, talent, and luck – in
that order. Everyone is creative. Different people have different creative
strengths. It helps to find the areas each of us are strongest in and to
develop skills within other areas to become more versatile. Creativity is
not contained to the arts. Some of the most creative people in history and
with us on the planet today work in the fields of science and business. We
all have something to offer. And something to learn from each other.
Do you think you can learn to be more creative? Comment here!
Read the rest of the interview here.
Read more interviews here.
Read and hear my comments on my images here.
Find free PDFs on making artist’s statements here.
Hear my free tips on becoming more creative here.
See my images and get free portable galleries here.
How do you reduce forgery? One way is to issue certificates of authenticity. The artist issues a certificate of authenticity with the artwork. There are many ways to handle this. The artist can give the certificate to the client. The artist can keep the certificate on file for clients. Or, the artist can give one to a client and keep a duplicate. Ultimately a certificate can be forged. But holographic seals can’t. The Hahnemühle Certificate of Authenticity (certificates and holographic seals) was designed to help reduce the risk of forgery.
There are many steps you can take to reduce forgery.
1 Share digital files only with trusted sources and post low resolution files to the web
2 Insert copyright information in the file (as a layer, in the file info fields, in metadata).
3 Sign and number all prints(even if issued in an open/unlimited edition). Sign only saleable prints.
4 Keep good records of sales.
5 Note provenance (production history) on the back side of prints.
6 Use certificates and seals.
What other steps do you/could you take to ensure authenticity? Comment here!
Learn this and other tips and techniques in my Fine Digital Print workshops series.
Finding the side of a paper that’s optimized for printing can sometimes be challenging. Here are a few tips to help.
1 Look for the logo – the logo is always on the back.
2 Compare whites – the coated side is often whiter.
3 Feel the surface – the coated side is smoother.
4 Lick the paper – the coated side sticks more.
5 Feel the edge – paper is cut coated side up leaving a tiny lip/edge on the back side.
If you have other tips for finding the coated side of paper, comment here!
Learn this and other tips and techniques in my Fine Digital Print workshops series.
World reknowned landscape photographer William Neill recently released his new digital book Impressions of Light containing all new work with a twist. “Throughout my career, I have been seeking to inspire passion for the natural world and convey my emotional response to the subjects I photograph – that of awe and wonder. In 2005, when I learned a new way for me to convey such an emotional response by the use of camera movement during exposure, I began creating a new body of work entitled Impressions of Light. Inspired by color photographers Ernst Haas and Freeman Patterson, and of course the great Impressionistic painters, this work is simply another way. See how experimentation reinvigorates a contemporary master’s process in this new work.
Containing 100 pages with 69 photographs, Impressions of Light is available as a downloadable PDF only. A special introductory price of $15.00 USD is available until October 1 – thereafter $19.95.
Read more about and see more of William Neill’s Impressions of Light digital book here.
Proximity and sequencing matter. The first sequence suggests an approaching storm, while the second suggests clearing skies.
How you present your work may be almost as important as what work you present. It’s the art of arranging. And it is an art, which involves specific techniques that can be learned. What are some of the guiding principles involved? Here are a few.
Sequence matters. Start strong. Finish strong. Make getting there interesting. Whether it’s a symphony, a novel, or an exhibit. It’s good advice for arranging any creative product.
To sequence a project, you can use the metaphor of building a fence. The strongest pieces can be thought of as posts. The less strong pieces can be thought of as rails. You want to start and end with very strongest pieces to create a strong structure. You want to periodically reinforce runs of less strong units with one or more stronger units. You don’t want long runs of rails without posts or the structure may fail. A fence made only of posts becomes something else entirely, a wall with no variation or grace. The number of strong pieces you include determines how long a fence will be, though the number of other images you include may modify length somewhat …
What tips do you have for sequencing? How have you used this potential for your work? Comment here!
Check out the rest of this article in my column Illuminating Creativity in this month’s AfterCapture magazine.
Check out AfterCapture.com here.
Find 6 related PDFs here.
Learn these and other techniques in my Fine Digital Print Expert workshop here.
Extreme humidity can impact print quality. This is particularly true for but not exclusive to matte papers, which are more absorbent.
We printed for my Annual Exhibit in high humidity. The paper had absorbed a lot of moisture and so there was substantially more dot gain. The prints were coming out substantially darker and we were having trouble maintaining shadow detail. It’s made me want to store all of my paper in a climate controlled environment (using a dehumidifier or air conditioner). Or, climate control my entire studio. Rather than reprofiling for an atmospheric condition that changes unpredictably, we compensated with proofing. We lightened the files selectively before printing. With a little testing, we came up with standard adjustments that could be used on multiple images, with customized shadow masks for individual compositions. It pays to think about the impact of humidity on your printing. Control humidity when you can. Compensate for it when you can’t. You get better prints.
What do you do to compensate for excessive dot gain due to environment or overinking? Comment here.
Check out my Printing downloads here.
Check out my DVD The Art of Proofing here.
Find out about my The Fine Digital Print Workshop Series here.