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Imaging
Programs
We require the use of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.x (available in a free, one-time, 30-day trial - see below) in our workshops and work flow, as it is based on Adobe Photoshop, the standard for the industry. We find it to be really great for editing, removing those dust motes that plague digital sensors, and for finer tweaks that can be made more easily in this great program without actually changing the digital negative file. The new parameters and adjustments for the histograms and color and tone adjustments are terrific, and there are numerous other features that make imaging so much easier. It does not, however, contain layers options, etc., but its web gallery feature is outstanding. We highly recommend it. Photoshop was conceived and designed by techie-steroid engineers who developed the program for graphic artists. While photographers started using it, it was never particularly intuitive or easy to use, especially for beginners, in spite of vast improvements over the years. Lightroom, on the other hand, was actually designed by photographers for photographers, and while it still could use some more tweaks and features, most professionals and amateurs who use it agree that it is a dream come true. At Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures, we all use the latest version of Lightroom in our workshops, because it is easy for us to show you, the workshop participant, how easily you can tweak your photographs and how easily you can make a large, archival print from your favorite workshop images. For an overview on Lightroom, check out our Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures' blog, specifically this series, and start at the bottom for the first (oldest) article in the series. For those who want to do stitching, however, we recommend Photoshop CS4 (or CS3 if you already have it). Stitching, for those who are not familiar with this term outside the sewing room, is the process by which you put together several individual photographs to make a larger one. Panoramas are probably the most common application for this technique. Many of our workshop participants are intrigued by all the talk about HDR (high dynamic range). Today's cameras, sophisticated as they are, can only record a limited range of values (lights to darks). Photographers who worked in black-and-white film used masking along with dodging and burning to bring out the details in the highlights and shadows. Today, we can easily do it with HDR, basically doing several exposures of a scene on a sturdy tripod for best results. We recommend Photomatix over Photoshop for this task. We see many examples of Photomatix and other programs being used to give images a far-out and/or photo-illustration look, but in our workshops, we encourage our students to use any program to enhance rather than overpower their images. We feel that just because one can do this or that with an image doesn't mean that one should! Below, you will see an example of a stitched, HDR photograph.
Before every workshop, we send our participants a list of what they will need, including programs, useful plug-ins, settings, etc. Digital Asset Management Digital Asset Management, for those who don't know, is the hopefully efficient process that takes your digital images from your camera to your computer, processes them, and catalogues them. There is a four-part series on this at the Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures' blog. Check out and start at the bottom for the first (oldest) article in the series. |
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photo workshops,imaging programs,lightroom,imaging,post production,photomatix,photo tours,photography school,travel,photography workshops,photo adventures,landscape photography,Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures Page last modified:
January 11, 2010
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