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ARCHIVES
FEBRUARY
5, 2008 Special Event Reminder: Art Morris, Saturday March 8, 2008 Presentations
Presentation by Nancy
Sams:
Presentation by Carol
Weaver:
Presentation by Larry
Durbin: Other notes and announcements Richard Buchbinder, Death Valley Workshop, March 12-16, 2008: http://www.natureworkshops.com/death%20valley.htm
PSA Electronic Imaging
Division Study Groups:
Pintura Fine Art for
printing, mounting, framing:
JANUARY 2, 2008 ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Art Morris seminar on 08 March
Digital Imaging Group Business
President: Chuck Williams Today's Presentation by Pat Beckley Pat showed several Internet sites with a wealth of tutorials and other information:
Russell Brown
The Radiant
Vista
Raw without FUD
Luminous Landscape
NAPP See you next month December 4, 2007 Meeting Notes The December online book themed meeting was a huge success! After viewing many wonderful books from members, we gathered in the auditorium for a lively discussion of the process. Chuck Williams has generously supplied us with a summary of all the details. DIG DISCUSSION - Book Publishing
November 6, 2007
Meeting Notes Our meetings start off with a Show and Tell; a time when we can show each other what we've been working on. This month featured an array of landscapes, photo restorations, color, black and white and a beautiful book of select Infrared photos. Thank all of you who bring your work to share and inspire! Don't forget that our December meeting is just a show and tell featuring photo books created by members. Guests are welcome to bring their photo books too! Through a light-hearted banter and Lynn Thompson's "passing of the gavel", Howard Wood officially became our new host for DIG meetings. Thanks Lynn for a great job as host for the past three years. Your humor and strong leadership always added to our enjoyment of the meetings. Howard has already shown his leadership and good humor both in hosting and presenting so we have much to look forward to. Lynn's final announcements to the group included the options for payment of dues. Please note that everyone must pay renewal fees of $25.00 this year. An announcement was made to
encourage us to visit the John and Doris Norton Gallery at the Phoenix
Museum of Art. This special 2500 square foot gallery is a counterpart to
the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson and was the brainchild of
DIG member John Norton. Click here to learn more about the gallery. Our first presenter was Vern West who showed us how easy it is to created montages and collages. He first demonstrated how to combine fireworks bursts thus creating a photo with multiple bursts. Next, he showed how to create the shape of a Polaroid and then put a photo onto it. His final result had multiples of this combination on a single document with a nice background color. He also suggested using a photograph as your background. Either way, it's a fun way to make a montage of several images. All in all, Vern provided great inspiration and a way to utilize numerous photos in very interesting ways. After the break Chuck Williams presented a very thorough presentation of ProShow Gold Producer. Designed for professionals and the really serious users of digital photo slide shows, Producer offers a steep learning curve, Chuck warned. He referred to the program as the big brother of ProShow Gold which is designed for the enthusiasts. Nevertheless, Chuck seemed to have made significant headway in his use of this powerful program. Thanks Chuck for your beautiful show and well done program. Pro_Show_Producer notes from Chuck
October 1, 2007
Meeting Notes Chuck Williams hosted our October DIG meeting with forty-five people attending. Doris McCrossin asked guests: John Ekiss, David B Moore and Rita Skarbek to stand and be welcomed. We congratulated Chick Gerston for his current award for photography by the Jewish Community Center. Chick Gerston presented an extensive program covering a range of Photoshop Tips sure to please just about everybody. Chick uses CS2 which gave us the powerful Shadow Highlights filter. He started his demo by showing how to apply this adjustment to a duplicate layer so you have more control. (Since the computer being used had CS3, it was also shown that you can now create a sort of adjustment layer using Smart Filters which allows for even more flexibility). Chick moved on to an interesting method of adding new color to an image. Illustrating his portraiture skills, Chick demonstrated what he calls the “Doris Day Filter”, guaranteed to make beautiful faces every time! He then gave a review of the Match Color command which guarantees boring skies to become beautiful, two methods of vignetting your images and finally combining two images into one to create that perfect composition rounded out his in depth program. Thank you, Chick for all the preparation and thought that went into this presentation. Members, be sure to check out his tutorials for his step by step methods for each of these outstanding tips and techniques. CHICKS_CS2 PHOTOSHOP_TIPS.pdf (large file) Marianne Wallace shared her Radiant Vista download of Mark Johnson’s Workbench featuring the incredible features in the latest Adobe Camera Raw 4.1. Mark is an excellent instructor and has done a great job showing the powerful new features in the updated ACR 4.1 such as being able to clone or heal in the raw converter and that sharpening your image is now recommended in the converter because of the advanced sliders. Radiant Vista posts Workbenches every Thursday and leaves the two most current available for download for just two weeks. After that, they ask that you become a paying member. As such, you'll have access to all their content. (from Marianne.....I just read on their website that I should have asked permission first! I think they would probably forgive me, though, since it was ultimately a commercial for their site :-) Current Workshops: http://www.radiantvista.com/workbench Adam Rodriquez shares a link which offers a limited free access to Lynda.com. This website offers hundreds of hours of training on all Photoshop products as well as many other software titles. When you click on the following link, look for the Lynda.com logo. It mentions Mask Pro training but, as I mentioned earlier, you will have access to ALL the software training there. http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=4 Our break offered members more time to enjoy the great work people brought to our show and tell. We continue to see more creativity and inspiration each month. Thank all of you who worked to bring us your prints to share. Something a little different for DIG, Robert Campbell offered his tips and techniques for successful bird photography. Robert draws from many years experience, photographing birds throughout the southwest and in Texas. His publications, teaching college classes, workshops and exhibitions, too numerous to name, testify to his ability and expertise. Thank you, Bob for that interesting presentation. Helpful Hints For Capturing Great Bird Images
September 4, 2007
Meeting Notes Forty people, including two guests, attended the September DIG meeting hosted by Howard Wood. Considering many members were attending the PSA conference in Tucson, this was a very good turnout. Responding to Marianne Wallace’s Summer Challenge, several excellent examples of collages covered the tables in our Show and Tell area for everyone to enjoy and gain inspiration. Thanks to all of you who showed us your outstanding work. The deadline for this challenge is September 30, so if you have a collage to share, please bring it to the October meeting!
Pat
Beckley
led off with the first presentation on the subject of Clipping Masks.
Probably not a technique used by many of us but certainly one worth
becoming familiar with and incorporating often into our workflow. One of
the most useful applications of clipping masks is when you have multiple
layers but you'd like to isolate an adjustment to just one of those
layers.
More fun applications of clipping masks is wrapping a photo around text
or around custom shapes. You can then get as creative as you like with
the use of blend modes and other adjustments. Introduction_to_Clipping_Masks.pdf Tip from Carol: Another source for learning and using clipping masks is Katrin Eisman’s excellent book entitled: Photoshop Masking and Compositing. Following our break, Howard Wood treated us to his slide show, Saguaro Serenade. Arranged in a program called FotoMagico and set to music, Howard’s images, both color and infra-red documented his travels in pursuit of the unusual, the beautiful and mighty saguaros that populate Arizona. Thank you, Howard for that very nice showing. FotoMagico (Mac only) Lastly, Adam Rodriquez showed us some of his highly creative portraiture techniques. Beginning with a color image, Adam demonstrated the new Black and White adjustment exclusive to CS3. It allows you to click and drag directly on your image to adjust the various tones in it to create your idea of an ideal black and white image. After creating the desired black and white, he demonstrated how he uses the Lens Blur tool to render background softness and sharpness of facial features to produce lovely portraits. Adam encouraged us to use preferences to set up shortcuts and to color code our most often used adjustments in the toolbar menus. This helps him work quickly and efficiently. Another tip he shared is making a selection in an image before applying filters, thus working on only a portion of the image saving RAM and saving time. To finish, Adam used an Action that broke his image into what seemed 100 pieces...each having a drop shadow and customizable. No tutorial for Adam's presentation. Another reason to come to the meetings! From Marianne: The fun action that Adam used to cut his photo into many pieces is from one of my favorite Actions sources called PanosFX. This action and many more are free to download. They also have actions for sale. All are excellent.
August 7, 2007
Meeting Notes The
meeting was called to order by Lynn Thompson and general
announcements were handled and guests were introduced. There were 37
members and guests attending. Doris McCrossin started out the morning with her program “Shape Up ---- Ship Out.” Doris handed out instructions to make her program easier to follow. The program was to demonstrate the many ways to use the Shape Tool found in Photoshop. Elements users can make the same adjustments using the Cookie Cutter Tool. Doris, known for her creative images, had eight examples of using the Shape Tool to create her images. All of the images were beautiful. Handouts were provided so the members could follow along and create similar images. The handouts listed such important information as blending modes, Shape Style, etc. For those who asked, the program was done using Pro Show Gold. Shape Up....Ship Out (outline) Doris
followed with a program of images taken in Yosemite. We all enjoyed the
program. After a short break, Lou Romain followed with his program “PSA Conference, Tucson.” This program broke with our normal tradition of doing primarily “How To” tutorials. Lou created this program using Pro Show Gold to promote the Tucson PSA Conference and was shown at the Baltimore PSA Conference. As he went through the program, Lou made informative comments on how the images were assembled into the program. Not only were we treated to many beautiful images from our own area made by local photographers we all know, but we learned some about preparing a digital presentation. More than 20 members from our local camera clubs contributed images to the program. It was very rewarding and exciting to see how many talented photographers are members of our local camera clubs. We are most fortunate to live in such a beautiful area and have so many talented photographers to call friends. Lou followed with a short presentation of the merits of belonging to PSA and an invitation to attend the conference in Tucson in September. Anyone wanting more information may contact Lou directly at lfromain@cox.net Lou has provided the notes from his lecture: Lecture_Notes.pdf July - No meeting
June 5, 2007 Meeting
Notes Lynn Thompson reports 45 people in attendance for our June meeting. Doris McCrossin announced our guests: Wally Patterson, Barbara Gardner, Rita Skarbek Joel Zolondek and Randy Klinckhardt.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: 2. Tim Grey has a new publication available called "The Digital Darkroom Quarterly". As the name describes, the 32 page booklet will be published four times a year and promises to be filled with the latest news and tips related to the digital darkroom. This is meant as a sequel to George Lepp's very popular "The Digital Image". The first issue will cover details regarding Photoshop CS3, Adobe Lightroom and Raw Processing. Tim also has several new books out including "Photoshop CS3 for Nature Photographers" which he co-authored with Ellen Anon. All of Tim's books and his new quarterly are available on his website and also online book sellers such as Amazon.
3. For those interested in
upgrading to Photoshop CS3,
Members reported seeing CS3 available at B&H
Photo for $179 or from
NAPP for $188 with free shipping. For
Mac users, a special price is $157 but its use is on Mac only.
Important note: IF you were a Beta CS3 user, you MUST uninstall the
beta version before you can install the upgrade. If you have problems
removing the beta version, here is a link to help: 5. Summer Challenge for DIG members: "Create a Collage". We encourage all to participate and share your results on the DIG Galleries page. Click here for Details regarding the assignment. 6. The PSA convention is in Tucson this year. The dates are September 1-8. 7. Howard Wood will take the podium as host of our meetings following the longstanding great job done by Lynn Thompson. Lynn has headed up our meetings with great moderating skills and his usual good humor for the last couple of years. Now, it is time for him to join the audience and enjoy the ride! Thanks so much Lynn for your pleasant demeanor and skillful leadership over the past couple of years. JUNE PRESENTATIONS Howard Wood disclosed some of his numerous secrets involved in his wonderfully creative prints. Howard has prepared an excellent tutorial of each of his techniques that he demonstrated for us. If you’ve ever wondered, “Howd he do that?”, then you may now have some answers. Following the break where we enjoyed the prints brought in by members, Lynn Thompson presented his program 'The Definitive Print.' It is Lynn's feeling that while various other types of media such as slides, CD's, of DVD's may become obsolete in time, people will always be able to view a photographic print. The presentation covered the basics needed to produce an exhibition quality digital print. This the same program that Lynn presented at the PSA Conference in Salt Lake City. Because of that, speakers notes are available as a Word Document by e-mailing Lynn at Lyn2th@aol.com. (from Marianne) From time to time, DIG members send Photoshop related web links to me. I post these links on the DIG "Links" page but will also make reference to new ones here. The latest was sent by Pat Beckley regarding a very interesting tutorial on the High Dynamic Range process using HDR 2.0 software.
May 1, 2007 Meeting
Notes Fifty-five people attended DIG for our May meeting including 2 guests. NEW MEMBERS: Al Crawford, Fred Binder, Larry Groman, Dick Lund, Wayne Tucker, Dan Marlow and Rob Lester. (Dan and Rob joined after the meeting). Welcome ALL! Lynn Thompson, our meeting host, announced that the PSA convention is slated for September 1-8 in Tucson this year. Franz Lanting, noted internationally as a nature and wildlife photographer, and George Lepp will both be keynote speakers. Sounds like something not to miss!
Marianne Wallace had planned
to give a presentation about layers in Photoshop Elements 5 but
questions from the audience quickly changed the subject of the presentation into an in-depth overview of
using the Elements Organizer to create a database of all the images on your
computer. FYI from Marianne re Elements 5 Organizer: If you have many thousands of images, I think it might be worth your while to check out more sophisticated database software. Elements 5 has not been a problem for me or my clients but a DIG member did have problems when he tried to organize 8000 images all at once. Here is his experience: After my presentation, DIG member Juergen Sattler decided he would try the Organizer to create a database for his 8000 images. It turns out that this many images confused the Elements 5 Organizer. He finally gave up and has decided to use a database program called iMatch which is about the same price. He is very impressed with the iMatch program and recommends it. iMatch is also recommended by Luminous Landscape as a serious option for creating a database for thousands of images. Very affordable. Having said all that.....I personally have not had any problems organizing images for my clients and my significant other with the Elements 5 Organizer. However, we were not trying to organize thousands of images at one time. That might have been the problem. Note: Marianne will review Layers and Adjustment Layers for us at a future date. Bill Egar won applause as he gave the much anticipated Microsoft Power Point presentation! He showed us how easily you can go through the many features possible for presenting even as few as 2 or three images in a maybe a ten minute showing in beautiful and creative ways. Music added for emphasis makes for an outstanding presentation. After a bit of a learning curve, experience, Bill said, will allow you to spend minutes rather than perhaps an hour to present your images in an impressive quarter hour. Power Point come bundled with Microsoft Office or can be purchased as a stand alone. The biggest advantage is the size of the resulting file. You can put several presentations on a small flash card to carry with you!
Bill has offered a working PPT file which you can play with to your
hearts content. Thanks to both Marianne and Bill for their really interesting presentations. We remind ourselves how much work goes into the preparation of these tutorials!
April 3, 2007 Meeting
Notes
Our April DIG meeting
saw 50 people in attendance—a good Spring turnout.
2 copies of George Lepp’s beautiful coffee table book POPPIES (donated by Marianne) were won in a drawing by Chuck Williams and Jean Romain. Congratulations! Announcements: We had quite a few so please scroll to bottom of notes to read. MEETING: Our anticipated How to Use Power Point program did not take place as unfortunately it’s presenter, Bill Egar had unexpected surgery. We wish Bill a speedy recovery and look forward to hearing his presentation soon. Bill expressed that he would enjoy getting emails or phone calls: egar@bigfoot.com or 602-359-2720
Hearing of Bill's illness,
Al Crawford of the
Green Valley, Arizona Camera Club
very generously offered to show us the new features of Photoshop CS3 and
Lightroom! (Al had only recently heard about DIG and was planning to
come and check us out). Of great interest to the majority was seeing the new features in CS3 demonstrated. The look and feel is different but you can still drag your palettes around and have your workspace look as you're used to. A few of the wonderful new features and tools are:
1. Quick Selection Tool
and it's companion Define Edge
(amazing!) THANK YOU SO MUCH AL for your informative, last minute offer to share your in depth knowledge of these two programs. We look forward to hearing you give presentations at DIG again! Be sure to check out Al’s extensive website and all the offerings of the Green Valley Camera Club. http://www.crawfordenterprise.com/Photography/index.html ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. If anyone is interested in going to the Jack Davis Seminar on April 28th and want to take advantage of the group discount (5 people qualify) please contact Carol Dillon by email at cmdillon@dillonaero.com. http://www.software-cinema.com/view_live_camp_detail.php?camp_id=94 2. Adam Rodriquez announced that the Desert Botanical Garden is still offering special photo with tripod time to photographers during the Butterfly exhibit. The exhibit ends on Mothers Day. http://www.desertbotanical.org/index.aspx?pageID=665 3. Howard Wood announced that he found Photoshop CS3 offered for pre-order at the Apple Store for $159, $171 with shipping. 4.
Larry McDonald and Carol Weaver are in continual need of
DONATIONS OF USED CAMERAS. Film or digital does not matter.
They go to special needs children. Larry brought some examples of the
childrens photography to the meeting.
March 6, 2007 Meeting Notes Sixty (60!) people, including 4 guests, attended our March meeting! We welcome 4 new members..........Jeff Mix, Marilyn Clark, Rich Buchbinder and David Erickson. Welcome! As always, members came through for us all with their prints and special projects which we all thoroughly enjoyed and admired during the Show and Tell we have before our meeting. The talent of our group continues to grow! Thanks for your efforts! We had a number of important announcements. To begin with, we all congratulated ourselves for a wonderful, sold out DIG hosted event starring George Lepp with special thanks going to Marianne Wallace whose time and efforts left no stone unturned in the planning of this well attended and highly successful daylong seminar. Click below for a little movie of the event and check back later for a page of photos. http://ezpixels.com/georgelepp.wmv (12MB - Windows Media Player required) Here are some things that members said they took home from George's lecture: 1.
LOTS of great information on the latest camera equipment and accessories With our success fresh in our minds, we devoted time to discussing who we might next invite for a similar occasion next year. Other Canon Explorers of Light and Printmasters are under consideration. We discussed the possibility of having a professional such as Art Morris come for a two day workshop, a day devoted to instruction and a day shooting. A show of hands suggested that we could easily interest Art in coming to Scottsdale. Planning has already begun. Bob Coffman announced the PMA 2007 International Convention and Trade Show going on this weekend March 8-11 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. $49 per day. It and Photokina in September showcase the exciting new digital imaging stuff coming!!! Adam Rodriquez announced that the Desert Botanical Gardens will once again offer photographers some early morning TRIPOD time in the Butterfly Pavilion. The two mornings available so far are March 14 and 28th from 7:30am to 9am. Call for reservations and for possible times in April and May. The
Butterfly Pavilion is open this year from March 2nd through May 13th. On to our meeting...... Barry White was the lone presenter this month. He gave an excellent, complete and in-depth review of the powers of Photoshop Layers. His presentation gave everyone a chance to review the basics of layers, a look at the power of using them, use of shortcuts, blending modes and different theories on Sharpening in layers. Intro_to_Layers_in_Photoshop.pdf Barry also talked about the use of Metadata in Bridge, organization of image files and the use of keywords, batch conversion and so much more! Many questions and much discussion generated from his presentation and continued until the shut down of the projector. Finally.....there is no substitute for attending the meeting because so much information is shared that it's impossible to include it all in his notes or these meeting notes so come and join us! February 7, 2007 Meeting Notes MEETING: This month
was no doubt one of the liveliest we've had in a long time! Click below to see a movie taken at this month's show and tell. Besides books, we also had many wonderful prints shown. (I didn't get all of them on film (sorry).
DIG
SHOW AND TELL We had 67 in attendance. We were very happy to meet the following guests: Arnold Rudley, Phyllis Coleman, Frank Biondo, Marian Irvin, Carol Nelson, Barb Walker, Jerry Bauer, Don Hagan, David Erickson, Jean Higgins, Jean Romain, Richard Buchbinder, Joe Liske, Marilyn Clark, Karen Kokpetrick, Marjorie Card, Bob Card, Peter Brandeis, Jan Stockman and Randy Klinkhardt. The following guests became members: Arnold, Phyllis, Jan, Frank and Jerry. Welcome! Our main presenter John Sparbel, gave a wonderful and in depth presentation on the basics of creating a photo book. He began by showing several options available for printing books including costs. He then demonstrated how to create a book using the book creation software from BLURB which is a new online company that's receiving great reviews. It's still in beta but a few members have had more than one book published by blurb and highly recommend them. Below is a link to John's PowerPoint presentation which he generously offers to us! If you don't have PowerPoint, look for a link to a free PowerPoint Viewer below John's presentation. Thanks John, for an excellent presentation!
PRINT ON DEMAND BOOKS BLURB COLOR MANAGEMENT SUGGESTIONS
Free PowerPoint Viewer ADDITIONAL PRINT ON DEMAND COMPANIES Our other presenter was Marianne Wallace (me). I showed, somewhat hurriedly, a few of the many new tools and features in Adobe Photoshop Elements 5. These new tools and features are the very same tools as in Photoshop CS2 and Photoshop CS3. What impressed me the most and what I consider the biggest improvement is that most of the creations are now kept on separate layers which makes your projects highly customizable. You can also have as much control as you want by installing the Add Ons available which give you Layer Masks or some of the other features only available in the full version. Color Management has greatly improved too.
ELEMENTS 5 FEATURES
ADOBE
PHOTOSHOP SHOWCASE
HIDDEN TOOLS
in Elements 5
PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS USER
January 2, 2007 Meeting Notes ANNOUNCEMENTS: 1. Host, Lynn Thompson reminded us that the February meeting will be Wed, February 7!!! and not the usual Tuesday—due to prior Library commitments on that date.
2. If you are
interested in Print on Demand books, be sure to come next month!
3. Lynn also announced that no dues would be required from members who paid the extra $25 toward the equipment fund when they first joined. This applies to 2007 only. All other members who did not pay this initial additional assessment for the digital equipment should pay the normal annual dues of $25. From this point forward, annual dues for all members will be $25 per year.
4. Fountain Hills
Photography Club extends an invitation to join them on January 10, at
7 p.m. when Jerry Sieve will present “Searching for the Grand
Landscape”. 5. Finally....The George Lepp Event is SOLD OUT. Your check will be returned to you if it arrived too late. We hope to have the same or similar event next year! On to the meeting notes..... Forty five members and eight guests attended our New Year’s meeting, a good sign! We welcomed two new members: Kit Green and Bill Eagar. Following those introductions, Doris McCrossin introduced our guests: Herb Cover, Mike Irvin, David Erickson, Dan Burrows, Frank Biondi, Arnold Rudney, John LeBeck and Dave Marini. We were so happy to have you visit and really hope weren't scared off by the rather advanced topics! Our meetings generally always have something for all levels and that will be the case in the coming months. Our lone volunteer this month was Chick Gerston. Thank you for stepping up, Chick! His presentation featured admittedly advanced techniques but was interesting to all. He demonstrated creating a Graduated Neutral Density filter in Photoshop when you have forgotten to use one when you took your photograph. Using both landscape and portrait images with both underexposed and blown-out areas, Chick showed how he uses the Gradient Filter in its various forms of top to bottom, bottom to top, dark to light or radial to increase focal point areas or decrease blown out areas of an image. Use of blending modes, sliders, opacity choices, and masks all combine to adjust gradient results A technique using Color Range for creating a selection together with a Radial Gradient transformed a portrait from mediocre to highly attractive. Describing this outstanding presentation is a challenge so best recommendation is a close study of the tutorial and trial on your own images. Thanks Chick for this in-depth presentation. Photoshop_Neutral_Density_Graduated_Filter.pdf Our meeting ended with a Question and Answers and open discussion on various topics, hosted by Barry White. The discussion mainly explored the features of Photoshop CS3, currently out in Beta form. Most who have tried the Beta version reported positive results. Some kinks will be worked out and we can all look forward to vast improvements noted particularly in Bridge , Black and White options, Smart Filters etc. Important to note is that CS3 works best with a fast processor and plenty of RAM! Here are links to several excellent websites giving free tips and tutorials on CS3: Deke
McClelland's free CS3 video tutorials at Russell Brown's CS3
tutorials. Scroll down on the following page to find them.
December 5, 2006 Meeting Notes Our December meeting was attended by approximately 35 members and 3 guests. Doris McCrossin introduced our guests; Phyllis Coleman, Kit Green and Herb Laudon. We hope you considering joining us! The meeting was hosted largely by Larry Coplin. We thank you, Larry, for stepping up to the plate! Everyone enjoyed Larry's presentation on RIP (Raster Image Processor). Just when some of us were ready to throw in the towel when it comes to printing, we hear there is a solution! RIP software is expensive but Larry uses the Lite version of Colorbyte's "Image Print V6.0" with his Epson 2200 which is a little less. www.colorbytesoftware.com/imageprint.htm One drawback is that the company charges extra fro support. The Lite version comes with 30 days of email support only. Larry bought his RIP from a local reseller which does provide phone support at no extra charge. www.lexjet.com Thanks, Larry, for this very informative presentation! Marianne Wallace concluded our program by showing a Crop Tool option that most may not know is available. Check out the tutorial. To end our meeting, general questions were fielded by Marianne and Barry White. Once again we are so fortunate in having these folks who possess a wealth of knowledge and experience that they are readily willing to share. I’m going to be making my New Years’ resolutions to include becoming a better printer!
DIG member
accolades: November 7, 2006 Host Lynn Thompson reported 41 attendees for our November meeting. Among those who attended were two guests, Juergen Stattler and Dave Levine. Welcome!
During our "show
and tell", our members never
failed to interest us with their outstanding work. Everyone has their
own differing and impressive individual techniques using their
individual Photoshop skills and expertise in printing. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Doris McCrossin informed me that ALL members of DIG who entered images in the Arizona State Fair won awards! We also had two members who won awards in the Arizona Game and Fish Department's photo contest. Names and awards are listed below. (Please let Marianne know if we failed to include you or if corrections are needed). info@ezpixels.com Marianne announced the return of the Raptor Free Flight exhibitions at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum. There are two shows a day at 10:30am and 1:30am from November 4th through April 15th, 2007. If you have never seen this program, you are in for a treat! There is so much to shoot at the Desert Museum and in the Tucson area that those who drive down will usually plan to spend the entire day. http://www.desertmuseum.org/visit/events_freeflights.php Meeting: Our program was largely Chick Gerston’s carefully organized review of the Highlights of the Epson Print Academy. Chick’s method is to use Marianne Wallace’s computer skills for the visual while he provides the audio. Works great! Chick first presented a most interesting method of transferring selections from an original image onto a duplicate of the original in such a way as to enhance the original image into a very pleasing composition. Next Chick showed us a quick and very efficient way of cleaning up dust from our digital negatives. A great deal of discussion was generated by his explaining of Soft Proofing and its importance to achieving the print result we’d all like to see. Adam Rodriquez, Barry White and Marianne Wallace added to this open discussion explaining some of the questions raised. Below is a link to an excellent tutorial on the subject by Ian Lyons. http://www.computer-darkroom.com/softproof/softproof_1.htm All in all, Chick and others who attended the sessions found them worthwhile. CHICK'S_PRESENTATION_NOTES.pdf http://www.epsonprintacademy.com/ One thought occurred to me as I thought of this exchange; imagine a year or two ago having this discussion! How far we have come! DIG has been an arena for learning like no other for many of us. Following the break we viewed an excellent Julieanne Kost video presentation of Photoshop's Bridge. So just when we thought we had a grasp of things—there’s so much more to be learned! That’s what keeps us involved and challenged. Here is a link to some of Julieanne's free tutorials: http://www.adobeevangelists.com/photoshop/index.html Thanks to Chick for your fine program! Finally.....We congratulate the DIG members listed below on their recent accomplishments and awards at the Arizona State Fair and other contests. Please let Marianne know if we missed you or if a mistake was made. info@ezpixels.com Chick Gerston: 1st Place Award and three 1st honorable mentions Mary Cissel: Three Honorable Mention blue ribbons
Phyllis Picardi: 6 Honorable
Mentions, 1 Award Plaque and a Sweepstakes Award
Lou Romain: 2 First Place and 7
Honorable Mention at The AZ State Fair. Don Foerster: 1 First Place, 1 Award Plaque and 2 First Honorable Mentions Vern West: Vern had an article and several photos published in "The Flow Magazine" which is a journal for glaswords and glass blowers. his article and photos stemmed from the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show which featured a glass blowing competition. October 3, 2006 Our October meeting hosted by Lynn Thompson had thirty seven attendees. We welcomed one guest, Allen Henderson. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Adam Rodriquez announced that he has coordinated with the Botanical Garden to make one early morning available to those wishing to photograph in the Butterfly Pavilion. Tripods and flash will be permitted in this once only opportunity, from sunrise until about 9:30 that morning. The day is yet to be decided depending upon the consensus of those contacting Adam (click here). Notice will be emailed to all once a date is set. Carol Weaver and Larry McDonald announced the planned photography course for disadvantaged children at the Skyline Technical School. The school is seeking donations of your unwanted photography items within the next two weeks. The existence of this program depends on these immediate donations. This is a chance to give some young people an opportunity to learn a craft who otherwise have few options. You may contact (click here) Larry or Carol about your donation pick up or delivery. Upcoming Events include: Epson Print Academy - Phoenix/October 28, 2006 Monte Zucker/Eddie Tap Digital Tour - Phoenix/November 15, 2006
NANPA 2006 12th Annual Summit -
January 17-21 in Palm Springs, California Maria McCay began our meeting by showing us her technique of using Photoshop to add a beautiful textured backdrop to a portrait when one was not available at the time of shooting. (Her beautiful subject had been photographed against a plain off white wall). She has a file folder full of textures which are simply photographs of individual floor tiles from a local tile showroom. What a great idea! She simply drags the tile image over top of the portrait and then experiments with Blend Modes until she finds something pleasing. She uses a mask to fine tune the areas she wants affected. Her method provides interest and subtle beauty as a backdrop for her portraits. Adding_Textured_background.pdf Maria also explained her use of the Buzz Filter plug in to add artistic interest. To end her program she shows how to use a simple adjustment layer to add a vignette as a finishing touch used to draw the viewers eye to the subject. NOTE: There are other products on this site. Look for buZZ. There are several versions. The main difference is the amount of filters (stacks) included. Vern West presented next. He brought us valuable information about copyright laws that he learned from Jack Reznicki's seminar at Photoshop World this year in Las Vegas. Jack and another photographer founded the Photo News Network (PNN) which is a network of forums related to issues affecting all photographers. These forums are open to the public. Photo News Network's Pro Discussion Forums Regarding Copyright......Vern cited the Constitutional provision for protection of the arts and explained the Short Form VA, found on that website, that provides the necessary paperwork and fee information to register one’s work for copyright protection. For information, go to these websites. Marianne Wallace rounded out our program by introducing Russell Brown’s CD that was handed out at Photoshop World this year. She played parts of several of his presentations, just enough to peak everyone’s interest in these extremely instructive tutorials. Nearly all of the video files can be found on his web site. All Photoshop CS2 users might be particularly interested in the new scripts available; "Dr. Brown's Services 1.5.1". Note that is the very latest version and also replaces the 1.5 on his Photoshop World CD. Tutorials for each of the services are also provided on the website. To get the "services", all you need to do is download the installer, "unzip" it and then double click the resulting file. It will automatically install the scripts on your computer. Our hearty thanks to today’s presenters for their well organized and interesting delivery of their presentations. A lot of time and effort goes into putting the information together and providing the tutorials.
September 5, 2006
Thirty people attended our September meeting hosted by
Howard Wood.
Other announcements included mention of COMP USA’s 20% off sale at Metro Center of selected software until October. COMP USA is sponsoring seminars on Hardware and Software at their Scottsdale and Paradise Valley locations. Call them for more information. (note from Marianne: Elements 5 has been announced and CS3 is predicted to come in late Spring so start looking for lower prices on CS2 and Elements 4) Chuck Williams demonstrated yet another technique for changing a color image to black and white. His technique produced rich darks with beautiful contrasts. The ability to selectively reveal the lights and darks in an image is what makes this method special. Chuck’s image of Capital Reef provided the perfect image for showing the amazing potential of this method. Don’t miss checking out this one! Howard Wood continues to amaze us with his ongoing creativity in producing “one of a kinds”. Not sure if Howard had developed a name for this but his use of adjustment layers, numerous filters, classic dodging and burning tools and blending modes all combine to take an ordinary image to far beyond.
Making Colors Pop with Curves was the subject of a short demo by
Carol Dillon. Our program also featured the always entertaining Russell Brown and his DVD presentation on CS2’s Vanishing Point. Check out all Russell's free video tutorials on his website: http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html
August 1, 2006 Lynn Thompson called our August meeting to order and reported that DIG had thirty five members attend today. Doris McCrossin welcomed one new member, Barb West, and five guests: Jack Gordon, Jan Stockman, Ira Thomas, Robyn Noll and Diana Paull. Doris reminded us of the September 13, deadline for entries for the Arizona State Fair International Photography Competition sponsored this year by Arizona Highways Magazine. Doris provided entry blanks for club members. If additional are needed, you may call the State Fair Office. We enjoyed some really outstanding prints brought by members who have obviously been working very creatively over the past weeks. Overheard not a few times was “how’d you do that?” –a sign that our members are still coming up with more amazing techniques. Chuck Williams provided an interesting demonstration on mounting photographs on foam core using Bainbridge’s StudioTac and shared his tips and techniques for using this method. It was clear that while some skill, some organization and a certain dexterity is involved if one is to successfully mount their photographs, this method is a very attractive and efficient way of displaying a large number of prints. Chuck’s tutorial will explain. Bob Mishkin presented a different way of turning his color images into black and white. Bob explained that he is using Matt Kloskowski’s technique found on NAPP”s website. The method uses a seldom noticed feature available to Photoshop users that gets around all the various adjustment normally necessary. Check out Bob’s tutorial and give it a try. Barry White completed our meeting after the break with answering questions from the group covering a comparison of layers masks and quick masks, History states, Bridge issues, adjustment layers etc. Thanks to Barry, a lot gets cleared up when we have a chance to have a Q and A free for all. Thanks to all who contributed today.
July 6, 2006 Considering many have fled the Valley heat, we had a good turnout of 44! Doris McCrossin introduced guests Ira Thomas, Barbara West, John Fry (now a member), Robyn Noll and finally Dayton and Marjean Molzen who drove from Albuquerque just to check out our meeting! Dayton says he wants to try to start a similar group in ABQ. Lynn Thompson reports one new member; Ron Schoenfeld from Surprise, AZ. It was also announced that there will NOT be a meeting in July. Shirley Ramaley asked a question regarding the process of transferring 8mm film which then brought up a discussion regarding the longevity of DVDs. Marianne mentioned that MITSUI is now producing GOLD DVDs (called MAMA) which is purported to improve the longevity and reliability considerably. (NOTE: If your are not using GOLD media, you are at higher risk of losing data). (from Marianne: You can save money by purchasing gold CDs and DVDs in bulk and without labels. I having been buying gold CDs from Media Supply since I first read about in Tim Grey's DDQ a few years ago. (Their prices are lower). MEDIA SUPPLY - currently about $2 per DVD if bought in bulk INKJET ART.com - currently $2.95 per DVD in bulk Chick Gerston presented an impressive, in depth workflow on not only his setup for shooting portraits but also how to greatly improve the lighting using Photoshop. We’ve seen his excellent portraits in past meetings but now he shares his special techniques that produce really pleasing results. Thanks Chick for sharing. Do check out the tutorial! Adam Rodriquez fulfilled his promise to demonstrate Canon’s free RAW workflow software; DIGITAL PHOTO PROFESSIONAL. Adam is a working professional photographer so wasting time in the digital darkroom costs him money! This is why he has started using this software to convert his Raw files. He says it translates the color information and exposure settings recorded in Raw files much more quickly but more important; much more accurately than Camera Raw! He also showed how it rivals Adobe’s Bridge for rapidly and efficiently organizing and optimizing raw and jpeg images for export into PhotoShop. He pointed out that he still uses Photoshop for many other things. http://www.outbackphoto.com/artofraw/raw_14/essay.html It was brought up that Nikon promises to have a similar program out perhaps by August. Note: It makes sense that camera manufacturers would know best how to translate their particular RAW format files. In the past, however, their programs have been very slow. Canon's DPP is changing that. I'm sure Nikon will follow suit. We still need Photoshop for our creative endeavours, though! Dayton Molzen, our guest from Albuquerque, showed us some beautiful images printed on Kodak's Endura Metallic. The paper produces an interesting shimmering effect in the highlight areas of the prints. The process is a chemical one so we cannot use this paper in our inkjet printers. It was brought to our attention by a couple of our pro photographers in the group that this paper was introduced a few years ago but it is now becoming more readily available at some local photo locations who have purchased the very expensive special printer needed for the process. Howard Wood's presentation was regarding Digital Infrared Capture. He first showed his Minolta Dimage 7 which gives excellent infrared results when used with an infrared filter. This camera is several years old but has become a cult camera of sorts because of its SLR capabilities. It still holds its value quite well but if you look on EBAY for this camera, BE SURE it is the 7 and not 7i or 7Hi. They are not the same. Canon's G2 and several of Nikon's earliest point and shoot digitals work very well when fitted with an infrared filter although they are not SLR. Howard then had his Nikon D1X converted to a dedicated infrared camera. The advantage is that you don't need a filter and the exposure times are considerably less. He then showed us one of his techniques for creating a FAUX COLOR in his infrared images by swapping the color channels. The result mimics the look of very old postcards. (Swapping color channels can also be done with conventional color files which has been demonstrated in the past). Howard also pointed out that an internet search on Digital Infrared will bring up endless information! Use your favorite search engine. Here is a link to Howard's tutorial where you find web addresses to the above information.
DIGITAL INFRARED
FACTS and tutorial on CREATING FALSE COLORS Many thanks to all our presenters for their interesting presentations! May 2, 2006
Lynn Thompson
began our meeting by announcing new members Bobbi Delory,
Stephanie Happ and Kayla Kerr. Then guest, Kit Green was introduced. Marianne is back! Her home building project has kept her understandably occupied most of the last year but she delivered Tuesday with a great demonstration on CS2’s Smart Objects. While CS2 has been out for some time, hardly anyone was familiar with the potential of this new feature of Photoshop. We will all no doubt be experimenting using her tutorial in the coming weeks with all this extremely powerful tool has to offer. Thanks, Marianne, for enlightening us with this very interesting presentation. (From Marianne: I only created one tutorial. It outlines how to composite using Smart Object layers. I then included a link to Russell Brown's excellent video tutorial explaining what a Smart Object is. I also list a couple of links to excellent tutorials regarding working with Smart Objects and RAW files. The last link is to Ben Wilmore's Smart Object Script. Enjoy!)
Russel Brown's SMART OBJECTS BASICS SMART OBJECTS AND RAW:
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