Sunday, November 30, 2008

"The Art of Photographing Women" with Kevin Ames at Lepp Institute


There seems to be a fair amount of interest in my workshop experience from two weeks ago, so although I barely have one nostril above the waterline I've decided to review it now. This was "The Art of Photographing Women" with instructor Kevin Ames at the Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging in Los Osos, California. I've taken several Lepp classes and gotten a huge amount out of each one, certainly my money's worth if not more.

Kevin Ames, instructor, author and world class photographer of the feminine (and some other things, too) is easily likable and very amiable, perhaps too much so, but that's what we're paying him for. :-) During the first day, spent almost exclusively in the Lepp Digital Darkroom, we reviewed Kevin's work and then images each of the eight of us old men had brought with us as one prerequisite. This turned out to be very valuable as we began shooting later on as we could understand where he was going.

Kevin has, and shares, a very disciplined shooting to print workflow. To the suprise of many of us he virtually required us to shoot tethered to our laptops, from a tripod, using a grayscale card, and downloading & checking our images, particularly for exposure, before shooting for effect. While light metering was carefully covered, it is clear that Kevin doesn't rely 100% on metering ... each setup is examined in Bridge for exposure accuracy and studio lights are adjusted to bring the image within one third stop of desired. You can't get under/overexposed images if you follow this process. While I shoot tethered in the studio I have never used my laptop in a disciplined manner to control exposure, I just relied on my meter. But as you hear on TV ads, "Wait, there's more!" Using Kevin's workflow also allows you to adjust all the images from a setup in one Bridge operation by applying the white balance and tweaked exposure to the whole series ... very clever and efficient.

So, I said Kevin was amiable ... well, not so much when various guys wanted to take shortcuts during their shooting. More than once someone wanted to just forge ahead because they didn't really understand what Kevin wanted them to get. We stopped several shoots, boring the models to tears, so Kevin could do "right here, right now" chalk talks about exposure, balancing ambient, foreground, background and understanding when the ambient light would have no effect at all. It was certainly rewarding to learn that you can do the math to figure all this out.

So, with two models in two locations, we lined up with our cameras on tripods tethered to our laptops. Now, I am sure everyone reading this doesn't know how to shoot tethered even if they have equipment ... but Kevin, Hal and Victoria managed to get everyone willing running in this configuration, either helping install and configure the software or using a Lepp machine. In this process I managed to find the "solution" for a long irritating anomaly I've had with rotation ... seems that I had checked "rotate" on some configuration which prevented rotation for some reason I don't understand ... that alone being much worthwhile.

Kevin started us out with a very simple portrait setup using one 5' Profoto Octodome above to our left and a silver reflector covering a posing stand on which the model leaned. I would never had thought to use a reflector in such a simple but amazingly effective way. With the lights setup and metered, we each had to calibrate our images via the grayscale card and Bridge on our laptops. You couldn't fake it with Kevin standing there or insisting someone else do so. He did lighten up a bit once he felt we understood and let us 'man the computer' for each other for later sessions. With two or three guys standing around your laptop you very quickly learn what's going on ... everyone loves to help.

At the end of each shooting session, Kevin assigned homework of selecting the heroines from the shoot and loading onto jump drives that he then presented to the class with his analysis, and ours. He does do an interesting and effective thing in this process: no one is allowed to make comments the first pass through. The author is not allowed to "explain" his thoughts or mistakes and others are not allowed to critique ... we just look and feel. Amazing what you can see when you aren't trying to make excuses, for yourself or others.

In addition to the portrait session, the five models that we used for three days did their thing for us in two setups in the studio and then we went on location using battery generators and reflectors. You very quickly become clear about why it takes two or three assistants to do a location shoot ... particularly where it's windy! The models were dynamite!

So, with a pocketful of our images Kevin then proceeded to walk us through the post processing segment of his workflow. We created an action (something everyone should know how to do ... and I didn't) that setup several layers including a strategy layer where you determine what needs to be done and mark it up as well as the initial adjustment layers. I need to jump in here to say that I am a Photoshop neophyte and still felt very comfortable following and then doing the processes that Kevin shared.

So, here's a process "trick" that blew me away. When I want to "burn" or "dodge" an area, such as eyes, I have always used dodge and burn tools. But those don't retain all the texture, color and contrast of the original. Kevin uses copied layers and then combines them using masks and blending modes: screen for lightening and multiply for darkening. Very effective and retains a very natural look that is undetectable. Kevin also covered detailed eye treatment and a variety of skin enhancement procedures.

This workshop has certainly impacted my workflow. Even before shooting I find myself reviewing the steps I need to do and planning much more completely. Once again I can't recommend strongly enough how valuable I have found the Lepp courses and this Kevin Ames class in particular. I urge you to check out their 2009 Course Schedule ... I know Kevin is coming back ... but if you need an intro to Photoshop, a refresher, intermediate or advanced methods in almost any facet of photography they will have a class for you.

If you have questions please don't hesitate to ask. If you sign up for a Lepp class please mention my name as they'll give me a credit toward my next one, although I have no affiliation beyond what any student has.

You can see some of my images from this workshop at http://dwightmccann.com/Glamor/Leah111808.html.

Be Safe.

Dwight

When Brown, Flush Down

I've been very busy as usual. Since last I wrote I have photographed the Native American Heritage Celebration at the Chumash Casino Resort, a Veterans' Honorary Dinner, Foreigner, Hall & Oates, Anita Baker, done a weeklong workshop with Kevin Ames and played with my family. I will be writing a review of the Kevin Ames experience next.

But I'm here today with a complaint. As a result of the Andy Katz and Kevin Ames classes at Lepp Institute, I decided to upgrade my medium tripod. I made a trip to Really Right Stuff in San Luis Obispo and picked up a new tripod and ball head. Used 'em once and it is a fantastic setup. Then I realized I needed a new ball head to go on my tabletop tripod since all my bodies now have RRS L-Plates on them. I called and ordered. RRS said it would go out the same day, Tuesday, and arrive Wednesday by UPS.

Sure enough, I got the emailed UPS notification that they had received pickup info and that the ballhead was "In transit and On Time" ... a phrase I now hate! So, wednesday I went to work thinking how nice it would be to have the Gitzo G0012 with the new RRS BH-25 LR head for the Thanksgiving weekend. I got to work and checked the tracking number. Still said "In transit and On Time." Great! But as it got later in the day it hadn't arrived. At 3:00, my manager said that due to traffic concerns we could leave. Since I knew the ballhead was going to arrive I decided to stay. But at 5:00 pm when we close the doors, my "In transit and On Time" delivery hadn't arrived. So I got a two hour late start for nothing. Well, not too big a deal. So, we left the house on our Thanksgiving pilgrimage to the in-laws two hours late. But, on Hwy 46, just East of Paso Robles, the four lane divided highway came to a complete stop due to a fatal traffic collision. After an hour of waiting we got diverted to a detour into the middle of nowhere. After another couple of hours of delays we were on our way once again to Selma, California. But, being several hours later, we managed to hit the Tule Fog that we had planned to avoid since it causes so many accidents over there. We did finally make it without another incident. But I'm very unhappy with UPS. From my perspective, their service consistently stinks. This is hardly the first time that they have failed to properly update their tracking information ... it seems quite common. The last time that really distressed me was when my package from B&H Photovideo in New York City was "In Transit and On Time" but didn't arrive and it turned out it was part of a derailed train well before it was still tracking as "In Transit and On Time." Not only does it seem to me that their tracking information isn't useful, it is misleading which is a lot worse!

I ship to my customers. I use FedEx. FedEx is very reliable ... well, I haven't had a single delayed delivery since I started with them a few years ago. I check the tracking information on every delivery. Sometimes a package gets to its destination too early and they hold it a day ... which they clearly mark in the tracking information. I know when it's on the truck to be delivered. I know when it is delivered. My customers also know as they also get the updates emailed to them. And there is a convenient pickup box both near my office at the University and just down the street from me in my hometown of Buellton. They are RELIABLE! My guess is that UPS causes countless upsets every day but the companies that use them don't hear about it so they continue on. I certainly sent Really Right Stuff an eamil describing what happened.

So, back to Flush Down ... my ballhead still hasn't arrived, although I expect it will come on Monday, four days late.

Travel Safe

Dwight

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Lepp Institute: Available Light with Andy Katz

Falling ever farther behind elsewhere I thought I would catch up once again on my blog. Actually I'm still working on getting migrated to my new computer ... today I swapped out the old computer for my backup computer and immediately ran into trouble with getting the POST/BIOS screens to write through the KVM to my ACD ... I'll just have to work on it, but once again unexpected hardware issues are sucking away my time.
Last weekend I spent at yet another Lepp Institute weekend class: Available Light Photography: Vineyards and Wineries, with Andy Katz (See above.) Since I have a winery client, Casa Cassara, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to learn some tips and tricks among the grapevines and barrels. I'm going to jump right in here and say the class didn't meet my expectations: I had hoped for some one-on-one and group focus on shooting grape clusters, barrels, vineyards, etc., with Andy first showing just what he would shoot, including actually shooting it with his new Sony Alpha DSLR and then discussing his results and work with each in turn to achieve our vision. But several things worked against this: it isn't Andy's style and the weather, both the weekend overcast and the early frosts this season, didn't lend itself to what I was after. To make up for the lack of spectacular vineyards, Andy spent about half the field time working on available light portraiture, both indoors and out, which wasn't all that interesting to me as I have shot portraits for forty years.

Andy showing how to use light working with a model:


So, while I was a bit disappointed in very specific ways, there are always many unexpected benefits popping up at Lepp and I actually felt as though I got my money's worth before we ever left the Digital Darkroom on our first outing. In his "Warm Up" image presentation and discussion, Andy walked us through about thirty of his images, all stunning, and talked about his vision and particulars for many of them. If Andy has anything, it is vision, the very thing I miss the most in my own work. And then, Andy proceeded to thump one of my own big emphases, using a tripod! I am always amazed how few people use a tripod! But to top it off, Andy even espouses the use of "Mirror Lockup" ... a tremendously overlooked feature of most high end DSLRs that can make or break telephoto images. So with Andy's pep talk still ringing in my ears, off we went for some field work.

Off we went to Jada Vineyard and Winery where we walked the vineyards shooting, then tasted their current vintages with matching cheeses. A glorious experience. Then off to Booker Vineyard & Winery for more vineyard and winery shooting and another tasting ... and here I've got to mention Booker Alchemist ... knock your socks off wine! I am buying it for my wife's Christmas present ... seriously! From there to lunch at Midnight Winery, some more shooting, and then off to review at the Digital Darkroom at Lepp.


And this is where Andy Katz really shines! He had each student select 10 to 12 images from the field work, post process them as desired in Lightroom and/or Photoshop, and then we critiqued. Andy's critiques are eye opening. He can find images within images, extraneous material that detracts from the gestalt, power, strength, romance and really sees the light. And he is merciless ... which is a good thing. This was the first time I'd even been exposed to world class image review in person and it is enlightening. It will change the way you see. You will be a better shooter just for being in the room. Geez, I'm a romantic!

So, without flogging you about our dinner Saturday night or the activities on Sunday, rest assured the trip to the Edna Valley was also treat. And while I am hoping that next year we into the fields before the harvest and frost, I expect the wine tasting in San Luis Obispo will always be a superb experience. Here's Hal listening intently to Andy:


Be Safe!

Dwight