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
No comments:
Post a Comment