April 27, 2011
Grand Teton Imaging in Ophthalmology Workshop
April 24, 2011
A Week In Banff
This past week Helene and I taught programs at the Professional Photographers of Canada Conference in Banff. We had a nice time there and the Canadian Photographers were great hosts. We stayed at the Banff Springs Hotel that is pretty much a castle in the mountains built by the railroad company back in the 1880’s. The scenery was beautiful both inside and outside of the hotel. We would both like to thank our sponsors Booth Photographic, Adobe, and onOne Software for helping us present our photography classes here.
... Click on image to enlarge ...
You don’t have to travel far in this area to see the wildlife. It’s just roaming around the town.
Here are some of Helene's images that she did while we were there. Aways on the lookout for good material for her fine art and greeting cards. Our new friends Heather and Sandy drove us up to Lake Louise for some landscape photography in the snow.
When I wasn't teaching, I found myself working away on retouching product images I brought with me to finish up from Atlanta. At least the view from my window was good.... 
Sandy and I walk out on the frozen Lake for a better shooting angle on the glacier.
Not looking forward to next months cell phone bill...... 
We are both looking forward to more visits with our friends in the Professional Photographers of Canada!
April 11, 2011
Photoshop World Orlando 2011
This past week I had the pleasure of teaching at my 22nd Photoshop World along with Helene. This year’s show had the fashion theme of Project Photoshop. The opening keynote was done with a fashion show parody of the TV show Project Runway with Photoshop World instructors playing all the parts. The videos that NAPP produces at the keynote get better every year and this time was no exception. The Photoshop Fashions that were created were very cool.
Lots of new classes this year. I did a class on Post-Production Prototyping for the first time that went well. Helene had a large crowd on hand for her posing and lighting class. Besides the regular programs and portfolio reviews, I did several short programs in the trade show theater and the onOne and Wacom booths so it was a fast paced conference as usual.
The Art of Digital Photography panel was one of the very best ones ever. Hosting this conference gathering of 2500+ attendees is defiantly a major highlight and honor every year.
Photo realist artist and Photoshop World instructor Bert Monroy (www.BertMonroy.com) had his 25-foot long Time Square digital painting on display there in a giant backlit light box. Bert is the only person I have ever sceen that can draw a computer image by hand that looks like a photograph. You have to visit his site to really appreciate this image that took 4 years of work, 750,000 layers, and upwards of 1,000,000 paths. (Makes me worn out just saying that) Another reason this is so cool is that all of the Photoshop World instructors are in the crowd including Helene and me. Remember… This is drawn from scratch… No photography here… You just have to see it in person to believe it….
Helene and I are shown here in the New York crowd along with all our Photoshop World instructor friends. If you missed the Orlando conference, you need to make plans for the fall show in Las Vegas….
Helene is showing the class how to pose a large group portrait.
Scott's band Big Electric Cat rocks out at BB Kings.
February 03, 2011
Keep That Camera Close By
You never know when interesting photography subjects come your way. It’s sometime not easy carrying around a camera bag full of gear, but it’s at that moment that you don’t have the camera that the great photo opportunities become available. For that reason I always carry some type of small Canon camera at all times. For me it’s about finding great background textures and elements, and when you see them, you’ve got to get them right then or just forget about it.
In this example, I have a set of images I shot on my Canon S90 pocket sized camera of a blue doorway with light streaming down on it while walking around downtown Santa Barbara. It wasn’t planed for…. It was just there. I get a nice ten Meg Raw file that has plenty of enough detail for creating interesting elements in other composite images.
I opened up a product shot of a vodka bottle that I recently shot with the Canon 1Ds Mark III and 90mm tilt/shift lens for a new client, and dragged the image of the blue lights over the bottle shot using the Move Tool. Pressing the Shift Key and + Keys cycles through the different blend modes. I decided that the Multiply Blend mode looked best. A Layer Mask was then added to the blue layer and some of the color was brushed away from the vodka label and glass to let some of the original color come back through with a soft black brush. I then added a Screen Blend Mode Levels Adjustment Layer to the top of the stack to brighten up the values some and we have a much more interesting image now.
On Thursday Feb 17th, I will be doing another new Creative Techniques in Adobe Photoshop webinar with onOne Software. This one will be concentrating on using multiple elements and compositing in Photoshop with extra enhancements created with onOne PhotoTools and PhotoFrame. Register on their website at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/515258041 . If you have a moment, check out my new on-line source book portfolio at www.foundfolios.com/Jim-DiVitale
December 30, 2010
Thank You For Another Great Year!
It’s the end of another great year, and I would like to thank all my Blog followers and clients for keeping up with all the postings. I would like to especially thank all the Facebook Blog Network followers for making The Digital Imaging Tune-Up Clinic Blog the #1 highest following for the subjects of Digital Photography, Photoshop, and Digital Imaging. Another big thank you goes out to all of you who have taken the time to write to me about my recent webinars with onOne Software, and my new on-line training with Kelby Media. The onOne webinars are archived on their website, so you can now view them at any time at www.ononesoftware.com/university. It means a lot to me that you took the time to give me your feedback and send me your sample images to view so I can make improvements in the future presentations. The feedback has been great and I am looking forward to more webinars and on-line training programs in 2011.
It’s been a busy year with settling into the new studio facilities in Atlanta. It’s been slow and steady progress, but the new studio is finally done with all of the additional electrical work and our new kitchen finished. My studio partner Steve Dinberg and I are looking forward to lots of new assignments and we are ready for action. While Helene and I have been taking a holiday break in our home in Santa Barbara escaping the cold weather, I have been giving my Website a big update adding dozens of new images to each section as well as my new architecture section I mentioned in my last Blog post. If you haven’t visited it in a while, please check it out when you have a moment at www.DiVitalePhotography.com. Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
With lots of ongoing programs and webinars on the upcoming 2011 schedule, Helene and I are also working on creating some new hands-on workshops in our Atlanta studio for small groups of attendees to help streamline their creative photography techniques and speed up their digital imaging workflow. We cover everything from setting up a practical color managed working environment, to portrait and still life lighting techniques and all the Photoshop your brain can absorb. We have had some great feedback on our in-house studio workshops in the past, and we are so looking forward in sharing with other photographers in the coming year. If you are at all interested in getting on a direct mailing list when we finalize our dates, please e-mail me at jim@divitalephotography.com or Helene and heleneglassman@me.com and we will contact you directly. We will post the dates as soon as we get them worked out. Have a safe and Happy New Year!.... Jim and Helene
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