Neil March 10th, 2011
Stacey Doyle is a Providence RI based, wedding photographer with 16 years experience.
For her workflow these key Lightroom topics were key:
Neil October 2nd, 2008
Here’s my recommendations for a ‘projection’ display setup:
If you haven’t heard, selling your photography in person, using a display setup can dramatically increase your sales!
The NTSC (National Television Systems Committee) has established the color standards all TVs in America try to meet. And typical LCD TVs only meet about 72% of this standard. Samsung LCD HDTVs use Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp backlights to give you 92% coverage of the NTSC standard, ensuring truer, more breathlessly vivid colors.
Samsung’s exclusive Wide Color Enhancer technology delivers more brilliant colors, even in bright areas of the picture where blues and greens are washed out on conventional screens. The system displays wider color reproduction, showing you truer colors – the fresh green of spring foliage, the intense blue of the summer sky.
3. Third, you’ll need a computer to run your display system, ordering software and full multimedia experience grab an Apple Mac Mini, as it can run Mac OSX as well as windows!
5. Fifth, since you’re thinking that once you load up your Mac Mini with a few movies and podcasts you’re probably going to need more space, well I recommend the the Newer Tec Mini Stack at say…1TB @ $300 for maximum multimedia experience with your Mac Mini +iTunes or Amazon Unbox.
| Capacity | HD Speed | Cache | Price | Price |
| 80GB |
7200RPM
|
8MB
|
XX | |
| 160GB |
7200RPM
|
8MB
|
||
| 250GB |
7200RPM
|
8MB
|
||
| 320GB |
7200RPM
|
16MB
|
||
| 500GB |
7200RPM
|
16MB
|
||
| 750GB |
7200RPM
|
32MB
|
||
| 1.0TB |
7200RPM
|
32MB
|
Load them into your shopping cart, check out, and setup your first sales consultation and watch them pay for themselves.
Neil April 25th, 2008
JoeyL Tutorial Review – Behind the Scenes | An American Peyote Scribble
Well, if you haven’t been ‘up’ on a recent internet fad, there was a buz about a Photographer calling himself Joey L…..he was interviewed glowingly by Strobist, and self produced a tutorial DVD to teach others how he produces his shoot. Just so you’re informed on the pop culture behind this review. I’m about to review this review in talking about the creative process….
“This is the first Photoshop tutorial I’ve ever bought, and it was purchased for the following reason: I’ve become comfortable with the basics of Photoshop, using the clone tool for basic corrections, levels and saturation control for various tonal adjustments. Basically using those tools to enhance the feeling I wanted to communicate with the images taken using my cameras. I’ve been looking for a learning package to help me take things to the next level and to expand beyond the basics of enhancing an image and start using Photoshop as a tool to create a specific visual impact with my digital images – beyond what can be accomplished with cameras and basic lighting.”
Now that’s a good reason to get yourself a PhotoShop tutorial. Maybe it’s just cause this guy’s a climber, but he’s definitely articulate and intelligent.
” Did the JoeyL DVD contribute in the aim of fulfilling my creative desires? “
That’s a great question, I sometimes find the same desires in my life as I’m hard pressed for creative time when business tasks take up 90% of my day.
” The creative process was a main draw when I finally sent my credit card info for the DVD, knowing full well that $249 was just dropped electronically. In my opinion a description of the creative process is probably the weak point of the tutorials. “
An American Peyote was disappointed by the DVD – and while I feel for Joey, I’m not surprised that the creativity mark was missed. Why?
While Joey the photographer certainly has a style – it’s a level 6 style – one that is recognizable and marketable. The current trend is in love with anything dark, or low key a little bit pictoral. A style is repeatable, and marketable in a DVD, and powerful enough to convince an intelligent person to spend $249, but real creativity is almost too hard to see. Real creativity hides among the interaction between a self and a medium ….like in Tao 33.
Creativity is a process.
A process of pouring out oneself into a medium: for understanding, for expression, for communication, for documentation.
Technique is a gateway to open up the flow of creativity.
“During the lessons Mr. Lawrence talks through his thinking process in adding various layers and how to do different adjustments. Adding layers and blending and the use of manipulating shadows and adding light to images is well explained. This is exactly what I was looking for, since it shows you how to enhance lighting effects in Photoshop which were absent or difficult to produce in reality.”
But to learn creativity, one must learn to be open.
Evidently the reviewer did open up after watching the video again a few times “In this capacity I’m very happy with my decision to drop $249 on the JoeyL DVD tutorial and would do so again.”
One day I’ll have a DVD worth spending $300 on, that will leave it’s customers open, educated and inspired. But creativity is never something that can be bought, only something that can be initiated or opened as I impact you, or you draw from the universe. I wish a creative blessing for my climber friend, and that JoeyL learns to communicate what wells within him. So let this review remind you as you’re tempted to buy the latest DVD, to instead go out and watch the sun set, feel the grass in your toes or hug your daughter. Open up to the flow, instead of spend your cashflow.
Neil January 21st, 2008
Here’s a video of me emptying my camera bag of it’s contents, just for you to see what I take with me everywhere. The real fun one is the lighting case, but that’s part of the workshop – so I’ll save it for when you attend.
Lighting / Accessories
Neil October 29th, 2007
I’ve been curiously interested in the Q-Flash system made by Quantum – but the online information is terrible….there’s SO many configuration options that it’s just plain impossible to figure out. SO I never bought one!
Well today I got an e-mail from Shoot Smarter, a sort of infomercial site that actually has some great information. They seem to be the only good information on the Q-Flash system on the net! Too bad Quantum can’t find a good information design for their own site….
Some of them are way to slow, but I do suggest you listen to lesson one for information on all the ‘pieces’ you need to make the Q-Flash system work. Then, check out lesson 8 to get a peak at Wireless TTL with FreeXwire. That’s their radio trigger system that does TTL over the radio signal. I have yet to test it – and would like to – but if it works as advertised that would sell me on the Quantum gear.
Neil September 6th, 2007
Joshua Waitzkin was talking about how he trained himself to time his martial arts attacks when his opponent was to blink. When it worked smoothly, they didn’t even see what happened to them.
Non-Assignment: Try and time my your shutter to capture the blinks of the person – instead of avoid them. That way we’ll learn to further time, tune and refine my trigger finger. The learning is of course to closer read my subjects and predict their action(s).
Neil August 31st, 2007
So the depth of learning
I never made this connection, but Josh Waitzkin just proposed their universality as a major breakthrough in his own training. How can learning be linked to performance? I don’t think that he means their acts are linked, I think he’s referring to their depth. At this point in his life story, he’s somewhere between his adolescent and adult years and he’s going to a sports psychology training camp to assess why he breaks down in certain points of chess tournaments. The revelation was that he thinks too long, and gets muddled by the stress of it. I can definitely relate, many times I keep myself at my desk working, when I feel like I’m not making good progress, good decisions, or being particularly productive. In this sense, it’s my will or guilt that keeps me focused – not my ability to focus. I really feel this has been a hindrance since last fall when I became overwhelmed…..
So buy his book and read it with me! I really can’t recommend it highly enough as this is becoming a turning point for my thinking and acting.
The turning will blossom an awesome new announcement…..stay tuned.
Neil April 19th, 2007
Well, as stressed as I was to provide content and learning for two days for some really smart people, everyone went home each day with a mind melt from learning so much…
Here’s an image of Tom Flint a destination wedding photographer living here in Rochester. I shot this image setting up the Alien Bee 800, with a custom fresnel 7inch reflector, and 10 degree grid spot in our “See the light, hear the shadows” set of shooting. This image is straight out of camera. The title of the exercise expresses my own little play on words, because we can’t ever actually ‘see’ the light can we? We can only see what the light reveals. And since we can only see what is revealed – I try to teach you and sensitize you to listening to your inner artistic voice as you critically examine the shadow areas in your photos to make expressive light.
Because expressive light isn’t about the light – its about what the shadows tell us about the light – isn’t it.
The Make Light Real Concept is not only about good shooting techniques, but also about good Photoshop ‘expression’ of the idea and mood that you shoot for. Time, location and equipment can limit you at a location but if you are able to shoot with a concept and purpose – you can accentuate that light heavily in Photoshop using my workflow actions. However, creating good light in Photoshop, really doesn’t happen. Take a look at the original:
Let me know what the most significant breakthrough in your thinking was while you were at the workshop.
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