Hands-On Digital Printing & Adobe Photoshop Workshop

A new workshop is now scheduled for september 25.-28. 2008.

Photoshop is the most powerful darkroom ever. In this four-day workshop at Norways premier studio and lab in Oslo, Studio Technika/ Farvelabben, Jean Miele and Pål Otnes will teach you:

- how to control contrast, tone, sharpness, and grain with incredible precision
- the best ways to convert from color to B&W
- effective workflow procedures, including actions & batch-processing
- RAW capture and workflow
- how to use ICC profiles for printing- the latest options for black-and-white and color printing

Through plenty of hands-on computer time in the lab, you’ll learn by actually working on your own image files. There will be step-by-step Photoshop, RAW capture and printing demonstrations, and discussions of how to optimize your shooting for digital darkroom work. Included in the workshop are portfolio reviews, thought-provoking in-class discussions and lots of laughter and fun.

We will spend extra time on RAW capture and printing, and teach you how to do great digital “darkroom” work. Our technique - relying on layers and masks - gives you the power to change your mind at any point with no loss in image quality, even after an image has been closed and reopened. The staff at Studio Technika/ Farvelabben will also show us what’s possible with todays digital printers, from lightjet to Epson large format printers.This workshop empowers you to apply the full potential of Adobe Photoshop, and explore the infinite possibilities of working digitally. The emphasis of this class is real-world workflow and printing techniques for photographers, designers, and artists, whether you work in black-and-white or color.

The facility will only allow 15 participants, so enrol today to reach the next level in Photoshop.
Please send an e-mail to mail@palotnes.com, or call Pål on (+47) 41 14 66 06 for more information and enrolment. The workshop-fee is 4.900 NOK.
Participants must bring their own computer with Adobe Photoshop CS, CS2 or CS3 installed. A trial-version can be downloded at www.adobe.com.The workshop will be held in english.

Jean Miele (46) is an American artist who uses photography to create moments of “perfection.” Based in New York City, his photographs have been widely exhibited, including a 2007 show at Fotografiens Hus in Oslo, and his original prints are in numerous collections. Miele is also internationally recognized as an educator whose workshops and seminars demystify digital. He has taught for: Adobe Systems; the International Center for Photography (ICP) in New York; Apple Computer; Fuji USA; Advertising Photographers of America (APA); American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP); the Maine Media Workshops; the Santa Fe Workshops; the Norwegian Fotografiakademiet; and many others. 

Pål Otnes (33) is working as a writer, graphic designer and photographer in Oslo. He contributes articles and writes a monthly Photoshop “how-to” column for to the national Fotografi magazine. In addition to his commercial work, Otnes’ fine-art photographs have been exhibited in Hamningberg Church in Finnmark, Skogmuseet in Elverum, Volumfestivalen in Elverum, Varangerfestivalen in Vadsø, Fotofestivalen in Vågå, Rådhusgalleriet in Oslo, and have been featured in B&W Magazine.Together.

Pål Otnes and Jean Miele have presented eight highly successful digital workshops in Norway since 2003.

For more information please visit: www.jeanmiele.com and www.palotnes.com

Download actions

Click the link to download actions as referred to in Fotografi. There are two actions, one for sharpening and one for sharpening, converting to black and white and adding noise. Download the file and import it into the actions-window in Photoshop. I hope you enjoy it!

Download actions.

Ricoh GR user review

After some time I managed to talk myself into buying this great little camera. I’ve had the GR for some months now and I want to sum up the good and bad parts for other potential buyers:

• This camera was made for photographers. Everything can be controlled and the buttons and dials are all in the right places. It feels solid and is so small you can take it everywhere. The battery is excelent and the camera can use regular AAA batteries if the regular battery runs out.
• It’s possible to shoot in 3:2. Personally I love this format. Voigtländer makes a viewfinder that fits the GR and gives you a 3:2 view of the world. I ordered mine from Adorama.
• The lens is excelent.
• Generally fast and userfriendly.
• Excelent infrared posibilities.
• RAW-writing times are slow, but this is not a big issue for me. Using a fast card and not choosing a big JPG to go with the RAW cuts down writing time. It’s still slow, but this is not an action camera. It’s fast to switch to JPG if you suddenly need faster writing speed (you can customize shortcuts for almost everything).
• Noise. This is the biggest problem with this camera. I can live with the general noise from the sensor. I shoot at ISO 64 all the time, so the noise is OK, but the camera quite often shows banding in the shadows. Sometimes this will show on prints. My solution is to add grain to break it up, or to pull down the shadows a little bit before printing (this looses som shadow detail).
• Underexposure. This camera delivers quite dark files. I wish the midle-tones where a little brighter. I think this is intentional to keep the highlights from blowing out. The strangest thing is that the histogram in live preview is lighther than when you review the same file after the shot!
• There is no shadow/highlight warning.
• Maximum one second in aperture mode. Longer times possible in manual mode.
• No viewfinder (optional).

Mostly I use the camera in aperture mode and over/underexpose when needed. I only shoot BW in RAW with a BW preview/JPG. I then convert to BW in Photoshop. The camera does a great job when shooting BW in dayligh. The bottom line is that this is a great poor-mans-Leica, perfect for outdoor and street-photography in BW.
If you want a regular point and shoot, get a camera for half the price of the GR and have fun.

If Ricoh upgrade this camera with a better sensor, faster RAW-speed and fine tune the exposure-curves, they have made the perfect camera. Until then I’m very pleased with the Ricoh GR mark one.

RAW exposure converted in Photoshop, ISO 64:

New mailinglist

From now on we would like to update our readers about new workshops by e-mail as well. The workshop in may is now fully booked, but by joining our mailinglist you will be the first to know when new dates are set. Just drop us a line at mail #at# palotnes #dot# com and we’ll add you to the list.

Technique: Digital infrared

Infrared photography has been around for quite a while and for most photographers this means tricky photography on infrared film. This kind of film is challenging in a coulpe of ways. Firstly you have to store it properly so it don’t get foged. You also have to load the film into the camera in complete darknes. But the biggest challange is the exosure and focus. The focuspoint is not the same as with regulear llght so it needs manual compensation. The built in lightmeter doesn’t work either, so the exosure is a bit of a hit and miss in the beginning.

But now, in the digital age, it is possible to get custom made digital cameras. The way this works is that a technican removes a filter from the chip to make the censor sensitive to infrared light. By adding a red filter or a ir-filter to the lens, you stop most of the visible light going into the lens, so that just the infrared light is visible to the censor.

This way you can get a live preview of your composition in infrared. This makes it a lot easier to visualize the picture you want to take. Since the infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the camera will help you to see what you will end up with on the chip.

The cheapes and easiest way is to convert a camera is to use a digital compact camera. This will give you a live preview which is not possible with a digital slr. I also have the impression that the ccd censor works better than the cmos censor. I have to make you all aware that this is not a guaranteed process. You might end up spending 500$ on a camera you’re not pleased with, but that’s the price for being experimental…

Below is a picture taken with a with a modified Canon Powershoot with a infrared filter. This picture is just adjusted with levels after converting to black and white.

Speed or comfort – MacBook Pro or PowerBook?

The debate on hardware never ends and I get the impression that some people are more interested in their equpment than actually going out photographing. I already see a lot of people using the new MacBooks and MacBook Pro’s, even when it can’t run Adobe aplications natively.

I was about to buy a new portable, and I started thinking: How important is it to get the latest machine? Theoretical speed is important, but most of the time we use just a little of the processor-power that is available. In Photoshop, I can see the difference when using a filter, but most photographers don’t use filters much. We don’t do rendering in Photoshop and it’s not very demanding on the graphics either.

So what do we need? In my opinion you need a lot of RAM, a good screen and a decent machine. A lot of people run their machines with little RAM and many programs running at the same time. That’s a killer for Photoshop. Personally I only run Photoshop when I use Photoshop. I newer install freeware, games, widgets or anything that can mess up my computer, and it never gives me any problems.

So, to my point: I have a G5 tower at work and a Mac Mini at home, and I hardly notice the difference. So I got the last generation PowerBook 15″ used, still under warranty and with two gigabyte of RAM for the same price as an MacBook. It’s fast, has a great screen, runs Photoshop natively and I can use all my old PowerBook accessories. For quite some time it will still be faster than Intel Macs when working in Photoshop.

I think I’m smart, but a lot of people probably think I’m stupid. Good luck wtih your new MacBook Pros!

Portfolio: Fractals

Fractals are natures own artwork. My fractals are art you can frame and hang on the wall in your home.
All my fractals are printet on fine-art heavy-weight cotton paper, signed and numbered in editions of 26.

Portfolio: Fractals

Technique: Advanced printing with Epson R2400

So finally I had to try it again, the inkjet printer. Some time ago I had a go at a couple of other Epson printers, but they both disapointed me. Getting good black and white was almost impossible, so I gave it up.

Now I got the R2400 from Epson and a pack of Hahnemuhle Photorag 308 fine art-paper. I’ve seen some great prints on the Hahnemuhle photorag and it’s really promising regarding black anf white, fine art printing.

But it really isn’t as easy as they say to get decent results. The shadow and highlight detail is a bit difficult to get right, and the setup that Hahnemuhle explained on their web-site did not work at all. So here is a good starting point:
Set up the right papersize under Page Setup…, then Print with preview. Use the Matt Paper Heavyweight both in the print-preview and the print-driver. Use no color management in the print-driver.

The prints look pretty good, but I had to make a chart in Photoshop that I use to see how the prints look in the highlights and the shadows. By examing the test-print, it’s possible to see if the highlights are clipped, or if the shadows loose detail.
Print it once with the setup described. Then ad an adjusment-layer with levels to tweak the chart before you print it again. When you can see all the different shades of black and white in the print, then you have a perfect setup. Remember the figures for the levels-adjustmentlayer and use those every time you print. You can also make this an action to make it even easier.

You can download the chart here.
All numbers are percentage of black.

This should give you great prints and perfect control over the black and withe printing process as well. In my opinion you can get as good results as the old cemical process would give you.

Pantone vs. the enthusiasts

An interesting product has been released from the serious color management company Pantone. Mostly known for its products aimed at professionals, the company is now offering a product for calibrating your monitor at a price that suits the amateur. The Pantone Huey is worth having a look at if you need to calibrate your monitor. In Norway you get this product for around NOK 990, and this is a very good price for this kind of equipment. This is probably the cheapest way to setup your workflow for consistent colors in Photoshop.

Have a look at the Huey here.

Technique: Color management

Many people who start out with Photoshop forget about color management. This prevents you from getting accurate colors on screen and print. If you want the easy way to a decent color management setup in Photoshop, just download the file below. After you have downloaded the file, go to Color Settings and load the setup.
This is a great start for most users who don’t know much about color management in Photoshop, and it also works with Illustrator and InDesign.

You’ll find the file here. Remember to right-klikk to download the file to your desktop.