Digital Series

All Workshops Limited to No More than Four Participants
(Lots of one-on-one and we supply an individual computer for each person)
The Group Leader for all Digital Workshops - Roger Devore with Erwin Barrington

Special sharpening actions and black & white conversion actions will be supplied to all participants.

General Approach - Our courses will take place in Southern Illinois, with the classroom sessions occurring in an established lab working area in Lebanon, IL, just east of the St. Louis area, with a PC available for each participant. The class will emphasis use of the Digital Darkroom using Photoshop to develop a workflow from raw images to producing a fine art print. One of the big advantages of digital photography over film is that everyone now has the capability to make their own prints the way they want them. No more sending off film to a lab for printing, resulting in unpleasant prints and wondering if you did something wrong or was it a lab mistake? To be successful in printing you do need to develop another set of Photoshop skills and that is what we will teach in this workshop. Once you have mastered these techniques, you will be completely in charge from the digital capture in your camera, to the print coming out of the printer, to hanging the finished image on the wall. Your final image will be the way you want it!

Note to Apple users - This class is applicable to PC and Apple users. The softwares operate the same same regardless of computer platform.

We will also introduce two exciting imaging softwares: Photomatix - which is HDR software that merges multiple different exposures of the same scene and Helicon software that merges several different focus and depth of field of the same scene.

We will demonstrate and practice several different stitching softwares for making panorama images.

Who Should Attend - These courses are designed for any photographers interested in significantly improving their digital printing abilities. Prior use of a recent Photoshop edition is necessary, with at least a limited knowledge of how to maneuver within Photoshop. We will be utilizing Photoshop CS5 but participants do not have to be using that edition at home.

Equipment Needed - For the lab work, you will be using our PCs and an Epson large format printer during the workshop, with all supplies covered by the lab fees. We would also recommend bringing an external hard drive/jump drive to copy the files you produce on the computer - you will want to take some of them home for printing later, too.

Equipment in the Lab - Each participant will have a new HP computer running Windows 7 exclusively for their use. We will use the most current versions of all software. Our computers have been upgraded recently.

Each course will explore methods of optimizing tonalities and pulling the detail from darker images.

This entire extensive printing course will take place in the digital lab, with our focus being to give everyone a much stronger understanding of digital printing using Photoshop. Included in the lab work will be fine tuning the settings in Photoshop, becoming familiar with the tools of Photoshop (this will be designed so that it is very applicable to those who still have an earlier version of Photoshop, also), making difficult selections and working with them, using levels and curves extensively, using quick masks, working with advanced sharpening techniques, understanding monitor calibration and learning to work with layers on every image (including all types of adjustment layers). Everyone will make art quality prints from the digital files they brought with them. The first morning will be devoted to reviewing work brought by the participants, then each of the next days will be filled with exercises and working on the digital files brought along, culminating at the end with three 16x20 art quality prints made be each participant. We also plan to make some prints on canvas materials from Breathing Colr. Roger has been making his own prints using Epson's pro graphics equipment for many years.

Participants should bring several of their own images to optimize during the class. We would prefer raw files, but if you are a jpeg shooter, those will work also. You will come to understand why the raw file is the first choice to maximize the quality of the final print. We will use Adobe Bridge for the raw conversion and follow to Photoshop for adjustments and optimization of your images. We strongly believe the best way to learn these procedures is with your own images working on your computer with someone there to help with you encounter problems. You will spend a generous amount time testing these tools on your images and making prints to take home with you.

"Your workshop is great. Each student has a dedicated computer with downloaded examples from your excellent guide. The hands on is really beneficial for the Photoshop applications. Great opportunity to become familiar with selection, sizing, cropping, printing, and the many applications of the curve layer, among other things too numerous to mention. Also great ambience at your location. I enjoyed seeing my images transformed with proper lighting, balance, and sharpening. Thanks again"- Peyton, Oklahoma City

Fees: $795 (van transportation while at the workshop - i.e., transportation to and from the motel each day - and pickup at the airport on the day before the workshop starts at 3 pm, and drop off at the airport on the last day of the workshop by 2 pm can be included for $125 per person- please see airport transportation guidelines).
Lab fee - $75, includes six digital prints at 8x10 to determine which prints to fine tune and the final three 16x20 prints participants will take home from the workshop. The lab fee does cover everything used in the digital lab. Prints will be made on an Epson 4800.
Estimated lodging: $68 single
Nearest Airport: St. Louis, MO
Hiking Rating - N/A
Minimum number of participants - 1; maximum participants - 4.