Spring 2006 One-Day Seminars with Stephen Johnson

Stephen Johnson Studios & Gallery
Pacifica, California.

RAW Image Processing in Adobe Photoshop
March 18, 2006
$250

Stephen Johnson Studios & Gallery
Pacifica, California.

For the first few years of digital cameras, JPEG was the only picture saving option in many cameras. As a compressed format with permanent data loss, this was not acceptable. Eventually, many of us working in the industry were able to convince camera makers to support uncompressed files, but they were implemented as fully processed TIFFs and therefore were big and slow to save.

In the early 1990s, Kodak, Leaf and BetterLight pioneered in what has generally become known as a “RAW” format—holding onto their camera data and building software to process these “sensor dumps.” In response to many of our requests, additional camera makers have started incorporating a raw archive format into the file saving options in many cameras.

Preserving the data that the camera sensor can record is a very high priority for pulling every nuance of photographic information from the camera and for long-term options to reprocess and later improve the image as software improves.


Camera RAW is Adobe’s contribution toward a universal interface for accessing and interacting with a variety of camera manufacturers raw/archive formats. This one-day seminar explores this process with Adobe's new Photoshop CS2 Camera Raw processor.

To Register



Digital Portfolios
April 1, 2006 $250

Stephen Johnson Studios & Gallery
Pacifica, California.

Custom portfolios of your work are now a must to provide to galleries and potential buyers. It is now too easy to produce prints and buy handsome display folios for you not to go to this effort on behalf of your work.

Digitally printed paper portfolios and electronic CD/DVD and web portfolios are explored, constructed and critiqued.


Digital Black and White:
April 22, 2006
$250

Stephen Johnson Studios & Gallery
Pacifica, California.

Explore black and white photography in the digital age from file to print. Discussions will include scanning film, conversion from color files, using filtered color for traditional tonal effects, dutones controls for tonal tuning, in addition to various black and white printing options and papers.

To Register


Professional Exhibition
May 6, 2006
$250

Stephen Johnson Studios & Gallery
Pacifica, California.

Techniques and practices relating to exhibiting your photographs. Matting and framing, labeling, lighting and packing materials are reviewed and demonstrated.

To Register

Beauty in Photography: Inspiration and Composition
June 3, 2006
$250

Stephen Johnson Studios & Gallery
Pacifica, California.

Talking about Art is hard. There either doesn’t seem to be words to describe the motivations or reactions, or there are too many words obfuscating meaning. Learning contemporary language and references of modern art criticism may help some understand art history, but “art-speak” is rarely a tongue I hear used by artists themselves. Plain talk, real dreams and real passions are what drive us forward, sometimes irrationally, sometimes with a plan. Photography fits neatly into this long and confused history.

Why do some images move us, and other leave us cold?
What makes a good photograph? What makes us pick up the camera at a particular moment? How do we work toward understanding our momentary visual curiousities and turn them into strong photrographs? Why do we point the camera in one direction instead of another when the subject matter might be very similar? Why does a photographer take so long to make a photograph?

These and other such inspirational and compositional questions will be discussed in this seminar on photographic composition. Sources of inspiration will be explored, from photography to other art forms, ideas and people.
There will no be rules of composition propagated here, but explorations and suggestions. A good nuts and bolts day for improving your photographs.

To Register


Color Management Seminar with Bruce Fraser:
TBA

From Bruce: In this full-day seminar, we'll go all the way back to the basics. We'll start by looking at the fundamentals of human vision, and the models of human vision on which all our current color management is based. I promise that we'll keep it equation-free, so don't be scared off if you're math-challenged. The goal is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the models, because that understanding goes a long way towards explaining what color management can and, equally important, cannot do.

Next, we'll examine the relationship between ICC profiles and the devices whose behavior they try to represent. A device profile is simply a snapshot in time of the way the device behaved when the measurements on which the profile is based were taken. Process control is the part of color management that the color management vendors never talk about, so we'll look at best practices for profiling to ensure that the device behaves the way the profile claims.

Finally, we'll switch from theory to practice, and examine Photoshop's color management features in detail. We'll delve into the mysteries of RGB working spaces, and look at how careful soft-proofing can save paper, time, and frustration.

Along the way, questions will be encouraged, and to the best of my ability, answered.


To Register


For information on these seminars email info@sjphoto.com or call 650 355-7507.

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Last updated on 1/2/06. Mail comments to: sjphoto@aol.com
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