Meet Up with Light Workshops this Saturday for a Coralina Cove Sunset!

Weather permitting we'll be hosting another Meet Up this Saturday, December 18th. We will first be meeting here at the school at 3:45p to get a good carpool together. We'll try to get on the road by 4pm and head into Montaña De Oro to Coralina Cove via the Bluff Trail (just past the MDO Visitor's Center).

If the weather doesn't cooperate and we get rained out, we have a back-up plan! We'll switch gears and put on a great flick from National Geographic called "The Presidents Photographer." This movie is about the photographers who have commemorated the everyday events and momentous occasions experienced by American presidents during a 50-year span. For more information or to join this meet up click here!

If you are new to the Light Workshops Meet Up Group, it's really easy to join. Just visit http://www.meetup.com/LIGHT-Photographic-Workshops/ and click "Join Us" at the top right of the page. Once you're a member you can RSVP for our latest Meet Up. You can also get notifications about our Meet Ups by following us on Twitter.

We try to host these meet ups twice a month. It's a great opportunity to meet and shoot with other local photogs in the area. You'll also have a chance to meet the crew at Light Workshops and get help with your camera/workflow questions.

We look forward to seeing you!
 
Fiat Lux!

The Beauty of the Virtual Copy (No Pixels were Created or Harmed in the Making of this Post)

 Original 

One of my favorite things about Lightroom is the Virtual Copy feature.  Referencing the same source file (negative file) Lightroom allows the user multiple versions of an image.  Even better, since the whole process is procedural (very simply, no pixels pushed) this can be accomplished quickly and without much additional storage space or processing power required.

Fake Infrared Preset

To create a Virtual Copy, select any image (if multiple images are selected ensure the image you want to "copy" is active) and then right click with your pointer over the image thumbnail.  From the flyout menu choose "Create Virtual Copy."  You could also use the keyboard shortcut of CTRL (Win) / CMD (Mac) + '.

The Virtual Copy (VC) will appear immediately after the original preview and is automatically stacked.  The VC is easily identified by the upturned page effect on the lower left corner of the Grid View or Filmstrip thumbnail.

Fake IR with Color Preset

To experiment with another version send the VC to the Develop Module and optimize again with different settings.  This is a great way to play around and find other solutions to creating images with drama, impact, and wow factor.  To push even further, make multiple Virtual Copies and optimize as many ways as you can dream up.

The series of images on this page were created very quickly by copying the original (at the very top) three times and then applying  the following presets: Fake Infrared, Fake Infrared with Color, and Fake HDR.  I will talk more about these presets and show the settings in future posts.

Fake HDR Preset

2011 schedule is filling up and will be completely posted soon.  Hope to see you here or at the California Photo Fest in October.

Fiat Lux!

Ice Crystals do Cool Things to Light

 Pillar of Fire

Evening up here in Alaska and there are ice crystals hanging in the air.  The light from different ground sources is channeled up as if it was carried via fiber optic cable.  Makes some interesting images.  These shots were handheld with a Canon 5D Mk II and an EF 24mm f/1.4L.

Prudhoe Bay Concert Lights Under the Full Moon

Fiat Lux!

An Epic week with Hanson Fong

Last week we had Hanson Fong, internationally known portrait and wedding photographer and Canon Explorer of Light come for 4 days to teach the art of Lighting and Posing. We had limited the class to 8 people and were able to create an incredible learning environment for the students.

The first day was spent learning Hanson's tips and tricks to making your everyday client look fabulous. We reached out to the local community for our models and selected individuals and families who represented your everyday customer looking for a great portrait.

Over the next few days students learned how to use facial features and body type to their advantage when posing and lighting their subjects.  

It’s very rare to be able to have such hands-on experience and hands-on learning with such an incredible instructor. It has always been a treat to have Hanson here at Light, and the workshops get better with every visit. To Learn more about Hanson Fong visit http://www.hansonfong.com/

 

Don't miss Hanson at our Second Annual California Photo Festival October 12-16, 2011. Registration opens January 15th!  http://www.californiaphotofest.com/

Curious what's happening next at LIGHT?
visit http://www.lightworkshops.com/



As Hal Says...Fiat Lux!

Before the Blow

In the arctic for a bit longer and there is a blizzard raging outside, about -40 wind chill right now and expected to get worse for the next couple days.  Up here the general term for the type of weather we are experiencing is a "blow."  Not too surprising as the wind is howling.

I was able to photograph a few things during the couple of hours of daylight and before the wind kicked up.  The shot up top is a single image from my Canon 5D Mk II and 24mm f/1.4L.  Processed with Lightroom and Photoshop CS5.  If stuck inside tomorrow I'll put up the image progression from start to finish.

The second image is a four shot stitched panorama.  Images were processed in LR and stitched in Photoshop CS5.  After the stitch I returned to Lightroom to complete the illustration effect with one of my presets.

Fiat Lux!

Quick Tip Over at Rick Sammon's New Blog

Quick tip from Hal over at Rick's blog.

Rick Sammon

Fiat Lux!

Meet Up this Weekend for a Group Shoot

The Light staff will be getting together Saturday afternoon at 5 PM to photograph the sunset and more down in Morro Bay.

To let you know where we'll be on a more regular basis we created a Meetup.com group.  Although it sounds like a dating site, Meetup provides a simple way to meet other photographers and digital artists to share our work, ideas, stories, and have some fun.

The following link will take you to the Light group at Meetup.

Light Meetup

Hope to see you on Saturday!

Fiat Lux!