Sorry about the lack of updates for last week’s classes. I’ve been swamped working on some new projects, including the very cool (and very big) update to Faded & Blurred. The 2.0 update is going to be very, very cool. No exact launch date yet, but Frank, Nikki, Paul and I are working hard to launch before the end of the year. Look for an announcement on the Faded & Blurred site soon.

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World of Digital is still one of my favorite classes this semester. Week 7, we talked about exposure. Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and Manual. We also took a look at some processing techniques in Lightroom. Week 8 will be all about video, including creating “fusion” slide shows.

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In the Art of Compositing, we started the “Singularity” movie poster. Have you worked on it? We also took a look at a great technique for building lightning strikes and energy bolts. If you missed it, or just want a refresher, take a look at my video tutorial.

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The Web for Photographers is proving to be a tough one, but you guys are awesome for sticking it out. In week 7, we dove a little deeper into CSS. I can definitely see the lights coming on for you and I think several of you will be building your own sites before the end of the semester. Stick with it. HTML and CSS are a bitch to learn, but they are necessary if you intend to build your own site or do any customization to pre-built templates or themes. Several sites out there to help you including:

Web Appers
W3 Schools

Here’s a great list of sites to help you learn HTML and CSS: http://sixrevisions.com/css/20_websites_learn_master_css/

That’s it for the wrap up. Now, just do the work!

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We talked about creativity in photography and how to “find the shot”. We took a look at some of the work of brilliant Australian wedding photographer Jerry Ghionis. Jerry is a master at posing and dramatic lighting, using very little gear. If you liked what you saw, don’t forget that you can attend a very special Jerry Ghionis all-day workshop for only $100.00, courtesy of the folks at fotografosdecorazon.com. Tix for the event are available on their site or at jerryghionisinla.com. One of the questions in class was about using the SmugMug plugin for Lightroom. Rather than post a tutorial, we’ll go over the installation and usage next time in class.

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In The Art of Compositing, we started assembling the “Zen Road” image and took a more detailed look at using Smart Objects in our composites. The key to working with Smart Objects is to remember this: edits made to a Smart Object in the document layer palette are non-destructive BUT, if you double-click the Smart Object and edit it directly (you’ll see the “.psb” file extension in the tab title bar), those changes are permanent because you are editing the source object, NOT the Smart Object (virtual copy). This week, we’re continuing on with Zen Road and also taking a look at how to create our own dirty pictures.
You can read a brief primer on using Smart Objects in Photoshop CS4 HERE.

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Fantastic session in The Web for Photographers. Those who came out, give yourselves a pat on the back. You’re learning some tough stuff and we got through quite a bit. We got an entire page layed out, sized and prepared for images using HTML and CSS. Very well done. The great thing about learning a bit of CSS is that it prepares you to customize not only your own sites, but also your blogs, such as Wordpress and Blogger. This week, we’ll get those images in and add some more pages to our dev site.
There are a number of sites online to help you learn web development, but one that I read quite a bit is Web Appers. They offer a ton of information on development, plugins, components and all sorts of cool bits of code to customize and use in your own projects.

Thank you everyone for continuing to come out each week.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I’ve been swamped with new projects and going through my Mom’s things. Also, I moved over the weekend, so the last week I had to add the prep into the mix. Moving forward, I’ll no longer be doing separate posts for each class, but rather one weekly wrap up that covers all three. I’ll try to post them on Fridays, since I teach Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Next semester, I’ll be teaching a brand new class called Photoshop Essentials – Quick Fixes for Common Problems. I believe it’s going to be on Thursday evenings, but don’t quote me on that just yet. Still time for you to sign up on Faded & Blurred before our next photo walk this weekend in Pasadena. We’re working on some really big things for the 2.0 version of F&B. The response to our little experiment has been phenomenal so far and we believe that some of the things we have in the works for 2.0 are going to be super cool. Stay tuned…

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The World of Digital is becoming a really amazing class. I was brought in last minute for this class, so I really didn’t know what to expect. But the class has found a rhythm that is really wonderful. It feels like more of a discussion group than a class, which I hope you all are enjoying as much as I am. One of the questions last week had to do with monitor brightness. I wasn’t able to answer it on the spot, but I did some looking and here’s what I found. The question was regarding cd/m2 and what that means. Well, cd/m2 is a measurement of the amount of light the LCD monitor produces. It is given in “nits” or one candelas per square meter (cd/m2). One nit is equal to on cd/m2. Typical brightness ratings range from 250 to 350 cd/m2 for monitors that perform general-purpose tasks. For displaying movies, a brighter luminance rating such as 500 cd/m2 is desirable. Hope that helps.

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Apparently, much of the Art of Compositing class read my previous post about knowing your limits. I’m glad we still had a full house. I really do want you all to be there and to get it, so thanks for sticking it out and continuing on the journey. We continued on with masking, even completing the lesson introducing the concept of Channel Masks. If you’d like to go over it again, be sure to watch the video tutorials. Part one is HERE and part two is HERE.

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Thank you! Thank you to all of you in The Web for Photographers who came back for more CSS abuse. Give yourselves a hand…it seems like things really are starting to click with how these things work. We were able to do some basic (but still really cool) formatting with CSS. I apologize for the errors in viewing the CSS cheat sheet on some of the PC’s. You can grab one for yourself HERE, and I’ll also bring it in for the next session. Next time, we’ll be looking at theming Wordpress and we’ll build a simple page layout building on the CSS we introduced and add in some images.

Thank you to all of you for coming out to these classes each week. I know you are all busy with “real life”, so I appreciate you taking the time…now just do the work!

Great week in The Web for Photographers. We started out by looking at Chase Jarvis‘ new project, The Best Camera. If you don’t know Chase’s work, be sure to check it out. He’s amazing and he’s a fantastic advocate for the community aspect of photography. From there we moved into the importance of wire framing your site design. It’s much easier to tweak a pencil drawing or a bunch of grey boxes than it is a fully realized Photoshop comp. The class project of linking HTML and CSS files when well, for the most part. A few people struggled a bit, mostly from incorrectly naming or referencing their files. For those of you who got stuck and for those of you who want a refresher, I’ve created a quick screencast demonstrating the steps involved in linking your HTML and CSS. Please take a look at it so you understand this step. We’ll be building on this next week when we complete several different CSS layouts. Now, just do the work!