Lessons

Lesson Info

Under the Hood pt 1

should we jump into some final fire? So I'm here above abandoned pump house, You know, a lot of different files. A lot of them save in various stages. Some of them logically, some of them not. So you know, I mean, give you break. It could be three in the morning. We're not doing this, so sometimes it's not. Here's a good example. This these are different iterations of, um, the same image. Sorry this through this angle and And get rid of this so subtle differences in them, um, so that I can live with each of them and see. See what treatment I like best. Same thing here. You can see a lot of different images here. Um, Okay, well, here's something else that's interesting. Um, let me show you this group of images. I'm not sure if I did before or not, but that's worth showing again. So my work file, I saw, uh, these little Berries on this bare branched tree again sucker for those, but it, um I love the perspective. And it looked like somebody had thrown these little red Berries out into thi...

s galaxy, and but, you know, quite a depth of tones in this shadowy tree and the highlights and so forth. Handheld. I did the you know auto bracket, you know, plus a stop minus to stop normal exposure. You can bring it in to Photoshopped from light room, um, and run or photo Max or anything else and use those exposures to do on HDR high dynamic range image. I don't use high dynamic range a lot unless I need help in containing the tonal range of the scene. And then it's a beautiful thing with auto allying layers and everything else that photo shop has. You can take three inches like that, even even handheld, and it'll piling up on top of each other and then, um, work. That's again. That's a whole weekend long, you know, discussion hdr hdr. But by doing that and then taking it into photo shop, um, and doing a lot of luminosity work, I was able to take the dark tangle of branches and preserve Onley like the outline of the branches blended into the tone of the background so that they are really actually sort of, you know, misting, waiting in the background, isolating the red of the Berries, popping them and bringing them forward. There was a question early on about how to make the subject come forward and the background material go back. Well, this is the really When I shot. And there's another question about pre visualization. When I saw these Berries, I knew what I wanted to do. And this is the result. A lot of masking a lot of the use of the tone Contrast color contrast to the Berries and accenting that. And d you know, I love the tangle of branches. I call this clinging to chaos. It reminds me of somebody just sprinkling these Berries into the chaos. And yet they have this interconnectedness this, you know, so hope that helps. Um, where we're going. Hey, we're gonna go back here and I'm going to actually open up. Uh, it's good. Give me one second. Sorry, I'm being quiet. Doesn't happen much. I'm wondering which of the files were. They go here. That's smaller. We'll go with that one. OK, I don't know how big this is. We'll see how how long it takes Tow, tow, load up. But the prince. So you guys have seen the print. If you're in the audience and you're looking at the print behind champion Susan. You know, we wanted to sort of dress the set with some images that were large enough to be viewed by the audience. But it's also, I mean, this is the This is the end product of our artwork. You know, the print is the final expression of your work. So, you know, I wanted Cem some large images that could really showcase a lot of the detail and so forth that we talked about. Um, each of these prints is being donated to local organization Blue Earth Alliance. It's called and Fantastic Organization, co founded by Natalie Phobes, a friend of mine that focuses on supporting photographers whose art projects raise awareness of global environmental issues. So I'm you know, I'm really, really proud that both creativelive and photo Morphosis and myself that weaken donate these prints to that cause. Um, and if you go to their website, it's blue Earth is a www blue earth dot com. Thank you. Got dot organ will will post it. So they're posting. But if you go to the website, they've got a page now set up with a shopping cart and these Air one off prince there. Some of my limited edition work, but they're outside the scope of my addition. I don't print I don't have prints this large in my addition. So they're one of a kind prince. And the proceeds from the sale of these prints will go to support photographers working on projects to raise global awareness of environmental issues. So eyes great opportunity for the arts to support worthy causes. And, um, I think we're all real happy to be a part of that. Okay. Segal's no sorry pelicans, um, let me invite you into one of my layered files. Thank um, first note that and yeah, I'm sure you guys already know this when you revisit a layered file. It's certainly it's the final solution of the jigsaw puzzle. But you don't know which piece of the jigsaw puzzle you put down first in all connects together. But there's no way I mean, a lot of people that are unfamiliar with four shop will go well, you started here and then you added that on top. And they added that on top and added that on top. No. Now. So unless I was able to actually record the construction of the file. There's no way that you will know the process of my decision making as I traverse through this land mine of composited images and, you know, problems to solve. So what I conduce is just show you some of the salient things that are happening in here and how they relate to some of maybe what we've discussed so far. Another thing that I would suggest that you see no evidence have me doing here and let me repeat, Do as I say, not necessarily as I do. Sometimes I'm really smart, and I will go in here and label the layer for with what you know, what the purpose of that level or the settings for that level. I have no way of knowing if this layer down here has got blending modes attached to it. Or, um, I mean layer styles. It has to it I can click and see. No, they don't. It's strictly a 100% overly mode of a layer, but sometimes it can be helpful. If you want to go back and look at your layered files toe. Have some notes, at least, so let's take a look at what makes up this image, um, again, holding down the option key and clicking. You can see, um, that specific layer so contrast. Only I'm not even sure. So this was actually run through a nick color effects filter at one point in time. Um, it's got some outrageous color in here. I'm actually, um I can speak to your file, Robert, for making destructive changes on those layers and that not being a good practice from experience. Um, I don't have this original file in here, and this is a doctor layer of that original file. So if I wanted Teoh, you know, actually go back to the original, I'd have to go hunt for it in my library. So let's see what else? This is a layer that I've just painted on in overlay mode to accent Something's It's obviously not done at this stage. It was probably one of the last things that I did after I determined that there needed to be some darkening in the sky up here, and I wanted it controllable on a different role layer. Let me keep going here. So none of this is making sense at all. Yet then we start getting onto the texture. We might just start with the texture. Add another texture layer with a mask on it. You can see we're starting to build up some texture. This is an image. If I look at this image, it is a the old map, and this is where that compass, um, sort of diagram came from. I've put a little hue saturation. It is in what mode, overly mode. Let's look at some of our other layers. There's an old book cover you saturation. Eventually, I'm going to get to, um, the shot of the pelicans again. And so this is kind of fun. I'm slapping myself on the wrist. I have the outline version of these birds and not the original image of these birds in here. We'll wait. Maybe I do really us. I may be smarter than I think. If I open up this smart, um, they're no well, very interesting. Close it. So the master exposes his weaknesses, right? But it's okay. I mean, that's that's exactly how you learn. And that's why I can tell you those kinds of things, but the aggregate of it Is it really, you know, I mean, by the time you get this file open, when you've done all the work, you don't you don't see the mistakes. It's still personally satisfying. And quite honestly, this file could have originated from another file that does have the original images in the layered way. And then I, you know, saving it and conserving file space. These things contain gigabyte upon gigabyte of storage space. Some of my files get really, really huge. And so a lot of the ones that I save I have actually trimmed down and paired. Um, so this image of the Siegel's you can actually run filters on. And did I? We talked about smart filters being part of the tool case that comes with the smart object. If you run this uncharted mask on this, you'll see that the uncharted mask comes back with the settings. So I haven't committed that sharpening to the image. It saves it as, ah, a smart, smart filter so that I can make changes to it. That's one really important reason to use smart filters. Another is if I actually took a layer what I want to dio. Let's take let's take this images image of the pelican. You're gonna actually open it up. I'm going to convert it to a smart object. And here is how you can do it two ways. If you go to the fly out window, convert to smart object or you could go up here layer. Smart object. Convert to smart object. Okay, you make a smart object out of it, and then you can apply filters to it non destructively, and you can apply third party, um, filters to nick. Color affects pro I use for number things, and you can. It applies their settings as a smart filter. So if I have to go up here filter Well, I it's not loaded into this photo shop program because I'm not at home working on my computers. But if you use nick color effects, you can actually apply a filter, and it will apply as a smart filter like this uncharged mask. I'll show you how that works. Um, Blur Ghazi and Blur came Ghazi and Blur go for it commits the blur and layers that in its a smart object, a smart filter. If I double click back on the blur, I can change the amount of the Blur. So that's that could be really handy if I've got the the whole image constructed and lots of layers up on top and you know a little too much blur on those birds. Let's open that back up. It's actually let's do this. Let's turn this layer back on. All right? So actually blurred those birds. I've got sort of this background glow happening now around the birds. Kind of a cool thing. That's my background glow. Um, then I can regulate that. I can go big. I can go smaller so you can see it with all the layers visible. You can see it applying the change underneath in that layer. Okay. Really good way to use smart filters and some flexibility. So here is the ugly truth of, ah, lot of layers. Let me go ahead and turn this back on. Okay, let me look at this. I'm gonna zoom in here. Um all right, well, this isn't probably the best. I'm going to find a different image to show that to you on now. But this is this is a good suggestion. If I close this file, if I made any changes to it, is going to say, you know, you want to save those changes, you and then it will go back and rework your smart objects. So if I had done anything to that, you want to say, save the changes and then it'll update the smart object. There's a good use of the history panel in images. I wonder what I can show it to you on. Not this image. I'm gonna come back to that. Who? But anyway, let's so I've used one to four different texture images. I've used an image of the lighthouse. I've used an image of the you can see how much that brings to the party so it forms the whole background. Everything else rides on top of it. Here's that crazy dodge burn ugly thing that was happening that looks bad on its own that serves the purpose of bringing that those tones in there. The old photo of let's see what that as not even sure, um, the textures, the different elements. So, yeah, what's going on? OK, any questions like, well, we always have questions over here. All right, Doug, I don't know if you're gonna get to it earlier. Sorry, later. But snap Turtle would like to know, um, a little bit more about your prints and another printed out. And what kind of decisions you make, as far as that's concerned, that something you're an attack. Want to tackle now or later? Yeah, that's Ah, that's another seminar. And there's lots of really, really good experts that can coach you with bringing. I, um I haven't Epsom 9900 that I used with the ultra chrome rinks. This paper is B. F. K. Reeves God, and I'm having a moment. There's a synapse not firing. Who makes me of game Reeves cancer. Then is it cancer? Sorry. You were here. Chat room come alive Helping out, um, one second delay. Okay. Cash? I'm not quite sure. Uh, anyway, what is it? Yeah, I can to cancer and I think took over actions as the arches line now. So, yeah, it's a Kansan B f K. Reeves paper. I've also used hand mules, um, using a metric that I like the, um, the old arches. I used to use old arches. Infinity, which had a real beautiful color gamut on a little bit more tooth in water, color, texture, to it, but I use I use a man surface watercolor surface. It just suits my work nicely. I soft proof, of course, with your profile. Um, I have custom profiles created for my paper and eight combinations. Calibrate my monitor. Um, with all that work done and all the numbers plugged in, you can get pretty darn close to what you want with you for dacha prints from. So no printing on any textured material like canvas. Um, well, yeah, there's, um no canvas. I You know, my work is you know, a lot of people are confused by what my work is to begin with. And quite honestly, I think canvas pretty on canvas, um, makes it look like I'm trying too hard toe look like something that I'm not. I'm not a painter. I don't want to pretend to be a painter. Um, you know, I like things on the texture of canvases. Fun? If I had another way to work with canvas it, you know, I might, But some of the early images that I showed you and I'll just go back and click kind of quickly. So some of the images that showed early on like these, um, were printed on a regular archival based paper. After I done some work to the images and Photoshopped, I coated it with a print seal coding coated it with several layers of a cracking French, Um, glaze or varnish. Um, Then I took, um, number oil paint on a rag and wiped it over the surface of that. So these are one off. So yeah, the end of your exploring ways to work and present your art there's doing They're doing some amazing things. Printing on aluminum printing on metal printing on, um, rice paper, handmade paper's collage in that stuff together. And, yeah, I've got you know, my designs on doing a lot of different things in those directions as well. Great. Thank you. B team photo would like to ask their curious if your work is mostly for personal creation or for for sale. Well, that's a tricky one. Both, Um, I have, ah, number galleries that carry my work. Um, the Irish Gallery in Massachusetts carries my work and this ah, gallery up in LA Conner. The artists remark has got quite a bit of my work up there. Um, great little art down So I've got my work in a number of galleries, and then I also do some art fairs. I go pack up a big, uh, trailer with a 10 by 20 foot portable art gallery and go up and down the West Coast on some art fairs, and it's a lot of hard work, but it's so rewarding because there's no other venue that allows me to sit with my art. And, you know, thousands of people come through the art fair and wander through your booth, and whether they buy it or not, there moved in some way by your art, and you can, you know, discuss it with them and so forth. So it's a reward. It's a very rewarding thing to do. So, yeah, it's, um I am happy that enough people like my work that I'm able to sell limited edition pieces of the work and, um, but even if nobody did, I'd be renting warehouse space, and this stuff would just be stacking up because I can't stop doing it right. Personal question from me. Do you, uh, have limited editions of these prints like pelicans, for instance, like, yes, there be It will be one or will be 10 or Yeah, I have limited edition Cem three sizes. I have a 13 by 19 print size. Um, that is in addition of 20 prints in it. Um, I have ah, in addition, size of 20 by 30 inches with an addition of 20. I think the larger sizes I don't know, 40 or 50 inches on the long dimension. And there's an addition of five prints in that. So there's 45 prints in the addition of any of these total prints. Knee any of these images And I produced a lot of work. I you know, this is a passion for me, and so I produce a lot of work, so I don't anybody that decides to click my work, I should have an element of exclusivity to the work. So I keep my additions small and I You know, I make a lot of new work, so I'm not gonna run out of work anytime soon. Good. Good questions. Um, sure. We go on another layered adventure. Let me close this. We close that close. That Look what we did. A lot of work today. What is this? I think I already saved this, but I'm gonna save it again anyway. Well, no. We're gonna save this new name. Okay? Oh, okay. Good. Yeah. All right. So I'm gonna say it, and then I'm gonna come back in here. Let's go and look here quickly at my library, and I'll talk about a couple of these other images. I just have to show this when this was this. This is a fairly recent piece, and I did it. I want to teach. I want to teach a beginning photography course as well. And you know, for me, I want if I have the other image. That's it. Jason, this for me, photography is a combination of art and science. It's the right. It's a really good combination of right brain left brain stuff, you know, the physics of light bending light making light into our through a lens. And then for the digital process, is this really interval to me? So David and I set this up in my garage a month or so ago, and, um, brought it into photo shop and keyed it all up. So you saw early on the element that we used as this little optical device one of the things that you're going to notice in here is there's a lot of sort of background illustration that's layered into some of the textural fabric of this. So, you know, some light and lens diagrams and some script and some other things and border. So, um, yeah, maybe we can just review quickly brushes, because this is an example where I have used brushes, and if I've got brushes loaded in here, then we'll do this. Now, if I don't have Russia's loaded in here will adjourn for lunch. Has that? Okay, um, let let's just open up a new document on. Let's just make this a eight by 10. Okay? All right. Now let me see if I've got my brushes loaded in here self B for brush. Then you can look at your little brushes palette. Let's see if I have some of them in here. Let me. Maybe not, but I can show you a couple things about brushes. Brushes come with this brush palette, which allow you to change brushes quite a bit and how brushes interact. And if you have awakened tablet in a pin, it allows you to do even crazier things with brushes. You can see right now with the shape dynamics I have here. If you look here the size Geter to set the pen pressure, um, that can, you know in it relates to opacity as well. Let's go back here and see if we confined opacity in there smoothing transfer opacity, pen pressure. So the preview window shows you light pressure to dark pressure back toe light. So if I paint on this background light pressure, dark pressure, light pressure. Okay. Now, if you have let me go back in to the, um sorry. We go back into the brush tip shapes, see if I can grab one. It's OK. Um, illustrative. I'm going to show you. I want to show you a shape so that it shows how it gets distributed. Maybe I'll just do this. Okay. You can adjust the spacing. You know how many hits, that sort of image that the brush tip shape is by, um, creating this space bar thing. You can actually talk about scattering, and you can control the scattering with pin pressure and it scatters it off line. Okay, count jitter so you can count. Let's add a whole bunch here. So if you watch the preview window, you can get an idea about some of the control you have over the brush. And it's so if you're laying some sort of, ah textural element in, you know, hard pressure, soft pressure, hard pressures, pressures. Okay, so wow. All right, Some crazy things, seeing this and kind of crazy things for that. Um, that's really what I wanted to show you all when we actually are making some of our own brushes and I'll show you how to do that. Um, they load up into the brush palette and then you can set some of the other attributes for that. Yeah. So we'll we'll adjourn now and come back and we'll talk. Just a little more about brushes will explore some or about my layered files, some of the large pieces and then go from there.