Lessons
Day 1
1Day 1 Pre-Show Banter
18:50 2Introduction
33:25 3What Makes a Dramatic Image?
19:34 4Before and After part 1
35:33 5Before and After part 2
17:23 6Adobe Camera RAW
44:25 7BONUS: Upcoming Alley Shoot
07:09BONUS: What can you do to a pixel?
05:06 9Working with Example Files
55:00 10Preparing for Alley Shoot
11:35 11Photo Shoot in Alley
1:17:00 12BONUS: Homework Assignment
01:22Day 2
13Day 2 Pre-Show Banter
06:33 14Reviewing Yesterday's Images
22:02 15Adjusting with Curves
28:55 16Adding Masks
39:25 17Student Photo: Orb
26:36 18Black and White
27:09 19Audience Q&A
15:37 20Student Photo: Toy Car
10:57 21Black and White Portraiture
17:57 22Tone and Colour Correction
22:02 23Student Image: Journal
14:39 24Audience Q&A
10:08 25Bonus: Internet Homework
19:05 26LAB Color
21:03 27Student Image: Girl on Phone
13:06 28BONUS: LIttle Girl in LAB
07:18 29Wrap Up & Q&A
12:10Day 3
30Day 3 Pre-Show Banter
05:50 31Introduction to HDR Photography
17:50 32How to Shoot HDR
51:55 33How to Process HDR
18:16 34Hands On: Shooting for HDR
52:13 35Processing HDR in Photomatix
1:08:40 36Student HDR Example
27:28 37Thanks + Credits
06:18 38Student Image: New York City
36:23 39Final Review
16:52Lesson Info
Student Photo: Toy Car
right case in your works through a black and white conversion. Yes. Let's return that. I would have a look, uh, sure to do that. So see what you did. So use the black Mitel on your dark down the rez brightly allies, bright greens, dark and science and dark Magenta is so let's just compare. This just creates a hue saturation adjustment layer underneath there, so you can kind of see what straight the saturation looks like. Okay, so there's a straight de saturated version and there's a Windows version, So come into what we don't your darkened in the cow. It's basically bringing down the blues, isn't it? And the thing I did after that, though, is I added a levels adjustment, so we'll let you off, but ended up pretty bright. Okay, let's have a little bit every levels. Like I see eclipse some of your highlight detail here. Yeah, Okay, Right. Let's fix that. First, let's turn these off and you wanted it to a little bit brighter and black and white. Okay, Right This All right, Let's put your b...
lack market just later on. Deron signed again. Let's go back to your curve on. I'm guessing you want to. Something like that. Actually, the car was much brighter if he turned on the levels. All right. You like death a lot, right? I actually kind of like a lovely dark list. Let's broaden it out a bit. So I kind of like we agreed to compromise. And I like the color of the car that way. Right. Okay. So what we've got then is there's a hue saturation. The car looks very bright. There's no detail on. Right. Okay. I like the car, I'm but I'm gonna suggest something here. Let's let's put another black. And what? I just learned me there kind of this image. I think this image works better for me. This is a color image. Yeah, it works really well in color, but I'm using it. So I want to illustrate something. So it's kind of a bit bright now with the curve, but I'd like kind of the way these blues match here. Now, when you turn your back on what adjustment layer on, that's not wrong. That's the one. The car looks great, but I don't much like this kind of gray patch up here. So what? I'm going to suggest is we lighten the blues in this just meant like science and then Must can't account So I'll show you why in second. Yeah. So what we've done there is we We've pretty much retained your adjustment for the car, but this gray kind of splotch of the top completely got rid of that by adding in this adjustment to come, there's your version. I'm kind of the blue in the original, So if we go back, you got some blue down here. You got this area blue here, very blue here. Kind of. It's OK, but I'm not sure we gain much by having this detail here. You kind of drawn from one to the other. Now, when it's blue, you kind of get this overall effect of the complementary Shane's. That's me kind of mixing to there. I prefer that. Do you feel that? I think that's what I was trying to get at and I ended lightening up the whole image instead. Yeah, Okay. Said past week a doctor initially, but now I think keep it bright. Highlights interested. So what we've got now it is more firmly about car. You've kind of got this I up here, but any sense that there was a rectangle of something up here is completely gone now. We could have done that with a curve in the mask, but there's actually no need to do it. Just finding the scene. You know, we could get rid of the huge gray lump talk for me. That just doesn't add much. The major told it wasn't you know, now that I see it this way, I kind of felt like that. So that's kind of why I thought this would be a good one to choose. I still think it will. Expecially color, you know, loved the blues, and it really brings out the details in the car. What kind of intel To mix the two techniques? This kind of goes. Jim's kind of goes back to the point about used nice er that you couldn't do this nice young. You'd have to generate where you just great just can't be done because you come out they see on black and white. You can't then selectively just it doing it this way. You can layer up effects, so when you all think does that better with the light of it the top. It changes the focus. But I was torn between the color and black and white, and I do like the color better. I absolutely agree. I think in this in this instance, the color images is stronger than the black and white. But the problem part of problem with the black and white Was this the kind of drab you're losing the I up here because you you brought the blues down So the blues getting dark. So the definition of the I, The more you dark in the car, the more you darken the background behind the icy. You kind of lose it. But you can have the best of both worlds was brightening up there, and all we did there was just too just blue. So, you know, if you wanted to bring it down a little bit, have a bit of structure, you can you could make it, you know, black. And that's awful. When they got other questions, I had the focus on the bottom. I want to bring more of the graininess down, and I couldn't figure out how to do that. What do you do on the grain industry? There's a lot you see it better in the color image, right? The gravel that their You know what? The killer was a little too big. Ok, what about crapping? Right? I think what I tend to do here on we'll get back to black in a minute is I'm attempted. We can either men's your original curve or we can have another one. And then what we could do is just use a Grady int to do this, right? So what? We don't now it's kind of it's the same with any image, but certainly with black and white. Your eye is drawn to the brightest part of the image. First, it's a kind of You got this very bright, but at the bottom of the image. So your eyes naturally drawn to it. Then you go back through the car and up to the I. It's a kind of it is better. We're kind of increasing the vignette for do this. We can also bring the white point down a little bit as well. Like that? Yeah, yeah. So what we don't name was we just kind of again We're just doing a simple thing to change. Effected a change in the brightness, there were no ultimate contrast were lowing The contrast of the image I'm so our attention is now fed to the car because you've got this dark room at the bottom. Yeah, one of the things in the book. It's very obvious in the Black Away, and I know you like it darker. Is that that old this in detail in that hole that it's coming out of And it's It's completely lost. Never kind of hopes that kind of Yeah, when you could on we could, um, selective rush new on my small. Could you show me what you said by seeing some of the screws and things that are Laney get is in every car. We could bring a little bit that back on. What we could then do is we convert this mask if we want to, you know, kind of looks OK, It is, But we could invert it and work on that specific section. OK, says that kind of looking a running. Yeah, yeah, it was fast. It's no, no. Is it definitely like it better with that patch taken away at the top because that's and that's what I was trying to do it the wrong way with levels is brightened things up to you know, what you're doing again is what you're saying earlier, which was working on the images of whole on looking wounded and kind of trying to compromise between different sections and this morning clarified all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's absolutely no need to do it with some very simple changes. You can target specific sections and even in the in the, um, I duplicated the background layer, which no, I know not to do sharpening and other things like that. Which would you sharpen? Your You kind of have to, because you have to have content sharp instead of a blank layer and then work on the layer below. What you can do that if you have a smart object, is you can apply a smart filter. So we didn't look at that. If you if you filter using something like on shop mask, you can apply that a smart filter because he wrote it is a small object. Okay, again, that's a final size. What kind of light? And we like that, Yeah, is anybody preferring like I want to come up, but if we have to go to black and white. You know, I kind of think bringing the China top. Yeah. Alright. Removal be away today. Would there be a way to just bring in just the blues? I kind of spot color it. Yeah, Yeah, it could be another class. Pretty much reality. What kind are you? Can probably work it in with masking and selecting color ranges and things like that. We do have a couple of questions, if you don't mind. Okay? Yes. Your question from slinger photog. Do you always establish a true black point or do you try to leave some information in for all of your shadows? Are you in all your shadows again? It varies. Generally speaking, if you've got a wide range of tones and image is gonna have a pop, that flatter image doesn't have so few presenting him. He's online. It's a good idea to kind of have a full tonal range. So from black to white on as for where that black point falls, it really does depend on each image. So for me here, with this image, bringing this detail bottom back here, just just along behind the car was a good idea. I don't think it matters that it's completely black behind. In fact, it's not completely black. It's just uniformly very dark. Eso There is some clips shadow detail here, but we're not losing instance. Significant, I think, is a key point. So no, it is an image by image thing. Typically, I would prefer a large eternal range than a smaller one. I'm certainly wrong screen presentation because they do have a pop that you just don't get all the words. Okay. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.
Class Materials
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Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
Ive been following davids work and tutorials for around a year now...well ever since i took up photography as a hobby. Im a lifetime member to chromasia.com and have been working through his tutorials when time allows. There is no fast track approach to this subject but i wanted the best advice i could get. Ive always found david very approachable over the internet and is always willing to offer advice on questions ive had regarding all manner of photography questions, being a noob. Whilst the tutorials are very comprehensive and well written sometimes its hard to digest this by yourself. So when i heard that he was presenting a three day course over the net. I jumped (well not quite more like sat down) at the chance to make sure i was able to watch the course (didnt manage that either). Sometimes its better to have a monkey see monkey do approach to walk you through different aspects of photoshop. And after the first day of the tutorial, so much information sunk in more so than it did sat reading through the tutorials. Although i didnt get to actively sit and watch the remainder of the last two days i did purchase the course so i can refer back to it time and time again. I can highly recommend this course, its concise, well planned and enjoyable course to watch. When you subcribe to the course you even get the files david walked through so you can practice yourself. I cant really praise the whole package enough...but its an invaluable reference course and couple this with chromasia membership you have a package that will dramatically improve your processed photos, the way you think about composition and importantly your camera settings! Great stuff
a Creativelive Student
David’s Dramatic Post Production Workshop is an excellent source of both education and inspiration. The Photoshop instruction is excellent and was my primary reason for watching the workshop. I was very surprised by how thought provoking the shooting sessions in the alley were and the lasting influence it will have on my own photography. Firstly the preparation for the session in the alley was interesting – having a goal and a purpose in mind. The fact that they are producing interesting work to illustrate the points and techniques in a rather dull alley helps emphasize the learning. On my next shoot after watching the workshop I definitely made adjustments in my approach. The discussion, examples and instruction on the goal of making an image more dramatic is very inspiring. It really makes me step back and review my own work to see how I can approach it from a different perspective
a Creativelive Student
The workshop was a great opportunity to learn to be more purposeful and intentional about the creative process at the post-production stage. I found the second day of the workshop – where David goes into his own approach in Photoshop – to be the most valuable for me. I look forward to putting this new found wisdom into practice into my own work. Thanks David!