Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Photocamp Utah 2009: WWMD

Photocamp Utah 2009
I am humbled, honored and excited to lead a workshop at the first Photocamp Utah event. This is an all day conference on Saturday, March 14th, starting at 8am and going until evening. The scheduled events end at 5pm, but there will be groups going out for dinner and photowalking the Provo area afterward for those interested. We have a great organizing team who are doing a fabulous job getting the facilities, speakers and all the other details that go into making something like this come together.

As of this morning, registrations hit the original limit. After speaking with the facility owners, it was decided to allow another 75 registrations. If you are planning on going, make sure to register soon because seats are going fast.

My presentation is entitled WWMD: Using everyday objects in photography. I am planning to talk about and demonstrate a handful of easy to make gadgets, useful in your photographic endeavors. I have yet to finalize on exactly what I am going to present, but at least some of the projects built in the workshop will be given to attendees.

Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Photowalking Utah: Studio lighting and Photocamp Utah 2009

There are several photography events approaching.

First, this week: on Thursday, Rich Legg presents a mini-clinic on How to Get Great Studio Lighting Results for Under $250. He will use low-cost lights and inexpensive light modifiers with a number of different setups to get great portraits. He will have his camera tethered to a computer with a projector, so attendees can immediately see the results from each configuration.
Date: Thursday, February 19th
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 pm
Location: Salt Lake City Main Library - 210 E 400 South, Conf. room #4, 4th floor
Cost: Free
Second thing this week: on Saturday, following many requests, there will be a repeat of last year's successful Studio Lighting Photowalk. Six areas will be setup in a large room with studio lights, backdrops and models. Participants will be able try out the different lighting equipment with their own cameras.
Date: Saturday February 21st
Time: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Location: Gateway Community Church, 584 E 12300 South - Draper
Cost: Free (though a suggested model tip of $3-5 is appreciated)

Go here to ask questions or RSVP for these events.

Photocamp Utah 2009
Finally, next month is the much anticipated Photocamp Utah 2009. This is a one day event filled with keynote speakers, workshops and several vendors supporting the photographic community. The full schedule is here. At the end of the day, we'll have an evening photowalk. Cost is $10 to cover facilities expenses. There will be lunch and dinner breaks but food is not included. Seating is limited so be sure to pre-register to ensure your seat. If you're interested in spreading the word, there are flyers available for download.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Photoshop CS4 action: Lightning

Sparking hands
I had this image I wanted to create. I already had the photo of the hands with a glowing orb but needed some lightning type effects to make it what I envisioned. A short bit of searching took me to this Photoshop Cafe tutorial. It was a simple six step process but I needed multiple "bolts" and did not want to keep repeating myself. So I created a simple action to do it for me.

This CS4 action can be downloaded here.

To use it, save it to your computer. In Photoshop, on the Actions menu, select Load actions. In the open file dialog, go to the location the file is saved, select and open the file. You should get a action group called HP3's special effects with a single Lightning action in it.

To test it, create a new, empty image. Click on the Lightning action to select it and click the Play button at the bottom of the actions list. You should get a new group called "Lightning" with a number of layers in it and something looking like lightning running from the top right to bottom left corners. Close this group and click the play button again. You should get another group. If you change this second group's blending mode to Lighten, you should see both bolts you just made. Each time you run the script, you will get a new group, different from the one before.

You can change the color of each bolt. To do this, open the group and select the Hue/Saturation layer. In the adjustments panel, changing the hue slider will adjust the color while changing the saturation slider will give you more or less of that color.

You can change the amount of the corona effect by selecting the Levels adjustment layer and moving the position of the black and grey sliders.

If you have any questions, problems or suggestions, leave a comment and I'll try to address the issue. Have fun!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

January 2009 PhotoChallenge wrapup

January 2009 Challenge
Well, yesterday marked the end of another PhotoChallenge month shooting and posting a photo a day. Missed 4 days in all, not as good as I would have liked, but not terrible either.

The strategy I set for myself of having a daily topic worked pretty well. I didn't always follow the day's topic, but it did serve its purpose of getting the creative juices flowing.

All in all, I had fun, got out and made some pictures and stayed up too late way too often by procrastinating until the last minute. I'm looking forward to hearing what the March challenge is going to be.