Photodesign Workshop; September 25th & 26th

This weekend workshop will provide basic and advanced training in the areas of Photography and Adobe Photoshop. We will share all the tools and resources needed to take you from the process of capturing a photograph to the creation of art.

The workshop will take place at the Guinn Training Center on beautiful West Point Lake in Georgia. The fee covers your lodging, materials and meals. The training is my way of giving back to the photography community I love. For more information or to register for the workshop, please email me directly at amy@amymcdow.com.

Friday, September 25^th

1pm

Registration and Introductions

The fee for the two-day workshop is $40. An information packet will be provided with handouts for each class.

2pm

The Art of Composition

In this session, we will look at options for framing your photographs to make the most of your subject. Using the Elements of Artistic Design, we will demonstrate the difference between a snapshot and a creative, artistic photograph. Seeing the world through the viewfinder will become part of the creative process.

3:00

Break

3:30pm

Photowalk

We will explore the natural settings of West Point Lake to practice the techniques learned in the previous workshop. This hands on exercise will be followed by a group critique session where everyone's work will be evaluated with the opportunity to learn from each other's perspective.

6pm

Supper

7pm

Processing

This introduction to Adobe Photoshop will demonstrate a basic workflow for processing most images. The techniques applied in this session will be universal and should apply to any advanced processing software you choose. Sharpening, Contrast, Levels, Saturation, and Selective Colors are just a few of the topics that will be specifically addressed.

8:30

Break

9pm

Photoshop Tools

Photoshop's toolbar will be explored in detail. With the understanding of how each tool in the program functions, your editing ability will be greatly enhanced and your creativity will have the resources it needs to create your art.

10:30pm

Open Forum

Time to ask questions and get the answers you need.

Saturday, September 26th

8am

Breakfast

8:45am

Photography Basics

In this session, camera basics, equipment options and the elements of exposure will be covered. The technical aspects of creating a photograph will be discussed in detail.

10:00

Break

10:30am

Studio Techniques and Workshop

There will be multiple locations available to work with artificial and natural lighting indoors. We will discuss a variety of lighting and posing techniques that you can apply to your portrait and still life photography. Studio equipment options will also be discussed in detail.

12:00

Lunch

1pm

Studio Evaluation

We will meet to discuss the hands-on applications from the previous workshop. Individual images will be critiqued and we will learn successful practices from our trials and errors.

2pm

Photoshop Layers, Masks, and Advanced Selection

Layers and Masks are two of Adobe's most popular features. Understanding these two resources will enable you to have an unparalleled creative control over your images. Some tips and tricks will be offered in the area of selection techniques to make your creative process much faster and productive.

3:30

Break

4pm

Portrait workflow

Various techniques for processing portraits will be explored. A step-by-step look at how most professionals approach their images will be demonstrated. Blemish correction, skin tone adjustment, and eye enhancements will be covered as well.

My Newest Fairy...

What a delight to spend an afternoon with Miss Sophia! She is such a bright and beautiful little girl. We traveled around the grounds and experimented with a lot of different settings. Her creativity really inspired me during the session and while I was processing her images. I think she makes the perfect little garden fairy. These are some of my favorite images from our session...

Woodland Fairies

I decided to take a break from my ordinary work and play for a while. I used images of butterfly wings to turn a few divas into fairies. Hope you enjoy!

Jenn's Sale

I just love Jenn Culp's (Design by Jenn) work and talent! One of my favorite products is the ABC book she designed for children. I just got a notification that it is half priced this week making it a steal for $20 and I had to pass along the good news. Even though she indicated that these are not customizable, if you know a little about Photoshop, you can use selective color and color overlays to change the tones of the backgrounds. I found them great to use, although I understand her disclaimer since her normal templates are in multiple layers and very easy to customize to your needs. Hope you take a few minutes to check out her work!

Sunset Silhouettes

We had another gorgeous sunset over the lake today and it proved to be the perfect solution for my current creative drive. I have been wanting to try shooting silhouettes for a few days now and everything worked out for me this evening. There were so many appealing shots, that I had a very hard time narrowing them down for editing. These are just a few of my favorites.

I also created a new preset for Lightroom while editing. You are welcome to download it here.

Spin Baby Spin!!!!

Thanks to Photojojo for the brief tutorial that got me outside and acting like a nut with my family. We saw a picture like this a few months ago in a travel magazine and wondered how to do it. Basically, you need to have one person spinning the very happy child while the other holds the camera from behind the adult and snaps like crazy. We used the shutter priority setting (1/15th sec was suggested, but I ended up as fast as 1/60 on a few) on my 5D with my 17-40L at 17mm. Here's a few that we got...

I can't wait to get out and try again!

Another amazing giveaway...

Carolyn Spranger is a designer and photographer that I have admired for a long time. She recently started creating beautiful jewelry, specializing in custom hand stamped sterling silver charms. They are unique and a pleasure to view.

Right now, she is offering a give-away for a free necklace and I encourage you all to visit her blog and enter to win. You will not be disappointed! If you can't wait for the end of the contest, you can easily purchase them through her etsy store as well.

http://carolynsprangerphotography.blogspot.com/

Spring in the South

Spring offers a wonderful variety of subjects for any photographer, but I am usually chasing children through the flowers and rarely take the time to capture their beauty. This season has been different. Our home was surrounded by beautiful plants and we made a few trips to Callaway Gardens in Georgia. Nature was just too amazing to ignore and my macro lens was itching for some attention. Here are a few of my favorites...

A New Venture...

I have been on an editing frenzy lately and will be posting some photos in the next few days - I promise! In the meantime, I wanted to share a new project that focuses on my primary job...homeschooling my girls. I have started a new blog on the subject and would love for you to take a look.

www.newhomeschooling.org

More to come very soon.

Swanky Straps Giveaway!

Hooray!!! Great news to start the day with...Jen is giving away one of her amazing camera strap covers through her blog. These are such a wonderful way to add some fun to your photography. They easily slip on and off, so you can change your look anytime you feel like it.

Finally...a way to color coordinate and draw attention to my most important accessory :)

Swanky Straps' Giveaway

Senior Moments

I had the privilege of hanging out with Shannon a few weeks ago. She is a beautiful young lady, who will be a senior in High School next year. In addition to playing tennis, she is also quite accomplished on the flute and entertained Becca with her playing. We drove down the road to the pier and scouted out a few new locations for portraits. Shannon was willing to try anything, so we had a great time experimenting and laughing at the crazy situations we got ourselves into. These are a few of my favorites from the day.

Playing with Izze

There were lots of photographs started last weekend, but dentist visits and rain have taken over our home and I am pretty far behind on the editing process. In the meantime...I thought I would share some of my favorite picks from a session with Izze. She is a delightful young lady who really enjoys playing with bubbles...so glad I had that machine! I think the girls would have enjoyed her staying a few extra hours to play with them, but we may have to arrange that another time.

Help for white backdrops...

I think all photographers who have attempted to shoot on white have (at some point) been surprised when viewing the images after the fact. The white background can become any number of colors, usually blue in my experience. Even if the subject looks correct, the white behind them may not. If you don't have time to correct your white balance or don't know how...there is hope in post processing. After many different attempts at finding the right combination of Photoshop techniques, the following action will guide you through the most reliably consistent method I have found. There is no charge, just enjoy!

White Background Correction

Fire Safety

As you probably know, we homeschool our girls and are always looking for ways to step up their education and comprehension of facts. When Keith was asked to videotape our local fire departments at a training burn, we jumped on the opportunity to let them see our heroes in action. We all took photographs of the event and the girls were able to meet the firefighters and EMTs on site. They learned first-hand how much heat a fire can produce, how smoke can effect your body and how quickly a fire consumes a home once it reaches the attic. Everyone was so gracious and kind while working so hard to improve their skills for this dangerous profession. Here are a few shots from the day.

The Lemonade Stand

Well, things have been a little insane around here lately and I haven't had much time to follow through with my blogging intentions. However, I was able to find the time to round up supplies and help my daughter establish her very own lemonade stand. She enlisted her sister and three cousins to help and they all had a very sticky blast. On a homeschooling note...it turned out to be a fantastic exercise in economics, even though I got a few odd glances when I mentioned Sophie would be paying me back for the cost of the supplies. She still made enough profit to share with everyone and I know she had a great time!