March 20, 2011

You users been asking about these for a long time. The truth is I’ve avoided it because I really like teaching photography workshops in person, and for some, like my  Lights & Shadows workshop, it’s the only way to fly.

But reality says I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve that I can teach online. With that in mind I’ve decided to stop resisting it. Coming soon is an all new series of digital learning workshops. Separated into bite sized chunks, inexpensive, live and online.

It’s going to start with a Lightroom Power learning series. Workshops that start at basics and work into very advanced editing skills. You can pick the sessions you want based on your current skillset. Cool part is these will be about 90 minutes each and will only cost about twenty dollars. Spend an evening at the live online workshop, then take time to let is soak in before the next one.

After Lightroom I plan to take it further. I may even do a seasonal series. Focused workshops on things that seem simple, but can go so deep. Burning and dodging, cloning, prepping files for print. I’m getting excited because with this online format I can host a workshop on nearly anything, no matter how focused, because there’s no travel and no venue overheads to take into account.

Stay tuned for more details. Registration for The first webinars will be opening soon… Gav

You can follow the Facebook Page. All workshops will be announced there. You can also join the newsletter over in the sidebar >>

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March 16, 2011

Setting up strobes outside, especially with an with an umbrella or softbox can quickly turn into a fiasco of tipping. Not ideal when your trying to get a job done before the light changes or subjects start calling you names. I put this together last summer while planning a family session with over forty people. One common method is to use sandbags, but I wanted something small, light and adaptable. Behold, my DIY quick release light stand cords.

I left these up all afternoon without reservation. They make even portable stands VERY stable and should handle heavy winds. Do some tests of your own and if in doubt just add a few extra cords to make it as strong as you need. I found three per stand was adequate. Obviously these are not the best choice for paved surfaces, but in most situations they’re fast and effective.

Cost in only $5-10 to make a set of three and they can also be used to tether other things as well. Here’s is a good video on how to tie the Tautline Hitch. Also here’s the tent spikes I like, here’s nylon cord and here are some S hooks (you can also get them at your local hardware store). Enjoy… Gav

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January 18, 2011

by Gavin Seim: I’m not a web designer by trade and I don’t plan to be. I’m a photographer who happens to be a WordPress nut. I think WP is the best way to build and manage a great website, blog or both. Flash is on the way out, traditional HTML less manageable. A content system like WP gives us control and can have any look we want it to. It allows us users to stay on control of our sites and mange them easily, from anywhere.

I designed this site and all my others on WP. I’ve been working with it for years now, but I know  that it can be daunting when your starting out. So along with my photography consultations I decided to officially offer… WP consultations, for people who want to save the headaches and get their site on track fast… Customization, for people that need a few tweaks to their design, but don’t want to hassle with it themselves.

I’ll also be offering a limited number of full WP site designs. You can hire me to build you one of those notorious, clean, Seim designs just for you. I only plan to do a handful of those a year however.

You can get WordPress help and consultations right here, as well as info on site design… Gav

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July 15, 2010

by Gavin Seim: I’ve said it many times. I think Burn & Dodge is a very under appreciated tool in today’s digital world. It’s about subtlety and taking the time for precise burning and dodging once your primary effects are finished can make a world of difference in your final work. Good B&D work can separate the men from the boys when it comes to the final work.

With good b&d can draw the attention exactly where you need it, enhance dynamic range, add dimension and more. It’s all there in this simple tool. I made a quick video recently as I was working to show how I use b&d in a to take control my scene. This clip looks at skies in particular, but really it can make any image pop. I also plan to make more videos on B&D the future. There’s a lot to be learned from it.

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July 8, 2010

By Gavin Seim. Disclaimer: I don’t know Captain Awesome personally, but I feel confident that this would be his approach is he used Lightroom.

Understanding the Catalog: Updated 03/2012. I’ve discussed catalogs on the Pro Photo Show and also cover them in my LR workshops, but I wanted write it down in simple terms. First lets get clear on what a catalog does. The LR catalog is a single file (.lrcat) that houses the edits and changes you’ve made to the photos it points to. I generally explain it in analog terms. Imagine a file cabinet of negatives in your storage room. Next to it is another box and inside that are note cards referencing every negative in the file cabinet, each stating what was done to that negative to produce the final print.

The LR catalog is similar, only it’s digital. It references any images you tell it to and keeps track of what changes have been made those files. Rather than looking up a note card however, you just open the catalog and LR shows the result of any changes that have been made. LR does not care which folder the actual files (negatives) reside in. It just looks where you tell it to. Now if you were to delete the LR catalog, it would be like throwing out that box of note cards. The negatives would still be sitting where you left them, but the changes would be lost.

LR makes a default catalog when you start using it, but you can make as many catalogs as you want (File/New Catalog) and open any one of them by simply double clicking the on the catalog (.lrcat) file. Now let me share some power user tips that can make your image management easier. I make a Lightroom Catalog for each job. That’s right every senior, family, and couple get a catalog made in their honor. Sometimes people think I’m sort of a LR heretic for this, but they usually change their minds in time. It’s simple management mechanics and is becoming more common every day.

Why Separate Catalogs? Many photographers that use Lightroom have one huge catalog that all their images are referenced from. They manage projects from within that catalog using collections and the folders. The actual images may be referenced from various drives and directories all over their system. What happens when those images are moved? The catalog can no longer see them and you get an annoying question mark on the thumbnail that indicates a missing file. To use them again you have to point LR to the new location where the files have moved. In itself  this is not hard, but as a catalog grows, file management often becomes an issue and it becomes easier to misplace files.

There’s also the smaller issue of speed and reliability. Though LR deals with large amounts of images well, the bigger a LR catalog becomes, the more eggs you have in one basket and the more hassle you “could” have should the catalog become damaged (of course you should always have a backup). But even with that I prefer a more streamlined approach to catalogs. I don’t have to worry about a huge master catalog getting out of hand and I don’t want the hassle or managing it. Lets take a look.

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