February 21, 2011

by Gavin Seim. So I’ve planned another road trip, along with Spring workshops. I’m hitting the road early April with my little family and heading to SF area for two workshops in Oakland. I’m stoked. We plan to spend about a month on the road in the RV. After the workshops, we may head up towards the Grand Canyon as I hunt for stock and landscape images, then who knows. Here’s the workshop lineup. I hope you’ll help me spread the word and I hope to see you there.

April 16-17 is  my Lights and Shadows workshop. This is a fresh 2 day event that covers HDR and beyond. It’s an intimate workshop limited to about 20 people. We’ll be doing work in the field and editing back at the home base. More info here. There’s also a Facebook event page.

On April 18th is the Lightroom Power workshop. This has something for everyone. We’ll cover basics, but also get deep into power user stuff. It’s another fun hands on workshop, so bring your laptops with LR and prepare to think differently about your editing. More info here, and the Facebook event page here.

I’m also working on setting up something for Fresno. Still working on the details of that, but stay tuned to this post or the Seim Effects FB page for details. I’ll also update the workshop pages if a new location is added. Hope to see some of you there… Gav

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February 17, 2011

I’ve planned another road tip, along with a few Spring workshops I’ll be teaching. We’re hitting the road early April and heading to SF area for two workshops in Oakland. I’m really exited. Loading up the RV and spending about a month on the road. After the workshops I think we may head up towards the Grand Canyon as I hunt for stock and landscape images, then who knows. Here’s the workshop lineup for CA.

On April 16-17 I’ll be teaching my Lights and Shadows workshop. This is a fresh 2 day event that covers HDR and beyond. It’s an intimate workshop limited to about 20 people. We’ll be doing work in the field and editing back at base. More info here. There’s also a Facebook event page here.

Next on April 18th is the Lightroom Power workshop. This has something for everyone. We’ll cover basics, but also get deep into power user stuff. Another fun hands on workshop, so bring your laptops with LR and prepare to think differently about editing. More info here. There also a Facebook event page here.

I’m also working on setting up something in Fresno. Still working on the details of that. but stay tuned to this post or the Seim Effects FB page for details. Hope to see you there… Gav

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January 22, 2011

Click To Listen>> Photography Podcast. PPS #74
Review in iTunesVote on Podcast AlleyDirect Podcast Feed

Today’s Host... Gavin Seim.

Today we’re going in depth on digital quality and the Six Keys to Image Quality. Gavin discusses what he’s learned about getting down and getting the best image quality possible from digital files.

Gav with the new printer. The image links to the post about it.

Podcast #74 forum discussion:

Notable Time Indexes:

  • 00:00 Introduction. The Challenge
  • 07:05 The Six Keys to Quality.
  • 26:07 Editing Process in depth.
  • 29:18 Film resolution thoughts. More process.
  • 49:05 Thoughts on cameras, sensors & lenses.
  • 51:23 The new printer. Canon IPF8300.
  • 56:52 Picks of the week (links below)
  • 59:20 Coming workshops and closing thoughts.
  • 1:04:32 The after show.

NOTE: The Pro Photo Show Christmas contest winners will be announced soon. Stay tuned.

The Six Keys to Getting Great Image Quality.

The Fuji X100 looks really good.

A look at RAW vs JPEG.

File degradation article.

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December 23, 2010

by Gavin Seim (updated 07/11): HDR simply means High Dynamic Range. But lets face it. A lot of this HDR looks a lot like clippings from a spoof horror movie. It’s the Flickr HDR. I think this happens because many don’t really grasp what HDR is all about and how to use it well. This includes many HDR software developers. They fall for the fad instead of thinking of it as a serious photographic tool. It’s can be so powerful if used with balance.

Tufa Sunrise. Single bracket HDR pano. More details here.

Back in the day there was film. Then came digital. Then came HDR. First we merged light and dark images in special ways to get a wider range of light. HDR merging was not perfect and was often overdone, but it could produce beautiful results. Often results that looked edgy and bold. Young guys like me thought we were so cool. Capturing detail that was never seen before.

Then I started looking closer. Studying what the film forefathers had been making for years. Looking at the dynamic range and detail. I realized that HDR was really not so new. Film photography had high dynamic range also and I saw images that astounded me. Images, that had I not been told they were on traditional film, I would have assumed were digital HDR. It helped me realize something.

HDR is not a trend of over-processed, super amped, ultra edgy photos. I think many architectural photographers got this memo, but most others didn’t. I’ve talked about balance in HDR processing for some time, but what I’ve come to further realize and started teaching in Lights & Shadows Workshop is that HDR is about controlling tone. It’s about understand and managing light. Digital in itself does not yet have the dynamic range that film did, so we compensate. Just as a film photographer might have used filters, various film types and chemical process to get dynamic range in their images, we use digital manipulation. HDR photography is little more than the new film.

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July 27, 2010

Summer is moving right along. Come September I’m hitting the road for a month in our new trailer taking a photo tour with my Family. My destination is Twin Cities and when I get there I’ll be doing a 3 day HDR workshop followed by my 1 day LR Power Workshop.

I won’t make this long. You can click below for info on either workshop. Whether you’re local or traveling in, I look forward to seeing some of you there. There’s also talk of some kind of a PPS meetup, so stay tuned… Gav

HDR Workshop 2010

LR Workshop 2010

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