workshop Archives

February 17, 2011

Headed to California for Spring 2011 Workshops.

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

December 23, 2010

Gavin Seim, HDR Photography, Lighting, ProPhotoShow

HDR. The new film. Not that overused fad from the 2000's

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.

July 27, 2010

Gavin Seim, news, ProPhotoShow

Gavin's HDR & LR Workshops coming to Twin Cities.

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

November 19, 2009

lightroom, news, ProPhotoShow, workshop

The LIVE online Lightroom workshop is here.

Full workshop info here:

After putting together my Lightroom Power workshop for conference style presentations I kept getting interest from people who couldn’t make it in person. So I got to thinking. Nearly everything I teach in the Lightroom Power session could be done as a live online workshop. So that’s what I did. Yes, the face to face version is still available and I may even take it on the road sometime, but this e-Workshop is now. Well almost, the first is coming in January.

Lightroom Power LIVE is about a four hour online workshop. It’s pretty simple, but very cool. You login to the conference from any computer with a good internet connection. I’ll be there speaking and broadcasting live what’s on my screen. Like a face to face workshop, attendees will be involved too. There will be a chatroom for everyone and you’ll even be able to ask live audio questions.

Best of all it’s not very expensive. Whether you use Lightroom all the time, or have never touched it you’ll walk away with learning. I’m looking forward to having you all on board. You’ll need to reserve your spot though so head over and check it out.

October 30, 2009

news, ProPhotoShow, workshop

The first HDR workshop is finished.

I just hosted the first “Incredible HDR” photo workshop in Central Washington. It was an intimate three day class of six, with attendees from as far as London, so we had plenty of one on one time. The images they made were amazing. I’m really proud of the students and the creative results produced during the workshop. We covered everything from how to capture HDR portraits, to final edits, controlling light and presentation.

I believe one of the most important parts of good HDR is knowing how to edit it. There’s a lot of really ugly HDR because photographers don’t understand what their dealing with and how to make something magical from it. Going further however I want to remind those playing with HDR that the rules of photography do not go away because a photo is HDR. Interesting subject matter, composition and attention to detail are all very important factors in a great image. The students at this workshop were from varied experience levels but I think every one of them got it and took home something valuable.

I’ll post images from students below as well as a few of my own I took during excursions. It seems every time I teach something, I learn something new myself. If you’re interested in learning more about the Incredible HDR workshop check it out here.

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