by successfulbob | photography education, photography seminar
A big salute to Chris Smith for putting on the Out Of Chicago Conference. Well attended and enjoyed by the participants. I’ve only heard good feedback and as long as he is going to go through the pain of putting on an event (if you’ve ever done it, you know what I’m talking about) I would highly recommend looking for this and signing up next year. In the meantime I recommend following Chris on his web site! http://outofchicago.com
Here are a few images from the photo walks…
Working and sharing camera settings and compositions near the ‘Bean’. (photo Lisa Sly)
Here are the attendees getting last minute instruction before heading out to the
streets of Chicago for the photo walk.
Hitting the streets with with a semi-posed fun shot before we started spreading out.
Always keep getting out to shoot, share and get more education with fellow photographers. It will help you become a much better photographer. And it’s fun!
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | landscape photography, Lumix GX7, photography education, photography seminar
Morning hikes in Sedona are a great excuse to test out some of the features of the Panasonic Lumix GX7.
Yesterday’s test involved one of my favorite features in the camera – in panoramic stitching. The images below are of Courthouse Butte on the loop trail from Bell Rock Vista trail-head in the Village of Oak Creek. Both images were captured from the exact same place with the exact same settings. The camera was set to capture vertical panos to give a bit taller image. Exposure compensation was at minus 1/3 of a stop to increase saturation just a bit. The camera must be set to capture in jpeg because the file is being processed in the camera. RAW doesn’t cut it in this situation. If you wanted the value of RAW capture you would have to make multiple exposures and the process the files in Photoshop or another stitching program a much more labor intensive deal.
Panorama of Courthouse Butte in Sedona, Arizona panned at a fast rate of speed. Image was 54MB when opened
“Wait a minute Bob! You said these were both shot with everything the same on the camera but they are very different…” Yep they are and that’s the point of today’s post. The technique you use when making the capture is important. On the bottom image I moved very slowly so more on the frames were overlapped. In this case I felt I wanted a more “panoramic photo” aspect ratio so I did it again at a faster rate of speed starting further to the left and was able to capture a lot more of the landscape. Regardless of how fast you pan good technique is key to getting a good pano. Hold the camera tight to your forehead with elbows down. Point your feet toward the end direction of the image. Then coil your waist back to the starting point. Begin shooting while keeping the camera level. Use stomach muscles to rotate through the end of the pan. Check your results by reviewing the image on the camera. Happy with the result. Move on. Not sure? Try again at a different speed of rotation.
Panorama of Courthouse Butte in Sedona, Arizona panned at a slower rate of speed during capture. Image was 38MB when opened.
Just because you are shooting in jpeg doesn’t mean you can’t use Adobe Camera RAW to help process and tweak the image. From Adobe Bridge highlight the image(s) you would like to process and hit Cmd ‘R’ on MAC or Crtl ‘R’ on the PC and you can work on the images. In this case I used the Shadows Slider to open up the shadows just a bit to reveal some more detail and gave the Saturation a little bump.
If you have any questions about this technique or any other you’ve read about on Successful-Photographer don’t hesitate to ask. Interested in attending a workshop in Sediona? Let me know. I’m starting to gather ideas for an intimate workshop with 1-4 people that would include hiking trails, & Photoshop concepts and art ideas…
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography, photography education, photography seminar
Had an awesome 2 days teaching a class called ‘Off to the Desert Photo Shoot’ on Friday and Saturday. Showing how to get some great light in harsh daylight conditions using many different tools. I’ll be in the Panasonic booth or the Lumix Lounge for the rest ofthe convention during trade show hours. I look forward to seeing you there and talking about the 3rd generation of cameras!!
I-Phone photo by George Hawkins of Bob Coates teaching photo lighting class at Imaging USA Desert photo shoot.
Using lots of tools… Scrims, reflectors, umbrellas, gobos studio mono lights. Thanks to FJ Wescott for the use of some off the modifiers and Paul C Buff for the loan of Vagabond Mini Inverters to make sure we had plenty of power for the lights on location.
by successfulbob | fine art photography, Lumix GH3, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography education, photography seminar
What a great group in Michigan. Friendly, fun and really important – attentive when class was in session. Shared my ‘Photo-Synthesis’ Fine Art Photography program with PPM. Spoke about 4 1/2 hours. In addition to the Photoshop techniques I shared how much I like the small size and nice files to work with from my LumixGX7 and GH3.
Below are a few testimonials from the students about the program and presentation style. It was fulfilling on many levels from garnering new friendships, learning from the older members who shared their stories and adventures in photography, and being able to give back to the industry that has given me so much. Kudos to Panasonic for sponsoring my sharing to other photographers…
Photo courtesy of Carol Fabrizio, M.Photog. Fabrizio Fine Art Photography Flushing, MI cfabriziophoto.com
“I’m Darcy current president of the professional photographers of Michigan and Bob Coates was at our annual convention and Bob was awesome. Let me tell you we learned everything and my brain is just fried right now. We learn a ton from Bob. From beginners to experts, all took something home to help with their art. I recommend Bob highly to any organization that wants to hire him.” Darcy Olson, CPP – Darcy Olson Photography
“Hi Bob;
Your presentation at PPM Fall Focus Monday afternoon was awesome. It is probably the type of program that should be enjoyed first thing in the day and not after lunch as you present so much material, that I reached brain overload well before you stopped….. Your passion and high energy is definitely infused in your presentation.”
Steve
