As the first batch of 2011 Digital SLR Photography students eagerly await their Top 30 results we have a little bit of exciting news to announce.
The Top 30 will now have a ‘Viewers Choice Award’ for the most popular image as selected by you, our supporters and photography enthusiasts.
The process is simple, just after Easter once the first Top 30 for 2011 is announced, we will create a gallery where you will be able to browse through the final images and vote for your favourites. The image that gets the most votes within a set period of a month will receive the great prize courtesy of Lexar Media.
“To show Lexar Media’s continued support of the Australian photography industry, it is proud to support the SPW Top 30 Viewer’s Choice Award. Lexar media will be offering the talented winner of this award a professional photographer’s memory accessory prize pack, valued at $470.00″
The pack includes;
1x Professional Dual Slot Reader
2x 16GB 600x CF Cards
1x 16GB JumpDrive S70
We’re sure you’ll agree that it’s indeed a very worthy prize. A huge thank you to Lexar Media for their kind support. Make sure to check out Lexar’s Digital Photography page for some great workflow tips and lessons.
Meanwhile, do yourself a favour and check out the amazing selection of Top 30 images from 2010.
2010 “Top 30″ Galleries
2010 Intake 1
2010 Intake 2
2010 Intake 3
2010 Intake 4
2010 Intake 5
Also, don’t forget to check us out on Facebook. Make sure to ‘like’ our fan page to receive all the latest updates and inspirational tid-bits.
Behind The Scenes - The amazing Bradley Chatfield turns it on for our first ever weekend workshop back in June 2005
I can’t believe that I didn’t think of this earlier! Last night while trolling through the thousands of images taken over the last 5 years worth of workshops, I realised that there are just so many amazing images that have never really been seen, so over the next however many months I’m going to open up the vault and see what pops out. The amazing models, cool locations and the fun we had.
Hope you enjoy seeing them as much as we enjoyed making them.
I’m very excited about working with Steven from InkedupTV on the creation of a new promo clip for SPW so keep an eye out, it’s coming soon.Without doubt Steven is one creative dude!
Browsing through some of his most recent work I came across this clip which he had just completed. Enjoy!!
NEW EDGAR “OSOK” HOILL VIDEO!!! Steven catches up with leading photographer of Lowrider Magazine! Without a doubt Edgar Hoill has a natural talent of capturing the raw essence of his subjects. “All my stuff is street, so all my stuff is real. And everything that I shoot is either people I know real close or that I work close with or just stuff I see on the streets.”He also has a sick ass collection of tattoos done by some of the best around the world. Jack Rudy, Horiyoshi III, Ben Grillo, Tattoo Tony just to name a few
A huge congratulations to our very own SPW tutor Michael Good who recently entered a work in the Thirroul Seaside Art Festival. Competing against over 300 other invited artworks and judged by the curator of Wollongong University Art Collection, Michael won the overall, Anita Commelli Prize .
Upon seeing the work I was immediately intrigued by the process that led to it’s creation. As it turns out the process was a collaboration of two great talents and is an alternate slant on the CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) process that seems to dominate today’s photography. I asked Michael to pen a few words about his latest collaborative project.
“A little over a year ago I had a chance meeting with an amazing artist Arthur Apanski, when I was commissioned to photograph his house being put up for sale. I found it very difficult to control my enthusiasm, as every wall in this little cottage was filled with a number of Arthur’s amazing artworks. Of course being the curious type I talked with Arthur for quite some time about his works and what he had in mind for the future. This led to us coming up with a new challenge that Arthur believes hadn’t been done before. I was to get some of my landscape photos printed on to large format canvas and then hand it over to Arthur for him to perform his own piece of magic on the works.
To set the context of my trepidation I provide you with two images which easily show Arthur's amazing and very intimidating talent.
Our first projects consisted of two commissioned works. One of which was for a local builder who wanted a classic Arthur signature piece to hang on his wall. Not being able to afford one of Arthur’s original works we offered to create an artwork especially for him. This meant photographing his favourite landscape (East Corrimal Beach) and then handing over to Arthur for his interpretation. East Corrimal beach is a very classic long sandy beach with small sand dunes. A very cliche kind of landscape.
Being the first work I was going to produce for Arthur I had little idea as to how it should be photographed. To add to the mystery I hadn’t met nor spoken with the client. This gave me free reign over how I chose to photograph the landscape. Having gone to the location more than a dozen times in varying lighting conditions I felt that I had a good selection to present to Arthur. I had photographed from many varied angles emphasising many different aspects form large landforms to small detailed driftwoods. In the end I need not have worried too much as the point of the project was that I would give my own impression of the landscape. Arthur would then add to it without comment or input from myself. We wanted to see how the project could work without collaboration. i.e. I was not to produce works to suit Arthur nor would he try to enhance or compliment the landscape presented. He would simply interpret the scene and paint accordingly.
Here is the end result of the first commissioned work. Arthur's belief is that Wollongong will be inhabited by great lizards and crocodiles in 50 years due to global warming.
The second commissioned work was for a client who had inherited the family home which would be demolished in the near future and so the theme was to show the existing house being carried away much the same way as the sand dunes come and go…
Our second commission
We have since moved on to our main project which are my selected landscape works to be exhibited in the Wollongong City Gallery in 2011. So far we have produced 8 art works, some of which you can see here. This experience so far has really made me look at landscape and people photography in a whole new light. Not being content with cliche images the project has forced me to think in a more artistic way and really consider all the elements including composition, colour and textures and of course considered lighting and atmosphere. This will help my future photography grow to greater heights no doubt. Being my first exhibited work I’ve now gained a desire to enter more competitions.
When Australia’s leading experience supplier Red Balloon Days approached us about trying our Beginners DSLR Photography Workshop in order to write a review, I was naturally nervous. Although I was always quietly confident that we had one of the most thorough and inspiring beginners workshops on the market, there is always that little voice that says ‘perhaps you’re just biased’. Especially now, with so many new offerings out in the market place, the pressure is on to provide the best experience possible. After all, these days more so than ever it’s all about the experience!
Well now the confidence is back in my step, but don’t take my word for it. Here’s what Red Balloon Days had to say about it.
Daniel, not sure why you’re so surprised. You HAVE got the best course in the business. I thoroughly enjoyed my time doing this course and have recommended it to others.
Not only did I learn a heap of new, invaluable information but Scott, my tutor on the beginners course and you,Ben and Wendy on the Travel and Documentary workshop, have how helped make me see the world in a whole new way!
It was that time again where Daniel and I put on our judge’s hats and began the process of choosing the top 30 images from the first intake for 2010 - Digital SLR 8 week beginner course
With just under 1000 images presented on the final night we knew we had a challenge on our hands to pick the 30 stand out images.
This final selection was based on, originality of idea, overall impact of image (mood), use of colour and composition, and technical execution.
Congratulations to all those who made the final cut!
Our apologies for a delay in posting the final Top 30 of 2009. We’re blaming lots of things, but mainly Christmas holidays, travel, too much eating and definitely drinking, children, pets, photo shoots and technical issues. We hope it’s worth the wait.
Every time I sit down to run through this editing process I am astounded by the number of quality images presented by those, who only 8 weeks earlier knew NOTHING about photography.
This time we started with 1480 images which were presented on the final night ( wk 8 ) by each of the students. The first edit was easy, as images were selected based on initial impact. Basically, they stood out from the rest of the pack. Within a few hours the 180 were whittled down to 60 as we lost a great number to critical (or general) focus issues and slightly sloppy composition. From there things really slowed down, we compared, discussed and even argued over each image, and it’s merits.
This final selection was based on, originality of idea, overall impact of image (mood), use of colour and composition, and technical execution.
Congratulations to all those who made the final cut! I feel most would agree that these images hold their own on most gallery walls around town.
In Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) make the curves adjustment (strong contrast) and back on basic tab check for blown highlights. These shots were pretty good so no worries there.
Opened image in Photoshop, first thing I noticed was that the hem of her dress on her right thigh was a little high and showed the dark elastic at the top of her tights. Not very attractive. So I cloned the hem in to hide this.
Next I lengthened her legs a touch. Now Olivia is tall and leggy but probably my perspective was wrong. To do this I made a large selection using the rectangular marquee tool. I select a large rectangle from one side of the screen to another (starting just below hem of dress) and as far down the pic as possible whilst still leaving me a little room to crop within that bottom line later. Then I selected free transform and dragged the bottom of the box down a touch.
I then cropped the picture to my liking, cleaned up the skin (not that she need much) and take away one or two creases in the skin(around the armpit) Sharpened her eyes and mouth and saved.
Open image in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), adjust the curve to strong contrast. Back to the basic tab and adjust the temperature to ‘flash – 5500′ Then open image in Photoshop
Cropped to get the perspective I wanted.
I then cleaned the skin on the models face and leg using the clone tool. Whilst on the skin I then run a small home built action called high pass that smooths it a little.
I also used color efex pro to add a little glamour glow.
Next I cloned the background a little to added a little smoke and to hide a little more the leg of the background light.
If her eyes had been more open I sometimes run an action to increase contrast but not in this case.
Last thing I do is size and then sharpen. I only sharpen selectively on a separate layer so I can see the effect. Normally with a feather @20-40 I select eyes/eyebrow area and the mouth and then run a little action I got from the world famous ‘Manny Librodo’ If you want to build this the steps are:
Approximately every 8 weeks a new batch of SPW “Beginners DSLR Workshop” graduates go out into the world armed with their new cameras and enough new photographic knowledge and inspiration to make the most of them.
From chatting to the tutors and also the students themselves, one of the most beneficial, and I would say fitting ending to the course, is the Final Night presentations where each student brings along a selection of images created during the 8 weeks for a final slide show to music. Being able to see other photographers interpretations of the various exercises and subject matter as, well as uses of basic techniques in unique ways, often broadens the creative mind and can offer a new perspective on an otherwise familiar subject.
Images are created to be shared, to teach, to inspire and off course, to communicate the creators vision of the world. I always make a point to encourage ALL to attend this final night as the value gained from seeing the results of others often outweighs any that can be passed on verbally or by the written word. After all, photography is a visual medium.
For myself, the reward is seeing the quality of the images created and the breadth of ideas from a group who just 8 weeks earlier had little or no photographic knowledge. So it is with great pleasure that we present the first selection of our ‘Final Night Top 30′.
To view the image larger, just click on the photographers name below the thumbnails
[svgallery name="SPW09 T4 Final Night"]
This set of Top 30 Images was selected anonymously from over 800 final night images presented. In the selection process we considered; initial impact, originality of idea/concept, technical execution, composition and overall mood and feel.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THOSE WHO MADE THE FINAL CUT!!!
If you have never tried to recreate an iconic image from the past, then you’re probably missing out on a great way to push yourself out of your photographic comfort zone. The process of pulling apart a shot, working out how it was done and then dealing with the technical aspects of recreating it can often lead to nice little boost to your learning curve.
ABBA tribute band FABBA recently asked if I could recreate an iconic ABBA album cover for their promotional material. After reviewing the image, I thought “Oh just like the shoot we did at SPW. Sunset in the background, light on the face and…., Voila we will have it!!”
We even found an exact match for the helicopter used on the album cover at Sydney Helicopters in Paramatta, with the only catch being that we could only shoot between 11.30am – 1.30pm. I thought, “Great… the worst time for creating a dusk look.”.
On the day it was a clear blue sky and strong sun, not a cloud in the sky, so I set off with every piece of equipment I owned, which isn’t really that much. I thought of using an umbrella on each side of the set for 2 exposures with the camera locked off on a tripod, and then blending the two exposures together to get both sides balanced with my one flash. As we arrived, the band got dressed in their jumpsuits and the pilot flew the helicopter from the tarmac to the grass area I had previously selected. As a little sign, the blades stopped in the exact position as the album cover. So far everything was going well!
I set up my tripod and umbrella with flash on one side, getting ready for my first exposure when the pilot asked if he could watch. “Of course!!” I said, immediately deciding to put him to good use, holding the reflector on the second couple.
So we got it all set up. I took a bunch of practice shots with just one person to get the exposure the best I could. Constantly repeating to myself…., “Aperture = Flash Exposure.”. Finally when I got exposure and lighting as good as I could the cast moved into place. We did a series of shots and then swapped the umbrella and the pilot with the reflector and took another series of shots. We then reviewed the shots and changed composition a little and repeated. We did three series of shots and it was looking good. I knew however I had some work in photoshop to get it looking like dusk.
Original capture
At home I masked in a red sunset that I had on file and went to work. In the end I did not need to use two photos for the people The reflector had done a good job reflecting some sun and some flash.
Here is the final image next to the original we were trying to recreate.
April 30th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Great idea Daniel. I’m looknig forward to seeing them.