Lightroom: Up & Running Fri/Tues, February 22 and 26, 9:30-4:00PM

Contact Eliot to sign up.

Lightroom is a new Adobe application for organizing and managing the large numbers of files that digital photographers accumulate. It is far more elegant and capable than Adobe Bridge in performing these tasks. Lightroom also allows one to edit their files globally for tone, color, and sharpness; create slide shows, print, and publish web galleries within separate modules. In short, it's a wonderful administrative hub for all one's files.

Eliot is teaching Lightroom classes monthly during the day in McLean, and on weekends with the Capital Photography Center. The classes are comprehensive and will have everyone up and running with Lightroom right away. They are typically done on one's own laptop, building one's own catalog, although this is not a requirement for the courses."

Course cost: $395

For additional information and schedules, email Eliot

Course info:

We will work on student's laptops with your images building the catalogs as we go through the program. Upon completion participants will have the knowledge they need to continue to add images, refine the metadata for them, develop the RAW or JPEG files, and present them in slide or print form.

The Library module is the heart of Lightroom's organization. Day one will focus there. Day two will include a brief Library review as well as the Develop, Slide, and Print modules.

Topics include:

A Day of Photography on the Mall - June 2nd, 9:30 - 3:00 PM

Contact Eliot for future dates.

The discussions and exercises would include:
   1. Moving away from Auto or Program and toward Shutter and Aperture priority.
   2. Exposure control and histograms.
   3. Using the shutter to stop action and blur motion.
   4. Influencing depth of field.
   5. Using wide angle and telephoto lenses.
   6. Using flash to fill in shadows.
   7. We would also discuss composition in the context of pictures we are taking.

The class is open to anyone whose camera allows control over the shutter and aperture and who is familiar with basic camera settings.

In the event of rain the location would be the Botanical Gardens and the National Gallery.

The class fee is $140. Contact Eliot for additional information or to register.

Bookmaking with Blurb

Course cost: $395

Contact Eliot for future dates.

Books are a wonderful way to share images and present portfolios. They can be formal and artistic or informal and family or travel oriented. With on demand publishing through organizations such as Blurb, one can print a single copy or a small number and not be constrained by typical publishing models with large print runs. It makes the process affordable and fun. Blurb www.Blurb.com is one of the foremost on demand publishers. Their software is free, flexible, and the books are nicely printed. For those interested in making books with Blurb, I will teach a workshop that will go through the process from start to finish, culminating in a book that you can upload and print.

In the class I will take you through the mechanics of using the Blurb software, starting with their templates and moving towards customizing your own. We will talk about how best to prepare your files for publication (tone, color, sharpening), and provide information about how to color manage your files for predictable results from screen to print. We will also work on sequencing your photographs and the layout of your books in order to make them as interesting as possible. We will work with text and pictures, so the books can be a combination of narrative ideas as well as pictures.

Each participant will be working on a book during the 2 sessions. The idea is to give you all the info you need to complete the preparation of the book and be able to upload it to Blurb soon after we finish. There will be both group and individual discussion during the sessions.

You are welcome to look at my books on Torres del Paine in Chile, and Galapagos, on the Blurb site as examples.

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1156657

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1386433

For additional information email Eliot.