genius of photography

"Dad on Bed" © 1985 larry sultan

these are the youtube links for the bbc production 'genius of photography"  episode 5: we are family.  have a happy thanksgiving everyone.  come back wit lots of final project photos!

[kirsch]

ep5: p1 diane arbus

ep5: p2 arbus, tony vaccaro

ep5: p3 vaccaro, larry clark, nan goldin

ep5: p4 araki, richard billingham

ep5: p5 sally mann, larry clark, cindy sherman

ep5: p6 sherman, philip-lorca dicorcia

stone groove...

kirsch's photoshop layer mask example

assignment #4

assignment #4 is up and ready for download here, or on the angle website.  in the interim we will be learning layer masking and hdr [high dynamic range] effects.  your technical assignment homework is to create one hdr image and one layer-masked image and post them to your blog no later than end of class monday 10.27.08

[kirsch]

lightroom developer module and user presets

"diner at the green dragon" ©2007-2008 markkirschphotography

hi gang...

last night we looked at william eggleston's 'los alamos' portfolio, and discussed among other things, how eggleston cropped his photos, and the way he worked with color.  

many of eggleston's images were cropped irregularly, so that seemingly horizontal subjects were forced to exist in a vertical world while rectangular subjects were frequently stuffed into a square box. but even as he was busy redefining the tenets of composition, eggleston's photographs were just as frequently heralded for their unusual color shifts- a result of the early/late day sunlight and artificial light he often used.

our focus this week is to work with the developer module in lightroom with a focus on the crop tool and the creative presets panel.  your challenge is threefold. 

firstly, choose a photograph and crop it using 3 different formats- one using the original aspect ratio, one using the opposite aspect ratio, and one square crop.  post the original and all three crops to your blog.

second, pick another photo and modify it using the creative presets in the developer module.  choose any three presets, and feel free to modify them as you see fit. post the results to your blog.

third, save one of the modified presets using the develop/new preset pulldown menu.  locate the preset in the user/library/application support/adobe/lightroom/developer presets folder.  make a copy of the preset [it will have the suffix .lrtemplate]  and for now, just save it on a jump drive or on your home drive.

see you monday...

[brother]mark

william eggleston

for monday, visit the site of photographer william eggleston.  view the portfolio "los alamos".  on your blog, post and write a review of one photograph, with attention paid to composition,  subject and background relationship, tonal scale, etc.  additionally, opine as to the purpose of eggleston's work.

asn1 comments are up...

check the student blogs- make sure you have commented on two blogs- and yes, i will count.

asn2 handouts

asn2

composition and design

asn2

...is underway.  i will be posting linx to the asn pdf and other handouts shortly.  get your cameras out and start shoosting...

assignment #1 [lightroom]

"guardians of the king" © markkirsch

.....

as we finish assignment #1 everyone will be turning in a cd of images.  among the images will be a folder entitled "pick five", which holds the five best photos you have from

 this assignment.  on the 17th we will review the images and hold our first impromptu critique.

as part of the critique process i am asking you to perform one more task.  post one of your pick five images to your blog.  then visit the other blogs from the class and leave a critique of two different images.  you may comment on more than two altogether, but you must also be either the first or second to comment on two photos.  i will be commenting as well.

tx

[brother]mark

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Tutorials

the adobe design center has some interesting tutorials for working with lightroom. the videos include importing and applying metadata, working with collections, and exporting to files, web, or slideshows. Click on the hyperlinked titles to see the videos.

i have also uploaded a tutorial pdf file for you to download.

--- --- ---

[brother]mark

what is photography?

in 1979 tseng kwong chi [joseph chen] donned a vintage chinese 'mao' suit and traveled the world photographing himself in front of the wonders of the world. while the act itself is repeated daily by millions of tourists, chi's photographs stand as as a symbol of "east vs west' or a dichotomy of culture.

photography has an inherent power to make significant such simple acts as standing in front of a building and making a portrait. but why?  what gives the still photograph such import?  

in your blog or book, please explain the power of still photography.

wilkommen

welcome to kirsch old homes days, or so it seems. having so many former sw students in this class means i have to come up with all new lessons. drats! anyway prepare yourself for a workload.  for the time most of the pertinent course info will be located here  as i endeavor to explore the angel webpage a bit more.

with each assignment you will receive a few homework assignments; reading, writing, etc. those tech assignments will be found in this blog, so check it regularly. you will also find spurious writings and announcements here which will be mirrored on the angel page.

bon voyage