Our next step in learning how to make compelling photographs with speedlights at Anderson Ranch Art Center was to work with shifting the white balance of the camera, and then adding gels over the speedlight to create an interesting effect.

In the demonstration,  I first shot a frame with normal daylight balance. 

Then I changed the white balance to tungsten.  By doing this, the camera thinks the lighting is more yellow than in daylight, and adds blue to the file to compensate.

 This adds a richer blue to the sky and all the other elements lit by the sun, and even by a speedlight, which is daylight balanced.

 To correct this, I placed a Rosco full  CTO gel over the speedlight to bring the white balance to tungsten, thus making the light appear neutral to the camera.

 Finally, I added two more speedlights to the left rear and directly behind my subject to separate him from the background.  These units also had CTO gel on them.

 The key light was a Canon speedlight inside a  LightwareDirect Foursquare softbox, and the two Canon fill lights had Rogue grids from Expo Imaging on them. 

My good friend George Jardine has been making exceptional instructional videos for quite a while.  Now George has launched a new one called The Image Correction Master Class-For Lightroom 4&5.  OK, so he used one of my stock photography production images (above) for the series, and yes he is a friend.  But if you are looking for extremely detailed yet highly understandable information, George's videos are simply the best.  Heck, I even learned a few subtleties in watching.

Highly recommended, as are the rest of his DVD's!

With Athentech Perfectly Clear

Without Athentech Perfectly Clear

I recently discovered a wonderful plugin at PhotoPlus Expo for Lightroom and Photoshop called Athentech Perfectly Clear.  It is also available as an app for mobile phones.

The software corrects each individual pixel of an image, and the results are impressive.  It can adjust for color balance, exposure, contrast vibrancy and noise.  The best way I can describe it is that it removes the grey quality of digital files, and does it quickly.  What I like is that the default settings give a great result so it really can speed up your workflow.  And if you want to get under the hood, you can tweak it even more.  It's great for the photo-enthusiast and working professional as well.

With Athentech Perfectly ClearWithout Athentech Perfectly Clear

 My only complaint about the plugin is that it works directly on the file.  I wish it would create a duplicate layer like some of the Nik plugins so you could blend the original with the plugin version. 

 The overall takeaway, though, is that this can be a great timesaver and enhance most every image you shoot.  Highly recommended.

Canon has posted a great article on camera settings and how to quickly access them.  Though they relate specifically to their EOS cameras, the concepts are similar for Nikon, Sony, Olympus and Panasonic.  It's well worth looking over this information and understanding how to use it.  It will serve you well when you are in a situation where you have to make quick decisions in order to capture that decisive moment.

Here's the link to the photo tip on camera settings.

I'm delighted that The Anderson Ranch has invited me back for the fourth year to teach a class on lighting.  The focus of this digital photography workshop will be the use of dedicated portable flash units in conjunction with Nikon and Canon DSLR's.  

Our goal for the week is to master lighting with small dedicated flash units in every kind of situation.  We'll start by observing the way light works in the natural world, then learn how to use our portable flashes to emulate that look and feel in studio, or create our vision from scratch.  From there, we'll head outside to create dramatic images by augmenting existing light with our portable flash.  

By the end of the week, you will know how to use flash on and off-camera, how to modify the light with a wide variety of tools, and how to use the camera's onboard ability to control the lights remotely. We'll even spend one afternoon working with portable power packs for situations where speedlights can't provide enough light.  You'll leave with confidence that you can master any lighting situation you encounter or create.

To register for the class, go to Lighting the World: flash photography with speedlights.

A few weeks ago, a mutual friend introduced me to George Jardine.  George was part of the team at Adobe when Lightroom was first being developed, so his knowledge is incredibly deep.  More than that, though, he has an uncanny ability to explain things in easy to understand bite-sized bits.  Starting with the basics, he builds on that it give you a rich understanding of how to get the most of the program.  This overview of the Lightroom tutorials is succinct in explaining his approach.

If you are lucky enough to be able to make it, George is teaching a series of Lightroom classes at Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver.  If not, you can purchase his individual series on the Library Module, Develop Module and Location Workflow and Catalog Management on DVD  from Amazon.

I don't get anything for making this recommendation other than knowing I am passing along a great resource!

We've just completed the third Mastering Light workshop at The Anderson Ranch in Aspen.  It was a great week.  We started with studio sessions focused on understanding the basics of lighting, then take that knowledge on location for three days.  Students learned how to work with studio strobes, portable power packs and dedicated flash units for Canon and Nikon.  By the end, participants were able to go into any environment confident of their abilities to make an image that was well executed from the technical, aesthetic and communications standpoints.

I'm delighted that based on these three years at the Anderson Ranch, I've already been invited back to teach again next summer.  The focus will specifically be on working with dedicated flash for 35mm DSLR's, and based on the locations we shot at this year, I know it is going to be a great experience.  June 17th-21th, The Anderson Ranch, Snowmass, Colorado. 

For six years now, The Black and White Spider Awards has celebrated the photography of professional and amateur photographers in such diverse categories as abstract, advertising, nature, nude, photojournalism and still life.  It's a wonderful source of inspiration, and certainly worth a look.