"It's time once again to ask a well-known photographer, instructor or otherwise interesting person the same 10 questions and ask them to Finish the Sentence! This time, the sentences are finished by.... Audrey Woulard.
Audrey, please Finish the Sentence..."
My favorite photography accessory (lights, modifier, bag, tripod) is my Nikkor 85mm 1.4 lens
I’ve learned the most from... the little subjects I photograph. They are...at all times.. 100% honest.
If I could go anywhere in the world it would be_____ because…. right now... back to Miami because I need a vacation. A drink, the beach, and a nice party would be nice right about now.
My most-used Photoshop add-on, plugin, action set (etc) is None. I am not a big action person. Im old school. Anything I do in Photoshop, I tend to go about it the long way...step by step. No reason why...its just a silly quirk of mine.
I love the fact that Photoshop allows me to do quick fixes to an image as needed.
I hate the fact that Photoshop allows me so much freedom that the potential of sitting at the computer all day is a huge possibility....and that is definitely not a good thing for the glutes!
If I could turn back the clock 10 years I would have put much more thought into spacing out the birth of my children. Sometimes having kids that are each a year apart can wreck havoc on the brain.
In 10 years I want to go back to having time to shoot for just myself.
If I could give one piece of advice it would be Follow your dreams. Never let anyone steer you in a different direction.
Ladies & Gentlemen, let's hear it for Audrey Woulard!! AUDREY WOULARD is a photographer based in Chicago Illinois. She is widely recognized for her simplistic approach to photography by creating images utilizing only available lighting both inside and out without the aid of reflectors or flashes. Her modern images create memories that reflect spirit, honesty and beauty. Although she is a portrait photographer, she is also a commerical photographer where she has photographed well known commercial campaigns such as Pottery Barn Kids catalog.
"It's time once again to ask a well-known photographer, instructor or otherwise interesting person the same 10 questions and ask them to Finish the Sentence! This time, the sentences are finished by.... Kenny Kim.
Kenny, please Finish the Sentence..."
My favorite photography accessory (lights, modifier, bag, tripod) is I love my L series lenses by Canon! My job requires me to be constantly on the move so I can't lug around a heavy load of gear. But I make sure to pack my prime lenses for this kind gig.
I’ve learned the most from... Philosophically speaking, passion, detail and greatness in any field helps me to learn the most. Passion for anything is inspiring and makes me curious about where that passion comes from and how it affects people. Details are the subtleties that often make the difference between good and great. And frankly, if you have a high level of passion and detail, it seems to often translate to greatness. So when I see greatness, I wonder what combination of both allowed them to achieve that greatness. On a tangible level, I often enjoy walking the halls of museums to view greatness on display. I like spending time dissecting the details and nuances of each piece to find what makes each of them so different and so special. But the same can be said for any great businessmen, athlete, architect or poet. I like to think that if I spend enough time around great, detail-oriented, passionate people, some of it might rub off on me as well!
Within the wedding photography industry, I've learned a great deal from veterans such as Mike Colón, Bob Davis, Yervant, Joe Bussink, [b]ecker, Skip Cohen, David Jay, Dane Sanders, plus more. All these guys have been instrumental and inspiration in my career path and I owe alot to them for setting an example and standard of how things should be in this industry.
If I could go anywhere in the world it would be_____ because…. Italy right now because that is where life and beauty is evident everywhere - in their culture, nature and in their history. It has changed the way I view my life so much that I am actually bringing a group of photographers with me in September (14-21) for a small workshop/tour.
My most-used Photoshop add-on, plugin, action set (etc) is I have been drifting away from using too many actions these days and have focused on creating a clean shot straight out of the camera. However, I still love to use actions by Yervant, Totally Rad & Kevin Kubota. I use these sparingly to enhance the moment. Lately I've been using this really cool tool/action call BlogStomp. It is a simple PS action that shaves ton of your time while preparing images for blogging by automatically resizing, sharpening, placing a watermark logo and saving it afterwards for web. It is such a simple but a genius idea in helping you shave some time off from blogging. Check them out!
I love the fact that Photoshop Has so many tools to help you create a work of art with your image. Possibilities are endless these days!
I hate the fact that Photoshop For the same reason above, I dislike the fact that sometimes I depend on it to alter the photos so much to create something in post-processing instead of practicing on creating that right moment.
If I could turn back the clock 10 years would have started in this career path earlier. But at the same time, I don't regret it because part of who I am is from the result of things that happened in my life during those 10 years - so part of who I am today is based on the past. :)
In 10 years I hope to still be shooting weddings but also be more involved in more personal / volunteer projects globally.
If I could give one piece of advice it would be Give it all. Don't let fear hold you back and do what ever it takes to follow your dream!
Kenny Kim has always been fascinated by the visual arts - and especially the connection between art & photography. His passion first led to the study of graphic design at the University of Illinois, where he also became a skilled web designer and eventually opened up his own design studio in 2003. It was during this period, he began to realize that the greatest outlet for his artistic expression and technical skills would be through his passion for photography.
Incorporating his own vision into the technical elements of photography, Kenny's goal with each photo he takes is to present each moment he captures with a subtle artistry that enhances the feel of the moment. With the launch of Kenny Kim Photography in 2006, Kenny's vision for a photographer's work instantly resonated with his audience and within a short period of time, Kenny Kim Photography has now grown into a nationally recognized studio. In just over 3 short years, Kenny has been commissioned for over 100 weddings in locations throughout the United States, Europe the Caribbean. He was also retained to shoot for the University of Illinois Menʼs Basketball, Football & Tennis teams along with various celebrity events featuring David Foster, Andrea Bocelli, John Legend, Three Doors Down, Katharine McPhee and many others.
Kenny currently resides in Chicago, Illinois. He is thankful everyday for the privilege to call his passion in life, his profession as well.
I finally got a chance to look through my photos from last Saturday's photowalk. I really didn't take as many as I expected - probably less than 150. In part because I decided to use only a fixed lens (50mm 1.2) which really was an interesting exercise: no zooming in and out, I had to really use my eyes and my feet to get the pic that I wanted.
My favorites of the day were taken in a very unusual "trinket" store (the first two) and the very last shot I took walking back to my car, looking into the window of a cigar store where they had this miniature cigar-making set-up.
No Photoshop other than Camera Raw and in the case of the jewellery, cloning over 2 distracting bright spots.
I highly recommend "forcing" yourself to use a fixed lens the next time you're out exploring and shooting. Really made me think more about the shots I was taking.
David Jay is the main man behind Showit, an amazing application for web site creation. After playing with Showit and creating a pretty sweet site in under an hour (see below), I had to find more. DJ was kind enough to answer these questions for me.
For those people unfamiliar with Showit, give us the nutshell version of what it is...... Showit is a website design application that allows users to take complete control of their Flash website, from concept to launch. It's a true drag and drop platform moving all the backend Flash techy stuff and turning it into basic functions the user can control in commonly understood forms. All a user has to do is place their photos, videos and slideshows anywhere on the page and hit publish and it's live on the web. It's essentially WYSIWYG for web design. :)
There's a free version and a pro version - what are the basic differences? The basic difference between the Free version and the Pro version is the depth of your site, and we also put a small message on the bottom of our free versions. There are some more specifics here - http://showitfast.com/#/showit-sites/. But almost all the cool features are included in the Free version because we want Showit to be known for all the great stuff we do offer (versus what we don't offer).
What prompted you to provide a free version? When I was 16 years old my dad sat me down and said, "David, if you truly make your business about helping other people you'll always have plenty of work." I believe that's been true in his business and mine and there are 100's of thousands of photographers (and other entrepreneurs) getting their businesses started and they have tons of expenses straight out of the gate. Hopefully this can help them and if it does I believe they'll stick with us as their business grows and upgrade to a Pro account.
That beings said, before we lauched version 2.0 it kinda felt like playing a big game of Russian Roulette. We were not sure how our customers would respond to a free version, or if a free version would make Showit seem like less of a premium solution. But we felt once people tried Showit they would like it better than a template because of the freedom and control it gives them...and getting them to try it had been difficult. Free eliminated a lot of the fears potential customers had and the amount of people creating accounts since we offered a free version has been mind boggling. And we are seeing some beautiful and very unique free website getting published, which is really exciting. Before launching the free version we averaged just under 400 "limited trial" accounts per month. Since we released the free version we've been averaging over 400 new free accounts per day!
We also wanted to was cause a little disruption. Our main competitors don't have a free offering and we felt price should not be the reason you can't create a beautiful and functional website.
But to clarify, the free version is really FREE? What's the catch? There's really no catch. I mentioned above that we want to get people in the door. A very safe door. Free from commitments. Free from payments. Free from feeling stuck with a standardized template. We want to give them freedom to control and create a unique web presence.
Another thing to point out is that free to the end user doesn't mean there is no revenue for us...it actually opens up several new possibilities for revenue that weren't available before. One of my favorite authors is Tim Sanders and he said, "Your network is your networth" and by offering Showit for free we greatly expand our network.
The free version comes with some built-in styles - tell us a little about those and how they work Showit comes with tons of free stuff including royalty free music, free graphics and the free Styles are essentially complete web designs created by professional designers so photographers don't have to start from scratch. These can be added and changed anytime and they are a great way to dive in and get a website up fast. Simply select one and swap out the pictures and text with yours, move some things around to give it the look and feel you want and then hit publish and you're live on the web.
Some people are reluctant to use Flash-based web sites because they worry about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). How have you addressed that? And what about viewing sites on iPhones? This is a great question and we are proud to offer the best SEO available as well as an iPhone viewable version (thanks to our group of awesome developers). There are several things we do to make our sites crawlable by the search engines. First, we automatically create an HTML page that is hidden behind the Flash page so when the search engine hits your website it can read all the content on that page. Each page is also "deep linkable" meaning that the search engines (and customers) can link directly to any page on your site. This is fantastic because search engines are wanting to deliver relevant content. In the world of SEO these features really set us apart from many of other other applications allowing the ability to create a Flash website.
How we publish the HTML page also allows each page to be *somewhat* viewable on an iPhone. Apple and Adobe haven't shaken hands yet so our hands our tied because Flash isn't available on the iPhone, but we have the ability to display snapshots of the page and then offer links below the snapshots so people can navigate your site from their iPhone...it's just not as pretty as viewing it through a web browser.
Showit seems very intuitive, but where can people turn if they need help? This is a big focus for us right now because there is a learning curve to use an app like this so we are really prioritizing building a community of Showit users and have built that right into the application itself. It's called Club Showit and every time you launch Showit you'll see a splash screen that includes featured websites, the latest conversations happening in the Club and other cool stuff. Our entire team is active in the Club and it's also a place where our users can help each other.
What about people who use services like SmugMug - can they take advantage of both Showit and SmugMug? Absolutely! We feel that Showit and SmugMug are a great combination for a photographer. We've made it very easy to link directly to SmugMug and place photos and videos directly from your SmugMug account into your Showit website. We plan on making that integration every better in the future.
Is there any way to hook into social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook? You bet! This is another brand new feature in version 2.0. It's a called our "Share" feature. We created a way for users to tweet about their website content directly inside of Showit and they can also share content on Facebook, instantly create and embed a blog post on blogger or use the embed code and place their content in any number of other places using a simple copy/paste.
Finally, what do you see in the future for Showit? This is definitely the toughest question! :) As for a roadmap - we are putting a lot of effort into displaying things in cooler and more unique ways. Version 1.0 was kind of a down and dirty get-it-done tool but now with version 2.0 we are able to add in many more widgets that allow for photographers and other entrepreneurs to market themselves in new and fun ways.
... Things change so quickly in technology so it's hard to say much more than that but a big focus of mine has always been to help people create more freedom in their life and to find more fulfillment in what they do. This is one of the main reasons we are building a community around Showit users. The first online community I started was http://OpenSourcePhoto.com and I've seen so many lives changed through the open sharing of information and the willingness to help one another. Inside of that "OSP" community over 11,000 photographers are now working together and viewing each other as colleagues instead of competition...and these communities provide a wonderful place for us to listen and understand what photographers need currently and in the future.
Thanks for all you do and share. I know many lives are changed by all the sharing that you do! I've already been receiving emails from people as far away as Russia who read about Showit through your blog and twitter feed. ------------------ For more information: http://davidjay.com http://showitfast.com
"It's time once again to ask a well-known photographer, instructor or otherwise interesting person the same 10 questions and ask them to Finish the Sentence! This time, the sentences are finished by.... Matt Adcock.
Matt, please Finish the Sentence..."
My favorite photography accessory (lights, modifier, bag, tripod) is Lately, I really love our FXtra, by lumiquest. This little Gel holder makes for a quick and dirty organized effort to the creative lighting approach. Also, the old faithful Nikon Sb-28 is a cheap off camera strobe (about $100) that you can find used and abundant. Since we love to throw cameras or flashes in the water The ST-E2 is also handy for focusing in Low light. Lastly, we wouldnt be where we are today without the use of our trusty Pocket Wizards.
I’ve learned the most from... studying up on my competition and actually becoming friends with my competition. I've learned the most by listening and listening often. Also, i'm not afraid to experiment at any wedding. Its been said in the past that you should never experiment at the expense of your client and I couldn't disagree more. There is nothing more exciting to pull out a few tricks or techniques that you have never tried before.... For wedding photographers, the reception is the perfect place for this! Remember though, mimicry isnt flattery! Be sure to throw your own creative twist into the mix.
If I could go anywhere in the world it would be_____ because…. New Zealand because I am in love with Lord of the Rings....besides, who doesnt want to go there. But, I will leave that question open to "I will go anywhere in the world my wife wants to go" We really want to travel to "far" out places as she likes to say often. ALthough we have yet to get very far, we do have big plans, for sure! I also love Costa Rica and would LOVE LOVE to go back there because even though this country is TINY, it has so much to offer. Here is some amateur video I shot there last year:
My most-used Photoshop add-on, plugin, action set (etc) is We really love Viveza mucho.... also, i've been using Kevin Kubota actions for some time now. It seems we always enjoy making new actions by combining and tweaking and making our own adjustments. I'm currently mixing and making new stuff happen weekly actually. We have written a handful of actions that combines and mixes
I love the fact that Photoshop Is the beef and potatoes behind getting the final imagery to our clients. Seriously, we love editing in LR and we love editing even more with PS. I think sometimes, I would rather touch the image in PS than in LR as I'm always remembering an action that I use or a technique that will get me where I want to go, and PS is the only way to get there. I do know that our studio images benefit from the use of PS and we wouldnt be where we are today without it.
I hate the fact that Photoshop keeps changing things faster than I can learn them and that my images sometimes get stuck behind the top of the frame of photoshops menu bar, and I need to hit TAB key to close or move the image. Also, I liked the old school tool bar but when images open, they open behind the old school toolbar, and that somehow annoys me. I got used to the new toolbar now :) In addition, LR & PS both allow easy batch processing if you want to add multiple FX or actions to a set of images. I have found this very helpful in some of our stop motion editing. You can find a few recent examples here:
If I could turn back the clock 10 years I'd buy a digital camera and likely studio more photojournalism. I would have learned how to dive way way sooner and taken up underwater photography. Oh, I wish I new anything about video and codecs and editing on Final Cut. For sure, this type of training would have boooooosted me into a much higher position today. In 10 years I'm going to be retired on the beach sipping margaritas... wait, I do that already... I just need to work on the stop working part. HA HA, joking aside and please don't hate me. Actually, we are building a business model here that will hopefully be paying for my retirement in the future, no doubt. My plan is to have more time to do the work that I like to do vs the work that the clients like me to do.
If I could give one piece of advice it would be Keep your vendors super high on the priority list of people to please. If you start to become so busy that you can't keep up its important that you actually do pinch yourself to say "hey, I can't keep up". Immediately, re evaluate why this is happening and have a round table with yourself, wife, or business partners, colleagues, whoever, and come up with a plan to make things better. You never know what can come of these meetings. I also would like to recommend Kelby Online-Training to anybody out there who is studying techniques and trying to get better. We have trained one of our editing specialists with the tutorials there.
Your readers can find out more about me del Sol photography blog: www.delsolphotography.com/blog (a work in progress). Here you can follow our recent work and tag along on our most recent adventures. Also, a flash photography blog (www.flashflavor.com) geared toward help photographers with their approach to using creative off camera flash lighting techniques. We also take readers photos into consideration for publication and love to discuss anything related to creative wedding photography lighting. I currently am not sponsored or paid to give away my techniques, I just do it out of the goodness in my heart.... what is wrong with me?
Ladies & Gentlemen, let's hear it for Matt Adcock!!
del Sol Photography is actually a team effort Matt Adcock : owner / principal Photographer Sol Tamargo: owner / Principal Photographer Vincent Guihard : Associate Photographer Melissa Mercado : Studio Manager Rodrigo Sanders : Photoshop & Lightroom Specialist Cathi Milanes: Post Production Manager
Every now and then I see a tutorial that recommends using the Pen tool as a means of selecting something in Photoshop. I've always suggested to use whatever tool works best for you, but in a couple of the examples I saw, I found myself asking "why on earth are they using the Pen tool?" Also in many seminars people come and tell me that they had heard that the Pen tool creates "better" or "more accurate" selections. Not necessarily.
One of the the advantages of using the Pen tool is the ability to "tweak" the results using the anchor points on the path that's created with the Pen. Does that mean you'll get a better selection? Perhaps, but not always. As other selection tools and techniques have gotten better I find myself using the Pen tool less and less for selections.
Here's an example. I wanted to select the chef in this photo to put him on a different background. Original photo:
First attempt: Quick Selection tool, Auto-Enhance turned off. Approximately 9 seconds Second attempt: Quick Selection tool, Auto-Enhance turned on. Approximately 12 seconds Third attempt: Pen tool, creating and tweaking the path. Approximately 3 minutes When I compare all three (shown above a green layer for better look at the edges) I'm pretty darn happy with the edges created by the Quick Selection tool with Auto-Enhance turned on. A couple of the edges of the Pen-based selection look a little crisper, but remember we're comparing that to the Quick Selection tool with no tweaking. If I'd spent another minute or so I could have created an even better edge.
So is the Quick Selection tool just as good a selection tool as the Pen tool? Very often, I'd say yes it is. If nothing else, I can create a selection that's very close to what I want with the Quick Selection tool and then tweak it - still in less time than it takes with the Pen tool. (This assumes that there is a pretty good separation between the colors and what you're trying to select and the surrounding background areas. If everything is the same color, then the Pen tool can certainly come in handy)
And remember, you've gotta think about the end result too. If the reason I'm extracting the chef is to use in a small banner ad like this why would I spend all that time with the Pen tool when it looks just perfect at this size using the Quick Selection tool?
Do I use the Pen tool? Definitely - as a tool to create beautiful curves that I fill with a color, there nothing better. As a designer it's one of the best creation tools in Photoshop. Would I recommend to a beginner that they should learn the Pen tool as a selection tool? Hmmmm, probably not.
So if you're a pro at using the Pen tool, keep at it. I just worry that many people continue to use the Pen tool as a selection tool because they assume that it's still the best tool for the job - and I don't think that's true any more. So, just for fun, try the Quick Selection tool and see if you don't start liking this tool, at least for some selection work.
If you don't currently use the Pen tool to make selections I would suggest that you shouldn't worry about that too much. As long as you're happy with the results of other selection methods, stick with those. If on the other hand, you want to learn more about using the Pen tool as a creative drawing tool, yes - watch some of the helpful Pen tool tutorials out there and start playing with anchor points!
But in my opinion, as a selection tool the Pen tool is not as important as it once was.
"It's time once again to ask a well-known photographer, instructor or otherwise interesting person the same 10 questions and ask them to Finish the Sentence! This time, the sentences are finished by.... David duChemin.
David, please Finish the Sentence..."
My favorite photography accessory (lights, modifier, bag, tripod) is probably my Hoodman Screen Loupe, it’s a must when shooting on location in Africa but also makes me feel very Francis Ford Coppola-esque. If lenses count as accessories then mark me down as an unrepentant 85/1.2L user/lover. Man, I love that lens.
I’ve learned the most from... screwing up without hesitation over and over again; taking risks and learning from both the successes and outright failures is what keeps it fun and keeps me learning.
If I could go anywhere in the world it would be_____ because…. home to Vancouver, because I spend so much time everywhere else; but if that’s not exotic enough I’ll go with Lalibela, Ethiopia because I was there for Orthodox Christmas as few years ago and just couldn’t get enough of it.
My most-used Photoshop add-on, plugin, action set (etc) is ightroom; does that count? I find myself using Photoshop less and less these days but Fred Miranda’s Black and White conversion presets are excellent.
I love the fact that Photoshop allows us to bring my photographs more into alignment with my vision.
I hate the fact that Photoshop doesn’t have a warning dialogue box that tells people, “Enough, stop screwing around with this image; it’s not fixable so shut the computer and go get better at your photography.”
If I could turn back the clock 10 years I’d pay more attention to the lessons I was learning from the mistakes I was making, but I’d probably still make the same mistakes.
In 10 years I’ll be one of the older guys bitching about the new technology and how holograms “aren’t really photography”
If I could give one piece of advice it would be o nurture your creative self as much as you do the technical side; an artist with all the technical proficiency in the world and nothing to say is a sad thing.
Your readers can find out more about me by buying several copies of my book, Within The Frame, The Journey of Photographic Vision. If one copy is good, several copies is awesome. I also blog relentlessly at PixelatedImage.com/blog
Ladies & Gentlemen, let's hear it for David duChemin!!
David duChemin is an international assignment photographer specializing in world and humanitarian photography. His primary work is on behalf of international development organizations like World Vision or Save the Children. When not shooting David makes his home in Vancouver, Canada and spend his days writing and moving from one coffee shop or sushi joint to another. His first book, Within The Frame, was released in May. David’s portfolio can be seen at PixelatedImage.com
"It's time once again to ask a well-known photographer, instructor or otherwise interesting person the same 10 questions and ask them to Finish the Sentence! In this special holiday edition, the sentences are finished by.... Deke McClelland.
Deke, please Finish the Sentence..."
My favorite photography accessory (lights, modifier, bag, tripod) is an extra battery with a full charge on.
I’ve learned the most from... listening to my students.
If I could go anywhere in the world it would be_____ because…. exactly where I am (Boulder, CO) 150 million years ago, because I’d get to hang out with my big old super-terrifying dinosaurs buddies. So much catching up to do!
My most-used Photoshop add-on, plugin, action set (etc) is the Macintosh operating system. I’ve always found it to be a really nifty Photoshop helper.
I love the fact that Photoshop has a deep blue icon.
I hate the fact that Photoshop still hasn’t learn to talk.
If I could turn back the clock 10 years I’d get back an entire decade of my life! Can you just imagine? That would rock. (Is this actually an option? Are you magical?!)
In 10 years I will learn how to fly. You know, with my arms.
If I could give one piece of advice it would be give love more, take love less. I know, I got all serious there . But it’s the secret of life, so I thought I really ought to pass it along.
Your readers can find out more about me at their local bookstore. Unless they have this diabolical thing called the Internet, in which case: deke.com.
Ladies & Gentlemen, let's hear it for Deke McClelland!!
Deke McClelland is an internationally renowned instructor and popular lecturer with an emphasis on Photoshop and the wider realm of digital imaging and computer graphics. He hosts the in-box videos that ship with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS4, as well as most previous versions throughout this decade. His top-ranking “One-on-One” training series on lynda.com has established him as the #1 Photoshop video trainer in the world. Deke also created the bestselling One-on-One book series, published by Deke Press and O’Reilly Media. His body of work includes over 80 books and hundreds of hours of video training, which have garnered over 30 awards, including seven Computer Press Awards and nine video industry honors.
In 2008 Deke launched dekeOnline, a website dedicated to the worlds of graphics and imaging that explores new developments and provides expert tips, insights, and support. dekeOnline hosts two free media products, the irreverent “dekePod” video series and the audio-only, lounge-flavored “Martini Hour.” Deke’s energetic and distinctly personal training style continues to expand his customer base of creative professionals worldwide, with more than 10,000 dekeOnline members in the first year.
Author of Photoshop Finishing Touches, Photoshop CS2 Help Desk Book, co-Author of Illustrator CS2 Killer Tips. Speaker, Trainer, writer for Photoshop User magazine. Featured on a number of training DVDs and one of the "Photoshop Guys" on Photoshop User TV. Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor, Photoshop CS4. Passionate about photography! 2009 Inductee into Photoshop Hall of Fame.
