Photoshop - Oh My

Several weeks ago I had the great good fortune to take a photoshop workshop at Art Wolfe’s studio. Taught by Rick Holt with assistance by Keron Psillas it was an amazing experience. I learned more in four days than I ever dreamed possible. And while I may not know everything there is to know about photoshop, I do know enough to do some pretty amazing things. Better than that, I’m not afraid of it anymore. As part of the workshop we had access to some terrific printers and everyone took something they were proud of away with them. Here’s a very small version of my print.

It’s an image of Harbor Island with West Seattle dotting the background. I made the panorama from three images shot from the balcony of our condo. This miniature is only suggestive of the detail in the final 9"x33" version. Just to give you some idea of what is lost in going from the image I printed to what you see here, the file size for the printed image is 45.7MB. The file size of this image is 619KB. So, what you are seeing is about 1% of the final print. Still, I had to try to share. And going from capture to print in such a dramatic way made me believe.

One of the nice things about a workshop like this (four days x10 hours/day) is that the total immersion really makes you focus on what you are trying to learn. Additionally, the workshop attracts other photographers who are also interested in improving the quality of their images. I learned so much from these dedicated and interesting colleagues. The experience was difficult, exhausting, and exhilarating. When can I do it again?