Professional Resources for Photographers

Hello fellow inLIGHTin’ed Ones!

Long time no see. How has everyone been lately?

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am always thinking and brainstorming… For example, I should be editing a wedding right now. Instead, I have finally came up with where I want to direct my inLIGHTin Workshops. Before I get going, these are all good things! I am in no way, shape or form stopping these workshops so you can let out that sigh of relief now haha ;P

Now in my head I always seen a ‘loop-hole’ in my workshops so to speak… I basically held up a sign that said, “come to me if you want to know anything and everything about photography…” That was ideally what my one-on-one workshops did. You came to me with what you wanted to learn and I taught it. However, in my 5 year plan, I planned on doing more speaking engagements, group workshops and team learning (both locally and on a national level)… How can I get to that point when I only affect one photographer at a time? Also, do I want to be known as the guy who is like the Bob Villa of photography or do I want to be known for being an expert in my strengths and passions? Why give you an overall general knowledge base of things when I can hone into the nitty gritty and provide you with more concentrated content. These are the questions that I have been racking my brain on and here is my answer!

I have a new direction for the inLIGHTin Workshops which will be effective immediately:
All future inLIGHTin Workshops will be conducted in a group environment and the topics of these workshops are now divided into four categories: Lighting, Post-Processing/Workflow, Photography 101 and Nature/Landscape Photography. These are the disciplines that I am most passionate about and love to teach. My lighting workshops cater to my passion for portrait photography. The nature/landscape workshops combine my love for traveling, sight seeing and fine art landscapes. Post-processing and workflow lets out the inner geek in myself and the photography 101 courses will be my way of giving back to the industry. We all started off somewhere so these Photography 101 workshops will get my students more comfortable with their cameras and hopefully help them to acquire a new found love and passion for photography.

Take a look at the following link for more information on what these workshops entail: http://www.inlightinworkshop.com/about/

I will most definitely still offer one-on-one workshops but they will come at a premium and on a more limited basis. Please contact me at Mike(at)inLIGHTinWorkshop dot com for more information.

I also hope to start taping these workshops and am looking to partner up with a videographer to help this vision become a reality. If you miss the workshop then you can always have access to it via these videos.

All in all, I have big, big plans for The inLIGHTin Workshop and I thank you for being on-board! If you are interested in hosting an inLIGHTin Workshop in your neck of the woods then please email me at Mike(at)inLIGHTinWorkshop dot com .

These workshops have always and will still be 110% about YOU. Therefore, I would love to hear your thoughts and comments so please comment on the blog below and let me know your feedback.

Thanks for reading and for all your support!
Michael

I find myself loving textures. It is special to me because I can take a photo and “finish” the image with my computer by adding various textures and elements to it until I can create what I envisioned in my head. Working with textures requires some good knowledge of Photoshop, Layers and Layer Blending Modes in order for you to make the most of them. Simply find a cool image that has nice color and textures to it, drop it on top of your image, switch between Overlay, Soft Light or Hard Light in the Layer’s Blending Mode and then work the Opacity or Fill percentage until it is where you want it. You can also use the Eraser tool in moderation to remove the texture from showing up on your subject because it can be quite distracting and can make the subject’s skin not look too hot. The cool thing is that you can use it however you want and you can be free to experiment.

Here is a quick video on it:

And this is the quick sample of that image that I threw together in a couple minutes. I normally take more time with these images and really fine tune them but this is good to give you a quick sample of how your images can look:

Here is a nice little YouTube video that I made showing a nice way to use Lightroom’s Brush tool to dodge some shadows in your high key portrait. This is great if you are using a wrinkled white backdrop or sheet and don’t have the light power to completely blow out your background. Take a look:

Enjoy!

I was pretty lucky that the stars aligned fairly well for while in California. I came back with a lot of great images that I obviously couldn’t have gotten here in Buffalo. Not too many cacti or mountains around here ;P

I am still going through images from the trip and it inspired me to write this little article here.

So many people focus on camera equipment and computer software but forget that great images simply require you to do your time.
What I mean by this is that the stars essentially have to align with you being there right smack dab in the middle of it all. Sometimes, you being there is fate. There is no easy way to call it anything else. It is just you and the shot right there at the right time. I have seen many powerful images through my various workshops and speaking engagements. These images were taken by self-proclaimed “amateur” photographers. They were at the right place at the right time and snap, they captured it beautifully. However, these powerful images in their portfolio were few and far in-between. It is my goal in this article for you to capture more of those powerful photographs time after time.

I think that Louis Pasteur nailed it best when he said: “Chance favors the prepared mind.”
I have been hanging on this quote ever since I heard Ansel Adams say it. He was no slouch when it came to inspiration quotes either. Here are some of my favorites:

“Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter”

“A photograph is not an accident- It is a concept.”

“The ‘machine-gun’ approach to photography – by which many negatives are made with the hope that one will be good – is fatal to serious results.”

“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop”

All of these quotes hold great value to me. How many times do we find ourselves guilty of “machine gun” shooting? I know I am an offender at times. How many times do we put together our portfolio together with quantity in mind and not quality? A portfolio is only as strong as its weakest print. Remember that.

So back to the topic at hand, doing time. For me, taking the time out to research and study what I am about to photograph. If I will be photographing someplace local, I will go to the site and scout out the area. This image is a result of one such scouting trip:

Many of you will really like that image however, it is not available for sale on my fine art site. You may see it as “The Shot” but I see it as a learning experience and knowing when to come back to that area for what will be “The Shot” in my mind. I see the house in the upper-left of the screen, I see dead trees, lame colors and a ton of other nuances. The only thing I really do like is the yin yang characteristics between the left and right sides of the frame. One one side you actually have color and the other is pretty much devoid of it.

This photo is a tighter crop of the panorama and would be more sufficient but still isn’t quite there because of those darned trees.

Now I mentioned that I learned something while on this scouting adventure. I learned that I missed the season by a month or so. Now I know that early to mid-Fall will be the time to re-visit the falls. The fuller trees will block that house, the colors will be more vibrant and that should be just what the doctor ordered.

This next photograph happened to be me being there at the right moment. My camera gear was out and equipped and I sat around and waited patiently until this hummingbird made his appearance. My camera settings were right and all I had to do was press the shutter… Okay press the shutter a couple times ;)

It isn’t always easy for the amateur photographer to dedicate this much time to their hobby. Sure they have a nice camera but the 9-5 job, family and other factors can easilly make it so one cannot always get out to take pictures. This means that the few times they actually can get out to shoot might not be the ‘right’ day. The light may be horrible, their may be no cloud cover, the seasons may not be right or it could be a slew of other reasons.

So just remember “Chance favors the prepared mind” so just sit down and do your research then you will have much more eventful shoots.

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If you are an IPhone or IPod Touch user then I would suggest adding the following Applications to help you be ready:

1.) PhotoCalc ($2.99)
2.) Darkness – Sun, Moon, Clock + More ($1.99)
3.) more to be updated as I find them or as they become available…