Better Light Educational Resources – One-Day Class Series

Make your trip to the Conference even more valuable with the addition of one or both of our optional one-day classes.

Have you been disappointed with your capture results? Are you spending too much time in Photoshop "fixing" your files? Do you struggle with lighting unique artwork pieces? Have you ever wondered if you are really doing things the best way? Or...are there any new "tricks" that you don't know about?

That is exactly why we have started offering classes at Better Light. In small, topic-specific classes we are able to share everything from fundamentals to "tricks" to help you work smarter, faster and more efficiently.

Don't miss this opportunity...We are offering three half-day classes on Wednesday before the Conference and Mike Collette and Randy Hufford will be teaching full-day classes on Saturday after the Conference.

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The class will include a detailed review of scanning procedures, photographic principles, light balancing with ToneZones™, and an insider’s review of ViewFinder™ software. (Profile-making will be presented as part of the Owners Conference programming). This session can be valuable for experienced users as well as a solid foundation for new scanning back users. Workflow discussions will be modified to the interests of the students.

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Wednesday, June 1: 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Registration fee: $99
Lighting Techniques for Large Format Scanning (4 hours)
Presented by Ben Blackwell / Ben Blackwell Photography; partner Archetype Digital Imaging Alliance
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Ben Blackwell has spent his entire photographic career photographing art for museums, libraries, galleries and artists. “You would think by now, I would know exactly how to light any type of artwork”, Ben stated, “But every piece and every situation has some unique character that just cannot be fit into a standard procedure”.

The most important thing is to be able to “see light” and Ben has always had a great respect for the late Dean Collins, a talented photographer and popular educator, who summarized the concepts of lighting in a program called “3-Dimensional Contrast”.

"It doesn’t matter what you use for the light source as much as seeing what it does to your subject and understanding what can be done to achieve the results you are looking for,” Ben explained. Any type of light source, ambient light, diffusers, reflectors, and multiple exposures are all tools available to the photographer to accomplish the task at hand.

He will reinforce these concepts by showing a wide variety of art that he has had to photograph – all sizes, many types of media, and under all types of obstacles on location or in the studio. Several lighting techniques will be demonstrated for troublesome subjects such as metallics, heavy texture, or framed works.

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Wednesday, June 1: 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Registration fee: $99
Lightroom™ at the Hub of Your Digital Workflow (4 hours)
Presented by Randy Hufford, M.Photog.CR; PPA Certified / Limited Editions Maui
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Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom™ is the key to what industry experts are calling the “new digital workflow.” Now you can learn exactly how to get started, and see how Photoshop Lightroom can help you achieve the quickest, easiest workflow imaginable!

Better Light owner Randy Hufford, Master Photographer and director of the Institute of Visual Arts Maui, walks you through the basic process – from start to finish – and shows you how to get the best possible images in record time. Randy has taught thousands of people worldwide how to achieve the “new digital workflow,” and now he's offering this personalized training workshop as an extension of our Owners Conference.

The information will apply to Better Light images as well as your DSLR images. From Import to Print, you'll learn what to do, and in what order you should to do it. No hassle, no fuss…just the tips and techniques. These four hours of instruction will save you hundreds of hours of frustration later. Class size is limited so reserve your spot now.

Saturday, June 4, 2011
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Saturday, June 4: 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. Registration fee: $195
Advanced Image Processing
Presented by Mike Collette, Photographer and President ofBetter Light, Inc.
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(Tentative Outline) This one-day seminar is a continuation of Mike's "wide dynamic range" capture and procesing class taught last year. He will explore a novel approach to making good looking photographic prints of high-contrast scenes that are often encountered outdoors. While various methods can be used to capture all of the information in such scenes, rendering an attractive, natural-looking photographic print with this information is less well understood.

Mike Collette describes his evolving capture and processing technique that expands upon the time-honored principles of respected black and white photographers to yield outstanding results in full color. A completely digital workflow facilitates nonlinear compression and selective expansion of dynamic range, as well as complete control over color and contrast. The generation and use of masked adjustment layers in Adobe Photoshop will be discussed in detail, and several example images will be examined to see how this technique can be applied.

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Saturday, June 4: 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Registration fee: $195
Fine Art Photographers & Printmakers' Workshop
Presented by Digital Master Printer Randy Hufford, M.Photog.CR; PPA Certified / Limited Editions Maui
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Spend a day with commercial photographer, custom photo lab owner, and art reproduction specialist, Randy Hufford from Maui, Hawaii. Randy has presented numerous trade convention programs and seminars all over the country. He has worked closely with Epson, Canon, Better Light, Eizo, X-Rite, and other manufacturers in the high-end capture and giclée reproduction field.

This seminar will cover a wide range of topics, high-tech solutions and cool tools to save you time, build a competitive advantage and improve the quality of your work regardless of your specialty — the information will apply to commercial shooters and art reproduction specialists as well as fine art photographers.

It will be a fast-paced day full of new ideas and products to improve your creativity, productivity and profitability. You will learn why having your own printer makes you a better photographer/artist and ways to increase your marketing exposure, promote fine art sales and enhance your reputation as a professional imagemaker.

Half-day classes are $99 each. Includes coffee breaks and a box lunch at the noon break between sessions.

Full-day classes are at a special price of $195 per person, per class saving $100 off of the regular prices of $295. Coffee breaks and lunch are included in the price. Sessions begin at 9:00 a.m. and will be finished by 5:00 p.m. The sessions will be held at the Better Light offices in San Carlos, California (on the San Francisco Peninsula). Classes will be held regardless of attendance, so you can make plans without the fear of cancellation.

Join us for one or more of the optional classes to improve your skills and learn ways to optimize your workflow. Classes are small so you get plenty of individual attention. Attend just one class, or several.

REGISTRATION FORM IS NOW AVAILABLE ON-LINE

Below are preliminary outlines for each of the classes:

Wednesday, June 1, 2011
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Wednesday, June 1: 8:00 a.m. to Noon Registration fee: $99
Best Practices for Large Format Scanning (4 hours)
Presented by Larry Guyer, M.Photog.Cr. / Managing Partner, Archetype Digital Imaging Alliance
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Most owners have had little or no training on the optimal use of the scanning back. Trial and error, hand-me-down instructions, and other bad habits have compromised the quality of the images for many scanning back users. If you are less than satisfied with the results of your scanning then this class is for you. The class will include a detailed review of scanning procedures, photographic principles, light balancing with ToneZones™, and an insider’s review of ViewFinder™ software. (Profile-making will be presented as part of the Owners Conference programming). This session can be valuable for experienced users as well as a solid foundation for new scanning back users. Workflow discussions will be modified to the interests of the students.

SEMINAR OUTLINE:

• The physics and math of photography
• Scanning workflow with ViewFinder
• Neutral balance & optimizing exposure
• Importance of the camera profile
• Contrast control with tone curves
• Optimizing image sharpness
• Digital focus tool
• SuperView full-res previews
• Unsharp masking
• Understanding the File Manager
• Troubleshooting scanning problems

SEMINAR OUTLINE:

• How to “SEE” Light — “A natural way to light”
• Defining the subject with light - Put a light on it…see what it does.
• Zig-aligning for critical alignment
• Setting your lighting properly with ToneZones™
• Using Equalight™ for "perfect" lighting
• Lighting art with frames
• Flare vs. Glare
• Polarization – pluses and minuses
• Lighting for enhanced texture
• Lighting for gold and metallics
• Camera positioning for batch photography
• Multiple sectional scans and stitching for higher resolution files
• Glossy surfaces with textures (that defy polarization)

SEMINAR OUTLINE:

• Hard drive configuration for laptop, desktop & externals
• Setting up folders, importing images & renaming files
• The importance of key words & how to add them
• Tips for quickly finding keeper images and deleting rejects
• Using Better Light’s DNG format with Lightroom
• How to get stunning and vibrant color from your photos
• The best ways to tone your photos
• Techniques for processing multiple photos at once
• Slideshow & Web modules for presentations and galleries
• How Lightroom integrates with Photoshop
• Learn Randy’s Tips for great output from the Print module.

What to bring:
Notebook and pen
Laptop (Optional) with Lightroom 3 loaded
(Free Trial version available online for 30 days)

Saturday, June 4, 2011
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Saturday, June 4: 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Registration fee: $195
Advanced Image Processing
Presented by Mike Collette, Photographer and President ofBetter Light, Inc.
***************************************
(Tentative Outline) This one-day seminar is a continuation of Mike's "wide dynamic range" capture and procesing class taught last year. He will explore a novel approach to making good looking photographic prints of high-contrast scenes that are often encountered outdoors. While various methods can be used to capture all of the information in such scenes, rendering an attractive, natural-looking photographic print with this information is less well understood.

Mike Collette describes his evolving capture and processing technique that expands upon the time-honored principles of respected black and white photographers to yield outstanding results in full color. A completely digital workflow facilitates nonlinear compression and selective expansion of dynamic range, as well as complete control over color and contrast. The generation and use of masked adjustment layers in Adobe Photoshop will be discussed in detail, and several example images will be examined to see how this technique can be applied.

SEMINAR OUTLINE

• Technical challenges explained
• Esthetic challenges discussed
• A unique approach using nonlinear compression and expansion
• Optimizing capture dynamic range
• Using the ten-stop S curve
• Post-capture processing
• Restoring local contrast while reducing overall contrast
• The importance of masking
• Several before/after example images explained

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Saturday, June 4: 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Registration fee: $195
Fine Art Photographers & Printmakers' Workshop
Presented by Digital Master Printer Randy Hufford, M.Photog.CR; PPA Certified / Limited Editions Maui
***************************************
Spend a day with commercial photographer, custom photo lab owner, and art reproduction specialist, Randy Hufford from Maui, Hawaii. Randy has presented numerous trade convention programs and seminars all over the country. He has worked closely with Epson, Canon, Better Light, Eizo, X-Rite, and other manufacturers in the high-end capture and giclée reproduction field.

SEMINAR OUTLINE: "A fun class with lots of demos"

CREATIVITY:
• Getting excited and motivated to create images
• Criteria to choose images with the best sales potential
• Image enhancements to improve impact, WOW factor & the price
• Selecting the best media for the photograph

IMAGE PRESENTATION & SALES:
• Marketing and sellig your printing services
• FramePro software to build sales and profits
• Finishing solutions to increase perceived value for fine art prints
- Hand tearing fine art prints, gallery wraps, preservation framing, etc.
• Framing services as extra profit center
• Setting up a limited edition & certificates of authenticity
• Using all sales channels online, galleries, retail, and commercial
• Negotiating with galleries and other venues
• Specialty Soft app helps manage the business

PORTFOLIO – YOUR BEST SALESMAN:
• Setting yourself apart from the competition
• Why is a portfolio so valuable?
• Presentation ideas for your portfolio
• How your portfolio can increase your client base
• Getting images & services in front of qualified buyers
• How to get names of fine art photography collectors

REGISTRATION FORM IS NOW AVAILABLE ON-LINE

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