I Love The Photos Too
I actually love the photos from that workshop. And I’d love to put them in my portfolio, but I have a very specific reason why I didn’t. And it could totally just be me – I recognize that. But to me, although I may own the copyright to those photos because I’m the one who pressed the shutter, I don’t feel like those photos are really mine. I mean, Moose set up the workshop. He hired the pilots, planes, coordinated everything and simply placed me into a spot to get great photos. I don’t feel like those photos are representative of something that is mine. Some one simply placed me into a position and basically said press the shutter. It wasn’t quite that easy, but it wasn’t much harder either. And if some one hired me to produce something similar I wouldn’t be able to because I don’t have the contacts, nor know the logistics in producing such a photo.

Or let’s say you go to a wedding photography workshop where some one hired professional models (who already know how to pose themselves), picked a great location at a really fancy hotel or church, and set up lighting for you to step in a take a photo that 20 other photographers are taking next to you. Is that representative of something you could produce? If some one hired this person to shoot their wedding, would they be able to reproduce photos like this? I guess only the photographer really knows if they could set up the lights, pose the couple and pick great locations like the leader of their workshop did.

One more example. I’ve seen people post photos in their portfolio, from the live shoots that Westcott has at Photoshop World (using the constant lights so nobody needs triggers for flash). Heck, I’ve even seen people win awards at photo contests using those photos. Here’s an example of a Photoshop composite that I created using one of these setups.

These shoots are already pre-lit, pre-planned, pre-stylized, and basically pre-everything. Don’t get me wrong. They’re fun and it’s always interesting to see what you can get from those shoots. But I never quite think they belong in people’s portfolios because they’re not representative of what that person can shoot. If some one hired them to produce something similar, they may not be able to because some one else set the entire thing up.

So What About Landscapes?
Here’s where it gets interesting. What about landscape workshops? I mean, you can go to Moab for example, and look on a map of all the photo spots that some one else has found and go there too (with a workshop or alone). Do those photos belong in your portfolio? It’s definitely a gray area. To me, composing the landscape is one of the hard parts. Figuring out what to put in the foreground, what lens to use, what to focus on, f-stops, exposure, etc… So it’s not just about location, it’s about much more. Trust me, I’ve been to many landscape workshops and seen people walk away from the same location with drastically different photos. But everyone in my air-to-air workshop or the Photoshop World pre-lit shoots I just mentioned have photos that look nearly identical.

But with the air-to-air workshop, I think the leg-work ahead of time is one of the hardest parts. For the pre-planned photo shoots I spoke about at Photoshop World, I think the lighting, stylizing, posing, and overall ideas of the characters they use are the hardest part. That’s where the creativity comes in. When you have a guy that looks like the samurai above, it’s hard to mess it up. But when you’re standing in front of, say, Mesa Arch in Canyonlands NP, I think it’s easy to mess it up.

A Gray Area
Anyway, I thought the original question I was asked about the air-to-air workshop photos raised a good point. It’s definitely a gray area, and I’m not sure there’s a right answer. In fact I’m sure there’s not and mine is only one opinion here. I think it’s a very personal choice and different for everyone. For me, going back to the original question I was asked, putting those air-to-air photos in my portfolio isn’t something I would personally do. But after all, it is my portfolio and my choice and I’m sure what some one else decides to do could be very different.

How about you? What would you do? Thoughts? Comments?

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a good one!

Me being a big Lightroom guy, and the attention-grabbing-ness of Trey’s headline, I couldn’t let the post go unanswered. So I thought I’d write about my take on his thoughts… where I agree and where I disagree.

Lightroom is used by more than just pros.
DEFINITELY! My seminars/blog comments/emails/feedback show it, that Lightroom is used more and more by the “casual” photographer as Trey calls it. I totally agree and I think that’s a great thing. As Trey pointed out, that is indeed Adobe’s biggest growth opportunity if they want to get into the hobbyist/casual/pro-sumer space. I was recently a guest on a TV show on the Hallmark Channel called Home ad Family with Mark Steines. I demo’d some things that Lightroom can do and the feedback I got from it was enormous. Not from the pros though – this is a daytime show. It’s targeted toward the hobbyist photographer (mostly moms and families) who take pictures for fun – not pros who do it for a living.

People segment their photos into groups
Pro-like DSLR photos go in one group and “casual” photos go in another. I totally agree here. I think there’s a difference and I think we want to do different things with each group. I think when we pull out our DSLR we want a heave-duty program like Lightroom to process them. But we don’t spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on our DSLR camera equipment to just upload the photos to the cloud and let some one else (Google servers) process them for us. So I think Trey is dead on that those pro-like photos (even if you’re not a pro, but are serious about your photos) will still get processed by Lightroom.

Here’s where I disagree
While Trey makes mention about the whole distinction between pro and casual, I disagree that most people upload their iPhone (cell-phone) photos to Lightroom in the first place. When the word “casual” is used, my interpretation from his article was cell phone photos. I think those are basic family/travel documentation “snapshot” photos. Kinda like “I was here and this is who I was with”. Photos that are there simply there to preserve a moment. From the people I’ve talked to, they’re not uploading those photos in Lightroom anyway (some are but not most). In fact, they’re not doing anything with them but leaving them on their phone. But they’re important photos right? Most people have the last 5 years of their kids lives on their phone. It’d be disastrous to lose them. There’s definitely been a hole in the market for these types of photos. I don’t think people have really had a good solution for their casual phone photos, and I think Google’s new technology is a great fit. I just disagree with Trey that people were using Lightroom for this in the first place. Sadly, I don’t think they’ve been using anything, and are at a huge risk to lose them all.

While I do think that Trey is right that this is a great fit for those types of photos, I think the title of his post is more of an attention-grabber than anything – because he’s not talking about Lightroom’s core audience. Don’t get me wrong, he’s got great points and I agree there’s some awesome technology from Google there. Hell, it’s convinced me that I need to use it more. But Google’s server farms aren’t displacing Lightroom from it’s core audience of DSLR shooters (casual or pro) just yet (see the last paragraph for why I wrote “just yet”).

What Trey Wanted to See Next From Google?
Trey wanted to see some handy Snapseed-like controls from Google as well as some other cool effects that came from the Nik suite since Google purchased them last year. He also made mention of the ability to upload Raw files. Do I disagree with that? No way. Look how many followers Trey has on G+ (5+ MILLION followers – yowza!!!). He’s at every Google event and always seems to be at the Google HQ. He’s obviously VERY tight with them, so I read what Trey wants to see next from Google as a bit of foreshadowing of what will come next All good stuff and I’d love to see it. Nik had great products and I think any Nik user out there is ready to know that their beloved plug-ins haven’t died, and will continue to have a future.

As for this all being bad news for Adobe, I agree and disagree. If Trey wrote this two weeks ago I would wholeheartedly disagree. I think there’s millions of DSLR shooters out there that Lightroom is definitely still the program for them to use. Cell-phone photo cloud editing won’t change that. However, Google’s news and Trey’s post comes a week or so after Adobe’s not-so-well received Creative Cloud announcement. After reading comments on my blog and many other websites, let’s just say many photographers aren’t diggin’ Adobe’s move. So much so that many have started thinking about jumping the Adobe ship and looking for other programs to edit photos with. This definitely leaves an opportunity open for other companies to come in and try to capture that market if Adobe doesn’t figure out a way to re-engage photographers with just the programs that they need. All I can say is that I’m not yet sure where it all leads, but it’s going to be one wild ride while we get there

Have a great weekend.

(click to see the photo larger)

If you follow my photography you know that I’m never a fan of choppy water, so I threw a 3-stop ND filter on to get a longer 30-second exposure to smooth out the water. The photo was captured with my Nikon D800 with a 16-35mm lens. Processed in Lightroom 5 and onOne’s Perfect effects for some finishing touches.

Have a good one!

ISAP Symposium
The International Society of Aviation Photographers is having their annual symposium this week and I’ll be heading out to Seattle to teach there. I’ve heard amazing things about this conference so I’m really excited to be there. I’ll be teaching some Lightroom classes there on Thursday, but they’ve got a great few days planned so if you’re going make sure you stop in and say hi.

Norway Photoshop Conference
If you live in, near or around the Norway area I wanted to let you know I’ll be teaching at a conference there later this month (May 30th). Here’s a link to the conference website. I’ll be teaching Photoshop along side 3 other gurus (Kenneth Sortland Myklebust, Tommy Luhtanen, and Guy M Huste). I personally can’t read the website but I do know that I’ll be teaching my Photoshop compositing classes there.

Landscape Workshop In The Palouse
In early-mid June I’ll be teaching a full week landscape photography workshop in the Palouse (Washington state) and Olympic National Park (with a quick one-day stop at Mt. Rainier) with my good buddy Bill Fortney. I wrote about it on the blog here. It looks like there was one more last minute cancellation, so if you think you want to join us then make sure contact Bill ASAP to grab that last spot and get details.

Cape Code/Orleans Camera Lightroom Workshop
I’m teaching a Lightroom workshop in Cape Cod at Orleans Camera on July 20th and 21st. It’s a two-day workshop and you can go to either part (or both), but I believe the Sunday portion is filled or close to it. I’ll be teaching Lightroom from the ground up as well as some classes on going further into editing your photos with Photoshop and Lightroom. Here’s the link to sign up. Oh, and I’ll be in Cape Cod for 5 days so if you know of any great shooting locations please let me know

Seminars and other workshops always get added but this is all I know for sure at this point. I’ll keep you posted. Have a good one!

Here’s the link to my current 500px.com Favorite Photos.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

By the way, if you hadn’t noticed Photoshop CS is no longer – it’s called Photoshop CC now

Subscription Vs. Owning
I don’t want to get too much into whether the CC is a good deal or not. There’s a ton of blogs and articles doing that today already. Make sure you stop over to Scott’s blog because he’s got a great Q&A writeup on this announcement. I also don’t want to talk subscription vs. ownership of software. I know a lot of people have feelings on this, but to me, the subscription model doesn’t bother me – I just want good software. Adobe delivers, and I’m willing to pay monthly, yearly or however to get it. I will say this… For anyone but photographers, it’s a total no-brainer and the industry is eating it up. But for photographers (hobbyists, enthusiasts, prosumers and those that don’t necessary run a business or make money from photography) it can be a big change, and one that isn’t so easy to swallow if you just use Lightroom and Photoshop.

Here’s one way to make it simple though. If you use Photoshop, Lightroom and just one more Adobe product (InDesign, Illustrator, Premier), then it’s a great deal. Sign up right now because it’s the best deal out there.

If you use Lightroom, and sometimes Photoshop, and no other Adobe products then you have a decision to make and that’s who this post is for. I’d like to help you make that decision on what this means for you as a Lightroom user.

How Lightroom Fits In To The Creative Cloud
First off, Lightroom is the place for photographers. Come to grips with it. If you’re a photographer then you need Lightroom. The solution is not Bridge, it’s not Camera Raw or some combination of the two. Lightroom is it. Stop debating, stop thinking that you’re situation is different and that you actually like using the Bridge and Camera Raw combo more. You don’t Trust me. So if you haven’t hopped on the Lightroom wagon yet, do it. You eventually will, so you might as well do it now (again, this applies to photographers, not designers). I know I sound very cut-n-dry here by saying it that way, but this whole “I Like Bridge/ACR” and “I like Lightroom!” crap doesn’t help anyone. If you’re a photographer then use the program that was built for you (end rant)

Next…The most common question I’m getting (as a Lightroom guy) is do I subscribe or not to get Lightroom. See, if you subscribe to the CC, then you get Lightroom (because it’s part of CC), Photoshop and every other Adobe program there is for your subscription price. If you don’t subscribe and you’re a Lightroom user, nothing really changes. Lightroom 4 is still available to purchase outside of the CC and Adobe plans the same for Lightroom 5. So you will indeed be able to upgrade to Lightroom 5 without subscribing to the Creative Cloud.

Knowing that Lightroom is the place for photographers, your decision actually becomes easier. Why? Because you basically have many of the features that are new in Photoshop CC in Lightroom 5 already. Really? Yep, let’s run through the list:
1) Radial Gradient Filter (we got it in Lightroom 5 last month)
2) Upright Lens Correction Adjustments (yep, Lightroom 5 last month)
3) Non-destructive Cloning and Healing Brush (you guessed it, Lightroom 5 last month)

Not to mention, as a Bridge/Camera Raw user, you don’t get Smart Previews where you can work on a smaller “preview” version of your photos while your main photo drive is offline. So if you’re a Bridge user, forget about unplugging your photo hard drive and doing anything with your photos.

NOTE: I know Lightroom 5 isn’t out of beta yet, but right now it’s free to use. It’s perfectly stable and I’ve switched all of my editing and catalogs over to it. So for all intents and purposes, Lightroom 5 is out and for now, it’s free.

Now, what didn’t you get in Lightroom 5 that Photoshop CS6/Elements don’t have (but Photoshop CC does have)?
1) Camera Raw as a filter in Photoshop – I have to admit it, this one is huge to me. I often work on my photos in Photoshop and wish I had access to the raw adjustments that I have in the Develop module. Camera Raw is identical to the Develop module in Lightroom and having it as a filter is a nice thing to have. There’s workarounds with Smart Objects but let’s face it – smart object workflow is clunky at best. So for me, this one is a must-have.

2) Camera Shake Reduction – Another cool feature. I’m usually pretty good about having my camera on a tripod so it’s not one I use a lot, but in those times you need it I’m sure it’ll come in handy.

3) Remember a while back Adobe released a bunch of cloud updates for Photoshop like conditional actions and more support for filters and smart object layers. So if either of those are part of your workflow then the CC is where you’ll need to go to get them.

So do you really need Photoshop? I know we’ve been conditioned to think that Photoshop is the place for photographers, but Adobe has built one totally kick-ass program with Lightroom. So much so, that I think Lightroom has become the place where photographers spend most of their time (and rightly so). Photoshop was built for EVERYONE where Lightroom was built just for photographers. And when you factor that Lightroom 5 just took away the #1 reason most photographers leave Lightroom (cloning and healing), you should be pretty darn happy as a Lightroom user.

Getting Back On Topic
To bring this all around to the topic of this article, what does all of this mean for Lightroom users? If those two features that I mentioned above are absolute must-haves, you do need Photoshop CC. Also, if you don’t already own a version of Photoshop or Elements and you need selections, layers, panoramas, blend modes, filters, actions, professional level retouching (beyond whitening eyes/teeth and smoothing skin because Lightroom does that), then Photoshop CC will be essential.

But if you have a previous version of Photoshop (or Elements), and don’t need the two features I mentioned above, then nothing really changes for you. You still have the same exact software you paid for a year or so ago and nothing was taken away from you. Your workflow doesn’t change, where you store your photos doesn’t change and your Lightroom/Photoshop interaction doesn’t change. You’ll still be able to upgrade to the latest and greatest version of Lightroom. So if the features of the Creative Cloud don’t interest you at this point then, as a Lightroom user, skip it for now. I’m willing to bet that Adobe has things in the works and they’ll hope to change your mind. Remember, this stuff is in it’s infancy stages right now. But in the meantime, your photo workflow and the software you use can remain exactly as it was before yesterday. You can still buy Lightroom 4 standalone today, and you’ll still be able to buy Lightroom 5 standalone (or upgrade) when it officially comes out.

One Final Thought
One last thing. Adobe is offering a single app membership program for $9.99/month for one year. That’s cheaper than any other upgrade version of Photoshop you’ve ever paid for before. Consider this. Tom Hogarty (Adobe Group Product Manager) sneaked a Lightroom-like tablet feature on our talk show The Grid, last week. And while he didn’t go into specifics about other “cloud” like features, it stands to reason that Adobe must be working on adding more features that will make the CC more and more compelling for you as a Lightroom/Photoshop user. They’re not just going to leave us out. So, will the price go up from $9.99 after the first year? Maybe. But for $10/month now (Skip a Starbucks trip for a couple days a month and you’ll pay for it), it’s easy to swallow and it gives you 1 year of the newest, latest, greatest features. You can wait and see if the features that do get added to the CC become worth it to you to continue.

And if they don’t, well then cancel your subscription after the first year and spend $59 on Photoshop Elements if you really need Photoshop

Thanks for stopping by today. I’m always interested in your comments so feel free to leave ‘em here. Have a good one!

For me, I’ve always kinda thought this: In this digital age, with all of the tools we have both before and after capture, I don’t care where you get it right? All that matters to me, is that you get it right. Whether it’s right in camera or whether it’s right in Photoshop (or any post-processing) does it really matter? As long as it’s right, isn’t that what counts?

So, as you’re surfing around this weekend, I think his article is definitely worth reading.
I’m off to chaperon my son’s field trip to Disney today. Wish me luck! Tomorrow I leave for Adobe Max for the weekend, so I’ll make sure I report anything cool that happens here next week. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

If you’re a photographer (pro or not, that uses Lightroom and Photoshop) and been wondering if the creative cloud makes sense for you then you’re not alone. I hear it in just about every seminar I teach. Well, Adobe is sending one of their guys here so we can grill him live about what they have in store for photographers in the cloud. Plus, he’s going to give a few sneak peaks about some technology to come. I hope you can join us live and jump in with your questions.

Where: http://kelbytv.com/thegrid/
When: 4pm ET Today

NOTE: I wrote a post here a while back about my choice of the D800 over the D800E

Things I Like
Overall, I’m really happy with the D800. The settings are simple to operate and having been a Nikon shooter for many years I don’t have many issues with the menu system, button placement and getting around.

For starters, one of my favorite improvements (over the D3 that I was shooting before) is the auto timer mode. See, the D800 is primarily a nature and landscape camera for me. It’s almost always on a tripod and I’m almost always bracketing with 5 photos (I don’t do HDR with them though, but more on that in another post). With my D3, I had to press the shutter 5 times or always have my cable release with me so I didn’t have to continually touch the camera between photos. But the way the timer works on the D800, I can set it to take 5 photos, two seconds after pressing the shutter. So I just press the shutter once, wait 2 seconds and the camera will fire off the 5 shot bracket automatically. It’s great because I don’t have to worry about having the cable release with me all the time (I usually just carry it for long exposures beyond 30 seconds).

I also love the way the camera feels. I actually like the smaller form factor (compared to the D3 and D4). I do have a battery grip for it, but I usually only use it when I’m shooting portraits since it has the vertical shutter release.

What About File Size?
Another thing I love is also one of the things I hate too – the file size. The 36 megapixel sensor is awesome. The files look amazing on my display. Aside from the obvious advantages of being able to print large, I think there’s more to it. I mean, it’s just plain cool to have that kind of file size and detail available to zoom in to. Let’s face it, if you’re a photographer then you’re a visual person. Aesthetics and visual experiences matter. Even if you’re not printing the photo that large, editing a photo with that kind of detail is just fun and visually stimulating. I may not always print the photo as large as I can, but it’s sure nice knowing that I can.

Another advantage of the large images is that it let’s me shoot a little more “loose” than I normally would, because I know I can crop the photo and still have plenty of resolution to work with. Don’t get me wrong, I do like to get my crop right in camera, but I’m also shooting a lot of wide angle stuff (landscapes, cityscapes, etc…). Images that will need some lens correction in Lightroom/Photoshop. Because the perspective fixes we do to our photos typically means you’re going to lose a lot of the area around the edges of the photo, it’s nice to know I can still use the lens corrections without giving up important parts of the composition.

However, it has wreaked havoc on my storage. If you go out and shoot 200 photos you’re talking about taking up around 10 gigs of space. So I’ve had to buy hard drives a little sooner than I normally would have. It’s also been good at forcing me to delete photos too though. I find myself going through older photo shoots more often and deleting the rejects a little more thoroughly than I normally would have.

Things I Don’t Like
As I just mentioned above, the file size is a little hard to get used to. Not just from a storage space perspective, but they also take longer to edit since you’re waiting on the progress bar more. I find myself doing a “quick” edit where I reduce the image size from 7000 pixels wide to 3000 px and running my filters and plug-ins just to see what I like. It only takes a couple extra minutes and then I’ll go back and edit the full size photo from scratch once I know the direction I want to go. If I had to get through hundreds of photos a day, this would definitely be a slow down in my workflow. But I don’t. I typically walk away with only a few keepers from a landscape shoot, so it doesn’t take me too long to experiment.

Another thing that ticks me off is that the D800 doesn’t have the ability to separate my bracketed photos by two stops. So my only choice is to shoot 5 frames (all separated by 1 stop) and later delete the +1 and -1 photos so I only have the +2 photo, the metered shot, and -2 photo. Other Nikon cameras have this feature, and Canon has had it for years now, so I’m a little annoyed that the D800 doesn’t have it. It seems like it would be such a simple firmware update right?

Would I Buy It Again?
There’s the magic question right? Knowing what I know 1 year later, would I buy the D800 again? The answer: most likely. My hesitation lies with knowing that there’s the D600 out there. The D600 is an awesome camera. It’s still got a huge 24 megapixel sensor so you could still print really big. It’s cheaper than the D800 and I think it’s just about every bit as good.

If I were given the choice today though, I’m pretty sure I’d still go with the D800. The only reason is that from time to time, I may need the extra resolution. For starters, I teach and am constantly zooming in to photos to show people certain areas that I’m teaching about. It’s nice to have that extra resolution, so people can see whatever I’m talking about large on a projector screen. I also sell prints now and then, and it’s nice to be able to deliver a very large print should some one need one. But if you’re not teaching and showing large photos on screen and you’re not selling prints, the D600 is a REALLY attractive alternative.

So there ya have it. A 1 year review of the D800. It really is an extraordinary camera. Shooting with it has made me want to go reshoot some of my favorite photos so I can print them even larger. It’s great to edit, and when you see the photos you’ve taken in all of their 36 megapixel glory on your display, it makes you glad you own it.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a good one!

First, last month I wrote about a workshop I’m doing with Bill Fortney in Washington state (the Palouse region and Olympic National Park). The workshop was sold out almost as soon as it was announced, but a few people cancelled at the last minute, so there’s a few open spots. I think there’s two, but if you call and beg Bill I bet you can squeeze a third out of him, but that’s it. There’s simply not enough “personal” time for each person in the workshop if we take too many folks. Also, I just found out we’re going to be making a stop at Mt. Rainier for a day too. Can’t wait! Here’s a link to Bill’s site to find out more and contact him if you’re interested.

Next, I’m going to be helping out on a workshop shooting Colorado in the fall with Tom Bol and George Theodore. This area is supposed to be beautiful this time of year, and any workshop with Tom and George is a great workshop. There’s only room for 15 photographers total, and it’s very close to being full so jump on it if you’re thinking of going. Here’s the description from their website:

“Glowing aspen and blazing scrub oak, clear crisp days, snow in the mountains as background, Colorado’s fall is spectacular and its greatest show is the San Juan Range in the Southwestern part of the state. You’ll be dazzled by the colorful display of foilage. At this time of year, with the lower angle of the sun, we can shoot almost any time of the day. Using the small community of Ouray – surrounded on three sides by 13,000 foot snow covered peaks – as our base, we’ll cover several shooting locations in all directions including the ever popular Last Dollar Road to Telluride.”

I hear over and over again that these multi-day workshops really help catapult people’s photography and post-processing skills so I hope that I can meet you at one of them. Thanks!

Anyway, I thought I’d share one of the photos processed in Lightroom 5, Photoshop and finished off with onOne’s Perfect Effects. I have photos of it while the sun is still up and setting, but this twilight photo is one of my favorites.

(click to see it larger)

It’s been a long week, but we’re just about finished and heading back home today. As soon as I know more info on when the class will be published I’ll be sure to give you an update. Have a great weekend!

Here’s a link to their Perfect Inspiration page and you can see the before/after as well as the video right on the page. Plus, you’ll probably enjoy poking around the site and watching some earlier videos from some other great photographers. Thanks again to the folks at onOne for including me and for making kick-ass software! Have a good one!

Next up, for all of you Lightroom fans, I wrote an article for SmugMug called 5 Ways to Kickstart Your Lightroom Workflow. It’s free and you can check it out over on Smugmug’s website right here.

I’m sure things will be pretty crazy shooting and filming this week but I’ll do my best to keep you posted from Moab and post some photos along the way. Thanks and have a good one!

Here’s a link to the conference website. I’ll be teaching Photoshop along side 3 other gurus (Kenneth Sortland Myklebust, Tommy Luhtanen, and Guy M Huste). I personally can’t read the website but I do know that I’ll be teaching my Photoshop compositing classes there.

I Need Some Photo Locations
I actually only teach for a day, but I’ll be there for 7 days so if anyone knows some great photography spots or a good photo guide (yeah, I know, it’s Norway – the whole country is a great photography spot), please let me know. I won’t really be able to make it that far north, but I’m going to be shooting my ass off for 7 days, so I’m open to anything. I’ll fly into Oslo, stay there for a few days and then my flight leaves from Bergen 5 days later. Everything in between is open.

I’m so excited to be a part of this conference and if you’re in the area I hope you can attend. I’ve heard such great things about the people in Norway, and I can’t wait for this trip to get here. Have a good one!

Also, today kicks off Photoshop World over in Orlando and I’ll be teaching all week. If you’re joining us, here’s my class schedule in case you can stop by.

Tuesday 1-5pm: Photoshop Compositing Secrets Workshop (w/ Glyn Dewis)
Wednesday 10:45-11:45: Lightroom Crash Course
Thursday 10:45-11:45: Photoshop Restoration Rescue
Thursday 6-7pm: Developing Your Own Lightroom Presets and Special Effects
Friday 11-12pm: Photoshop For Landscape Photographers
Friday 1-2pm: The Art of Dodging and Burning

Make sure you stop by and say hi if you’re in Orlando this week. Hope to see you there!

Over at the National Association of Photoshop Professionals HQ, Scott Kelby and I put together an entire launch site for you to check out. It’s got videos on all of the new features, links, resources, tips, tricks and links to download the beta version. Here’s the site, so head on over to be the first to check out the new beta.

What I Have Planned So Far
Okay, I mentioned the other day that I deliberately held back from telling you what I had planned because I wanted your thoughts without any pre-conceived ideas behind them. But I figured I’ll let you know what I have planned now.

I’m basically going to do a series of classes. My “working” title is Mastering Landscape Photography: (Tagline of some sort). I plan on going to various locations throughout the country in each class. The first class/location will be Moab, Utah to shoot Arches and Canyonlands National Park. So the title of the class will be Mastering Landscape Photography: Canyonlands and Arches.

The class will start with me at the computer doing some pre-planning on where I’m going. You’ll see the websites I use. Figuring out what the “key” locations to shoot are, what times of day to shoot there, what kind of equipment I’ll need, and researching photos that I think are the ones I want for that area.

From there, we’ll go to me packing the camera bag and looking at what equipment to bring along. I’ll go over exactly what I’m taking (and not taking) and why. Lens selection, hard drives, camera body, filters, etc…

Next, we’ll arrive at Moab. We’ll head out to the locations during the down time to talk about the importance of pre-planning composition, sunrise/sunset choice, where the sun will be at, and how to avoid being a statue and standing in one place the entire time. Instead, we’ll come up with a plan on how to get several photos from one location and even some alternate shooting options if things don’t work out.

From there I’ll be shooting, and I’ll have a camera following me. I’ll be talking about composition, light, lens choice, camera settings, filters, focusing and what I’m thinking as I shoot.

Finally, we’ll end up behind the computer, looking at the photos, making selects (and explaining why) and doing the post-processing for the final photos we pick.

Moab is just the start. I’ll do classes on waterfalls, fall color, beaches and coastlines, lakes, mountains, snow/winter, you name it.

Why The Elaborate Location?
One comment I saw a few times was showing how to make a great photo in your home town and not in an elaborate location. Many of you commented that you couldn’t afford to travel, and I totally understand that. However, I want to hit some of the big landscape shooting locations for a few reasons.

1) I think there are a lot of photographers that do travel and can benefit from being better prepared for a location similar to where we’ll be shooting.

2) I think the concepts of landscape shooting can be helpful no matter where you are. For example, I’ll be in Moab with lots of arches and canyons. Well, the concepts of light, composition, and gear will be similar for any place with canyon-like scenery. Whether it’s the Grand Canyon, or some place in Arizona or many other places out west. Canyons are canyons and I think you’ll see the concepts I talk about in Moab will be helpful in a lot of other areas too.

3) There’s really no place I can shoot that doesn’t leave some one out right? If you’re one of the people that said you’d like me to show you how to get great photos in your home town of, say, Philadelphia, well what happens for everyone else who doesn’t live in Philly? If I don’t travel somewhere, and stay here in Tampa to shoot beaches, some one in Arkansas will be left out because they don’t have beaches. If I go to Denver and shoot the mountains near the city, then some one in Florida is left out because we don’t have mountains. So I plan to go to some of the big national parks and locations, but I also plan on shooting a lot of different scenery so that you’ll get a good variety of locations and lessons to pick from. In the end, I think you’ll see that learning lens choice, light, composition, gear, and filters in another location can still help you where ever you are.

Some Great Ideas
As I expected, you guys came up with some great ideas. I’m still going through all of them and really trying to figure out what I’ll cover and how, but you’ve definitely made me rethink some things.

There was a lot of comments on light and what to do when the light isn’t great. I definitely was going to cover shooting in bad (or unlucky) light and shooting at different times of the day. There’s so many factors. Weather, locations, sky, clouds, etc… but I think it’s important to know what to do if you’re at a location at sunrise and it’s cloudy, or you simply can’t be at a location at sunrise or sunset. But I’m glad to see I was on track by covering these topics.

Another area I can tell everyone is concerned with is sharpness (and you should be). There was lots of talk about focussing, where to focus, hyperfocal distance, and how to get sharp in-focus photos. So I’ll make sure I spend extra time on that.

Composition was another hot topic. What to include in the frame, what not to include, what to look for, how to include (or not include) the sun… again, I’ll make sure I devote a lot of time to this as well.

I did see ideas about night photography, time lapse, long exposures and several other areas that I’ve thought about incorporating into the class. The problem I’m running into is that in order to do a good job of teaching those topics I need time. Time-lapse isn’t just a 6-minute side-bar in a landscape photography class. So those may have to wait for a class on their own. But as long as conditions permit, I’ll definitely touch on some long exposure stuff. Again though, it depends on weather. For example, in Moab, if there’s no clouds in the sky then there’s really no long exposure subjects since everything else is perfectly still. But when I get to a class that’s along the coast with beaches and water, you’ll definitely see some long exposure action.

Again, I really wanted to say thank you to all of you for helping out. I really want this to be a great series, and your comments and feedback will definitely help make it better. Whew! Now I’m off to Photoshop World for the week. Have a good one!

I Need Your Feedback
Some of the best ideas I get for teaching are usually from reading the evaluations of my classes or emails I get. For example, my Lightroom seminar is constantly tweaked and made better because I read all of the evaluation forms (usually 300-500 of them) after the seminar. If I see a pattern, I realize something needs to be added/changed/removed. So I’m reaching out to the audience that would watch this class and asking for ideas on what you’d like covered and how you’d like it to be covered.

Get A Free 2-Month Membership To Kelby Training
If I use your idea, I’ll get you set up with a free 2-month membership to Kelby Training ($50 value). That should be more than enough time to watch the class once it comes out. If you’re already a subscriber, your membership will get extended by 2-months.

As I mentioned earlier, I already have an idea for how I’d like things to go in the class. But I’m deliberately leaving the details out of this post, because I’d like you guys to look at this with a fresh set of eyes. Questions to think about:

1) What are the main questions you have when it comes to landscape photography? I want to make sure I answer these first and foremost.
2) What should be covered in the class?
3) How should I cover it? On location? Do you actually need to see me shooting? Am I shooting and talking? What am I talking about?
4) Your thoughts on pre-planning?
5) Any cool name ideas would be great. I’m initially thinking it needs the word photo or photography in it for marketing purposes, but who knows.
6) Anything else you can think of.

Thanks for stopping by and I really appreciate your feedback in advance. I truly want to make this a series of classes that helps people know exactly how to get beautiful landscape photos and I hope you’ll help out. Have a good one!

Here’s a link to download the article.

Here’s a link to NAPP’s 24-hour free trial page to sign up (no credit card needed).

Enjoy the article. Have a good one!

Also, don’t forget that there’s definitely something in the “special sauce” that the plug-in companies use. So if you have the plug-ins (or are thinking of getting one), I’d still use them. Given the choice, I’d use the Perfect Effects Tonal Contrast effect before I’d ever use the one that I have here. But for those that don’t, this is a great alternative to help get that gritty/edgy/contrasty look right in Lightroom.

NOTE: I’m going to put my usual HDR disclaimer here too, because I find that tonal contrast effects have a similar HDR-ish feel to them. So, here goes: If HDR (or tonal contrast) is the kind of thing that incites anger and criticism from you, then these presets aren’t for you. Don’t download, don’t try them out and don’t leave a negative comment on how HDR (or tonal contrast) is bastardizing photography and how everyone that uses it is a horrible person

Here’s a few samples. You really have to try the presets out though, since they don’t show up as well when the images are small.

• The preset downloads for Lightroom 4 are below (I made them for LR4. You can try them in LR3 but they’re tuned for LR4 specifically):
• Click here to download the Lightroom Black and White Tonal Contrast Effect Presets.
• And here’s a link to a video on how to install and organize Lightroom presets if you don’t know how.

Hope you enjoy. Have a good one!