I’m back from four days on the Island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean, as the Guest Speaker at Joe McNally’s Off Camera Flash workshop. The workshop was even a more amazing experience than I had expected, I learned a lot more than just photography.

This week, I’m going to share some different things I learned as an instructor, as a student, as a guest in a very special resort (more on this in a moment), as a businessman, as a husband, a father, and as a photographer (it’s amazing what you can absorb in just four days).

It’ll probably make a separate post each day this week to share these lessons, and I’ll weave my stories in alongside some of the other important things happening in this; the week leading up to my Worldwide Photo Walk on Saturday, but as I’m sitting here on the five-hour flight from St. Lucia to Atlanta, (and then a short hop home to Tampa), all this stuff is swirling around in my head, and I’ve got to get it down on paper (even if it’s not really paper).

First, we’ll start with the shot up top. I arrived after the workshop was already underway, and after checking in the resort, I headed down to the beach to catch Joe’s sunset shoot at the beach.

When I got there I high-fived my assistant Brad Moore, who was already there assisting on the shoot, and then watched as Joe waded offshore with a local scuba diver to do a portrait, along with his assistant Drew holding a large Elinchrom Rotalux softbox with flashhead attached, as one of the students (A great guy from Texas named Clint) held the small Elinchrom Ranger Quadra battery pack and cables (more on this later in the week, when I post a video we did here in the studio on the Quadra).

It was just a one-light shoot, using a single studio light on location, but man did Joe make that one light sing! Check out the final image on Joe’s blog (here’s the link).

More Proof it’s a Small World
The next morning, we headed into the small town of Soufriere, so we could do some street shooting. After wandering the streets for an hour or so, we met up with our guide from the hotel, and he mentioned that there was a fire station nearby if we wanted to drop by and see if they’d let us shoot their trucks, so we headed over there.

A student from our group got about 100 yards ahead of us, and got to the station first. A fireman was standing outside, and he saw the photographer’s Canon camera and said, “Hey, I’m a photographer. I’ve got a Canon DSLR, too!” They started chatting and the fireman asked the student, “Hey, do you read Scott Kelby’s blog?” (I kid you not!). The student tells the fireman that I’m actually part of the group, and of course, he thinks the guy is pulling his leg until McNally and I come around the corner 30-seconds later.

The firefighter’s name is Garvey Charlemagne (that’s a portrait I took of Garvey above), and he’s an avid photographer, and just a wonderfully gracious, kind, and incredibly patient guy as he let the class make portraits of him, in full gear, for around an hour, and it was Caribbean island-hot down there (that’s real sweat, in other words).

Although my blog connection to Garvey might have got our foot in the door at the firestation, watching Joe work in this environment was a master class undo itself. Joe just has a way of ingratiating himself in any situation, and within minutes these firefighters, were rolling out the red carpet to do anything Joe needed to “get the shot.”

He had them do everything from move firetrucks, to dress up in full gear, to doing group shots with the entire department (including the Caption in his full parade best), to pulling out all sorts of gear, posing in different locations—you name it. They were so taken with Joe, and he worked the scene like such a pro, that everybody, firefighter’s included, had a blast.

On the flipside of this; Joe does something for them, which I think is very, very important; he immediately sends them the best finished images from the shoot (They may not at first know what it means to have Joe McNally make your portrait, but they soon will).

Here’s Joe and I posed with Garvey (photo by Steve Rogers), after the shoot. A big thanks to all the guys at the Soufriere Fire Dept., and a special thanks to my blog reader Garvey. You guys were awesome!!!

Ya Just Have to Know What to Ask
I have a running joke with Joe. When we were walking the backstreets and alleys of Sufraire, I put the camera to my eye and shouted ahead to Joe, “Hey Joe, you been shootin’ much HDR.” He turned toward me, and I took the shot below, which pretty much says it all.

Can Joe Pick a Workshop Location or What!!!!
Our host resort for the workshop was the fabulous Jade Mountain resort, which has already become a favorite hideaway of celebrities (which we knew), but what nobody knew until the third day of the workshop was that Travel & Leisure magazine had just named the hotel the #3 luxury resort in the world (the first time in history a Caribbean resort had made Travel & Leisure’s exclusive Top 10 List). Believe me; these acolades are well deserved—-I’ve never seen anything like it.

Here’s the view from my room (they call them “Sanctuaries” and they’re well-named). It’s a 17-photo pano; taken hand held, standing inside my room. It’s 62 inches long at 240 ppi.

It stitched together perfectly; totally seamlessly, without any input from me, all in Photoshop CS4 (well, I selected the photos inside of Lightroom, then chose “Merge to Panorama in Photoshop.” I’d do a tutorial on it for you, but there’s nothing to show. Select 17 photos; choose “Merge to Panorama in Photoshop” and then wait a few minutes and it’s done.

This one was taken from the breakfast table in my room. It’s not a pano. I just cropped it that way in Lightroom.

This isn’t the lobby. This is the hotel room they gave me as an instructor. I kid you not. This is where they put me up. My wife and I walked in, and our jaws hit the floor. There’s only one wall (on the left) with a 14-foot high door, so basically 1/3 of the room has a wall, and the other 2/3 are wide open to the sea. But it gets better.

There’s actually an Infinity pool in my hotel room. It has steps down into it, and then it’s around 5-feet deep. It’s not a hot-tub—it’s much bigger—it’s a pool, and it’s amazing (as is the view).

Here’s where I shot the first pano from. That’s the canopy bed on the left. The room came with a full time butler who was fantastic, and I could go on and on, but it was immediately clear why this hotel was awarded the #3 hotel in the world. I can’t imagine what you’d have to do to #2. The service was like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and the entire resort, and it’s staff, made sure everyone; instructors and students, had an exerience of a lifetime.

Thanks to Nick and Carolyn, the owners of the Jade Mountain Resort, who have created a magical place where you can unwind and relax at a level like no place else. (Check out their Website, or follow them on Facebook).

There’s more to Come
I’ve got so much more to share, but they’re closing the aircraft doors for our connection down to Tampa, and it’s already really late. I’ll have some insights on the workshop, on learning, and Joe, and a whole lot more, but I just had to share a few fun stories to kick things off.

Nikon has just released a new site, called the “Nikon D-Movie Screening Room” that features high-definition video clips shot entirely with their DSLR’s that have built-in video capabilities (the Nikon D90 and D5000 cameras).

I have to say, it’s pretty amazing to see what can be done, thanks to the ability to use Nikon camera lenses (and the shallow depth of field that the right lens can bring), and if you’ve ever wondered what all the fuss is about on putting video in DSLRs, this will make you a believer. Here’s the link—-take two minutes and check it out.

Here’s a short video clip we shot during my Photo Walk in Dunedin, Florida (as part of the first World Wide Photo Walk) last year. It’s great for giving you an idea of what the walk is all about, which is sharing the fun of taking photos.

Hi gang. I’m off to the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean to teach a workshop with Joe McNally and then I’m going to spend a few days doing absolutely nothing but reading and sitting by the pool (I know, I’ve got it rough), which is all the more reason I feel I should share yet another embarrassing photo. This was taken in the mid-80s (note the cool gloves, blond tips, and excess mousse in my hair. The trademark black shirt is there, along with a Korg DSS-1 keyboard [bottom], which had sampled sounds I used to load into the keyboard with a floppy disk). Man, I gettin’ old. ;-)  Now, onto the news:

First, a shout out to the Deke Man for a fantastic guest blog and video tutorial yesterday. The comments were nothing short of a love-fest, and it was a real kick having Deke here on the blog. If you’re going to Photoshop World in Vegas this October, make sure you check out Deke live.

What’s the Difference Between Vols. 1, 2, and 3?
I got another email yesterday asking if Volume 3 of my book “The Digital Photography Book” is just an another update to the original book, or if it’s an entirely new book, so I thought I’d better tackle it here. Volume 2 is a completely new book from the ground up that picks up right where the original Volume 1 left off.  I did the same thing with Volume 3, but of course it picked up where Volume 2 left off, so while the three books are designed to work together (and the Publisher is planning a three-book set), the content is completely different in each of the three books. Hope that helps.

Check out Syl’s Canon Speedlite Wishlist
Spend any time around Joe McNally and you’ll become a Nikon off-camera flash believer, and that’s exactly what happened to Syl Arena over at the PixSylated blog, who just did a post on his wishlist for Canon’s off camera speedlites, and he really did a great job with it. Here’s the link to check it out.

Catch the finale of our series on lenses
Later today we’ll posting the final segment of our five-part segment on lenses on D-Town TV. This has been one of the most popular set of shows we’ve done on the program thus far, and if you haven’t caught it yet, here’s the link (the fifth installment is episode #20).

A Special Deal on two new DVDs from Vincent Versace
Vinny is about to release a new in-depth DVD called, “Oz to Kansas 2.0: The Black and White on Black and White Conversions” where he goes into detail about the process, which includes:

• When and why you should and should not use global de-saturation.
• When and why you should and should not use LAB conversions.
• Split Channel conversions -  what they are good for and a way to get the same effect with a file two thirds the size.
• When to use the Black and White adjustment layer to bring out and separate the tones in a color image.
• The only soup to nuts overview of the Silver Efex Plug-in. How to use it and when.
• Multiple Channel mixer black and white conversions that replicate the physics of film.
• What is “Faux-infrared” and a look at how to convert files to black and white from digital cameras that have been modified to shoot Infrared.
• When and how to most efficiently use the Gradient tool for black and white conversion.
• Mid-tone Contouring
• Combining multiple conversion techniques to get the optimum black and white image.

He’s also got another DVD about to release as well, called; “The Lazarus Effect: Raising the Dead Pixels in the Mist and In Blur to Focus. Here’s how he describes it:

This four DVD tutorial is for anyone who has ever taken an image in which the focus was a wee bit “off.” Maybe you tried to photograph a waterfall and, regardless of your exposure and how carefully you set up your tripod and camera, the focus was a little too soft, or perhaps you have images that you know were in focus when you shot it them, but because of the type of sensor or the way the RAW file was processed, the sharpness you knew the lens could deliver is missing in the images on the screen.

This DVD not only teaches you how to bring detail back from both landscape (Pixels in the Mist) and portrait images (From Blur to In Focus), it also presents a new way of thinking about your images as well as a new approach to seeing and creating.

Vinny has extended his special pre-order offer of $59.95 for either DVD to readers of my blog until July 22nd (the DVD’s are scheduled to ship on July 15th). Here’s the link with all the details.

Another Cool Video From Last Year’s Photo Walk
We’ll wrap things up with a video taken during last year’s Photo Walk in Hollywood, California as part of my world wide photo walk last year.

Hope you all have a great Thursday, and just remember; there’s a 50/50 chance I won’t be blogging tomorrow because I’m on a topical island and just flat out don’t feel like blogging. Hey, it could happen.

We’re just a little more than a week away from our World Wide Photo Walk, and the number of walkers coming on board around the world is just getting crazy (which just makes it that much more exciting).

Next week, Brad Moore will be doing a blog post each day with tips on how to make the most from your walk, so make sure you check out the Photo Walk blog (here’s the link) each day next week, as we ramp up to next Saturday’s walk. Can’t wait! By the way—-if you’re not signed up for a walk yet—-do it right now; you’ll have a blast!!!!

Photo by Jacob Cunningham

Hello Scott. And friends of Scott. Not to mention you people who know friends of folks who at one time thought they knew Scott or saw him once. As if in a dream.

My name is Deke. But enough about me. What’s more important is what I have to offer. In celebration of The Day After Scott’s Birthday, I bring you the most special Eighth of July gift ever. A video. A Web-based, streaming video. With a mouse cursor moving around the screen and me talking and everything. (!)

The topic of this video is masking. Over the course of things, we’ll take this girl:

With all her hair and rambunctious attitude.

And blend her into this composition:

Granted, the end result is over the top. And a bit silly. (Forgive me, I learned design from Mad magazine. Or was it Super Mario Brothers? I forget.) But it’s impeccably executed. And it demonstrates a point: If you can merge that hair and that dress and that girl against that background, you can do anything.

And by “anything,” I mean anything. Turn lead into gold. Climb vertical walls. Fly. With glistening, radioactive abs of steel.

I call my intensive video “The Essential Approach to Masking in Photoshop.” It’s not a step-by-step recipe. It’s not a magic bullet. It’s an overarching roadmap of the tried-and-true approach to masking a complex image. In about 30 minutes (I told you it was intensive!), you and I will create a full-blown mask—from scratch, mind you—and employ said mask to composite a complex foreground against a foreign background. In Photoshop.

This is not an inspirational video. This is a training video. (I’m sorry, but it’s what I do.) It’s carefully crafted and tightly produced. And believe it or not, it moves along at a fairly brisk pace.

Definitely click the full-screen button for every bit of gloriously compressed detail in this 1280 by 800-pixel movie.

Watch. Rinse. Repeat.

Along the way, I mention some links. They are these:
-For the images, fotolia.com/deke
-For the videos, lynda.com/deke
-For the books, deke.oreilly.com
-For more free masking videos, dekedotcom.blip.tv
-For still more videos, youtube.com/dekepod
-For 24/7 love action, deke.com

Now stop reading this and watch the video. And have a really awesome day.
–Deke

Hi Folks. It’s Tuesday, it’s my birthday (and my wife got me a Les Paul guitar as a birthday present—sweet!), but besides me getting older, and not even a bit wiser, here’s what’s up:

McNally Live!
San Francisco, the first stop on Joe McNally’s new Location Lighting Technique Workshop tour for Kelby Training looks like it’s going to sell out way in advance, so I’m giving you a heads up now; if you’re planning on going (it’s on July 31st), this may be your last chance to sign up here. Here’s the link.

Thanks Vinny!
Just a word of thanks to my buddy Vincent Versace. He took the promo photo of me you see up at the top right corner of this blog. We use that image in a lot of my books and videos, and I just wanted to both thank and credit him, especially since the photo makes me look a lot better than we all know I really look. Thanks Vinny. You da man!

Down & Dirty Review
Ron Martinsen did an in-depth review of my latest book; Photoshop CS4 Down & Dirty Tricks, and you can read it right here.

50 Issues and Counting!
Also celebrating a birthday this week is UK-based “Photoshop Creative” magazine, as they have just published their 50th issue. Congrats to everybody at Photoshop Creative, and here’s to 50 more!

Local Photo Walk Videos
I got an email from Ian Pack, who is leading a Photo Walk in Brighton, UK as a part of my Worldwide Photo Walk, and he sent me to a video clip about the Photo Walk on YouTube.com and I’m embedding his video below. I also found other Photo Walk videos from last year (including my own), and I’ll be posting one each day until the Walk kicks off a week from Saturday. Thanks Ian for sending this my way.

That’s it for today folks. Make sure you check back here tomorrow for our very special guest blogger, and I’ll see you back here on Thursday for my first blog as a somewhat older, but even more devistatingly handsome blogger than before (if that’s even possible). Have a kick-butt Tuesday, everybody!

…one of my all-time favorite Photoshop instructors and authors, and the only guy named Deke I’ve ever known; Deke McClelland.

I’ve been a fan of Deke’s work since I got totally hooked on his book, The Photoshop Bible, back when I was just a Photoshop cub.

Not only did I learn a tremendous amount from that book, but I loved his irreverent style and would find myself laughing out loud while I was learning, which makes it even more special for me to have him here as my guest on the blog tomorrow.

Deke doesn’t do anything in a small way, so I’m expecting something very cool here tomorrow, so make it a point to stop back by and see what Deke has up his sleeve.

My book, The Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers is used in classrooms around the world to teach Photoshop, and today with the help of our friends at Peachpit Press/New Riders and Pearson Education, we’re releasing a truly groundbreaking free Instructor’s Kit for educators who use it as the textbook for their students.

Here’s a short two-minute video I put together to explain the free Instructors Kit, what you get, how it was developed, and how it’s going to make a big difference to you and your students.

Here’s the link to register to get your free Instructors Kit, and they’ll even send you a copy of my “CS4 Book for Digitial Photographers” absolutely free for your use in the classroom.

It’s a Holiday Weekend here in the US (our offices are closed today in observance of Independence Day), so I’m going to keep it short and sweet. Let’s do it:

Photo Walk Update
By Monday we’ll have nearly 25,000 photographers registered for Photo Walks in 911 cities around the world. My buddy (and Photo Walk leader for Dunedin, Florida) RC Concepcion did a video on how to get prepared now for uploading your photos after the event. Here’s the link to watch his short, but very helpful, tutorial video.

Free Extreme Sports Photography Webinar on July 17th
You’re invited to attend a free online Webinar on Extreme Sports Photography with Michael Clark (the event is hosted by Bogen Imaging). Here’s the link to sign up.

Making Departures magazine’s list
American Express publishes a great travel and leisure-style magazine for card holders called “Departures” and in their current issue they have a feature story on which digital camera is right for you. They cover everything from cameras and lenses to accessories. In a sidebar the writer lists where to go to learn about photography online, and states, “there are no better resources.” I was quite excited when I read they included KelbyTraining.com in their list. Thanks Departures—it’s an honor.

Our “Lens Series” continues on D-Town TV
Yesterday, part 4 of our 5-part series on lenses went live on D-Town TV. If you’ve missed any of the episodes, they’re all still available right on the Web site.

Brad’s on Vacation Next Week
What is the world coming to when Brad is allowed to take time off? Frankly, I’m at a loss. How could this have happened?

Bill Fortney on our recent Savannah workshop
Bill did a few posts this week reflecting on our workshop in Savannah last week, and on life in general. If you’ve got a quick second, stop by and catch some of Bill’s thoughts and images from the week (definitely worth a visit). Here’s the link.

A New Photography Term?
When I was in Savannah and we were shooting that classic red Cadillac convertible, Bill asked one of the students to remove a feather on the ground right in front of where Bill was shooting. Somebody mentioned that he could remove it later during “post  production” in Photoshop, and that’s when I came up with a  phrase for the act of actually picking up and moving a distracting piece of something from the scene. I laughingly said “That’s called Pre-Production.” Hey, ya never know—it could stick.

My 1,000 Post happened this week
I just happened to look up yesterday and saw that I had released my 1,000th post on this blog. Right then I realized, “Rats! I could’ve written a book.”

What ‘Independence Day’ Really Means to Us
Tomorrow is a national holiday celebrating our country’s independence from traditional film. No longer will we press the shutter button thinking, “Well, that just cost me 22¢” or “Well, that’s 36—time to pop in another roll.” or that phrase heard so often on vacation, “I need to stop and buy some film.” Should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice: No longer will we wait hours, or days, to see our prints only to find out that someone was blinking or the flash didn’t fire. No longer will we go quitely into the night, to drop off our film in an overnight drop box. We’re going to live on to shoot for free another day—free from the tyranny of film chemicals and safe lights; changing bags and temperature regulators; cotton gloves and Print tongs. No today as we gather together to fill our 8 and 16-gig cards with wild abandon we celebrate our real Independence Day! (–insert wild cheers here).

That’s it for today folks. I hope you all have a wonderful July 4th weekend, surrounded by friends and family, and all the joys that it brings.

With the 4th of July coming up tomorrow (The 4th is Independance Day in the US, and we celebrate with Fireworks), I thought I’d run a quick blurb from Vol. 1 of my book, The Digital Photography Book on how to shoot Fireworks (like I did last year around this time). Here ya go:

You’ll need to shoot fireworks with your camera on a tripod, because you’re going to need a slow enough shutter speed to capture the falling light trails, which is what you’re really after.

Also, this is where using a cable release really pays off, because you’ll need to see the rocket’s trajectory to know when to push the shutter button—if you’re looking in the viewfinder instead, it will be more of a hit or miss proposition.

Next, use a zoom lens (ideally a 200mm or more) so you can get in tight and capture just the fireworks themselves. If you want fireworks and the background (like fireworks over Cinderella’s Castle at Disney World), then use a wider lens.

Now, I recommend shooting in full Manual mode, because you just set two settings and you’re good to go:

1. Set the Shutter Speed to 4 seconds
2. Set the Aperture to f/11. Fire a test shot and look at the LCD monitor on the back of your camera to see if you like the results. If it overexposes, lower the shutter speed to 3 seconds, then take another shot and check the results again.

TIP: If your camera has “Bulb” mode (where the shutter stays open as long as you hold down the shutter release button down), this works great–hold the shutter button down when the rocket bursts, then release when the light trails start to fade. (By the way; most Canon and Nikon digital SLRs have bulb mode). The rest is timing—because now you’ve got the exposure and sharpness covered.

—

Here’s wishing you all a safe and happy fourth, and I hope you capture some great images this year!

Friend of the blog Richard Rabinowitz (former Publisher of Popular Photography and American Photo) turned me onto this very cool time lapse video from photographer Jill Enfield that is really going to strike a chord with anyone who has ever developed their own film. But beyond that, this two minute video is just darn cool, and seeing the process unfold in front of your eyes is almost as fascinating as the portrait she creates.

I’ve embedded the video below, but also make sure you visit Jill’s Website to see some very engaging, thoughtful fine art work.