Harold Davis's Blog, page 128
July 8, 2016
Duck Crossing
I think this “Duck Crossing” traffic sign is for real. I found the crossing sign, along with many ducks and other water fowls, while walking the other day in the Marina Bay housing development in Richmond, California. Very Bay Area to try to keep them safe rather than hunting them. Perhaps today with the events in the world and our country we need a bit of gentle humor and happiness.
Duck Crossing © Harold Davis
Related image: Who put these ducks adrift in a bathtub so wide? (my very first Photoblog 2.0 image and story, from May 6, 2005).
July 6, 2016
Black & White in San Francisco: A Weekend Workshop with Harold Davis
Saturday November 19 and Sunday November 20, 2016
This workshop includes field photography in several Bay area locations, and monochromatic shooting techniques in the field. Classroom sessions will explore black & white conversion in Photoshop, Nik Silver Efex, and other plug-ins, and monochromatic processing. Emphasis will be on thinking creatively in black and white in the field, as well as fully understanding the myriad possibilities in post-production.
Tuition is $645 until August 31, 2016 (early-bird discount), and $695 thereafter. Click here to register and for more information.
The workshop will feature many of the field and processing techniques shown in Harold’s forthcoming book from Monacelli Press, The Photographer’s Black and White Handbook.
San Francisco Moonrise © Harold Davis
In this workshop, Master Photographer Harold Davis guides participants in all aspects of monochromatic digital photography and processing.
Sunset on the Bay © Harold Davis
Workshop participants will take advantage of several San Francisco Bay area locations, with field destinations to be determined depending on weather and group predilections. Possibilities include the Cable Car Museum, Fort Point, Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge. We will learn how to best to modify exposure settings when black and white is the ultimate destination.
Beneath the Berkeley Pier © Harold Davis
In the classroom, hands-on guidance will explain techniques for converting RAW files and extending dynamic range. Monochromatic conversion methods in ACR, Lightroom, Photoshop, Nik, Topaz, and Perfect B&W will also be covered.
Cable Car Flywheels © Harold Davis
In addition, the workshop will provide extensive coverage of the creative vision required to successfully create art-gallery quality monochromatic images as well as the workflow necessary to make art prints.
When: Saturday, November 19 and Sunday, November 20, 2016
Where: The classroom session of the workshop is hosted in Berkeley, California. We will car pool to field shooting locations.
Cost: Tuition is $645 until August 31, 2016 (early-bird discount), and $695 thereafter. Click here to register and for more information.
Noir City Dreams © Harold Davis
About Harold Davis
Harold Davis is a well-known digital artist and award-winning professional photographer. He is the author of many photography books. His most recent titles are The Way of the Digital Photographer (Peachpit) and Monochromatic HDR Photography (Focal Press).
In addition to his activity as a bestselling book author, Harold is a featured columnist for Photo.net. He has been acknowledged as a Moab Master printmaker and is known as a Master Printer. His limited edition artist book Botanique was featured most recently in Fine Art Printing, the only magazine devoted exclusively to fine art photographic printmaking. Harold’s work is widely collected, licensed by art publishers, and has appeared in numerous magazines and other publications.
Harold’s technique and destination photography workshops to such diverse locations as Paris, France; Heidelberg, Germany; and the ancient Bristlecone Pines of the eastern Sierra Nevada are widely popular and usually sell out quickly.
You can learn more about Harold Davis and his work on his website, www.digitalfieldguide.com. Harold’s blog can be found at www.digitalfieldguide.com/blog.
Story of O © Harold Davis
What some folks have said about Harold Davis workshops:
“A great artist and speaker!”
“Harold is genuine, generous, and gracious – He has a world of knowledge and expertise that he loves to share – his wonderful books show his monumental talents and skill set- his workshops shows the depth of his connecting with others in a very real and personal way.”
“Awesome! He patiently addressed questions from the audience, which contained photographers of all levels, molding his answers to the level of understanding for each of us. His presentations covered a wonderful range of technical knowledge as well as emphasizing the need for images to have an emotional quality. The images he shares are breathtaking and he is generous in sharing many facets of how he captures such beauty.”
“Not all photographers are good verbal communicators. Harold is someone who can DO and TEACH. A rare combination of talents.”
“Inspiring!”
“He was very giving of his talents and time. The course was very organized and thorough. Loved it! Learned so much!”
“Very creative and a marvelous instructor.”
Cayucos Pier © Harold Davis
Lonely Islet © Harold Davis
Click here to register and for more information.
July 5, 2016
Rooftops of Paris—Split-Toned Version
I used my image of the Rooftops of Paris as a demonstration image for my new book, The Photographer’s Black and White Handbook. In my book, I use the image to show how to accomplish split-toning via a color range that selection that is converted to a layer mask. Using the layer mask, whatever tone is desired can be applied to the image. With the layer mask inverted, a different tone can be applied to the portions of the image that weren’t toned the first time.
Rooftops of Paris © Harold Davis
Exposure and processing info: 90mm, 1/320 of a second at f/9 and ISO 200, hand held; processed in ACR and Photoshop; converted to black and white using a Photoshop adjustment; toning added for mid-tones to dark-tones using Nik Silver Efex High Contrast Preset with Cyanotype and to light-tones using Full Dynamic Preset with Sepia (both toning effects at partial opacity).
Click here to see the color version. I’ve been surprised to find the color version reproduced without authorization or licensing, which makes me glad to have Pixsy on my side.
July 4, 2016
July 3, 2016
As Time Goes By
On a late November wet afternoon, as dusk turned to sodden night, I wandered the banks of the Seine River with my camera. My idea was to render the street lights as an important graphic element of the scene, so I intentionally used a long exposure and introduced camera motion into the composition, then processed to exaggerate the impact of this lighting. Note the couple doing the romantic Paris kissing thing in the light of one of the street lamps.
As Time Goes By © Harold Davis
This image was originally presented in color in December 2013. As part of the Black & White photography book I am working on fro Monacelli Press, the chapter on special effects is set in Paris. I’ve reprocessed the image as part of a technique demonstration in my book.
Exposure and processing info: Nikon D800, Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 Distagon, 4 seconds at ISO 50, hand held; processed in ACR and Photoshop, special effect added in Nik Analog Efex, converted to black and white using Nik Silver Efex High Contrast and Antique Plate presets.
July 2, 2016
From iPhone to ART: A weekend iPhonegraphy workshop with Harold Davis
From iPhone to ART: The Art of iPhoneography
A Two-Day Weekend Workshop with Harold Davis, Saturday January 28 – Sunday January 29, 2017. This workshop will be hosted in Berkeley, California, and combine classroom sessions explaining iPhone camera and processing apps with field iPhonegraphy sessions at select locations in the San Francisco Bay area.
Floral iPhone Fun © Harold Davis
Tuition: $645 until September 30, 2016 (early-bird special); $695 thereafter. Click here for registration and information.
Those who have attended Harold’s previous iPhone workshop are encouraged to attend; newcomers are also welcome.
The iPhone is the most used camera in the world. As they say, the best camera to use is the one you have with you, and this is often your iPhone camera. Best of all, the iPhone is itself a powerful computer for processing your photos, so you have a digital darkroom in your pocket wherever you go. As Harold says, “since I have my camera and darkroom in my pocket, I am never again bored in a train station, or when dining alone in a foreign land!”
Mas de Garrigue © Harold Davis
The fundamental rules of photography still apply, and you can become a powerful photographer with your iPhone by learning the fundamentals of exposure and composition. The iPhone camera exposure and composition controls will be demystified in classroom sessions, and in practice in the field.
Classroom sessions will help you learn how to work with some of Harold’s favorite powerful iPhone post-production applications including Snapseed, Lo-Mob, DistressedFX, Waterlogue, Mextures, and Image Blender. You’ll have a chance to practice using these apps on your own with assistance and supervision.
Click here for registration and information.
Still Life in Silver Bowl © Harold Davis
Of course, your iPhone is more than just a camera. The computing power within a contemporary iPhone is greater than the computing power that sent NASA to the moon—and many photography apps take advantage of this “darkroom” in your pocket.
In From iPhone to Art, we will learn how to leverage our talents to make the best iPhone imagery we can. Demos, lectures, and hands-on exercises will explore the principles of photography as they relate to the iPhone camera.
Fetish © Harold Davis
Since the iPhone is the camera we always have with us, and since so much of our photography is done with the iPhone, why not be the best iPhoneographers we can be?
Master photographer and Photoshop guru par-excellence will show you some of the apps he uses to finish his iPhone images. Advanced topics will include texturizing and layering iPhone images.
The workshop will include several guided field sessions, in class processing help, and image critiques.
Click here for registration and information.
Maple Leaves © Harold Davis
Here are some comments from participants about Harold’s previous iPhoneography workshops:
“Thanks for a great workshop!”
“I never knew my iPhone could do so much. You’ve opened new horizons!”
“I enjoyed the class very much, and am having fun practicing with the new apps.”
“Great information. Thanks, I learned lots of new tricks and different ways of seeing things.”
Click here for registration and information.
Stage Set Two © Harold Davis
About Harold Davis
Harold Davis is an internationally-known digital artist and award-winning professional photographer. He is the author of many bestselling photography books including The Way of the Digital Photographer (Peachpit Press, awarded as a Top 10 Best 2013 Photography Book of the Year by Photo.net). Harold Davis’s most recent book is Achieving Your Potential As a Photographer: A Photographer’s Creative Companion and Workbook (Focal Press). His Photographing Flowers (Focal Press) is a noted photography “classic,” and is rated the Best Guide to Flower Photography byDigital Photographer Magazine.
In addition to his activity as a bestselling book author, Harold Davis is an Adobe Influencer, a Moab Master printmaker and a Zeiss Lens Ambassador. Harold Davis’s work is in collections around the world. It is licensed by art publishers, in annual reports, and has appeared in numerous magazines and many publications.
Pagoda in Nara © Harold Davis
Harold’s black and white prints have been described as “hauntingly beautiful” by Fine Art Printer Magazine, and his floral prints have been called “ethereal,” with “a purity and translucence that borders on spiritual” by Popular Photography.
Recently Harold Davis’s work has been exhibited in venues including Photokina in Cologne, Germany, PhotoPlus Expo in New York, the Gallery Photo in Oakland, California, the Arts & Friends Gallery in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Awagami Gallery in Japan.
Harold Davis has led destination photography workshops to many locations including Paris, France; Spain and Morocco; and the ancient Bristlecone Pines of the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.
Les Deux Magots © Harold Davis
Harold’s popular online course on Craftsy.com, Photographing Flowers, has thousands of students. His ongoing photography workshops in partnership with institutions such as Point Reyes Field Seminars, the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California, Maine Media Workshops, and the Heidelberg Summer School of Photography are continually in demand and popular.
According to Rangefinder Magazine, Harold Davis is “a man of astonishing eclectic skills and accomplishments.” You can learn more about Harold and his work at his website, www.digitalfieldguide.com and on his blog, http://www.digitalfieldguide.com/blog/.
Click here for registration and information.
Path beside the Rhine © Harold Davis
Chevy © Harold Davis
Click here for registration and information.
July 1, 2016
Three Cranes in Paris
This is a photograph of the Paris skyline from May, 2016 I recently processed for a current project. I like the way it shows Paris as a city always in transition, with the old buildings, the Eiffel Tower, and construction cranes all in the same breath. I used the same textures in combination to process this image as I did in Florence and the Arno River, for a romantic look, almost like that of a Renaissance-era painting, but here a little more crisply than in the Italian image.
For all you lovers of things Parisian out there: Can you identify the location from which this image was photographed?
Three Cranes in Paris © Harold Davis
Exposure and processing info: Nikon D800, Zeiss Distagon 135mm f/2, 1/6,400 of a second at f/4 and ISO 100, hand held; multi-RAW process in ACR and Photoshop; finished using Photoshop, Nik Creative Efex Pro and Nik Viveza, Topaz Adjust, and Topaz Simplify; three texture files added.
June 29, 2016
Inside Prague’s Old Town Square Tower
For a book about black and white photography I am working on, I needed a few more images from Prague in the Czech Republic.
This image shows the inside of Prague’s Old Town Square Tower. From the deck outside the tower there is a great view of Prague, and inside the tower the elegant spiral stair with an elevator in its center is really nifty, too! Click here for the original story from my 2015 visit to Prague (with the image in color).
Inside the Old Market Tower in Black & White © Harold Davis
Exif info: Nikon D810, 15mm Zeiss 2.8 Distagon, 1/60 of a second at f/2.8 and ISO 2,000, hand held; multi-RAW processed in ACR and Photoshop; converted to black and white in Photoshop and Nik Silver Efex Pro.
June 28, 2016
Negative-for-Positive Funhouse Fun
This is a photo of the Hall of Mirrors in Prague in the Czech Republic. To create the negative-for-positive effect—which is somewhat like looking at a film negative rather than a print positive—in Photoshop I converted the image to LAB color, then applied an adjustment to invert the L-channel. You can click here to see the original Hall of Mirrors image.
Hall of Mirrors LAB Inversion © Harold Davis
June 27, 2016
Full-Day Advanced LAB Color Seminar with Harold Davis
We are offering a new, full-day Advanced LAB Color Seminar for those who want to learn more about one of the most mysterious, powerful, and underused set of creative tools in Photoshop from Harold Davis, one of the world’s foremost experts.
This full-day intensive post-production workshop is specifically intended to explore the power and creative possibilities inherent in the LAB color space within Photoshop. Some prior experience with Photoshop is a prerequisite (check with us if you are not sure whether you have the background to successfully attend). Learn about the glories of creative LAB color from Harold Davis, one of LAB color’s best-known practitioners and the author of The Photoshop Darkroom (Focal Press)—the leading book explaining creative LAB in Photoshop.
Workshop limited to 14 attendees.
When: Saturday, November 12, 2016
Where: Berkeley, CA
Tuition: $245 until July 31, 2016 (early-bird special); $295 thereafter.
Click here for information and registration.
Echinacea on Black © Harold Davis
Understanding the creative use of LAB color in Photoshop unlocks a vast treasure trove of under-utilized and under-explored possibilities. Truly one of the secrets of spectacular color in Photoshop, if you know how to work creatively with LAB color you will far ahead of the game in terms of getting the results you want from Photoshop.
This workshop explains the structure of LAB color, and demonstrates inversions and LAB equalizations for both image optimization and creative fun. You will learn how to combine Blending Modes with LAB equalizations for an unlimited and powerful palette.
Three Graces © Harold Davis
This is information you will learn nowhere else. There will be ample time to experiment with adding LAB effects to your own work, with Harold’s guidance and feedback.
Harold says, “When I discovered LAB color, and how to use what has been called ‘the most powerful color space,’ I knew I was on to one of the great secrets of Photoshop.”
Low Geostationary and Decaying Orbits around the Clematis Inversion © Harold Davis
The Advanced LAB Color Seminar with Harold Davis covers:
Understanding LAB Color
LAB Color in Photoshop
LAB Channel Inversions
LAB Channel Equalizations
Downloading, installing and using Harold’s Photoshop LAB color action
Combining adjustments with blending modes
How to combine creative LAB with plugins such as Nik and Topaz
Creative LAB in a workflow
Examples and case studies
Using LAB in your own work for unique and powerful effects
Click here for information and registration.
Clematis on Black © Harold Davis
Translucency of Rosa on Black © Harold Davis
Succubus © Harold Davis
Back View Inversion © Harold Davis
Click here for information and registration.
Faulty Towers © Harold Davis
