Harold Davis's Blog, page 81
September 20, 2018
New on my website and blog
I’ve added some content recently that may interest you. This is in addition to my regular postings on my blog, which I think of as my “Daybook”—in the sense that Edward Weston had a Daybook, which he used to jot down his contemporaneous thoughts about his photography, and his life.
Anyhow, the new pages on this website are:
An online gallery of X-Ray and Fusion X-Ray images
FAQ: X-Ray Photos of Flowers
FAQ: Multiple Exposures of Models
Link page for my online course Photoshop: Backgrounds and Textures
Link page for my online course Photographing Flowers
Rising © Harold Davis
September 19, 2018
Detailed Malta Day-by-Day Itinerary—November 2018
We’re delighted to have available the detailed itinerary for our November 2018 Destination Photography Workshop to Malta (as a PDF download). Click here for more info.
Making this visit especially timely: Valletta, Malta is hosting the title of European Capital of Culture in 2018! This destination photography workshop includes many extras such as a Heritage Malta pass to most Maltese attractions for each participant. Click here for the detailed day-by-day itinerary (PDF) and here for the Reservation Form.
September 18, 2018
Three, Eight, Nine
Do I Know You? © Harold Davis
Eight © Harold Davis
Nine © Harold Davis
Models: Do I Know You? and Eight, Gin N Tonic; Nine, Zoe West. Gallery of Multiple Exposure images; an introduction about how these images are made.
Free Live Webinar: A Creative Palette of Possibilities Using Topaz presented by Harold Davis
When: Tuesday, September 25 2018 at 2PM PDT.
Where: At your computer, anywhere!
Registration Link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5500202857890891778 ***The webinar is free, but registration is required. Early registration is strongly suggested!
What: In this all-new webinar, Harold Davis demonstrates how he uses Topaz Studio, Glow, Adjust, Simplify, Impression, and Texture Effects as a creative palette of possibilities for taking his work to the next level.
Harold will show his favorite effects within each of these Topaz Photoshop plugins, and demonstrate how he combines the use of the Topaz software with the use of Photoshop layers, masking, and blending modes for pinpoint control and enhanced creativity.
Harold notes that he is “often asked by clients to make very large prints. While I am working with high-resolution RAW files, I still need to enlarge these for good results. With the release of Topaz A.I. Gigapixel, I have a new and excellent tool for my resizing needs.” This webinar will conclude with an overview demo of how Harold includes A.I. Gigapixel in his printmaking workflow.
There will be time following the presentation for Q&A, so please attend with your questions in mind.
About Harold Davis: Harold Davis is an internationally recognized digital artist and photographer, the bestselling author of many books about photography, and a notable photographic educator and workshop leader. He is a Moab Master and a Zeiss Ambassador. His website is www.digitalfieldguide.com.
Be sure to stick around after the webinar for a short Q/A and to see if you’re one of the 2 winners of the Topaz Studio Gro Pro Adjustment Bundles that we’ll be giving away.
September 17, 2018
X-Ray Photography and the Inner Form of Beauty
The process of making these x-ray images of flowers and shells is more like making a photogram—what Man Ray called a rayograph—than it is like using a conventional camera. The flowers are arranged on top of the capture medium, in this case a digital sensor and then exposed. But the exposure is to x-rays rather then to light in the visible spectrum, as in a photogram, where objects are placed on top of a photosensitive medium (historically, more oftern emulsion-coated paper rather than a digital sensor).
X-Ray, Sunflower © Harold Davis
The x-rays reveal the inner form and shapes rather than the surface manifestation of the object. It is possible to look at the petals of a flower as though they are gauze or veils, and to see the capillaries within a leaf.
Spray Roses X-Ray © Harold Davis
Rather than the surface of a shell, when the x-ray “camera” is pointed at a shell, the inner spirals, shapes, and forms of the structure is revealed.
Shell Collection X-Ray © Harold Davis
More: Revealing the Unseen with X-Ray Photography of Flowers. Sometimes the seen and the unseen, the surface and the shapes within, come together by combining high-key visible light photography with x-ray captures: X-Ray and “Fusion” X-Ray Images of Flowers.
September 16, 2018
Visit Paris in the Spring with a small group of Photographers
Visit Paris in the Spring with Harold Davis and a small group of photographers. Click here for more information. Features after-hours artist access to Monet’s delicious gardens at Giverny!
September 15, 2018
Announcing a new session of Photographing Flowers for Transparency—June 22-23, 2019
We’re pleased to announce by popular demand a new session of Harold’s acclaimed Photographing Flowers for Transparency weekend workshop, to be held in Berkeley, CA Saturday and Sunday June 22 and 23, 2019. Enrollment is limited. Registration is now open on a first-come-first-served basis.
Click here for more information about this workshop, here for the Photographing Flowers for Transparency FAQ, and here for Harold’s upcoming event, workshop, and destination photo tour schedule. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!
The Photographing Flowers for Transparency workshop is a great deal of fun, and covers Harold’s light box techniques as well as related topics (see the partial list below). If you are interested in Harold’s unique approaches, this is the best way to learn. Each participant will produce their own fully processed images following Harold’s lectures and demonstrations, and with Harold’s personal hands-on supervision.
Flowering Dogwood & Friends © Harold Davis
Topics covered in the Photographing Flowers for Transparency Workshop include:
Floral arrangement and composition
Botanical art in the digital era
Shooting on a light box
Understanding high-key post-production
Working with Photoshop layers
High-key HDR
LAB color effects
Backgrounds and textures
Preparing to make floral pigment prints
Tips & techniques from Harold Davis
Implementing one’s own vision
Flowers at School © Harold Davis
Here are what some participants in Harold’s recent Photographing Flowers for Transparency workshops have said:
“Harold is unmatchable! An honor to be able to be able to have him as a mentor…. for photography and for life.”
“AWESOME!!! Harold has a great teaching style, and it was great to learn some new shooting and post-processing techniques.”
“Excellent!!! Recommend to anyone who wants to take their flower art to the next level.”
“Amazing teacher! Patient, knowledgeable, thoughtful and sharing, easy to learn from. Looking forward to many more workshops with Harold! What a total gem… “
Floral Composition © Harold Davis
From Harold’s introductory note to workshop participants:
My belief is that folks learn most when they are hands-on, and having fun. So we will be doing a great deal of flower arrangement and flower photography—and I think along with new ways of seeing, you will learn some techniques, and ways of using your camera, that may not have occurred to you before.
These new approaches are great with flower photography, but also go way beyond floral subject matter, and are really applicable to many kinds of photography.
Besides floral photography, floral arrangement, working on a light box, and various kinds of special lighting effects, we will be exploring high-key HDR, post-production in Photoshop, backgrounds and textures, and LAB color, and much more. As you can see, it will be a very special, busy, and creative weekend!
Click here for more information about this workshop, here for the Photographing Flowers for Transparency FAQ, and here for Harold’s upcoming event, workshop, and destination photo tour schedule. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!
Kiss from a Rose © Harold Davis
September 12, 2018
Photoshop: Backgrounds and Textures with Harold Davis Now Live!
I am very pleased and excited that my online course Photoshop: Backgrounds and Textures is now live.
Click here to view my course on LinkedIn Learning and here to view my course on Lynda.com. There is a free preview. The full course is behind the paywall, but note that a free trial subscription is available for one month.
The description of my course follows below the image! Please let me know what you think.
Poem of the Road © Harold Davis
Course Description:
Turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Learn how to transform relatively straightforward photographs into distinctive visual art, using Photoshop backgrounds and textures.
In this course, photographer and digital darkroom expert Harold Davis walks through the technical specifics of adding backgrounds and textures to your Photoshop compositions, and provides the inspiration and resources you need to get fantastic results.
Learn how to provide context and “frames” with backgrounds, and use textures as nondestructive overlays to enhance the look and feel of your images. Harold shows how to use scans and photos of found objects as the basis for custom textures, and even license textures from commercial libraries.
Plus, discover a post-production workflow for the iPhone that maximizes your flexibility, mobility, and creativity, and explore four iOS apps that Harold recommends for iPhone photography.
Topics Include:
Using blending modes, masks, and selections to build backgrounds
Creating and sourcing backgrounds
Creating effects with textures
Adding textures to portraits and landscapes
Licensing textures
Creating texture-based effects on the iPhone
Duration: 2h 18m
Click here to view my course on LinkedIn Learning and here to view my course on Lynda.com. There is a free preview. The full course is behind the paywall, but note that a free trial subscription is available for one month.
September 10, 2018
Under the Wide and Starry Sky
As Robert Louis Stevenson put it, “Under the wide and starry skies glad did I live.” But if you live in a city or even a town, it is likely that you don’t often see the wide and starry skies in all their glory.
Nothing compares to the experience of lying out under the stars and watching the Milky Way and our fantastic galactic core rotate their amazing show through the heavens—seen here with Ladyboot Arch in the Alabama Hills east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the foreground.
Ladyboot Arch © Harold Davis
Exposure data: Nikon D850, 28mm, 30 seconds at f/3.5 and ISO 3,200 with minimal post-production.
September 8, 2018
Rainbow Falls in Black and White
I hiked into Rainbow Falls in Devils Postpile National Monument. No rainbows this day, but a great waterfall in monochrome!
Rainbow Falls in Monochrome © Harold Davis
