High-end printing workshops -- good value?

[DanK]

P.S. While I have not witness this myself, I have spoken to judges who have been to events where one of the entrants has an ego issue and can get quite abusive toward the judges when their work is not scored at a level the entrant feels to be appropriate.

Not surprising, but I'm glad to say I haven't witnessed it, even when the judge involved wasn't very competent.

[brucehughw]

Hi, Allan.

I've been watching some of the LuLa videos with Charles Cramer. Great material. I was worried that it would just be a poor-quality recording of a workshop with him up front talking (sort of like the B&H videos). Instead, we get these neat little Q&A sessions that get right to the point and last only 10-20 minutes or so. I'm really glad you mentioned LuLa, so thank you again. Bruce

Bruce as per your post #4, I did a day with John Paul Caponigro when he was up in Toronto, did his Fall Colours, would like to do his Advanced Printing Workshop. As these are done in Maine I need to plan a interesting return trip to Ontario. The best one was with the late Michael Reichmann who I crossed paths with in Toronto one day just wandering around, he was doing the same so I asked him if I could join him and wander we did. Later went back to his office/studio/gallery and talked prints, he love to teach and freely gave his knowledge. Learned a lot just listening.
I paid $12.00 USD a year for the Luminous Landscape, an excellent series was the Maters with Charles Cramer, and two essays titled Beyond Calibration and Beyond Calibration 2, well worth the $12.00 just for those alone.


Cheers: Allan

[brucehughw]

Got it. Yes, those little details really make a difference. I see you're not just taking a wall or simimilar and overlaying tonal variation on it. You're finding (to repeat) those little areas that have interesting content and drawing it out. Very nice. Thanks.

Let's look at the image from #12. The first is effectively SOOC and the second one has a good deal of dodging and burning. Click on one of the images in Lightbox and toggle back and forth between them. This is an image I am preparing for a 17" x 22" print that I will be printing on Canson Baryta Photographique.


Look at what happens along the roof lines of the buildings, especially the green copper roofed tower and also the bright lit areas along the lower parts of the building and along the wall. These are the types of areas I am referring too.

[Polar01]

Glad that you are finding them helpful, I really did. Of the two Beyond Calibration I found "2" most interesting as it answered some of the questions that I had. The thing I believe that helped my printing the most was creating tonal screens 0 to 35 so I could see at what tonal value the blacks went from blocked up to opening up. At the time I had a Epson 4900 and it allowed me on a certain stock to see that everything below 6 was more or less appeared pure black and that the tonal quality opened up at seven. Hope that makes some sort of sense, after you read it is should make sense.


Cheers: Allan

[Manfred M]

Got it. Yes, those little details really make a difference. I see you're not just taking a wall or simimilar and overlaying tonal variation on it. You're finding (to repeat) those little areas that have interesting content and drawing it out. Very nice. Thanks.

Exactly!

The part that I can't show is that I also soft-proof the images as part of the tweaking process and do a number of test prints to see how the tweaks actually end up looking like on a print.

[FinlayCole]

What similar workshops can you suggest? Thanks.

[Manfred M]

What similar workshops can you suggest? Thanks.

If you are referring to printing workshops, you will have to check around wherever you live. These workshops tend to take place at a physical location where the instructors lives and works.

Creating a high quality print is all about preparing the image for print, doing prints to ensure what you are doing is working and finally creating the full-sized output.

[Helly123]

The workshop sounds cool, I would really like to have the opportunity to attend one. But, I will consider the options for taking an online course. I think that perhaps during the training I can use tips from https://edubirdie.com/chemistry-help as it is so useful in this area. Perhaps the online course will be as great as the offline classes.

[Manfred M]

Unfortunately, that not an option to find physical location for some.

Agreed, but any skill that involves the physical manipulation of tools is hard to learn remotely.

Would you think learning how to drive a car via a YouTube tutorial or web-based seminar is appropriate way to get that skill?

I have been fortunate to study under a couple of master printers and what I found to be critical is both of us looking at the print output at the same time, under the same lighting conditions made a lot of difference in my personal development. Printing is all about subtleties that simply cannot be seen in a YouTube video because of resolution issues.

I know attempts are being made and I know that one of the people who taught me will be trying online teaching this fall. I will be chatting with him during and after the course he gives this fall and reserve judgement on that one.

If anyone is interested, here is the link to that course:

http://spao.ca/printmaking-ii-essentials-2020f

It is a lot less expensive that these super expensive ones one sees listed online and is offered by an accredited bricks & mortar photography school. The instructor is considered to be one of the top mountain and glacier photographers in Canada, he does run a small custom commercial printing company. In non COVID-19 times, he usually has one or two shows one man per year at one of the local galleries.

[brucehughw]

Hi, Manfred.

I took an advanced photoshop class with spao earlier this fall. I really enjoyed it. I'm glad you told me about spao.

thanks, Bruce

Agreed, but any skill that involves the physical manipulation of tools is hard to learn remotely.


If anyone is interested, here is the link to that course:

http://spao.ca/printmaking-ii-essentials-2020f

It is a lot less expensive that these super expensive ones one sees listed online and is offered by an accredited bricks & mortar photography school. The instructor is considered to be one of the top mountain and glacier photographers in Canada, he does run a small custom commercial printing company. In non COVID-19 times, he usually has one or two shows one man per year at one of the local galleries.

[Polar01]

Bruce I know of a good printing workshop, he does not run them that often. It is usually a one day thing and you take home as many prints as you can do. Usually only 6 per workshop. You work with him and his master printer, I was going to take it all signed up and paid, then the lockdowns can, when that happen he quickly made sure that you were refunded your money. He is close to your neck of the wood in Maryland, ok maybe not that close but closer than Toronto Canada. His name is Les Picker, he has a free print e-book, so check out his site. He is a really nice person.

Cheers and stay safe: Allan

[DanK]

Looks like that course is not offered by SPAO currently. They have their more basic printing class in-person, and neither online: http://spao.ca/part-time-2021w

[Manfred M]

Hi, Manfred.

I took an advanced photoshop class with spao earlier this fall. I really enjoyed it. I'm glad you told me about spao.

thanks, Bruce

No problem Bruce. One of your classmates (Alan Cameron) mentioned to me that someone from the Boston area that heard of SPAO from me at CiC was taking the course. I wondered if it was you and now I know.