News: Kingston’s “Icons of Photography” website (currently featuring Harry Benson)

Kingston Technology’s “Icons of Photography” website profiles some of the world’s most respected photographers and each month, the company spotlights a different Icon. There are many fantastic stories about what it’s like to be a professional photographer, and each photographer offers a lot of suggestions for how to make captivating images.

I highly recommend taking a look–I was truly inspired by the personal stories and images, and I learned a lot from the techniques.

The current Kingston Icon photographers with images and techniques on the site are as follows:

Barbara Bordnick
Claudio Edinger
Colin Finlay
Douglas Kirkland
Gerd Ludwig
Peter Read Miller
Chris Rainier

One of the prevailing bits of advice from a number of the photographers was to do research before a shoot, and learn about your subjects, whether they’re flowers or celebrities.

Here are a few suggestions for getting the most from the information on the website:

First, to go directly to the Kingston Icon Techniques and Galleries, visit this page. The current Featured Photographer is legendary image maker Harry Benson. Along the left side and top of the screen are links for Techniques, Bio and Calendar (see below). From the calendar link, I learned that Harry Benson will be at the Photo Plus Expo 2006, signing prints in the Epson trade show booth and speaking in the Canon trade show booth. The calendar has exact dates and times.

If you choose Techniques, you will find advice from each photographer in the main window, or you can see the technique in an easy-to-print format by clicking on the printer icon on the top right of the main window. A gallery of images for each photographer runs along the bottom of the page. The thumbnails will appear if you hover over the bottom of the main window. You can hover and navigate one by one, or you can select the slide show button on the left side (circled in the screen shot below) and a new image will appear about every 6 seconds. You can also use the forward and back buttons. One way to easily exit from the slide show mode is to click on the word Techniques, Bio or Calendar.

I recommend also looking at Harry Benson’s additional photo gallery which has more techniques and advice. It’s located in the Archives section. The gallery is filled with iconic political images by Benson from the last 40+ years. Barbara Bordnick also has two galleries in the Archives section that feature her excellent work.

I thought that this particular quote from photographer and Kingston Icon Claudio Edinger (located in the Techniques area of his page) was fabulous: “For those who want to enhance their own photography techniques, my suggestion is: Focus on photography. Shoot 12 hours a day…learn the works of accomplished photographers, painters, writers, musicians and artists in the world, and watch many, many movies.”

Gerd Ludwig’s Gallery section of the Kingston Icon site

Kingston will introduce a new Icons photographer on the 15th of each month. For more information about Kingston Technology, visit www.kingston.com.

Seminar/Workshop Announcements: Kevin Ames Workflow tour and PhotoPlus seminars

I’ve know Kevin Ames for many years and consider him both a friend, and a great instructor. His years of experience using Photoshop for his commercial and personal work, along with his straightforward teaching style combine to make his events worth attending. I attended one of his day-long Blue Pixel seminars last year in Washington, D.C. and thought that he offered a lot of good advice about Photoshop and overall workflow.

Kevin Ames

Blue Pixel Pro Digital Workflow Tour

Kevin is currently traveling across the USA on the Blue Pixel Pro Digital Workflow Tour. Seven cities have already been completed on this tour, and the following nine cities remain:

San Diego, CA 11/12/06
Seattle, WA 11/19/06
Phoenix, AZ 12/03/06
Miami, FL 12/10/06
Chicago, IL 01/07/07
Los Angeles, CA 01/14/07
Baltimore, MD 01/28/07
San Jose, CA 02/04/07
New York, NY 02/11/07
For more information or to register, visit www.bluepixel.net/proworkflow.

Kevin Ames at the PhotoPlus Expo 2006

Kevin Ames will also host three hands-on workshops for digital photographers of all levels at PhotoPlus Conference & Expo 2006, being held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City November 2-4, 2006.

Each session is two-hours, and the seminar descriptions are listed below:

Lighting without Lights: This session reveals the secrets of Photoshop’s new Merge to HDR feature. Attendees will learn the photographic techniques that make lighting without lights possible, as well as the ins and outs of working in High Dynamic Range. Thursday, November 2, 1-3 p.m.

Understanding and Using Lighting for Digital Photographers: This dynamic session explains and demonstrates how to light a professional model. Attendees will discover how to recognize and understand the qualities of light and how to control contrast. Saturday, November 4, 1-3 p.m.

Using Apple’s Aperture with Photoshop CS2: This session will show attendees the latest in RAW pre-production image processing featuring Aperture, Apple’s new pro photographic software. Ames shows that prepping your RAW files on a Mac just got a whole lot easier! Saturday, November 4, 3:45-5:45 p.m.

“By hosting these workshops along with Blue Pixel’s Pro Digital Workflow seminar series around the country, I am giving digital photographers a chance to learn and enhance their own techniques,” said Ames….I hope to illustrate how to apply these techniques creatively to get the visualized images of the mind’s eye out into the world for others to see and enjoy.”

For more information or to register, visit www.photoplusexpo.com

Kevin is also the author of a number of outstanding books related to Photoshop and Digital Photography, which you can find here.

NEWS: SVA to add MPS in Digital Photography beginning Fall 2007

The School of Visual Arts in New York City will offer a Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Digital Photography beginning in the fall of 2007. The new one-year degree program will become the fourth program in photography at SVA and looks to be an excellent option for those who want a program focused on the core subjects of photography and imaging, from capture to print.

The program will be chaired by Katrin Eismann, who I’ve known personally for about 10 years, and who I greatly respect for her knowledge and straighforward teaching style (whether in print, on video, or live). The program will consist of nine 3-credit courses and a 6-credit summer thesis project, including: Digital Materials and Processes; Digital Asset Management and Workflow; Personal Vision, Storytelling and the Art of Editorial Photography; Color Management and Output; Advanced Image Processing; Photo Illustration; Large Format Printing; Studio Management and Practices; and Scripting and Automation.

Katrin’s books (authored and co-authored in some cases) on digital photography and digital imaging techniques are some of the best available in my opinion. They include Real World Digital Photography (Peachpit Press, 2003), Photoshop Masking & Compositing (New Riders Press, 2004) and Adobe Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, Third Edition (New Riders Press, 2005). All of the books metioned, as well as some of Katrin’s DVD’s can be found here. Katrin is also a featured columnist in American Photo and Photoshop User magazines. I have been reading both magazines for years and highly recommend them.

I look forward to seeing the full list of classes, which will be available approximately Oct 1, 2006 on this page.

Here is a direct link to the press release, which contains a lot more info about the program.

-Andrew Darlow