Kevin Ames

Bridging the Digital Workflow with Lightroom & Photoshop

Kevin Ames
Atlanta, GA
Ames Photographic Illustration Shooting pictures is what we do. More than that it’s what we love to do! Archiving them on the other hand is what we have to do. The workflow challenges faced by photographers who produce any volume of images sets the stage for this workshop. Kevin outlines workflow problems and solutions to get photographers out from in front of a computer and back where you belong—behind the viewfinder!

Developing your own workflow - We’ll start by shooting at the beautiful Chaminade resort. After the shoot the day is about setting up Adobe Lightroom to handle the heavy lifting of importing and archiving and all the steps in between. By dinnertime you’ll have Lightroom ready to handle any volume of work while making bulletproof archives of your precious digital camera originals.

Bridging Lightroom to Photoshop - We'll use Lightroom to edit the hundreds into the heroes for presentation to your customer. This includes techniques for editing and choosing your best work, global and local enhancements in Lightroom as well as using it for creating slideshows and websites. Finally it’s about using Photoshop to refine the selects into saleable merchandise. File preparation is the topic and setting up layers, adjustment layers, layer masks and using the power of Smart Objects are some of the techniques we’ll cover.

Profitable Retouching - Little things count in retouching. Eye enhancements, skin smoothing and sometimes even body sculpting and shaping are part of the recipe for the perfect photograph that a customer falls in love over. We'll build the skills that add the little extras that mean so much and dollars as well. These techniques translate from the fine portrait to product and landscape as well. Bring some your challenging images (RAW and working PSD's) and we’ll tackle those too.

What to Bring - Camera, lenses, tripod, memory cards… the stuff you take on a shoot that makes your pictures sing. A fast lap or desktop computer with lots of RAM, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4 installed and working! Card reader, power supply all the goodies that make your ‘puter its lovely best. At least one and preferably two external hard drives of at least 160GB. Finally bring a large amount of curiosity, playfulness and sense of fun. We are going to work hard and play even harder. Questions are always welcome!