Gimp Magazine issue #4 is about to launch

Debi Dalio and I teamed up to write a number of things for Gimp Magazine.  It'll all come tumbling out shortly.

Steve, the magazine's editor, says...

• FEATURE: An Interview with professional photographer and digital artist Christopher Mark Perez.  This is an incredible feature story about Christopher and how he achieves his mind blowing photography and digital art creations.  This is an absolute must read for photographers or digital artists of all skill levels...
  
• Did you ever want to know how to create a vignette that doesn’t look photo-shopped?  Learn how to create a proper vignette using GIMP software from the pros Christopher Mark Perez and Debi Dalio.  This is also an essential read for photographers who want their images to stand out.
  
• Did you ever take a nice photograph, but it looked boring?  Add some style to it from the pros by creating a vintage look.  Christopher Mark Perez and Debi Dalio have delivered a tutorial on how to colorize in GIMP to give your photos an authentic vintage look....
  
• And to wrap up this issue Christopher Mark Perez delivers an outstanding Master Class of how to create a professional looking portraiture.  This is where Christopher’s experienced photography and digital arts excellence collide to provide incredible results.  And Christopher has graciously shared his process with everyone in this feature-length master class.

That's awefully kind of him.

I can't wait to see if our work lives up to those description.  Something about how we Americans tend to be "over the top" in our descriptions of things...  :-)

Studio Lighting - Day Three

On the third day of our photographic studio lighting workshop we continued working with the classic north light with fill card setup.  We worked with a harsh overhead movie style lighting.  The students seemed to really like the movie style lighting.

Here is the lighting diagram for the classic portrait lighting setup.

Here is the lighting diagram for the overhead movie lighting setup.

The following is an example of how I've used this kind of lighting setup.  I absolutely love it too.  So it wasn't just the students who enjoyed this setup.

The following is the email I sent after our Day Three workshop.

Dear WICE Members,

I enjoyed working with you in our three day workshop on photographic studio lighting.  I hope you had at least half as much fun as I did.  Your work is wonderful and it's good to see you take to the art the way you did.

As a parting shot, here are a few things for your consideration.

Remember Bill Gekas and if you like his work, take the time to reverse engineer the lighting and you too can come away with similar results.

Add Kristy Mitchell to the list of strobist photographers to study as well.  She does a great job with "concept" work and then expressing it photographically.  For studio work, I've found it works best to be begin with and idea and Kristy does just that

For a movie style, "edgy" lighting style, take a look at Joel Grimes work.  With a two light system and a reflector, you can approach the kind of work he does.  This is one area we did not explore in our workshop.  If it's something you're interested in, let the Director or Visual Arts know and maybe WICE could offer a workshop in just this kind of approach.  To be effective, it would include three areas of work: studio and field, as well as post-processing.

One last thing; if you don't own studio flash and, perhaps find it too technical, you can get incredible results from simple day light through a window.  I LOVE this as it proves that all you need is light.  Just about any kind of light will do.

The possibilities are endless, which is why I've tried to concentrate on the simplest, most "classic" art approaches to lighting.

Additional resources include the Strobist blog, the Online Photographer, and, for passing the time with nothing better to do, the Nikon, Canon, and Sony rumor sites.

Have a great summer and, with luck, perhaps we'll see you next fall.  I'll be around all summer, so if you're in town, look me up.

Happy Photography!!!

Kindest Regards - Christopher Mark Perez