Category Archives: 2013 Italian Photographic Workshop
Last weekend I was trying to explain why I spend my time capturing images in the morning and I am not sure if I properly explained what happens with light. Light is soft before the sun rises. Sunrise brings a brighter harsher light which makes it harder to capture exposures properly.
Often mornings are the quietest time of the day when there is no movement in the leaves or the grasses in the fields. When conditions are right I can take one long exposure which captures the depth of field in the landscape while retaining the details in the shadows and not burning out the highlights. For me it is the easiest time to capture an image while being conscious of my surroundings before the distractions fill my day.
San Gimignano, Morning Mist
The last couple of years I have taken clients to San Gimignano to capture sunset. In 2013 I decided to stay over with the group to capture Sunrise and was excited to rediscovered this location down an old farm road with huge potholes where I had captured sunrise 20 years ago On other visits to San Gimignano I had looked for this shooting vantage and thought that it had been reclaimed by the Vineyards.
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2 Comments | tags: Digital Photographic Workshop, Italian Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Topaz Labs, Tuscany photo workshop | posted in 2013 Italian Photographic Workshop, Adobe CS6, Topaz Labs, Tuscan Harvest, Tuscan Photo Workkshop
It is hard to believe that another year is behind us and the holidays are hear. I am home from teaching my last workshop and have spent time working on some of the wonderful images that I have captured this year. I am very fortunate and have been to Venice for many shoots over the years and every time my eye see something new to photograph and sometimes improve on a composition that I have captured many time before. Sometimes it is new skills and sometimes it is a gift of the light early morning light.
Sunrise Venice Lagoon
This weekend I am heading to Columbus Ohio to participate in Winterfair my last show of the year and then settle in for a couple of months in front of the computer with new and old images and a nice hot pot of tea before I head to south for the winter show. I will be in booth # 1047 this weekend.
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Leave a comment | tags: Charleston Photographic Workshop, Italian Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Labs | posted in 2013 Italian Photographic Workshop, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Labs, Topaz Labs Adjust 5, Venice Italy Photographic Workshop, Vernice Carnival
It has been a great year out teaching photographic workshops and displaying my work at Art Fairs and I finally have time to work on new images with Photoshop and the Topaz Labs software programs.
Simplify 4 Painting – Oil Painting II
Simplify 4 Painting Oil Painting II
To start off the holiday season Topaz Labs Complete Collection will be sold for $199.99, which is almost 50% off the normal price of $379.99. The sale will run from November 28th through December 2nd
Click on this link to my website http://www.european-images.com/links.phpthe code for the discount is at my website and if you click on the link to the Topaz website so I get credit for the sale. I am hoping to do some onsite training for them and the more activity they see from me the better.
Simplify 4 Painting OP Black and White
Simplify 4 Painting OP Black and White
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2 Comments | tags: Charleston South Carolina, Charleston Spring Photo workshop, Digital Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Venice Photo Workshop | posted in 2013 Italian Photographic Workshop, Charleston Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Southwest Photographic Workshop Tour, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Labs, Topaz Labs Adjust 5, Topaz Simplify, Venice Italy Photographic Workshop
First stop for this Novembers workshop is the Valley of Fire about an hour north of Vegas. With some of most interesting colored and textures sandstone in the southwest it is a great location to start this shoot.
Sunset near the Fire Wave – Valley of Fire, Nevada
Valley of Fire processed with Topaz software
I used Topaz Labs software to process this image and in a few steps I was able to transform this image from an nice sunset image into a exception sunset. Often when I am on location the light and feel of the images cannot be completely captured by my cameras and I find that by using Topaz I am able to convey what I saw and felt in the processed file for printing.
Valley of Fire sunset – unprocessed image
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2 Comments | tags: Digital Photographic Workshop, Italian Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James | posted in 2013 Italian Photographic Workshop, F-Stop, Paul Christopher James, Photoshop CS6, Slot Canyon workshop, Southwest Photo Workshop, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Labs Adjust 5, Topaz Photo Software, Valley of Fire, Zion National Park
Topaz is running a big promotion on there Bundle starting June 24th going through July 7th.
The promo code for this discount is: july4
Topaz Labs designed the software plug-ins for Photoshop that I used to processes this image, they help me produce an elegant image with a very intuitive software.
If you use my link at http://www.european-images.com/links.php they are able to see that I referred you and it gives me credit as an affiliate.
Topaz Labs designed the software plug-ins for Photoshop that I used to processes this image, they help me produce an elegant image with a very intuitive software.
Sunset is Waiting, Topaz Adjust 5
Sunset is Waiting
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Leave a comment | tags: Digital Photographic Workshop, Italian Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Photographic Workshops | posted in 2013 Italian Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Photoshop CS6, Topaz Labs, Topaz Labs Adjust 5
San Gimignano, Topaz Clarity finished with Topaz Lens Effects, Vignette
I captured this image of San Gimignano, Italy at sunset in late October in 2012 while teaching a workshop. The sky that evening had some clouds but not where I needed them and so we waited. The clients had taken some nice images of San Gimignano with the vineyards in the foreground and a clear blue sky. We had starting the days shooting before sunrise and everyone was getting a little antsy and were ready for dinner. A few had already pack up and were waiting by the van to head home for the night.
I knew that the best chance for everyone to get a great image we needed to wait for the light. I had been on location once when the sky was uninteresting and decided to pack up and leave only to see a spectacular sunset in my rear view mirror. There is never any guaranties on what type of light we will have when we are out shooting but I can guarantee that we will be at great locations capturing the changing light and waiting for the the magic to happen.
San Gimignano, unprocessed image
This unprocessed image was captured as the clouds rolled in after sunset with an aperture of F/11 at .5sec. After the sun set I was able to eliminate clipping in both the highlight and shadow areas.
Topaz Clarity Color and Contrast Boost II
I decided to process this image using Topazes new clarity software. Often I will stack an image in layers and this worked well for this image. The 1st layer I applied Color and Contrast Boost II and liked the effect but like Oliver Twist I always want a little more. The next layer I applied CityScape II and which I liked even more but kept looking at other affects and liked Macro II. All these effects were processed in progressive layers with Topaz’s Clarity software. But always wanting a little more I decided to vignette this image using the Lenses Effects software by Topaz and was excited with the finished image.
Topaz Clarity CityScape II
Topaz Clarity, Macro II
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3 Comments | tags: Italian Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Sunset, Tuscany photo workshop, Venice Photo Workshop | posted in 2013 Italian Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Photographic Workshops, Photoshop CS6, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Labs, Tuscan Photo Workshop 2013, Tuscan Villa, Tuscan Vineyard, Venice Italy Photographic Workshop
Over the last couple of years the changes in the software for photography have made it an interesting time. This morning I revisited one of the morning images I captured in San Marco during a storm while teaching there and I am very excited on how it turned out. I would have been a completely acceptable darkroom image but by using Topaz software and a little healing and cloning in Photoshop I was able to make this image pop. When I look at this processed image I can feel the moisture on my face and the freshness of the salty breeze coming in from the lagoon.
Morning Storm, San Marco
This October I plan on arriving in Venice a couple of days before the private workshop I am teaching there. It will be nice spending four or five days shooting in Venice in October before heading towards Lucca to start teach my scheduled workshops.
Morning Storm, San Marco, unprocessed image
This is one of the rare weekends that I have off from the Art Fairs and teaching and it has been good catching up on odds and ends. Tonight a little after 6:00 pm I pick up my Uncle Jack at the train station in Ann Arbor and tomorrow morning at 12:30 am I retrieve my brother Robert from the airport and when everyone is rested and ready we descend on my sister to pester and help her get ready for my nephews High School Graduation party on Saturday.
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4 Comments | tags: Digital Photographic Workshop, Italian Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Tuscany photo workshop, Venice Photo Workshop | posted in 2013 Italian Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Photoshop CS6, Topaz Clarity, Venice, Venice Italy Photographic Workshop
The brush tool in Lightroom 4.4 can be used to create a wonderful selective black and white images. When working with this image I ask myself what would make this image more interesting, what could give it more character! With this image I decided that if I created a black and white and then painting the colorful tablecloths back into the image would make this image stand out.
Venice café – Lightroom 4.4
I first took used the brush tool in Lightroom 4.4 to desaturate this image and then using the same brush tool I selectively colored the tablecloths. After I painted the tablecloths back into the image I took the image into Tonal Contrast in Nik software to bring out the details in this selectively colored black and white. To finish the image I used the vignette tool in Lightroom.
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2 Comments | tags: Digital Photographic Workshop, Italian Photographic Workshop, Nik Software, Paul Christopher James, Tuscany photo workshop, Venice Cafe | posted in 2013 Italian Photographic Workshop, Lightroom 4.4, Nik Software, October 2013 Italian Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Venice Cafe, Venice Italy Photographic Workshop
Chianti is dotted with wonderful old villages and Castello’s that I am able to visit while teaching location workshops every October. I pulled this image to work on after hearing from a client that he and his wife are going to be joining me for the Tuscan workshop that finishes up in Rome. The village cats were taking shelter from the rain in this little passage way adding to the character of this image. When I am teaching I am always looking for interesting compositions for the class and subjects that have character and stand out. Often the rain ads that little extra character to an already interesting image.
Village Cats of Chianti – Tuscan Photo Workshop
After a few adjustments in Photoshop CS6 I used Nik software Color Efex Pro to give this image a little punch.
Village Cats of Chianti – Tuscan Photo Workshop
After processing this image as a color image I used Silver Efex Pro 2 to make a wonderful black and white image.
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Leave a comment | tags: Digital Photographic Workshop, Italian Photographic Workshop, Nik Software, Paul Christopher James, Tuscany photo workshop | posted in 2013 Italian Photographic Workshop, Adobe CS6, Chianti Italy Photo Workshop, Nik Software, Paul Christopher James, Photographic Workshops, Rome Photgraphic Workshop
I was looking through my images of Cinque Terre and wanted to share this wonderful sunset I took during one of the workshops that I teach every October. I take the groups on a wonderful hiking trail to this vantage point above Vernazza for sunset. I love this soft pastel light when the sky is painted with purples and reds as the day turns into night. After a day of shooting and hiking in the Cinque Terre I have am always ready for a wonderful meal in one of the small restaurants. This area with the moisture from the Mediterranean is famous for its Pesto which is my favorite but you may prefer the seafood pasta prepared with fresh fish that the locals bring in daily.
Pastel Sunset – Cinque Terre, Italy
To process this image I used Photoshop Elements 11 and the Nik software plug-ins Vivesa and Color Efex Pro 4.
Dinner in Vernazza
Everyone is ready for a great meal in Vernazza after a fun day of capturing images.
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1 Comment | tags: Digital Photographic Workshop, Italian Photographic Workshop, Nik Software, Paul Christopher James, Vernazza Italy | posted in 2013 Italian Photographic Workshop, Adobe CS6, Cinque Terre Photo Workshop, Color Efex Pro 4, Italy, Photographic Workshops, Vernazza
