All posts by Mark Wallace

Mark is a traveler, photographer, and writer.

Useful Info, workshops January 4, 2008 4 Comments

Color Management Essential Training from Lynda.com

Lynda-logo

One of my favorite sessions of my Digital Photography 101 course is the session on color. We talk about additive and subtractive color, the cultural meaning of color, how color has impacted photo-journalism and about color management. Although we do discuss color spaces and using a workflow to get consistent and accurate color there is always so much more to discuss.

I was excited to see that Lynda.com (on of my favorite sites) has just announced a new course on color management. If you’re looking for some great training on this subject then this is a great place to get started.

Color Management Essential Training is an in-depth exploration of applying color theory and color management workflows in various graphics applications. Part 1 (chapters 1-9) explores color and color management theories, while part 2 (chapters 10-20) teaches actual color management techniques that can be incorporated into workflows. Beginning with definitions for such terms as hue, saturation, and metamerism, instructor Chris Murphy teaches the processes for getting consistent color in every stage–from input and edit through final output–and delves into color management principles for the web, prepress, and print. He also details specific color management workflows in Adobe Illustrator CS3, Photoshop CS3, InDesign CS3, Acrobat, and QuarkXPress 7. Exercise files accompany the tutorials.

Topics include:

Grasping basic color management
Understanding spectral power distribution and illuminants
Distinguishing color from digital color
Solving color problems
Profiling and calibrating printers
Working with Mac OS X
Tagging, embedding, and assigning color profiles
Finding the proper workflow balance
Using application-specific color management processes

Useful Info January 2, 2008 No comments

Chase Jarvis with Pocket Wizards for POV cam

I recently published a short tutorial for setting up a Pocket Wizard system. One of the things I didn’t talk about too much is some of the things you can do with the Pocket Wizard controlling the camera. Here’s a great video of Chase Jarvis shooting some point of view shots using a very neat rig.

news January 1, 2008 No comments

New Blog for 2008

I’ve been working hard to upgrade our blog. I switched our blog engine from dasBlog to WordPress. One of the things I didn’t like about our blog was that it wasn’t very evident who was posting what. In fact, some people didn’t even know that there are two different people writing this blog. Now our blog clearly shows who wrote which entry and hopefully that will help keep things straight. Now it’s easy to tell if a post is from Diane or me.

I’ll be making some other changes to our website in the coming weeks to help delineate Diane’s work from mine. Over the past year we’ve started to see more and more people get Diane and I confused (for the record: Diane is the cute one). Hopefully some changes to our website and some smart branding will help to clear things up.

Another cool WordPress feature: blogging from our iPhones. Yes, Diane finally got her iPhone as well. This will allow us to post more “behind the scenes” photos and keep you updated when we are on the road.

The new blog will also allow us to grow. Although we’re not planning on anything in the near future I do want to add some new instructors for our workshops and as the studio grows we may need some new photographers as well. We’re planning for future growth.

I’ve spent a few hours trying to make sure all the glitches are worked out but I’m sure a few will still pop up from time to time. If you notice a broken link or something wacky please post a comment and let us know.

Please Note: our RSS feed has changed. For those of you who wish to subscribe to our blog please use the new RSS address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SnapfactoryBlog

models, portraits December 28, 2007 6 Comments

Ying

Thursday afternoon I continued shooting more beauty shots. Ying was another new model to me. Here’s one of the shots I liked.

Ying
© Copyright 2007 Mark Wallace/SnapFactory

models, portraits December 28, 2007 6 Comments

Katie

Thursday morning I continued my quest to shoot 20 models for my “Beauty” portfolio. Five models down, 15 to go. Katie stopped in and we shot for a couple of hours. Diane is doing all of the hair and makeup for these photo sessions. Her work is incredible. Awesome work Katie and Diane!

Katie Reed
© Copyright 2007 Mark Wallace/SnapFactory

models, portraits December 28, 2007 No comments

Ceara

Ceara came in to the studio on Wednesday for some beauty shots. This was our first time to work together and I can’t wait to have her back. We got some terrific shots from her session. Here’s one that I really liked.

Ceara
© Copyright 2007 Mark Wallace/SnapFactory

Digital Photography 1 on 1, Studio Lighting, workshops December 27, 2007 No comments

Setting up a PocketWizard system

In this episode Mark explains how to set up a Pocket Wizard system. Mark also explains how you can mix and match lighting equipment from different manufacturers.

models, workshops December 18, 2007 2 Comments

Lilli

Lilli was in the studio again last night. We shot a few beauty shots. Here are a couple that I really liked.

Lilli will be the model at our January 19th Studio Lighting 101 workshop.

WQ2U6224-Edit
© Copyright 2007 Mark Wallace/SnapFactory

models, portraits December 9, 2007 1 Comment

Caroline

Caroline Diep of Ford Models came in to the studio today for some new beauty shots. I’ve worked with Caroline a bunch of times before and it was great to work with her again. Diane did some amazing work with Caroline’s makeup and hair. I also had Angie from yesterday’s class there to assist. It was a good day all around.

Behind The Scenes, studio, workshops December 9, 2007 No comments

Studio Lighting 101 + iPhone = fun.

We had a great time in our Studio Lighting 101 workshop yesterday. We had a great group of students. During the workshop I took some snapshots using my iPhone just for fun. Here’s a low resolution look at some of the fun.

The first lighting setup of the day. This was a basic 3 light setup with a two lights added to give the background a bit more light. We mixed our Profoto equipment (foreground) with our student’s equipment (background lights) to illustrate how to mix and match lights. Our model, Amanda JoLynn, sits patiently while we discuss the different options.

Another shot of Amanda, this time from the reverse angle.

Students Johanna and Praveen makes some adjustments to the lights for one of the setups.

Students shooting Amanda. Praveen, Johanna, Dave and Hartono are shown. I think those are Angie’s hands just to the right. The white blob is our studio dog Luka.

Diane gives some pointers to the students. Left to right; Angie, Stacy, Dave, Praveen and Diane.

Johanna holding a reflector.

Angie saying, “WOW! I love the ring flash!!” Amanda smiles in agreement (every model loves the ring flash) and Johanna agrees in the background.

Dave getting in on the ring flash fun. It’s just too good to pass up!

Dave, Praveen, Diane and Hartono.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Thanks to such a great group of students. We’ll be adding more workshops in 2008. We’re working on the schedule and will be posting it soon. I hope to see a lot of new faces in the coming new year.

All posts by Mark Wallace

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