AtkinsTechnicolour, photo processing services for photographers who want the best.

This morning Paul Atkins will lead the final session of the 2012 Summer School.
There are still seats available, if you are interested, be at the lab for a 9.30am start.
more info action on the Summer School

You never quite know what Norman Weedall will say or do. It is part of his boundless charm. Well he was in full flight this morning, the attendees had a great time and came away with an understanding of the subtleties involved in making great portraits.

What I took away was the importance of confidently controlling your subject. Portrait photographers rarely deal with experienced models, subjects rarely know what they want or what will make them look good. Norman can affect control with humour and confidence.

Unfortunately there is no substitute for practise and experience. This is something you need time to perfect.

Our 2012 Summer School begins today with ~Posing and lighting for portraits

Norman Weedall

Monday 23rd January 2012, 9.30am – 12.30pm
by Norman Weedall
Bring a camera if you wish to, but a sketch pad is more useful to note lighting positions and body form.

• Since the great masters of paint and sculpture, there have been defined posing and lighting techniques that bring the best out of your subject.
• Learn how to bring out a subjects’ strong points and handle them with confidence.
• The best posing does not look ‘posed’.
• Good lighting and posing will cut down your post production time significantly.
• Norman is trained in classical portrait lighting and posing and has been a professional photographer since the late 1970s when he started Gainsborough studios, Norman has won many awards, and his school of professional photography has produced more “photographic businesses” than any other SA education institution.

Lightroom 3.0 is a great tool, but it has some serious issues that have tripped up the most experienced users.

The real trouble-maker for professional photographers is the fact that your RAW files can only be viewed in Prophoto RGB colour space. This has been misleading because no display system can render that colour space, so the LR view of an image was always a long way away from a printed version. Has this been addressed?

Well yes, partly. In the Develop module, there is now a softproof tool, allowing you to see your image using a selected printer profile to constrain the view. Will this work? We certainly hope so! What would we prefer? An overall preference option to view in Prophoto, AdobeRGB or sRGB in all modules, plus the softproof option in the Develop module.

The one thing notably missing feature is a facial recognition engine to tag files with subject names…please hurry up with this Adobe! Metadata adds value to your images.

Here is a list of the key changes in LR 4.0:

• Softproof option in Develop Module (would be lovely if you could change the default profile from ProphotoRGB to AdobeRGB so in Library module etc things would be closer)
• Maps module. Full support for reading geotags to maps from both the camera and putting back geotags into files via a map. Great idea, the more metadata, the more value to any image.
• Video support. This is a biggie, develop functions to colour correct videos, timeline clipping, and a few more neat tricks.
• Develop module tweaks. There are a lot of fine improvements here, and some that go through to the Adjustment Brush. Many fixes.
• Book design intergration with Blurb. Nice one Blurb.
• DNG improvement. If you use DNG format you will see improved speed and a few new features with LR 4.
• Print module tweaks. I don’t agree with the brightness and contrast compensation sliders, they are very un-scientific. However, this may suit some users who avoid buying a good display and participating in colour management. Professionally we call this ‘Fudging’, and in our experience this can be very wasteful.
• Email directly from the file menu. Minor but very helpful to productivity.

Should you participate in the Beta test? If you have the time and patience. Remember, Lightroom 4 is not ready to ship. It is free. As a beta tester, you are finding bugs for Adobe. I’d hold back if you are a busy person, or someone practised at eating chocolate slowly.

Here is the link to the Lightroom 4.0 beta download.

This years’ SS starts next week, and positions are filling, so book to secure your place.

To book: phone or call into the lab on 08 8431 6755 by the 18th January 2012
Cost: $65 per atendee per session, to be paid at time of booking
Special price: $260 for all five sessions if booked and paid for by the 19th January 2011

Click here for more information.

The wonderful gang at the CCP are showcasing their facilities on January the 21st from 10am to 4pm. We would like to encourage you to visit Gavin, Aaron and the staff, as this is a first rate facility, independantly run here in SA.

Click here for more information on the CCP.

Summer School 2012:
Where:AtkinsTechnicolour, 89 Fullarton Road Kent Town

To book: phone or call into the lab on 08 8431 6755 by the 18th January 2012
Cost: $65 per atendee per session, to be paid at time of booking
Special price: $260 for all five sessions if booked and paid for by the 19th January 2011

Click here for more information.

We have a range of gift vouchers to suit any budget. Just telephone, email or visit to purchase your gift voucher.

We are open Friday and Saturday morning before Christmas, and will reopen the fist week of January.

Happy Christmas!!

Trading and operating: AtkinsTechnicolour will be open the week prior to Christmas and Saturday morning (Christmas Eve) the 24th of December until 12 noon for pick up. We will re-open January 3rd 2012.

Production:We will be producing work at normal turn around times right up until Christmas Eve, urgent work will be accepted if a contact is made prior to submission to secure a place in the workflow. As of Monday the 19th of December, we have cut off framing and some mounting services because the queue is full.

Freight: Australia Post and Toll, our regular carriers, remind us that it this time of year is very busy and it would be wise to allow additional days in shipping.

Beautiful work accompanied by beautiful music. Ben’s exhibition “Open Mic USA” is at Suzi Wong’s Port Road.