Meeting Minutes: Women In Focus, April 8, 2009
Taken By: Valerie Gruner
Meeting presided over by our President, Gittel Price
Members and Guests Present: Gittel Price, Toni James, Phyllis Waugh, Anna Brady Clark, Valerie Gruner, Shelia Robinette, Debra Booth, Katie Brown, Sarah Lindkrantz, Jennie Helderman, Myrtie Cope, Anupama Vishwamitra, Jan Kapoor, Virginia Twinam Smith, Gail DesJardin, Sheri Garza-Pope, Denice Lee, Teresa M. Sims, Dana Kemp, Becky Ollinger, Allison Flowers, and Turner Krueger.
Guests:
Phyllis Waugh came from Woodstock after finding out about WIF from the website. She shoots everything and everyone.
Katie Brown came from the mountains as a friend of Sarah’s. She shoots a variety of subjects.
Allison Flowers shoots children and is looking to do photography as a professional, and she wanted an opportunity to network with other photographers. She met Susan Todd-Raque and investigated our website
Members in Shows:
In the Atlanta Photography Group’s Photographer’s Choice Show, running until May 15 at the Tula Arts Center Gallery, are Anne, Berry, Debra Booth, Ruth Gogel, Joanne Green, Valerie Gruner, Jan Kapoor, Shelia Robinette, and Virginia Twinam Smith.
In the Trees Atlanta Show are Gail DesJardin, Gittel Price, Sarah Lindkrantz, and Katie Brown.
Ruth Gogel and Valerie Gruner both have pieces in the Dogwood Show at the Atlanta Artists Center through the month of April.
In the Heritage Show in Roswell are Kate Lynch, Gittel Price, Debra Booth, and Theresa Sicurezza.
Reminder:
USE THE WEBSITE! If you see mistakes, let someone know. If you see omissions, let someone know. We want the website to be useful. Use it - it’s helpful.
Next Month:
Our speaker in May, on the 13th, is Susan Todd-Raque, who will be speaking about what’s going on in the retail art market.
FYI:
On Wednesday, April 15, at the Atlanta Photography Group gallery in Tula, Lisa Moore, a GLA attorney, will be speaking on, and answering questions about, legal issues pertaining to photographers.
Speaker: John Clemmer - www.johnclemmerphotography.com
I, Val Gruner (your secretary), would like to apologize in advance for my poor note-taking on this speaker. I am very, repeat, very unschooled in the use of Photoshop. During John’s talk, I attempted to follow along on my own laptop, and in some ways, I believe that this helped, and in some other ways, did not help. Understanding the speaker and his/her subject is essential in good note-taking, and I fell short on my job for this speaker’s talk.
John was not into keyboard shortcuts. He said he only knew one, and a really cool one at that, which I thought I had taken adequate notes on, but, alas, I can’t make heads nor tails of what I wrote down.
When working in Photoshop, always work on a duplicated image, so that the original image is not compromised.
Instead of using the gradient tool to darken your image, John recommends another method. First, duplicate your image and darken the whole thing in curves. Then pull the original over top of darkened image. Use the eraser tool employing a diffused (soft edged) brush to erase the portions of the image that could use darkening so that the darkened layer underneath comes through from underneath.
To save an image, go to layer in the top tool bar, click on flatten, then save. This saves the image as you’ve worked it. If you want to save an image you’ve been working on so that you can continue tinkering with it, save it as a layered file.
To change opacity on an image you want to layer onto another image, something about go to Layer Style, then click on Blending Options, choose a low percentage of Opacity, then you can use a diffused brush to blend out gradually the portions of the top image to reveal the bottom image.
If you want to choose to work on more than one layer, hold down the shift key to select.
You can use the keyboard arrows to move an image slightly. You can also use the arrows in curves.
Only shoot in RAW, and if you don’t, convert your image in Adobe Camera Raw. (I tried this with my Photoshop CS2, and this option was not available. I think John was working in CS3, so 3 and up should have the option.) Also, in CS3 in Edit – Preference (on PC) you can choose to edit jpgs in Camera Raw.
A question about changing white balance was asked. Open your image in Adobe Camera Raw, and using the Fill Light lever is the magic touch.
View your images in Photoshop at 25%, 50%, or 12 1/2 %. Don’t use 33.3%.
To sharpen an image: Go to Filter in the tool bar, click on Sharpen, click on Unsharp Mask. Radius should be set at 1.0, Threshold at 0, then you change Amount.
John also recommended a sharpening software, Photo Kit Sharpener ($100-$150). You can use it to sharpen in a zillion ways. It’s the cat’s meow.
Calibrate your monitor, not your printer. Go to Color Management and choose Photoshop Manages color. Go to Printer Profile. Rendering Intent go to Relative Colormetric. Black Point Compensation should be checked.
Go to Edit in Photoshop and choose Color Settings. The settings should be:
RGB - Adobe RGB (1998)
CMYK - U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) [down arrow]2
Gray - Gray Gamma 1.8 (for Mac) / Gray Gamma 2.2 (for PC)
Spot - Dot Grain 20%
RGB, CMYK, Gray - all Preserve Embedded Profiles
Under More Options
Engine - Adobe (ACE)
Intent - Relative Colormetric
check Black Point Compensation
check Use Dither 8
don’t check the last two.
There was something about Actions, download Actions Central. I don’t know, I was completely lost at this point.
There are cool options if you go to Edit, then Fade. Click and play.
Ladies, I cannot express how sorry I am for this dismal showing as your secretary. Thank goodness the tape of the program that Toni James made turned out well, and we are looking into getting it posted to the website for members only.