Photoshopping and Printing Images

Centre for Contemporary Photography (Melbourne)
• 2019 dates TBA

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This introductory two day course combines a simple yet highly competent Adobe Photoshop post production workflow with the finest papers, inks and printers to create images otherwise unimaginable. This is much more than time and cost efficient editing and printing. As distinct from capturing an image, preparing and printing an image is one of the most generous and gracious acts photography has to offer. The materiality of the print not only profoundly transforms our image, it transforms our understanding of it, for a truly stunning photographic print confers not only a physical, but also a ‘metaphysical presence’. But understanding how this is done, let alone matching images to papers, inks, and surfaces can only be realised when we have the right tools and principles at our side. Ink and paper like Photoshop and photographic history are the equally indispensable tools in this process. It is about the ‘art’ not just the craft of post production. It is about realising and understanding our images like never before. Specific topics include:

Managing Photoshop
•  Choosing the right colour space and bit depth
•  Customising Photoshop workspaces, settings and preferences
•  Automating repetitive Photoshop tasks through actions that work
•  Understanding channel and layer operations
•  Navigating layer masks and local corrections
•  Are you a Slider, a Curve control freak, or a Blending Mode aficionado?

Compositing Photoshop
•  The three requirements for combining images together
•  Refining selection and masking techniques
•  Making a composite not look like a composite
•  Working creatively with blending modes – colour and tone equivalence
•  Luminosity masking – good enough for Hollywood, good enough for me
•  Creative image distortion

Imagining Photoshop
•  Superior B&W images from colour originals
•  Portrait retouching and hand colouring
•  Freaky Photoshop separation techniques
•  Substituting and enhancing luminosity
•  Split toning colour and B&W images
•  Enhancing the 3rd dimension with Reverse Overlay Masking

Ink and Media
•  Materiality: The five media classifications
•  Matching papers to images: The five characteristics
•  Commercial Papers: Resin coatings and fluorescence
•  Fine Art Papers: Alpha cellulose – cotton rag vs. wood pulp
•  Photographic Papers: Micro ceramic and barium sulphate coatings
•  Archival gamuts: Dye vs. pigment vs. chromogenic (Type C)

Printing a Digital Print
•  Printing through printer drivers vs RIPs
•  Output sharpening for print
•  Custom vs. generic printer profiles
•  Rendering intents and gamut compression
•  Viewing prints: Lighting, metamerism, and ink inconstancy
•  Protecting and annotating prints

The course runs from 10.00am to 4.30pm on both days, and includes generous breaks for individual consultation. It is organised around practical exercises that present unique solutions to common imaging problems, such as how to darken an image without destroying its colour. Photoshop poetics go hand-in-hand with fast and efficient processing, while key concepts from high Modernism as exemplified in the work of Olive Cotton and Max Dupain, to contemporary constructivist practices and contextual frameworks significantly enhance our creative output.

There is also an extensive workshop resource website with detailed course notes, videos, and test files.

What to bring?
While there are no prerequisites, please bring along anything that you think might be helpful, especially examples of your images (files and/or prints), and/or those of others, plus anything else that you feel could be relevant. Though not essential, participants are also encouraged to bring along a laptop computer with a recent version of Photoshop installed. Papers, inks and the printer will be supplied.

About Dr Les Walkling
Les Walkling is a renowned artist, educator and art consultant. Les has been teaching specialised workshops since 1977, and was the Program Director of Media Arts (1993 – 2005) and a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Art (2006-2010) at RMIT University. In 2012, he was named a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography, and also serves on museum boards/committees of management and cultural and technical advisory groups. As an artist, his work is exhibited and represented in many public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA), the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of NSW, and the National Gallery of Australia. In recent years his practice has expanded to include major collaborative projects with other artists including Peter Kennedy, Polixeni Papapetrou, Peta Clancy, Siri Hayes, and Bill Henson.

Cost: CCP Members: $495 incl. GST. Non-members $555 incl. GST
Bookings: Online Bookings or phone the CCP on 03 9417 1549
Venue: The Centre for Contemporary Photography, 404 George Street, Fitzroy, VIC.
Class Size: Maximum class size of 12
Course Duration: 10.00am – 4.30pm both days
Enquiries (Les): Email or +614 38 59 00 93