Guy Gowan's Wedding Workflow Seminars.

CabanSail

I suppose a lot of you may have already received the email to advise you that there are going to be two seminars by Guy Gowan about his Wedding Workflow. I have seen parts of this in the past but never the whole lot together. I do not do weddings but I if I were then it would be a definitely worth going.

DCC will be giving away a free pass to the Dublin Seminar at next Tuesdays meeting to one lucky member.

NEW WEDDING WORKSHOP WITH ‘GUY GOWAN’ – ‘THE ULTIMATE WEDDING WORKFLOW’



Workshop sessions

1 - How to shoot for the Album

Design the Album and then shoot it! Create images which will give you maximum flexibility for designing your album.

2 - Guy’s Wedding Workflow

Build a process and create a workfow which manipulates the Wedding images with speed, flexibility and most importantly - Quality.

3 - Album Creation and Design

Watch and learn how the Bridge, Photoshop and InDesign work together to create multi frames, albums and books with ease.

4 - Good into Great

Guy demonstrates how to control the conversion process to create stunning Monochromatic images.


DUBLIN EVENT DETAILS

Date - Sunday 27th September 2009

Location – Dublin

Venue - The Louis Fitzgerald Hotel Newlands Cross Naas Road Dublin 22
(Behind Joel’s Restaurant) - http://www.louisfitzgeraldhotel.com/

MIDLANDS EVENT DETAILS

Date – Monday 28th September 2009

Location – Athone

Venue – The Hodson Bay Hotel Athlone Co Westmeath
http://www.hodsonbayhotel.com/

Parking - Free

Time – 09:30 – 17:00

Fee - €95 per person

Email Anne –info@guygowan.com

Tel Anne +353 (0)87 2457018

Registration - will be from 09:00am and will start at 09:30am sharp

smelltheglove

Yeah I'm hoping to attend, it would be nice to see how he works.

oshead

It clashes with a strobist meet on the Sunday. So i've booked the Monday session in Athlone.

smelltheglove

I havent gotten my triggers yet so wont go to this strobist, I'll do the dub session.

oshead

I wouldn't worry about not having any particular kit. People usually share and combine gear to get the shot.

CabanSail

The Seminar finishes at 5pm.

What time is the Strobist Meet?

oshead

In the afternoon.

kjt

oshead wrote: »

It clashes with a strobist meet on the Sunday. So i've booked the Monday session in Athlone.

Ditto

CabanSail wrote: »

The Seminar finishes at 5pm.

What time is the Strobist Meet?

This one is a bit earlier than usual 11-2'ish

eas

I'll be at the Sunday talk, if anyone wants to say hello.

cheers

smelltheglove

yay, hope to see you there, you can sit beside me if you're nice!

smelltheglove

Hi guys, heading to this tomorrow, I complteely forogt about it, just wondering are we actually supposed to bring naything with us? Also who else is going? I know eas anyway but anyone else? I always feel better when there is someone I know, even if it is only cyberly, close by.

CabanSail

I thik you will need a notepad & pen.

smelltheglove

I'm off to search the drawers. Just wanted to be sure we didnt need to bring the laptop or anything, I remember going to a class before and they wanted us to bring laptops, didnt even use them.

smelltheglove

So guys went to this today, firstly it was great meeting up with people from here, eas, kjt and oshead.

I had a fantastic time, Guy Gowan explains things in the most simple terms that even a numbscull like me can get. What I have learnt today will probably reduce my time spent on the edits etc by at least 60%. It was amazing to see how different it is from a photographers point of view to a designers point of view. I can think off the top of my head numerous people that would argue against some of the statements made today but it all makes sense, i.e. 100ppi for an image in the album, but when considering the fact that it is only going to be printed to a certain size it is understandable that you do not need the full 240 or 300 ppi that you would need if blowing up an image.

I have a lot of things to do now with making new actions etc but I cant wait to hear the better explained thoughts of the other guys, who no doubt will make this post look like it has been written by a 2 yr old with fancy words and technicalities.

Money well spent in the end.

smash

smelltheglove wrote: »

I have a lot of things to do now with making new actions etc but I cant wait to hear the better explained thoughts of the other guys, who no doubt will make this post look like it has been written by a 2 yr old with fancy words and technicalities.

Email Guy and ask him for the actions, I did this after a seminar before and he sent them on to me.

smelltheglove

Thanks Steve, I have most of them done now, there is one I'm unsure on so may email if i dont get it right tonight.

oshead

I've just built them myself. Seem to be working fine. Really like the effect. I guess I'll email him for them too and compare to see what i'm missing.

oshead

smelltheglove wrote: »

Thanks Steve, I have most of them done now, there is one I'm unsure on so may email if i dont get it right tonight.

Which one is that?

smelltheglove

I think I have it right now. My curves was the opposite way so I adjusted it and all seems ok, it was the contrast ones which didnt seem right.

CabanSail

It really is a very logical way to work. I am now adapting Guy's techniques I have learned to try to acheive what I have in my mind. The good thing is that once you have done it once you can then easily repeat it on another shot.

AnCatDubh

Not knowing very much about the chap and not using photoshop leaves me somewhat curious and puzzled - what is it that the guy does (g'dit guy = GUY, ok - perhaps too early on a monday ) that makes the Guy Gowan Technique the karma sutra of post processing.

BTW - Good rationale Smelltheglove referenced in downsizing your image to that which you actually need before you go working on it.

smelltheglove

Well I think a lot of what he does is common sense as soon as you hear it, its just the manner in which he works. He explains that he is coming from a graphic design side rather than photography side so his approach is more about getting the work done than looking at every shot individually.

Now I like individual attention but these numerous actions etc mean you get the majority of the work done and do your individual attention details at the end if required.

In fact its almost like a reverse process to the way I have worked, and only recently I have been finidng that I am losing enthusiasim with my processing, with these actions it is more likely to be a more enjoyable experience, i.e. the numpty dumpty work can be done through the actions without me and the interesting fun bit I get to enjoy with a fresh head.

Recently I have been doing processing over days, coming and going rather than getting bored so this saves me that extra time and the need to push myself to sit in front of the computer doing trivial things.

Now doesnt that sound like a well worded post for me, I sound smarter earlier in the morning:D

CabanSail

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Not knowing very much about the chap and not using photoshop leaves me somewhat curious and puzzled - what is it that the guy does (g'dit guy = GUY, ok - perhaps too early on a monday ) that makes the Guy Gowan Technique the karma sutra of post processing.

He explains a bit of it himself on his website.

This is my own take on it, after being to a few seminars & talking to the Guy a bit too.

The basis he works from has it's roots in the printing industry, where he started out. They have been used to working with Pixels & colour channels long before us photographers came along & they had methods they used to apply. These are the main methods that Guy employs with the software of today.

The Philosophy he has is that the techniques must be Non-destructive & variable. This is why he despises Slide Bars & I have never seen him use them. He calls those who use then "Whangers". Each adjustment done is normally through a mask, so as to only target the pixels that need to be worked on. Most images will need exactly the same steps done, so he shows you how to write actions & use droplets.

There are a lot of other things he does, but it all seems to make a lot of sense.

stcstc

my issue with downsizing the image before working on it is what happens when you then want a big version


for example a portrait

client asks for a 12*8, so you work on it at that size, client then comes back and asks for a 30*20. that means you have to do one of 2 things

scale up the processed version

or

produce the right size then re process


well thats if i am understanding what guy is suggesting correctly

smelltheglove

Yes what guy says is process the image and if in the album you zoom into the image quite close it may become 100 ppi, however in general for the album the 100ppi would suffice, it is during the album stage that the final process is done also.

stcstc

ok, i am not sure i quite understand

I thought what you were saying he said was to scale the image down before processing, knowing that it was for a small print


also, anyone with a decent eye would see 100ppi on a print, if its not a perfectly exposed, sharp image etc

particularly in something like an album, as its something you hold quite close


what is the benefit of using 100ppi, i guess its file size etc

BUT storage and computers dont have a major prob with 300ppi or above generally anymore, so why compromise

AnCatDubh

I was following the rationale along the lines of more compact file size = less time processing (machine processing less) - although 100ppi did sound a little low tbh.

This was brought home to me this weekend when I shot a few with my first DSLR so effectively I went from shooting 15mpx per image to 6mpx per image.

Oh lord, but those 6mpx images were just sweet to process.

Maybe my computer hardware isn't up to scratch but there's a lot to be said for the time and resulting productivity boost that I gained from working with the lower quality image.

I appreciate that if you go too low, then large reproduction is likely to be a non option. But to my mind, you'd have to be thinking about the time factor of working on a 15mpx image as opposed to 6mpx.

I'd also guess if having to go back large may involve reprocessing the image, but if I gather correctly from what the people who've been to see this guy are saying, then processing isn't a serious issue because you've moved from processing individual image manipulation to more 'action' based processing. Hence you go back to the original image file size, and apply a string of actions.

It also strikes me that rather than a post processing methodology of fiddle a bit here, fiddle a bit there, like many of us (myself with hand up) have, that you move to a known, understandable and reproducible way to process. Hence no issues with reworking a file.

Out with individuality and in with batch it would appear from what is being said. That in the best of commercial minds will make perfect sense - creatively it may not, but then again if you are looking at 2000 wedding shots then surely there is space for generic processing to an extent of the run of the mill stuff, and then you put painstaking work into the really special shots of the day.

*all of the above without knowing what he actually said

eas

in relation to the 100dpi comment, I think he was referring to output only and more exactly the effective ppi and actual ppi within InDesign. I think his point was simply that images have different needs depending on the size they will be printed. It was a bit latter in the afternoon and my brain was wondering a bit, but I'm pretty sure he'd never suggest working a high rez file into low rez manually unless / until it needed to for output reasons.

Out with individuality and in with batch it would appear from what is being said. That in the best of commercial minds will make perfect sense - creatively it may not, but then again if you are looking at 2000 wedding shots then surely there is space for generic processing to an extent of the run of the mill stuff, and then you put painstaking work into the really special shots of the day.

Exactly, this was the key takeaway for the day. I'm still thinking it over in my head, but same as STG I think I can realistically save myself 30%-40% of my PP time by using his actions at the right time in my workflow. I'm still up in the air a bit on a few of his key points and how they relate to me - but it's always nice to have food for thought on these things.

smelltheglove

Well basically you will not be working on a low res file. What you will be doing is containing the high res file but not worrying about the fact that if you crop in close to an image the ppi on that selection may be 100ppi, not the whole image. i.e. I have a 240 ppi image that is 8x12 in size, may page is 8x8 so the image is reduced to an 8x8 by crop containing the 240 ppi. Now I want to zzom in to the picture and closer to the faces say, so I scale the image up in the program, which means even though the whole image is still 240ppi the active selectiont hat will go into the album is actually only 100ppi, if that section of the image is going on 1/2 of the page then in fact 100ppi will suffice as the printed selection will only be 4x4.

God Guy explains this better than I do, but maybe that will cealr things up a little. In the end you still have your full image but your print within the album is smaller.

Also he explains the fact that you may not need 12mpx, so if you have a 12m shot and you want to crop it to half the size 6m is what you end up with which is still acceptable, ya get me?