How do you make your digital images look like film?
This insightful one-hour class with celebrity portrait photographer Elizabeth Weinberg will walk you through exactly what goes on behind those Instagram filters and editing programs, so you can understand the fundamentals of light, color, grain, saturation, and – in essence – make your digital photos not suck.
Elizabeth walks through the 4 telltale signs of ugly digital photos:
- No grain
- Terrible skin tones and highlights
- Chromatic aberration
- Oversaturation
...and how to fix these issues quickly and easily.
This class is perfect for photographers of all levels – whether you're just starting out, or if you've been shooting for years and want to hone your processing style.
Join Elizabeth in her digital darkroom (Adobe Camera Raw) for a crash course in photo editing, and leave with the skills and confidence to add a signature cinematic style to your own portraits.
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What You'll Learn
- Processing photographs. Elizabeth will walk you through her processing toolkit to show you how to view digital files, adjust them to look more natural, create a consistent look for an entire shoot, and hone your signature style. Whether you are a dipping your toe into beginner photography or expanding your practice, Elizabeth's lessons will help you develop your editorial eye to create more expressive, polished work.
- Creating your own. You will be invited to adjust your photography files with the help of Elizabeth's tips, and to submit them along with the raw files for constructive feedback and review.
- Analyzing digital files. Elizabeth maintains that one of the most important parts of a photographer's work is how they process their files. Before you learn how to adjust raw files though, you need to know the drawbacks of shooting with digital cameras – and how to correct for common "ugly digital" mistakes. Elizabeth will explore concepts like color, saturation, and grain to help you train your eyes to see digital files for what they are – groups of adjustable pixels – and how to finesse them into whatever you would like them to express.
- Honing your toolkit. You'll learn the ins and outs of Adobe processing programs, including when and where to use Adobe Lightroom, and when Adobe Camera Raw will work better for your creative purposes. Elizabeth will also go over the basics of the Adobe Camera Raw adjustment panel, giving you a guide for how to adjust color, vibrancy, tone, shadow, and exposure to enhance your photography's film-like qualities without the time and expense of film itself.
- Digital presets. Elizabeth will discuss why she often avoids the filters that are built into social media applications like VSCO and Instagram – and will reveal the only time she believes they help her create exceptional, effective art. She will also show you how to correct batches of photographs at once, and discuss how the right filter can have the wrong consequences if shots are taken with different lenses or on different days.
- Color correction. You'll review how a photograph's color is affected by setting, time of day, and camera ISO, and how photographers can use basic color theory to set a mood or define their personal style. You'll play with your toolkit along with Elizabeth as she guides you to notice and address skin tone and other common challenges the way that she does. She also reviews how to apply color strategically, enhancing shadow and highlights with different filters to create more evocative, moody work.
- Create grain and mood. Elizabeth will talk you through what photography "grain" is, and how it can be used to create cinematic photographs with the click of a few buttons.
- Fixing aberrations and blown-out highlights. You'll learn the step-by-step ways to correct for common digital file challenges like chromatic aberrations and overexposed patches of light. You'll also develop methods for coaxing more texture out of backlight photography, and to adjust your whites and highlights to make more natural, beautiful photographs.
