Check out the June issue of Photoshop User for a feature article I wrote called Metamorphosis: In Search of the Transformed Image. It covers a variety of techniques that I use in my digital darkroom work for treating the initial image as the point of departure and transforming it into something just beyond the edge of a literal image.
Note: The collage of the woman with the butterfly mask on the opening spread is the work of the talented Taffy Orlowski, one of the design team at Photoshop User.
The image below, Dresden Passage, and the process used to create it, is one of the photographs featured in the article. See below for the original version of the image.
Dresden Passage, 2004
Below: the original image
(click in the images to see them larger)
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Camera Raw 4.1 Update
Adobe has announced a significant (and free!) update to Camera Raw. Unlike most interim upgrades, this one contains far more than support for the newest cameras (though there is that, of course). Camera Raw 4.1 features substantial new functionality for sharpening images (including the ability to use the existing tonal map of the image to create a virtual "mask"), enhanced noise reduction capabilities, a new defringing control in the Lens Correction tab and a new Clarity slider in the main image controls tab for applying adaptive midtone contrast adjustments. All in all, it's a very impressive upgrade and if you're using Photoshop CS3, it's highly recommended. You can get to the Adobe Camera Raw 4.1 download page by clicking here. Jeff Schewe has an interesting article on the new Camera Raw features over at Photoshop News.
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Featured Workshop
The Creative Digital Darkroom
July 29 – August 4, 2007
Santa Fe Workshops
If you're interested in a week of creative Photoshop and digital photography (including panoramas, HDR, multiple image composites, and my "metamorphosis" techniques), then consider joining me in Santa Fe, New Mexico this summer for my Creative Digital Darkroom workshop.The workshop is based on concepts, philosophies and techniques that are covered the book I am currently finishing up with Katrin Eismann, The Creative Digital Darkroom, due out this fall from O'Reilly Media, Inc. The digital darkroom lab at the Santa Fe Workshops is one of the best I have ever taught in. Each student has a G5 Mac with a cinema display with access to an HP Designjet pigment printer. We'll be exploring all the cool new features in Adobe Photoshop CS3 as well as Photoshop Lightroom. We'll also have some photo excursions during the week for practicing creative camera and exposure techniques, including a foray into the magic of night photography.
















