Free February Webinars from X-Rite Cover Color, Editing and Enhancement

X-Rite Photo Marketing announced its schedule of February 2012 Webinars that have been developed to address specific color management topics and are designed to appeal to both professional and serious amateur photographers.

Learn how to edit images in LightroomFebruary Webinar Schedule

Thursday, Feb. 9, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET, Editing Portraits in Photoshop & Getting Prints Back that Match Your Display!
Spend an hour with host Joe Brady learning how to edit portrait photographs to create images clients will love. Joe will share some of his favorite techniques, tips and tricks for adding shape, direction and finish to portraits. From simple blemish removal to complex reshaping of body parts, these step-by-step tutorials will enhance your Photoshop skills and improve your editing quality and speed.

Before starting any serious editing, it’s critical that a photographer’s monitor is calibrated and profiled. Joe will start with a short profiling demonstration and then dive into Photoshop edits.

Topics that will be covered include the why and how of monitor calibration and portrait edits from minor to major including: correcting color casts, exposure issues, blemish removal, body re-shaping, skin softening and “glows”, layer masking for local control, light shaping, adding “pop” to flat images, image sharpening and preparing files for lab printing.

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 11:00 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET, Image Edits and Enhancements in Lightroom 3
While many photographers have become comfortable with the basic image edits available in Adobe Lightroom 3, some of the more powerful image editing capabilities remain a mystery. Host Joe Brady will explore both basic and advanced image editing techniques in a software program every photographer should have.

Joe will first discuss Lightroom’s Library Module and deciding how and where to organize images. He will also discuss how to make sure a monitor is calibrated to show the most accurate color so that prints will match what is seen on screen as closely as possible. Joe will also share his favorite editing tips, including

retouching, creating masks for local adjustments, using the gradient tool, cropping for composition and other fine details to best prepare a file for printing.

Topics that will be covered include why monitor color is important for Lightroom 3 (and what can be expected in LR 4?) and image edits and batch processing including: Global image edits, local color and light adjustments, retouching both skin and landscape blemishes, composition, image sharpening options, and preparing files for lab printing.

Wednesday, Feb. 15, 1 p.m. ET, For the Birds! Nature Photography with Maxis Gamez
Nature photographer Maxis Gamez specializes in bird photography. As a self-taught photographer he views the world from a different perspective capturing powerful images that have been featured in Audubon, Shutterbug, Outdoor Photography Magazine, and Nature Photographers Magazine.

Maxis will share his secrets for capturing amazing images of birds relying on X-Rite color management solutions and Nik Software to enhance and finish his images. Attendees will learn how the X-Rite i1Display Pro and Nik Software’s Viveza 2 can give them the creative edge they need. Using live software demonstration Maxis will share some of his techniques for creating amazing bird photographs. He will demonstrate how to pull details from digital images using Nik’s Control Points showing the before and after results.

Who should attend: amateur and enthusiast photographers, nature and wildlife photographers, bird and raptor specialists, and birders interested in photography.

Thursday, Feb. 16, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET, Edit & Enhance Landscape Images in Photoshop
Photographers spending an hour with host Joe Brady will learn how to enhance landscape images using Adobe Photoshop. Joe will share some of his favorite techniques and processes to bring out the beauty in landscape photography and will share his workflow, decision-making process and enhancement techniques to bring life into image files that just don’t match the beauty and spirit of the scene the way it’s remembered.

Following a short discussion about workstation color and calibration, Joe will show attendees step-by-step Photoshop edits that they can put to work right away to bring life and drama back into their landscape images.

Topics that will be covered include monitor color for consistent results and image edits from minor to major, including: Using Adobe Camera Raw – even with JPEGs, exposure, contrast and light shaping, global and local color adjustments, compositing new skies, composition, removing unwanted elements from an image, image sharpening options and preparing files for lab printing.

All Webinar registration can be found on XritePhoto.com. Visit the Webinar page found under the Learning section.

Free Color Management Webinars in January from X-Rite

Color management webinarsComing up this month for photographers, labs and photographic and fine art reproducers looking to ensure color fidelity from capture to print, X-Rite Photo Marketing announces its schedule of January 2012 Webinars.

Three free Webinar topics this month are designed to help photographers gain new confidence and to learn quick, easy and powerful ways to enhance their color workflow. Webinar attendees will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the live trainers.

Wednesday, Jan. 11, Noon and 2 p.m. EST
Oz to Kansas with Vincent Versace hosted by Nik Software and X-Rite:
Join Vincent Versace, best selling author and internationally recognized pioneer in the art and science of digital photography for this webinar co-sponsored by X-Rite and Nik Software. Oz to Kansas: The Black and White on Black and White Conversions is the evolution of thought that began with the chapter in his first book, “Welcome to Oz: From Oz to Kansas. How to convert an Image to Black and White Without Ever Leaving the RGB Color Space.” This webinar takes a practical applications approach to when, why and how to convert an image. In it, attendees will learn which methods give them the best results and when to choose a simple or a complex solution.

Some of the topics covered in this webinar are:

  • The only soup to nuts overview of the Nik Software Silver Efex Plug-in. How to use it and when
  • The importance of color management, particularly to black and white
  • When and why photographers should and should not use global de-saturation
  • Split Channel conversions, what they are good for and a way to get the same effect with a file two thirds the size
  • When to use the Black and White adjustment layer to bring out and separate the tones in a color image
  • Multiple Channel mixer black and white conversions that replicate the physics of film
  • What is “Faux-infrared” and a look at how to convert files to black and white from digital cameras that have been modified to shoot Infrared
  • When and how to most efficiently use the Gradient tool for black and white conversion

To register for this webinar at Noon EST, visit: http://www.niksoftware.com/learnmore/usa/index.php/webinars/signup/12041

To register for this webinar at 2 p.m. EST, visit: http://www.niksoftware.com/learnmore/usa/index.php/webinars/signup/12061

Tuesday, Jan. 24, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. EST
Stop guessing. Start knowing. Two New X-Rite Solutions for Great Color!
Knowing that a monitor is accurately showing the true color and tonal range of images is the first and most important step to getting great prints. If a monitor isn’t properly calibrated and profiled, a photographer could be guessing whenever they make any edits to their images. This webinar is perfect for anyone that has had trouble getting prints that match the image on their monitor.

During this webinar, attendees will learn how X-Rite’s two newest display solutions – the ColorMunki Display and i1Display Pro – feature all-new state-of-the-art hardware and software for color calibration and profiling of displays, laptops and projectors.

Tuesday, Jan. 31, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. EST
Beyond Monitor Calibration – Get Prints That Match Your Display!
Perfect for wedding, portrait and landscape photographers as well as photo lab professionals and photo enthusiasts doing their own printing, this webinar, featuring the award-winning X-Rite ColorMunki Photo, will teach attendees how to put a color managed workflow in place from image capture through printer output including creating custom profiles and learning how to use them correctly to produce prints that match a display every time.

Topics that will be covered include:

  • Monitor to print matching (calibration and profiling)
  • Obtaining consistent color in camera
  • Benefits of creating and using custom printer profiles
  • Soft-proofing in Adobe Photoshop
  • Applying printer profiles in Photoshop
  • Digital projector profiling

Webinar registration can be found on XritePhoto.com. Visit the Webinar page found under the Learning section.