Straight Print to Finished Print: The Untold Story

Sponsored by Hahnemuhle

Chip will present before and after images (straight print and finished print) from his personal collection and from assignment work. His workshop students say that this is the most enjoyable and one of the most informative components of the workshops he teaches. When Chip took several workshops years ago, he always wanted to see the unworked images as the instructor showed his or her final prints. The digital capture (or the film image) is totally objective - it seldom communicates the emotional reaction we experience when we take the photograph. This is why students wonder why their photographs falls short of their expectations - what's missing is that emotional component. Working on the straight image in Photoshop, or the darkroom, is the route to bringing us back to what we felt when we took the photograph and having that emotion communicated through the finished image. Many people put a limited amount of work into an image and end up not being satisfied with the results - they are just not aware of how much can be done to communicate the emotion that caused them to press the shutter release in the first place. Ansel Adams was the inspiration for Chip's black and white landscape work and the spirit of his work will be present in this discussion.


Chip's Work
http://www.chipforelli.com/