Luminous Landscape Forum

Site & Board Matters => About This Site => Topic started by: Kevin Raber on December 19, 2017, 08:58:26 pm

Title: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: Kevin Raber on December 19, 2017, 08:58:26 pm
I have just published another 4 videos from my amazing week with Charlie.  In this series of 4 videos, it's time to get serious and get ready to print.  You'll learn a lot and most likely will change a lot with your own workflow after watching these 4 videos.  I know I have and it has helped tremendously. There is still a bunch more of these videos to go.  For now please go to The Article - Shooting With The Masters Part 3 (https://luminous-landscape.com/shooting-masters-charles-cramer-part-3/).
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: adias on December 19, 2017, 10:46:58 pm
Great stuff! Cramer's tricks are well known in the digital image processing community but not widely known at large, so seeing him expound on those topics fora photographer audience is excellent.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: mikev1 on December 19, 2017, 11:40:49 pm
Fantastic content. Loving this series.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: Jeff on December 20, 2017, 03:42:54 am
The whole series has been a good watch / read but this one I found particularly good as the latest update to Capture One Pro ( v 11 ) now has LAB readouts so it was most useful to see how to use them in a practical way and not just in theory  :)

Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: Kevin Raber on December 20, 2017, 08:40:03 am
I agree with Jeff, been using LAB readouts for everything.  quite useful.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: brianrybolt on December 20, 2017, 09:08:09 am
EXCELLENT part 3 Cramer videos.  Very good quality & content.  Keep them coming!
Brian
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: jng on December 20, 2017, 10:25:02 am
Part 3 is excellent and most informative - the series just keeps getting better and better! Thanks for the great content - a nice present as life slows down a bit for the holidays!

John
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: TonyW on December 20, 2017, 03:27:48 pm
Excellent series and so interesting to watch another work and be let into their thought process.

One question I have, and I may have missed it, but in Control the Dark Tones section reference made to making the sand image available for download, is there a link somewhere?
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: Christopher Sanderson on December 20, 2017, 03:34:19 pm
Excellent series and so interesting to watch another work and be let into their thought process.

One question I have, and I may have missed it, but in Control the Dark Tones section reference made to making the sand image available for download, is there a link somewhere?

Here ya go. It is in the Videos section but not yet on the published article
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: TonyW on December 20, 2017, 03:46:43 pm
Wow, what a quick response.  Thank you very much  :D
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: pearlstreet on December 20, 2017, 07:45:32 pm
Thanks for another great series. I happened to be working on a photograph that benefited from using some of Charles' methods. Thank you!

Sharon
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: DougDolde on December 20, 2017, 08:01:21 pm
Nice videos.  As far as the LAB thing goes I don't really get it will probably continue to
stumble along with me completely unscientific seat of the pants mode. i just might be
too old of a dog for new tricks
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: vartkes on December 20, 2017, 08:15:17 pm
This series of videos continue to be very informative indeed. Some may not learn anything new but then seeing a Master work in ways in practice is reassuring.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: traderjay on December 20, 2017, 10:34:27 pm
Great series and every educational. Makes the annual subscription all worth it and will greatly help with my print making.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: jed best on December 20, 2017, 10:37:14 pm
Fantastic series. Amongst the best ever. So much pertinent information. ThankmyoumKevin and Charles.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: David Hufford on December 21, 2017, 05:46:12 am
So glad to see new videos appearing on LuLu. I have missed them. This series with Charles Cramer has been particularly educational. I hope we continue with these as I have always thought the videos were one of the stronger points of LuLu. They are what makes LuLu unique.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: E.J. Peiker on December 21, 2017, 09:27:32 am
Just caught up with all of the videos with Charles Cramer - am enjoying them immensely!
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: tsjanik on December 21, 2017, 10:32:41 am
Great video with valuable information for those who print; for me, this is the best of the series so far.  Thanks for the reminder of LAB. I remember experimenting with LAB color shortly after the release of Dan Margulis' book.  My interest was short lived, as I had neither computing power or patience for the processing time (I was working with 500MB film scans and a computer with 2GB of RAM).

Use of the white background is an excellent tip for evaluating the overall brightness of a print; I might still prefer a neutral gray when working on a file to avoid the brightness of the border, but will change to white before printing.

Great job - thanks.

Tom
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: Charles Cramer on December 21, 2017, 12:18:52 pm
Tom,
Thanks for mentioning this.  I'm not sure if I said this in the video, but I only change the info readout so it reads out as if the file were in LAB. I prefer to keep my files in RGB mode.
As you mention, Dan Margulis has several books out on working in LAB mode by converting one's files to LAB mode.  Photoshop is fairly limited in what it can do in LAB. Some of my favorite techniques are not available. So I prefer to work in RGB.   
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: adias on December 21, 2017, 05:52:43 pm
I just went back to the Burtynsky series, also a great series of videos on an interesting photographer.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: Putnik on December 22, 2017, 05:43:57 am
Very, very good. I learned a thing or two, very helpful tips, at least at the stage I am in. Mr. Cramer has the ability (or gift) to explain and show things in simple and easily understandable terms. I am fighting Dan Margulis’ books right now, definitely more difficult to understand. Please, do more of such „easy“, but efficient videos with Mr. Cramer. Many thanks!
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: fsveltophoto on December 22, 2017, 11:33:33 am
Sorry but where is the file mentioned in the second video?

Thank you and regards

Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: Kevin Raber on December 22, 2017, 02:32:22 pm
go to the video page for the Charlie Cramer videos . . . . HERE (https://luminous-landscape.com/videos/master-charles-cramer/)

Then scroll down the page in the right-hand column where the ads are and right above the Rantatorials you will see course documents.  the link is there.

I'll also put a link in the article with the video later today.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: ron lacy on December 22, 2017, 05:24:49 pm
In the summer of 2016 I spent a long weekend at one of Charlie's workshops in Santa Clara.  First rate printing workshop and first rate instruction from Charlie and Rex.  This video series has been a reminder of all of the information presented that weekend and it has been well presented.  Considering attending one of Charlie's Alumni Workshops to try to learn more.  Very educational and a lot of personal attention from Charlie.  A very good value.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: barrybraunstein on December 26, 2017, 03:40:09 pm
 :)
Kevin/Charles - thank you for a very informative video series - your suggestions/tips around viewing/printing in LR are very helpful (I tried the white background and it really made a difference in how I see the image!).

Kevin - keep up the excellent work - very much enjoy your site, and listened to many of your recommendations (including the review of the ImageProGraf Pro1000 printer, which I absolutely love! The prints are fantastic and the printer is very easy to use).

Best,
BB
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: FMueller on December 28, 2017, 07:10:00 pm
Going to clutter up this thread with one more compliment. Really enjoyed series with Charles Cramer. Nicely done!
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: DaveClark on December 29, 2017, 06:42:54 pm
Excellent video with lots of useful information.

Concerning the white surround to get the print density correct, to what extent is this because we choose to mat prints with white?  Is white mat optimum?  Maybe neutral gray is better?

You have not yet discussed the lighting of prints.  I noticed that Cramer had track lights set up for his print displays.  I hope you will provide some guidance on specific lighting solutions he uses to display his prints.

Dave
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: Miles Flint on December 30, 2017, 04:43:02 am
Excellent ! For years people have been saying that Charlie's workshops are the very best for anyone aspiring to improve their printing.  Alas, time and distance got in the way though I manages to spend a few minutes with Charlie when he came to the UK in 2016.  Now it feels like a Cramer workshop has landed on my doorstep courtesy of LuLa.  Thanks to Kevin  and Charlie for this though I would still like to attend one of Charlie's workshops one day.  In the meantime this will do very nicely.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: paristo on January 02, 2018, 04:59:52 pm
My interest was short lived, as I had neither computing power or patience for the processing time (I was working with 500MB film scans and a computer with 2GB of RAM).

Remember that you can always ease the work by splitting the image file to smaller pieces, work each piece individually and then combine all back to one.
But you can't do that with the raw, you need to use something better like TIFF.


Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: Charles Cramer on January 03, 2018, 11:53:44 pm
Dave,

I like to evaluate my prints using the lighting they will most likely be viewed under.  In my experience most galleries and other display areas use tungsten/halogen bulbs.  Their color temperature is typically 2800 Kelvin, and so that is what I use in my studio.  I find bulbs closer to 5000K  to be much too blue.  Over 30 years of having exhibitions in various places, I have never been disappointed with how my prints looked when I evaluated them under light of approximately 2800K.

With the advent of Leds,  though,  this may change, and I would expect to see temperatures of around 3400K becoming more common.

In my studio, I have a long shelf with track lights every 18 inches to evenly illuminate different size prints.  This shelf is one of THE most important things in making good prints!  Having a long shelf allows me to put up prints, and then live with them for awhile.  As I said in the video,  I need time to properly evaluate my prints.  Seeing them over multiple days is even better.

I switched to Leds  a few years ago.  I’m delighted with the Vivid series made by www.soraa.com.  I use the 7.5 watt, 2700K, 36 degree bulbs (36 degrees is their widest, allowing for even illumination). They have a Color Rendering Index of 95, with an excellent white.   From the height of a typical ceiling (8 feet), these 7.5 watt bulbs match what a 50 watt tungsten/halogen gave me, and provides a good level of light. The bulbs I’m using are Soraa # 00943.

Thanks to all for the kind words.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: DaveClark on January 04, 2018, 02:59:13 am
Charles, thanks for the very thorough reply about your lighting. I have been looking at high CRI leds so your reply was right on target. I will go with the lights you recommend. The shelf has been added to the plans too. Thanks again.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: loganross on January 04, 2018, 10:46:43 am
I will second the Soraa bulbs. Not only do I use them in my workshop, but I now use them throughout my home.  When I initially switched to LED, light never seemed right.  The Soraa is a huge win. I use the 18.5w 3000k PAR30 bulb, also with the high CRI, and high Red-CRI rating.

For daylight, I use a lamp from fullspectrumsolutions.com.  it is 5700k, also with a very high CRI.

These two light sources have allowed me to make excellent camera color profiles with a colorchecker and Lumariver profile designer,  to use in ACR.


Dave,

I like to evaluate my prints using the lighting they will most likely be viewed under.  In my experience most galleries and other display areas use tungsten/halogen bulbs.  Their color temperature is typically 2800 Kelvin, and so that is what I use in my studio.  I find bulbs closer to 5000K  to be much too blue.  Over 30 years of having exhibitions in various places, I have never been disappointed with how my prints looked when I evaluated them under light of approximately 2800K.

With the advent of Leds,  though,  this may change, and I would expect to see temperatures of around 3400K becoming more common.

In my studio, I have a long shelf with track lights every 18 inches to evenly illuminate different size prints.  This shelf is one of THE most important things in making good prints!  Having a long shelf allows me to put up prints, and then live with them for awhile.  As I said in the video,  I need time to properly evaluate my prints.  Seeing them over multiple days is even better.

I switched to Leds  a few years ago.  I’m delighted with the Vivid series made by www.soraa.com.  I use the 7.5 watt, 2700K, 36 degree bulbs (36 degrees is their widest, allowing for even illumination). They have a Color Rendering Index of 95, with an excellent white.   From the height of a typical ceiling (8 feet), these 7.5 watt bulbs match what a 50 watt tungsten/halogen gave me, and provides a good level of light. The bulbs I’m using are Soraa # 00943.

Thanks to all for the kind words.
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: pearlstreet on January 05, 2018, 01:28:12 pm
Is there a part 4?
Title: Re: New Article and Videos - Shooting With The Master Charles Cramer Part 3
Post by: Christopher Sanderson on January 05, 2018, 01:35:47 pm
Yes, there will be several more Printing videos that I am currently working on, then a real aural treat of Charlie at his grand piano and a final wrap with Kevin.

There is enough material for at least two, possibly three more parts. Likely will take another couple of months editing ))

Chris