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 Our digital lab - rear view |
 Our digital lab - front view |
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Read about our first extremely successful offering! Scroll to the bottom of this page |
our Intro to Photoshop |
 Rick Holt, our primary instructor for the Beginner's Course - Introduction to Photoshop for Photographers, working on a demonstration |
 Joe and Carolyn Hooper, great friends, and part of our first course. That's Rick patrolling! |
This course is designed for those who either have no experience with Adobe Photoshop and for anyone who wants a thorough understanding of the necessary tools and techniques a photographer should know when using Photoshop. We'll start with the basics and build up, explaining the Menus and the Toolbox tools, and how, why, and which tool, technique or menu is important for you. Whether you've never used Photoshop before, or you're familiar with it but frustrated and intimidated, this basic course will teach you everything you need to know to get started with Photoshop, and feeling accomplished and competent with the procedures and level that you have attained.
If your goal is to know enough Photoshop to produce a great looking print, to be able to fine tune, correct, and manipulate an image for web site use or digital programs, this introductory course will provide you with all the tools you'll need to know.
If your goal is to know enough Photoshop to truly know what you are doing, to know what tool or technique to use when, and to be able to effectively work with Photoshop without feeling lost or frustrated - this is the course for you!
A brief bit of history first: For the past eighteen years Mary
and I have been teaching our Complete Nature Photo Course and
Advanced Nature Photo Course, creating what we believe to be the
most intensive and complete instructional course on nature photography
anywhere in the country.
In the last few years, however, as Adobe Photoshop and other imagery
programs developed, and as digital cameras became more common
and more sophisticated, we came to a realization - photography
is changing to digital.
To some this is viewed as an abysmal turning point for photography
while for others it is correctly viewed as a new frontier, one
which will allow photographers to produce a whole new spectrum
of images. While there is continuing debate about 'digital enhancement'
or 'digital manipulation,' one thing is clear - digital imagery
allows a photographer to truly capture all the tonal values of
an image, something that film cannot do because of its more restricted
exposure latitude. For that reason alone, digital photography
has tremendous merits.
Embracing this new technology, and realizing not only the importance
of Adobe Photoshop's powerful image editing capabilities but also
its very real intimidation, we are offering several courses DESIGNED WITH THE PHOTOGRAPHER in
mind. Although Adobe Photoshop is an extremely powerful and complex
piece of software, and can seem frighteningly complex and intimidating
to beginners, the fact is there are a rather limited number of
tools and procedures a photographer must or should know to produce
great prints, images for a web site, note cards, or even composites
where two or more images are combined.
Our Digital Photography/Photoshop courses here at Hoot Hollow
were designed with the photographer in mind, and are fine-tuned
to provide the information you'll need to know and to master Adobe
Photoshop.
Time Frame: Photoshop can be
demanding, mentally, and for photographers accustomed to being
afield shooting images, time spent behind a computer might be
drudgery. Our time frame will hopefully alleviate some of this,
by providing plenty of time at the computer while still giving
you, the photographer, some time to shoot or relax, or if you
wish, to use the computer lab to your full advantage.
Our formal classroom instruction will begin at 9AM and continue
until noon, where we'll break for lunch (served at Hoot Hollow),
and followed by an afternoon session that will continue to 5PM
or so.
There will be a break for dinner (served, along with breakfast,
at your farm bed and breakfast, the Mountain Dale Farm), followed
by 'open computer lab time' every evening back at Hoot Hollow.
Our instructors are always at the Lab, so even during our open
computer time in the evening we'll be helping and assisting you,
and occasionally presenting new material.
Our Format: The Introductory
Course is divided into several segments that will make learning
fun and palatable and extremely productive. Our morning session
will be devoted to lecture and demonstration, which will also
include hand's on practice by our students. Afternoon sessions
will include instruction and practice time, although the exact
format will be flexible to accommodate the needs of our students.
Some topics are simple to cover and to demonstrate, and for students
to practice. Others, we realize, are more complex and may require
several small doses before the concept is fully realized. If you
are familiar with how we run our Digital Complete Nature Photo
Course you know our dedication and commitment to your understanding
of our subjects, and we followi the same philosophy and teaching
methods of the D-CNPC in the Introductory Course on Photoshop.
Breakfast is served at 8AM at the farm, which will give participants
time in the morning to photograph, if they wish, or to review
handouts and reading material before class. We will take at least
one afternoon for a 'break out session' to shoot a few subjects
(defined below) that you'll be able to work with, digitally, during
the course of the week.
Evenings, most days, will be 'free' in the sense that students
can come and go, to work in the computer lab (which is likely)
or to simply crash (which is possible) on any given day. Since
everyone attending will be photographers, we will devote one evening,
and perhaps a part of another, to slide, print, or digital image
sharing - a slide show of some of our work and THAT OF OUR PARTICIPANTS.
We'll be covered with all mediums - 35mm slide projection and
digital projection (you'll need a CD of your work compatible with
Power Point, Pro Show Gold, or your own laptop).
In short, between our class time, your practice time, the intermittent
shooting times, and our slide sessions, you will have an extremely
complete week. One added advantage all of our Digital Photography
and Photoshop students have enjoyed and commented upon was the
unity of our groups, since all meals are shared either at the
Mountain Dale Farm or at Hoot Hollow. These informal group times
provide the opportunity for a tremendous amount of information
sharing - on other workshops, on techniques and equipment, on
places to photograph, and other diverse topics.
Our Participants: This course
is designed for photographers who are seriously interested in
mastering the basics of Adobe Photoshop CS2. Photographers who
use Photoshop Elements or an earlier version of Photoshop will
benefit, of course, but we'll be teaching the latest, state-of-the-art
developments which we suspect all digital-oriented photographers
will eventually incorporate.
This is a course for those with limited experience with Photoshop,
who are frustrated by their attempts at working in Photoshop,
and for those being introduced to Photoshop for the first time.
We will build your expertise from the ground up, explaining every
step and every technique as we go along, and often showing the
cross-referencing Photoshop has for doing any procedure in more
than one way.
Photoshop can be intimidating, but only because it seems so vast
and complex. You'll discover this tiger is really a kitten!
Preparation Beforehand: Although
we'll have all the material you'll need to learn Photoshop, we
suspect that you'd like to work on your own images to make prints
or to do some of the other projects we will work on. Participants
should bring with them either a Photo CD prepared by Kodak or
others, or a personal CD with images that can be opened in Photoshop
on a PC platform. Most CDs, if written in one session, should
have no problem being opened on a PC if written on a MAC, or vise-versa
should you write a CD at Hoot Hollow and take home with you.
We'll also have a few photography homework assignments that we'd
love to have you do beforehand, although these shoots can also
be done during the course to be imported into the computer for
some of the teaching exercises.
Location: All of our courses
are taught on the grounds of the Hoot Hollow Institute of Nature
Photography, in either our studio or in our computer lab. Hoot
Hollow is located in central Pennsylvania, northwest of Harrisburg,
east-southeast of State College, and near RT 522 between Lewistown
and Selinsgrove, Pa. The nearest full-service airport and car
rental is in Harrisburg.
Lodging is at a farm vacation bed and breakfast located about
six miles from Hoot Hollow. It is a 'target-rich' shooting environment
in a rural area rich with landscapes, farm scenes, farm animals,
and nature subjects. Breakfasts and diners are served at the farm.
Price: The tuition for the Digital Photography Courses is $1,595 and includes all instruction, lab fees and supplies, meals (you will not go hungry!), and lodging based upon double 0ccupancy from Sunday through Friday nights. The fee does not include transportation to, during, or from the course.
In the Introductory Course you will not only be 'introduced' to the tools and menus and palettes necessary to master Photoshop, you will become intimately acquainted with same. Through lecture, drill, quiz, practice, and application in an interactive, hands on computer environment you will learn the tools and techniques required to work with Photoshop in a satisfying and productive manner. In short, you will learn, really learn, what you need to know to get started in Photoshop! Some of the topics we'll cover include:
Setting Up for Photoshop - What you'll need for your
own digital darkroom. While we realize that many students may
already have their computers, scanners, and printers, we'll give
you our input on what you should have, or what you can do to improve
your system. We'll cover memory allotment and RAM, monitors, calibration,
and color management, setting up Photoshop's preferences for maximum
efficiency, and desktop arrangement of your workspace.
The Photoshop Menu - There are eight menu items, some which
have little applicability to your work and others with most, or
several submenus of critical importance to you. We'll cover these
menu items, demonstrating their use and applicability, and relate
them to your imagery projects.
The Photoshop Tools - There are over 22 tools, with many
of these tools having several versions. Some of these are vital
to your work, and some have no application. You'll learn and use
the tools you need.
Masking: Many Photoshop courses save Masking for intermediate
and advanced courses, but we consider it the absolute key to successfully
using Photoshop, and we start our students right, right off the
bat! You'll be amazed at the control and creative opportunities
mastering Masks provides.
Layers: The exact same statements can be made about using
Layers, Layer Masks, and Adjustment Layers, and you'll learn and
be comfortable using layers to maximize your control of Photoshop.
It is a wonderful thing!
Importing Images - There are several ways images can be
brought into Photoshop, from Photo CDs to digital cameras to scanners,
and we'll cover the methods to input your images.
Working with Images - Once imported, what do you do with
them? That's where Photoshop's tools and menus come into play,
and we'll work with the tools required, including using color
adjustments, using layers and adjustment layers, cropping, sizing,
and fine-tuning your images.
Taking Photoshop One Step Further - One of the greatest
benefits of Photoshop for photographers is its ability to make
images as our eyes sees them and not as conventional, traditional
photography allows. Panoramic images can be made with 35mm or
digital cameras more effectively than with wide-angle lenses or
with panoramic cameras! Digital manipulation allows us to combine
two or more images to balance exposures in scenes of extreme exposure
values, just as our eyes can. We'll do several projects using
either our images, or your own, to combine images with a wide
range of exposure values and also for a panoramic perspective.
Day 1, evening: Welcome dinner and orientation. Introduction
to Hoot Hollow and a review of the objectives for the week's course.
Day 2: Introduction to Photoshop and the tools and Menus
that will be covered. Digital workflow, if required. Setting up
for Photosho's Preferences. Monitor calibration.
Day 3: Importing images. Further review of the toolbox.
We'll begin covering the Photoshop palettes and the key to Photoshop
- levels, curves, and color balance. Introducing Masking.
Day 4: Levels, Curves, and Color balance. We'll review
these again as we incorporate Photoshop's other most powerful
tools - layers and adjustment layers and the History palette.
Basic printing setups.
Day 5: Working with Layers, as well as further coverage
and practice with levels, curves, and color balance. Masking for
selective color and focus adjustments.
Day 6: Introducing composites. Making the perfect image
via two bracketed exposures. Making panoramics.
Day 7, morning: Question and answer session followed by
graduation. Conclude by 11AM.
Please note - the exact, daily itinerary is subject to some change and modification based upon the group's progress. All of the above topics will be covered, but we do not want to be held to a fixed timetable - your comprehension and understanding is more important to us than a set schedule.
On a trip to Chile in December of 2003 I used a 35mm camera
and the full potential of Adobe Photoshop. When shooting landscapes
exposure values between foregrounds and backgrounds were often
extreme, and far beyond the capability of film to record accurately,
even with graduated neutral density filters. Sometimes the distance
was too great for depth of field to cover both a foreground and
background. In traditional photography, these scenes that I could
enjoy with my eyes and senses were not recordable. Yet the scenes,
the views, the subjects all exist in reality, but film, with traditional
photographic methods, could not record the reality!
On this trip I shot for Photoshop on many occasions, taking two
exposures of the same scene to incorporate into Photoshop later
to produce an image similar, or identical, to what I really saw.
I shot multiple images with telephoto to create panoramic views
of scenes I'd normally be forced to cover with a wide-angle.
To quote from one of my friends on this Chile trip: "…I
think the landscape images will be significantly boosted by application
of the "digital blending technique" that you so kindly
put forth to us. I consider this to be a ground breaking technique
that will be as important to me as when several years ago, at
Hoot Hollow, you explained how manual exposure and middle gray
fit …"
A long time has passed since that trip, and Mary and I and
our digital instructors Rick Holt and Ellen Anon have all switched
completely to digital photography, and have loved every minute
of it. Our photographic visions have expanded, our abilities to
capture what we've really seen, and our just plain enjoyment of
photography has increased immensely. Photoshop has certainly been
a valuable tool in broadening our vision, as it will your's as
well.
Photoshop is not just image manipulation. It is a tool that will
broaden our vision as photographers and one that all of us should
learn to incorporate into our future work. We're excited about
this tool! Read our Classroom Report at
the end of this page (blue type) that describes our very first
class.
Joe McDonald has been a full-time professional wildlife
and nature photographer since 1983. He is the author of six books
on wildlife photography and another on African Wildlife, as well
as a how-to video produced with his wife, Mary Ann, on Photographing
on Safari. His work has appeared in every major nature and wildlife
publication published in North America. Along with operating their
own stock photography business, Joe is represented by over a dozen
stock photo agencies worldwide, including Corbis, Animals Animals,
Auscape, Okapia, and others.
In addition to maintaining an active and informative website,
www.hoothollow.com, Joe is columnist for OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHER,
writing the 'Big Game' column, and Joe and his wife Mary Ann are
Field Correspondents for NATURE'S BEST Magazine, and KEYSTONE
OUTDOORS, writing a photography column, and Joe Van Os's web magazine,
www.photosafaris.com where they write a regular column on wildlife
and nature photography.
For over fifteen years Joe and Mary Ann have been teaching photography
courses and leading photography tours and workshops. Their very
popular photo tours and safaris have them afield for over twenty-five
weeks each year.
Joe has worked with Photoshop for several years, mainly for creating
sales promotional material and for web site use. Now, with the
advent of digital cameras, he is using Photoshop nearly daily.
He is a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
Ellen Anon is a freelance photographer who specializes
in all types of outdoor photography. Her images are poetic statements,
vivid in color and intent, imaginative in their portrayal, and
comforting in their beauty, and are included in collections in
several countries. Ellen earned a Ph.D. in psychology and is a
clinical psychologist who evolved into a professional photographer
in the mid 1990's. She is represented by a stock agency in Japan
and her photos have been used in numerous books (including Sierra
Club's "Mother Earth"), articles, calendars, posters,
promotional items and billboards. In addition she has been Art
Morris's teaching assistant for several years on his larger bird
photography workshops.
In recent years she has become increasingly involved with the
various aspects of digital photography from scanning film images
to using digital SLR cameras to using Photoshop to enable her
to make her gallery prints at home. She has attended courses at
the Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging. She has begun sharing the
knowledge she has acquired via individualized instruction and
now these workshops, so that other photographers can make the
transition into the digital world with ease and fun. Ellen is
a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
Rick Holt has been passionate about photography for over thirty years. He has worked as a professional instructor for the past 8 years. Prior to that, Rick founded an innovative medical business centered on applying plastic fiber optics for treating newborn jaundice. After selling his business in 1996, Rick taught courses at Lehigh University while, at the same time, dedicating his efforts to learning as much as possible about emerging digital technologies. After taking courses at the local art schools and colleges he found that many Photoshop courses were too oriented towards graphic artists as opposed to the photographer. Feeling unfulfilled, he took a workshop with George Lepp which was just the beginning. Rick now teaches "Photoshop for Photographers" classes at local colleges in the Lehigh Valley as well as several other digital institutes across the country. Nevertheless, Rick continues to attend workshops throughout the country to "keep up" and he has attended workshops with industry leaders like Tim Grey, Sean Duggen, and Dave Cross. Rick is a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
Whie Rick still enjoys traveling the world and capturing images of the remote and often inaccessible, as he did on recent travels to Antarctica, India, South America, and Africa, he is also keenly interested in helping other photographers expand their own visions, better understand the complexity of Photoshop, and expedite their own workflow. His approach to teaching Digital Photography and Photoshop is to start with the basics and then continually build upon and expand those concepts in a logical and easy to understand fashion. He believes that each image is unique and by understanding the concepts of the digital darkroom you will not be confined by a simplistic 'cook book' approach. Rick believes that the digital darkroom has brought the creativity and control, once recognized by black and white photographers, to any photographer with a computer
If you've read the above biographies, you'll see that all of us are dedicated photographers that are interested in sharing our knowledge and helping people. I've been involved in teaching my entire adult life, from teaching assistantships in graduate school to a six-year stint as a high school biology teacher before starting my career as a wildlife photographer and photo workshop instructor. Ellen has taught college level courses as well as individual instruction, and has been assisting Art Morris with his birding workshops for years. Rick is actively teaching Photoshop right now, and feels, as both Ellen and I do, that knowing Photoshop will take you (quoting from Rick's bio) "beyond the limits of film and recreate what you saw and felt when you recorded the image."
I intend to make our Digital Courses every bit as successful, in terms of the knowledge conveyed, the quality of the experience, the intensity, and, just as importantly, the amiability and fun, that we've done with our CNPC and ANPC courses here at Hoot Hollow.