The Picture Perfect
South America Cruise 2009
Featuring:
John Paul Caponigro - Vincent Versace - Arduina Caponigro
Cruising Through Life is excited to feature a celebrity instructional staff. For those booking early, there will be two shore trips included in the package with these extraordinary artists.
John Paul Caponigro: John Paul Caponigro combines his background in painting with traditional and alternative photographic processes using the digital platform. He is respected internationally as one of the most prominent artists working with digital media processes. Exhibited internationally, his work resides in numerous private and public collections including Princeton University, the Estée Lauder collection, and the Smithsonian.
Caponigro's primary focus is the natural world. The wastelands he photographs are breathtakingly beautiful, yet the conspicuous absences found within them add an unusual complexity and social relevance when issues surrounding the environment, the medium of photography and its changing nature as well as his practice within it, and their mutual interaction are considered. Many viewers find his work profoundly spiritual.
Well respected as an authority on creativity and fine digital printing John Paul teaches both privately in his studio and internationally at prominent workshops including The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops and The Maine Photographic Workshops. He lectures frequently at universities, museums, and conferences.
Vincent Versace: Vincent Versace is a recipient of the Computerworld Smithsonian Award in Media Arts & Entertainment and the Shellenberg fine art award and is a two-time nominee to the Photoshop Hall of Fame. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History.
Vincent is the photographer of Immediate Assistants Medical Rescue Go team and one of the members of the photographic team of Eco-Challenge. He has been commissioned by the San Francisco Presidio National Park to produce a book and create a permanent collection of art for the park. He is an American Photo Magazine Mentor Trek instructor and has led Mentor treks to San Francisco, Costa Rica, Santa Fe, Egypt and Australia. Vincent is member of the board of directors of Los Angeles chapter of the American Photographers Association. He is also a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals "Instructor Dream Team" and teaches regularly at Photoshopworld as well as being a regular instructor at the Santa Fe Photographic and Palm Beach Photographic Workshops. He is currently a member of Microsoft's Digital Imaging Applications Group and founding member of both the Epson Stylus Pros and Lexar Elite Photographers. He is the former artist in residence for Altamira Group and former consultant to the president of Kodak's Digital & Applied Imaging Group.
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Seminar Schedule Overview
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
- Depart Valparaiso, Chile 6:00 PM
- Cocktail Party 8:30PM – Meet and greet with the instructors and other students
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Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
- AT SEA – Classes Morning and Afternoon
Photography Basics (All Levels) 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
- Instructor: Arduina Caponigro
- Jump start your digital photography experience in this two hour session covering the basics of photography. Arduina will cover everything from camera and lens selection to the basic settings and beyond as she explores the many ways you can compose, expose and capture your own view within your images. A great primer to prepare you for the photo opportunities to come.
Photography Basics – A Follow-Up (All Levels) Session 1B – 3:00 – 5:00 PM
- Instructor: Arduina Caponigro
- Beyond the basics...putting your own creative eye to work to communicate your personal vision within you images. The creatively correct image vs. the technically correct image.
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Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
- Puerto Montt, Chile
- Arrive: 7:00 AM
- Depart: 6:00 PM
- Photo Shoot with Instructors
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Thursday, February 5th, 2009
- AT SEA – Classes Morning and Afternoon
Lecture: Illuminating Creativity (All Levels) 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
- Instructor: John Paul Caponigro
- Pre-Visualize, Post-visualize, Visualize - do it all. Don’t limit yourself, empower yourself. Discover techniques to structure your creative process and increase your productivity. Learn ways to find new ideas. Learn ways to make sure that no good idea is forgotten or lost. Learn ways to focus on the things that will make the most impact on your creative life. Learn ways to clarify your unique vision and ways to make it clearer to other people. Take control of your creative process.
- Explore writing, sketching, and photographing in combination with one another to enhance your creativity
- Get into the zone more quickly behind the lens, at the editing table, and in front of a blank page
- Use tried and true techniques for finding many possible solutions to the challenges before you
- Sort your ideas with a variety of strategies that will help find the gold
- Use goals, quotas, and timelines to increase your productivity
- Put your personal goals in writing to keep you focused and on track
Lecture: 6 Simple Steps to Color Management
- All Levels
- 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
- Instructor: John Paul Caponigro
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Friday, February 6th, 2009
- Pio XI Glacier - Cruising – Classes All Day
Lecture: Creating a Master Digital File (Fine Art Workflow)
- All Levels
- 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
- Instructor: John Paul Caponigro
- Building a file, it’s the most critical part of workflow. Learn all the steps you need to take to build the best digital file possible. Start and finish with high resolution, high bit, wide gamut originals. Systematically make corrections as adjustment layers using Blend Modes for razor sharp precision. Add layer masks for increased selectivity. Learn how to make three essential masks - gradient, contrast, and contour - and the most precise ways to refine them. Retouch, sometimes on separate layers. Sharpen on layers using Blend Modes, Layer Styles, and layer masks with a choice of three types of sharpening - luminosity, edge, and high pass. Reduce noise. Softproof to prepare a file for specific output conditions. Proof. Archive this master file and return to it for all derivative files, knowing that you’ll always have the best file possible.
- Prepare files systematically to optimize quality
- Build in flexibility so that it’s easy to change
- Organize file components so that you can adapt quickly
- Acquire, edit, sharpen, retouch, soft-proof and proof to maximize quality
Lecture: Essential Camera Tests
- All Levels
- 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
- Instructor: John Paul Caponigro
- Out of the box, digital cameras offer excellent quality. But did you know that you can get even better quality? Invest of a small amount of time before you begin using it and you will be rewarded with huge returns every time you use your camera. Set file format. Set color space. Set your display to give you the information you need to ensure you get the best exposure. Set your camera to embed your name in every file you shoot. Make these essential tests - dust, noise, chromatic aberration, vignetting, and distortion - and learn what to do to quickly improve all of these characteristics. (Need to resize and sharpen, we’ll cover that too!) Learn a few simple steps you can take to enhance your digital files to make them even better!
- Set file format
- Embed your name in your files automatically
- Test for and remove:
- Dust, noise, chromatic aberration, vignetting, and distortion
Lecture: Lighting on a Laptop Lighting Like a Sunbeam
- All Levels
- 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
- Instructor: Vincent Versace
- This class provides inspirational and user-friendly lessons to use Photoshop CS3 to emulate, bend and refract natural light. Step-by-step lessons guide you through the process of believably replicating the most fleeting and beautiful light of all - a late afternoon beam of sunlight streaming through a window. Starting with initial image capture and lighting considerations, this series of progressive Photoshop lighting techniques gives you the essential skills to emulate brilliant, realistic lighting.
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Saturday, February 7th, 2009
- Punta Arenas, Chile
- Arrive: 6:00 AM
- Depart: 7:00 PM
- No Classes
An Evening with Vincent Versace 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- A slideshow of the artist’s work and commentary
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Sunday, February 8th, 2009
- Ushuaia, Argentina
- Arrive: 12:00 PM
- Depart: 8:00 PM
Lecture: Sharpening Intensive
- All Levels
- 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
- Instructor: John Paul Caponigro
- What are the ideal strategies and settings for digital sharpening? Don’t guess. Know. Learn exactly how the tools are working and put them to work for you. Once you know how to control the essential sharpening filters, you can add a level of precision, flexibility, and selectivity by using layers, layer masks, blend modes, and layer styles. Then consider stages of sharpening - input (ISO and resolution specific), creative (subject and aesthetic specific), and output (media and scale specific). Add a new level of precision and control to your sharpening practices.
- Make it precise and image specific
- Make it precise and image specific
- Keep sharpening on a separate layer
- Make it selective
- Remove adverse side effects from deep shadow and highlight detail
- Luminance sharpening
- Edge sharpening
- High pass sharpening
- Smart sharpening
- Consider output media and size
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Monday, February 9th, 2009
- Cape Horn – Scenic Cruising
- Arrive: 8:00 AM
- Depart: 9:00 AM
- Classes All Day
Lecture: The Power of Color
- Intermediate/Advanced
- 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM
- Instructor: John Paul Caponigro
- Color management, color adjustment, color theory. You need it all to harness the full potential of digital color. Find out how to make color predictable, how to make the most powerful and precise color adjustments, and how to structure your color decisions with a variety of strategies drawn from the history of art. This seminar includes an overview and analysis of the color correction strategies available in Adobe Photoshop. You’ll find out when to correct by the numbers to achieve astonishing color accuracy (establish the perfect gray-balance and correct color crosses) and when to make exceptions to the rules, even break them for effect. The heart of the digital color revolution will be revealed including. How to control color’s three primary components (hue, saturation, and brightness) independently of one another and how to correct specific ranges of color without affecting others. New strategies for working with color will be introduced including transforming colors, accentuating gradation, using color overlays to unify color relationships, and analyzing color relationships within an image creating a useful guide towards the solutions that best suit your needs. You’ll quickly see that the power at your fingertips is simply amazing.
- Analyze the color relationships within any image numerically
- Accentuate gradation
- Match colors precisely
- Unify a varied color palette
- Realistically transform colors
- Control hue, saturation, and luminosity independently of one another
Lecture: Black & White Mastery
- Intermediate/Advanced
- 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
- Instructor: John Paul Caponigro & Vincent Versace
- For ultimate control over black and white imagery revise your entire workflow from exposure (in color), to editing (make flexible conversions digitally), to output (print on any media). Find out how here.
- Learn to make optimum conversions to black and white
- Maintain maximum detail, especially in shadows and highlights
- Make extraordinarily precise and specific corrections
- Preserve future flexibility while maximizing control
- Meet the challenge of printing monochrome images on a variety of media
Lecture: Essential Masking Techniques (Drawing with Light)
- Intermediate/Advanced
- 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
- Instructor: John Paul Caponigro
- Color management, color adjustment, color theory. You need it all to harness the full potential of digital color. Find out how to make color predictable, how to make the most powerful and precise color adjustments, and how to structure your color decisions with a variety of strategies drawn from the history of art. This seminar includes an overview and analysis of the color correction strategies available in Adobe Photoshop. You’ll find out when to correct by the numbers to achieve astonishing color accuracy (establish the perfect gray-balance and correct color crosses) and when to make exceptions to the rules, even break them for effect. The heart of the digital color revolution will be revealed including. How to control color’s three primary components (hue, saturation, and brightness) independently of one another and how to correct specific ranges of color without affecting others. New strategies for working with color will be introduced including transforming colors, accentuating gradation, using color overlays to unify color relationships, and analyzing color relationships within an image creating a useful guide towards the solutions that best suit your needs. You’ll quickly see that the power at your fingertips is simply amazing.
- Analyze the color relationships within any image numerically
- Accentuate gradation
- Match colors precisely
- Unify a varied color palette
- Realistically transform colors
- Control hue, saturation, and luminosity independently of one another
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Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
- Port Stanley, Falkland Islands
- Arrive: 8:00 AM
- Depart: 6:00 PM
- No Classes
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Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
Lecture: Seeing is Believing: Exploring Seeing past the Obvious
- Intermediate/Advanced
- 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
- Instructor: Vincent Versace
- Believing is Seeing refines your artistic prowess by providing the perfect balance of practical instruction and creative inspiration. Believing is Seeing is designed to further develop your proficiency, help you express your creativity, and let any idea imaginable flow fluidly through Photoshop.
Lecture: Image Harvesting: Replicating How the Eye Sees
- Intermediate/Advanced
- 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
- Instructor: Vincent Versace
- How many times have you taken a photo and when you get it on the computer screen say that it isn’t at all what you saw? In this lesson, learn the best way to create an image that looks like what the eye saw – and not just what the camera captured. You will learn a technique called “Image Harvesting” that includes how to get it right at the point of capture by practicing “preemptive Photoshop”, how to make image manipulation decisions based on how our eye sees, and specific Photoshop techniques in order to create that final image that the eye saw.
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Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Lecture: Retouching on a Laptop
- Intermediate/Advanced
- 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
- Instructor: Vincent Versace
- This class teaches you the skills and techniques essential for using Photoshop CS3 to master the art of digital portrait retouching. Accentuate and perfect each shot by learning how to brighten and enhance features, how to create flawless but believable skin texture, and how to improve overall tone, color and detail to make Hollywood-quality portraits.
Lecture: The Unleashing the Raw Power of CaptureNX
- Intermediate/Advanced
- 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
- Instructor: Vincent Versace
- Using the critically acclaimed “Why to of How” approach pioneered in the Welcome To Oz: Following the RGB Road series, Vincent takes a look under the hood of Capure NX. This class goes for the basics of how Capture NX is set up and works through advanced workflows of several of his most iconic images. In each lesson, Vincent will take you through how he created, or recreated in Capture NX, each image. In every lesson the viewer will be using the actual raw file that came off the camera, not a low resolution JPEG or TIFF. This class is designed to get you up to speed with an understanding of both why and how to use the most powerful RAW processor on the market today.
Lecture: Light, Gesture, Shape, Color and Time: Framing vs. Composition
- Intermediate/Advanced
- 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
- Instructor: Vincent Versace
- In this thought provoking and skill-building lesson, you will receive a master class on how light, shape, gesture and color work. You will learn how the eye works and how to consciously guide the unconscious eye. As you listen and absorb the ideas and techniques, your approach to creating aesthetically satisfying images rather than “historically” accurate ones will never be the same. Take the time to study this lesson and let it open your eyes to a greater understanding of the image editing process and how to have complete mastery of the images that you create.
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Friday, February 13th, 2009
- Montevideo, Uruguay
- Arrive: 8:00 AM
- Depart: 5:00 PM
- No Classes
An Evening with John Paul Caponigro 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- A slideshow of the artist’s work and commentary
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Monday, February 14th, 2009
- Disembark Cruise - Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Arrive 6:30 AM
The course guide is subject to change. Additional speakers may be added and will be announced through e-mail and via site updates.
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