Build a Better Photograph

Build a Better Photograph is an excursion into the creative process of an experienced professional photographer. While many books address the equipment, techniques, and compositional approaches to image creation, few describe the steps involved in the development of the picture idea. Michael Stern demystifies the creative process he has successfully employed for over two decades in the fields of environmental portraiture, product photography, 3D scanning, and compositing techniques.

How do artists conceptualize? Where do they get their ideas? How do they incorporate those ideas into their work? These questions and others are explored during actual assignments, along with discussions about the technical and business skills needed to succeed in commercial photography.

Build a Better Photograph emphasizes working out how to achieve the end result before starting to shoot. Learn how to determine which photographic approach to use, and which aspects of the composition should be achieved at capture and which can be best accomplished during postproduction. Illustrated with examples of works in progress and finished images, each with a detailed examination of the creative process for that particular photograph. Foreword by Mark Galer.

The accompanying DVD contains additional images, 360° panoramas and short videos of photographic sessions, reference tutorials, and much more.

Zielgruppe:

• Photographers

Autor / Autorin:

Michael E. Stern, a professional photographer since graduating from Art Center
College of Design in 1979, has been working in the entertainment industry with
The Walt Disney Co., Warner Brothers Studios, Universal Studios, and Sid &
Marty Krofft Pictures among others. He has photographed executives, celebrities,
products, architecture and created special visual effects. For years he specialized in
product photography requiring complex multi-light setups.

Michael is a member in good standing of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and has served on several education advisory boards. He tests software and hardware for several well-known companies and reviews and edits photography-related manuscripts for a high-end, overseas book publisher. His blog on beig self-employed is fast becoming an online favorite and he has wirtten many Photoshop and photography related presantations. Some of the more popular ones are posted at slideshare.net/Mr_Pixel.

Michael began teaching in 1987 and has since worked at a variety of public and private educational institutions in and around Southern California. In 2004, he was commissioned by the California Department of Education to develop specialized curricula for high school educators teaching graphics and photography. For two years he appeared as "Mr. Pixel", the Photoshop expert, at phototalkradio.com.

Michael has been tutoring photographers and other interested parties since 2002 with a teaching style that is direct, funny, and full of helpful information. If by chane he doesn't know the answer, he knows someone who does and his promise to you as a teacher, tutor, and guide is he will never leave you with an unanswered question.