'Image Editing, Vol. 1' by Chip Phillips

Chip Phillips, one of my favorite photographers from the great Northwest, has just released a video titled 'Image Editing-Vol. 1'. Aside from his talent as a photographer, Chip's work in the digital darkroom has always taken my breath away (the proof is in the quality of his images).
So if you've been waiting to purchase an instructional video on using Photoshop to get the very best from your images, I recommend that you have a look at the 5 minute video preview.
I'll post a review here as soon as I am able, FWIW.

Many of these are the same techniques he taught us when we were out there last year. His work is outstanding and you can learn a lot from his videos! I just ordered this for myself. Sounds like you purchased it John?

Thanks, John....gonna buy it.
Joe Rogers

Thanks for sharing this information John. Chip's work definitely speaks for itself. I purchased his Abraham Lake Ice print and it looks fantastic. I definitely like the look of his processing - natural yet vibrant.

I'm glad others find benefit in these sorts of video tools, but unfortunately I'm not able. When, oh when, will all these video makers realize there are a number of people (like me) who are unable to understand the spoken word of a disembodied voice? We need to see the speaker's face (not usually practical).

There is another very practical solution ... optional subtitles.

Everyone on that Photo Cascadia site produce a seemingly never-ending stream of drool-worthy images, Chip certainly among them.

I went through the first 3 modules last night and so far so good. Chip shows you how to create the masks and manipulate them using layers and channels. Even though it is considered advanced PS editing, he takes you step by step on how to create luminosity and color masks, using opacity sliders to get just the right look. A very good tutorial so far. Once I find a good mage to process, I will try to show a before and after...although he shows you that in the tutorials. One thing I like about all these Photo Cascadia guys tutorials is they are not expensive. $39.00 is dirt cheap in my opinion. Just understand this is Photoshop and will not work with elements or LR.

Howard, not sure I understand about seeing the speakers face. What the tutorial does is show you step by step what keystrokes to use and what those steps do to change the photo. Being a visual person, It's as if you were sitting there next to him while he works on the image. it's important to me to see how to do the action so I can duplicate it on my photos...not saying that I want my images to look like Chips (not a bad thing) but it allows me to make individual changes to suit my style.

Jack, I'm assuming there's a voice-over in the videos. My apologies if I'm wrong. However, if I'm not, I find it hard to understand most people's voice-overs without seeing their face as they speak. I'm hearing impaired, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who is.

Ok, gotcha. Yeah there is a voiceover as he explains the steps. I wonder if there couldn't be a way to have the speakers face in a corner while you still see the actual demonstration. I know Chip so I will Email him with your thoughts if you want. Actually I emailed him last night and he is watching this thread so maybe he'll chime in.

Thanks for the heads up John. I'll be watching the demo and will most likely buy the download. I've been fascinated by the images of all those guys on Cascadia and wondering about their post processing for quite some time. Might be more than I want to get into but I won't know till I check it out.

And if these fine folks at Photo Cascadia teach you how grow a set of "you know what" to multiply ridges at Grand Canyon then everyone's a winner
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmcneal/6996973875/in/photostream/page5/

Aleks,

I'm not sure what you're looking at, but that shot doesn't look manipulated to me -- at least not in the sense of adding ridges. Here's a similar shot that I took a year ago. You're definitely using a telephoto lens to "compress" the ridges and give the illusion of stacking them against each other, but I don't think there's any cloning.

Jack, thanks for the heads-up. I'll probably pick this up next week. It looks good. I suspect Chip is using a screen-capture technique; if that's the case, he may be able to use a webcam to drop in a window of himself in later videos... But it would be pretty difficult to make that an option that you could turn on and turn off.

Mark, look at the profiles of the second and third ridgelines. They are identical ! As are the 4th and 5th.

I am a BIG fan of the tutorials by Chip and Zack and have endorsed them here in the forum (as a user, not as a moderator) so I went to the source and emailed Kevin about his image. He isn't an NPN member so here is his reply to my personal (not forum) inquiry:

Hello Jack,
Thank you for the heads up. I really appreciate that. I am not sure what to do as I also dont want this to get out of hand. I also dont want this to affect other members or associates. . I screwed up and had three images that I threw in Photomatix Exposure Fusion; I made a Pano from the image with PhotoMerge and then cropped the image for Flickr. Because of the PhotoMerge, I did not see the duplication of one of the ridges. I have removed the images from Flickr but I dont post on NPN so I dont want to get involved in a controversy with a forum I am no longer part of. Is there way to avoid this..
any suggestions would be great .. I will repeat I had no intentions of every manipulating the image; I want to make this right.

Hope that takes care of the issue. I have been through all the tutorials by Chip, Zack and Sean and they do NOT show how to clone major parts of images.

Kevin does not want to hurt the other guys in his group and I believe him. I would say to anyone who questions the legitimacy of an image, go to the source and you may get a valid explanation.

Hunh. I (sheepishly) stand corrected. By sharper eyes than mine.

I just did my first focus stacking using Chips tutorial and although I still have a long way to go, I'm a happy camper. He shows how to use Helicon focus and how to clean up the stack...amazing stuff. I ain't gonna show you guys the results cuz you're to picky..

I purchased the set....very high quality, plus this guy knows how to teach. I am very happy and the price is almost give away.
Joe Rogers

I'm very interested to check this out, and I'll be interested to read your review, John. I am curious to hear about what it has to offer someone like me, who's already comfortable with luminosity masks and the whole Tony Kuyper set of techniques. But there's always more to learn, and I still feel like I could use some pointers on image blending in particular.

If the whole concept of luminostiy masks has not quite come together for you, this tutorial on will certainly help your understanding, both in how to make the masks yourself and also how to use Tony Kupers actions.
Joe Rogers