Why do some images move us, and others leave us cold? What makes a good photograph? What makes us pick up the camera at a particular moment? How do we work toward understanding our momentary visual curiosities and turn them into strong photographs? Why do we point the camera in one direction instead of another when the subject matter might be very similar? Why does a photographer take so long to make a photograph? What constitutes a beautiful print?

A Workshop Guiding Photographers Toward Rendering with Intent and Skill

A half-day virtual workshop concentrating on Raw processing and Photoshop as straightforward photo processing tools rather than instruments of image alteration. It is a great chance to explore digital photographic interpretation with Steve as he demonstrates his use of editing tools, executed with restraint and finesse. This class is designed to break down the steps to really understand the processes, and to work through difficult images.

Our photographic world has been shaped by what we’ve seen of others work, what we believed was possible, and what we’ve seen with our own eyes. Join Steve for this exploration of his influences and affections in this highly personal take on the history of photography through his eyes and photographic life experience.

This workshop is part of a series of classes concentrating on the tools within Photoshop critical to Photographers. It is a great chance to explore digital photographic editing with Steve. Help and demonstrations of his use of editing tools, executed with restraint and finesse, will benefit all of your digital photography work. This class is designed to break down the steps to really understand the processes, and to work through difficult images.

Our color perception of the world is a pervasive influence on our hearts, and our understanding of space and time. Making color photographs can build on those influences or merely record by habit and defaults. Controlling color after the fact can be a real technological challenge. This seminar explores the color we see, the way we record it, and the challenges of displaying, controlling and reproducing it.

Discussions will include making a photograph where color matters, interpreting that color from a Raw capture, fine-tuning that interpretation, building custom camera profiles (and editing them) plus building a color managed workflow from capture to printing.

A lecture concentrating on Raw processing. It is a great chance to explore digital photographic interpretation with Steve as he demonstrates his use of editing tools, executed with restraint and finesse. This class is designed to break down the steps to really understand the processes, and to work through difficult images. Topics Include paying attention to revealing actual data content, methods for pulling the detail out of that data and how that processing connects to Photoshop. Both faithful and interpretive decisions will be explored.

Feedback on our work has proven critical to many of us involved in the arts. In this emerging age of digital photography, it is hard to find people knowledgeable in the technology and with a background and experience in the fine arts.

What makes a good photograph? Why do we point the camera in one direction instead of another when the subject matter might be very similar? Why does a photographer take so damn long to make a photograph? These and other such "compositional" questions will be discussed in this lecture on photographic composition.

There will be no rules of composition propagated here, but explorations and suggestions. A good nuts and bolts evening for improving your photographs. A question and answer period will conclude the evening.

Preservation, Scanning and Restoration of Photographs

This class explores the tools and techniques needed by photographers scanning, restoration and preservation of old photographs. This classic designed for honest restoration, not for filling in huge gaps in missing materials. Various dust scratch removal techniques at scanning and editing of your files will be demonstrated. Some color restoration will be discussed briefly as well as the archiving of your files.

The limitations of digital and film-based photography to capture the extreme highlights and shadows of a scene has been part of the opportunity of the traditional Zone System with film, and heavy tonal adjustments in digital interpretations. But with the ability to accurately combine very different exposures, HDR opens up a whole new world of holding a scene with a camera much more akin to the versatility of our eyes. Join me for this exploration of High Dynamic Range photography from exposure, to integration, and processing. HDR does not have to mean weird extraterrestrial looking photographs, it can be a beautiful melding of technology and technique that makes our photographs much more like our real world experience.

This workshop is part of a series of classes concentrating on the tools within Photoshop critical to Photographers. It is a great chance to explore digital photographic editing with Steve in his custom-built lab. Hands-on help and demonstrations of his use of editing tools, executed with restraint and finesse, will benefit all of your digital photography work. This class is designed to break down the steps to really understand the processes, and to work through difficult images.

Intro to InDesign for Print on Demand Books.

This lecture is an introduction to basic use of Adobe InDesign to create Print on Demand books. Topics include basic InDesign tools for page layout and typography together with placement and control of photographs. We explore design issues of themes, sequencing and book spreads, as well as basic use of fonts and their control. PDF creation and control for online upload is also reviewed.

Raw and Photoshop Straight and True

A Lecture Guiding Photographers Toward Rendering What Was Before Their Eyes

A lecture concentrating on Raw processing and Photoshop as straightforward photo processing tools rather than instruments of image alteration. It is a great chance to explore digital photographic interpretation with Steve as he demonstrates of his use of editing tools, executed with restraint and finesse. This class is designed to break down the steps to really understand the processes, and to work through difficult images. Topics Include paying attention to Natural Color, Realistic Contrast and Shadows in a Luminous World, Sharpening with Restraint and Image Aesthetics reflecting our real world experience.

An exploration of "With a New Eye" the digital photographic survey of selected American National Parks from 1994 through 2006. The project employs a BetterLight and modified Dicomed digital insert, a Sinar-X 4x5 camera, and the Macintosh PowerBook540c through MacBook Pro for completely portable digital photography of very high quality. The camera is capable of color, black and white, and infrared photographs of extremely high resolution and dynamic range (6000x8000 pixels, 140MB files with more than 11 stops of exposure latitude).

Making a Print Together: Virtual Workshop

A Workshop Guiding Photographers Through Printing

A half-day virtual workshop concentrating on digital inkjet printing of your photographs.. It is a great chance to explore digital photographic interpretation with Steve as he works though making a print, demonstrating his printing techniques, executed with restraint and finesse. This class is designed to break down the steps into understandable points of control and connection. Topics Include connectivity, color management, print settings, print evaluation and image aesthetics reflecting our real world experience.

An exploration of the nuts and bolts of Steve’s and robert Dawson’s major photographic project on California’s Great Central Valley. From inspiration to complex execution, this talk is the practical and aesthetic melded into a two-hour treatise of an honest photographic look at going home. From working with grants agencies, to publishers, museums, to collaboration, this is a broad-based look at the art and influencing land preservation issues,

Based on the exhibition: The Great Central Valley.

An exploration of the nuts and bolts of Steve’s major photographic project on California’s endangered Mono Lake.. From inspiration to insurance, this talk is the practical and aesthetic melded into a two-hour treatise of falling in love with a place and actively working to help preserve it. From working with grants agencies, to Congress, museums, to contributing photographers, this is a broad-based look at the art and influencing land preservation issues.

Steve will discuss his exhibition of new prints from over 50 years of Space Photography is joining the current Life Form Exhibition for a mind-blowing journey from the living world close-up to the depths of space. The Space Exhibit evolved out of Steve’s longterm interest in the space program and views offered of the heavens and by spacecraft far away. The concentration on the exotic form of the living world of the Life Form work inspired this expressive look at the wonders of the very large and distant in this print exploration of photographs Steve had been gathering for years.

An exploration of the sensuality and strangeness of flora seen in abstract form and beauty. Re-imagining the meaning of close up photography, Stephen Johnson has spent the last few years working on a series of very detailed, deeply focused photographic studies of the raw sensual beauty of plant life.

Raw and Photoshop Straight and True

A Lecture Guiding Photographers Toward Rendering What Was Before Their Eyes

A lecture concentrating on Raw processing and Photoshop as straightforward photo processing tools rather than instruments of image alteration. It is a great chance to explore digital photographic interpretation with Steve as he demonstrates of his use of editing tools, executed with restraint and finesse. This class is designed to break down the steps to really understand the processes, and to work through difficult images. Topics Include paying attention to Natural Color, Realistic Contrast and Shadows in a Luminous World, Sharpening with Restraint and Image Aesthetics reflecting our real world experience.

Getting your photographic workflow under control can be very helpful for gathering the data you need and building a sequence of processes that support your goals. This class will discuss some field photography issues such as HDR, but will mostly concentrate on offloading, metadata, file naming to start. The class then moves on to what is essentially an introduction into the Raw and Photoshop Straight class by touching on raw file evaluation, contrast, color balance and tone, moving into Photoshop for specific image editing needs. Archiving will wind up the presentation.