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An afternoon with Jeff Ascough

As many of my Twitter followers will be aware I've spent the last couple of days with Jeff Ascough learning about his particular style of digital workflow.

I'm not going to divulge the tips and tricks bestowed upon us (for this you I recommend you attend his seminar) but give you some personal reaction and thoughts, especially given my last entry "It's a question of workflow".

Learning the basics

I confess that upon Jeff's opening statement that he was going to cover "the basics" (and make no apologies for doing so) my heart sank a little. I needn't have worried, unlike other seminars and training events I've attended, this was both refreshing and re-affirming.

Explaining his own hardware and software setup (along with the obligatory poke at PC/Windows users I've come to know and love) we soon moved onto working environments and in particular 'colour calibration'. Although an area I suspect many of us already felt confident in, we still came away with nuggets of information to help us ensure lab results match those crafted on-screen.

Shooting tips

Jeff also covered some practical aspects of shooting on the day, including his approach to metering and composition. This is in one area that many film users feel most akin to Jeff's approach, especially those like myself who grew up using Range Finders (I still use my M6 & IIIg).

I've always referred to this as the "considered approach". Looking for an angle that sets the scene, carefully composing your shot, then taking the shot. The impressive element to Jeff is that he applies this rule so quickly and subconsciously, his years of knowledge to coming to play at that instant of deciding the many factors involved.

Another aspect to Jeff's work I admire is his desire to re-create the effect of a darkroom process in front of the computer screen. This isn't to say that we shouldn't fully embrace digital workflow (quite the opposite), but that we would look to emulate aspects of the darkroom process that once made photographs so great.

What about the workflow?

Most satisfying to many delegates was that Jeff covered alternative workflow options, showing that applying the same techniques (e.g. good tonal range, white-balance, setting white/black point, etc), albeit in different software, is the key to a successful yet efficient workflow. 

Somewhat expected options didn't cover Apple Aperture, but knowing the techniques/process remained the same, this didn't matter.

Most interesting for me was his teaching on Photoshop techniques. In particular shaping an image to achieve the desired depth and contrast one might more typically see from an old-style darkroom print, and general rules of sharpening images for different outputs.

What did I take away?

I took away a great deal from this seminar, all of which is positive.

In particular making mention of meeting some some fantastic people, perhaps the most finely-tuned to my own thoughts and enthusiasms. This isn't surprising given our attendance surrounded an admiration for Jeff's work, but if I told you about some people I've met on seminars/courses you wouldn't believe me!

Should I go?

If you like Jeff's style of work and want some excellent information then YES, it's worth every penny. You will of course be entertained with priceless anecdotes and Jeff's take on varied subjects, many quite amusing. So unless you're a PC or Nikon user with a fragile resilience to the odd humorous dig (just kidding) get yourself booked on his next tour.

One comment

I had hoped to attend this seminar but the flight logistics got in the way – hopefully next time, and very encouraging to hear the positive feedback from someone that was there. I’ll just need to hide my Nikons LOL.

Alan Hutchison (Email) (URL) - 13-05-’09 11:01