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FREE Design House at the booth from 4 to 5pm today! ;) # 2010/03/10
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Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category

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Announcing two workshops in the great white North!

November 15, 2009

No Limits: North (The Canadian Invasion)

Mike Long (co-creator of Pindora’s Box) and Andy Armstrong (creator of Design House) are teaming up for an invasion of Canada this January. No Limits: North (the canadian invasion) is two-stop tour of workshops in Canada.

Stop one:

Where: Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario at Tina Weltz’ Calla Studio (about an hour from Toronto)

When: Sunday, January 24th and Monday, January 25th

Price per Participant: $299 (USD)

Click here to register

Stop Two:

Where: Humboldt, SK at Alison Berk’sImagin Photography Studio (about an hour from Saskatoon)

When: Saturday, January 30th and Sunday, January 31st

Price per Participant: $299 (USD)

Click here to register

In 2009, Armstrong and Long teamed up for a workshop called “No Limits” in Portland, Oregon. In 2010, the duo is taking the show on the the road to the North. The first two-day workshop is being held in Greater Toronto on January 24 & 25, 2010. The second two-day workshop is being held in Humboldt, SK on January 30 & 31.

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This two-day, intensive photography and photoshop workshop will feature:

  • Live Model Shoots (both days)
  • Posing Instruction
  • Lighting Instruction
  • How to Promote Fashion/Glamour/Boudoir Work
  • How to Create that “Pin-up” look and feel.
  • Hands-on Coaching, and
  • Unbelievably intensive Photoshop Demonstration and Training

At “No Limits” you’ll learn how to break the rules and create images that blow your clients away! You will not want to miss this opportunity. Sign up today.

Mike

Mike Long is a professional retoucher and photographer. He is co-creator of Pindora’s Box (an amazing set of tools for post-production and pin-up work) and the owner of Katchlight Studio in Portland,Oregon. His pin-up work has taken the Portland area by storm, and his photoshop skills are unreal. Mike is originally from Great Britain and can show you exactly how to create images that wow your clients.

Andy

Andy Armstrong is a three-time international award-winning photographer who makes his home in Knoxville, Tennessee. He has covered weddings in the Southeastern United States, the Greater Boston area, Denver, Colorado, Kingston, Ontario, Canada and even St. Croix. He works with models on a local, national, and international level. He specializes in fashion/glamour work, but does not limit himself to a single genre.

In 2008, Armstrong released his Design House software for photographers and designers, and he his second release (Design House Library Vol. 2) to the public. With more than 15 years of graphic design experience and a growing photography business, Andy Armstrong understands the needs of and teaches concepts for the modern digital photographer.


Please Note:

The rate of $299 is an early-bird special rate and is only good thru 12/15/2009. The rate will go up to $325(USD) on 12/16/2009. Get registered now and save!

This workshop is limited to the first 30 people who register through this site. No additional seats will be added. Hotel Accommodations must be booked separately and are not the responsibility of Design House, Andy Armstrong or Mike Long. Andy Armstrong, Mike Long and Design House reserve the right to refuse registration for any reason at any time. After booking, this registration may not be cancelled and will not be refunded. You may transfer your space to another participant if needed, but the transaction for transfer is not the responsibility or Design House, Mike Long or Andy Armstrong. In the unlikely event that this workshop must be cancelled, you will receive a complete refund. After registration, you will receive a confirmation email and receipt. As we move closer to the workshop, you will receive more No Limits: North information via email.

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Tags: Canada, photoshop, workshop
Posted in Featured, Misc, News, Photography, Pin-Up | No Comments »

Pindora’s Box Glamouring Edition

November 12, 2009

For immediate release: Mama Shan and Mike Long introduce Pindora’s Box Glamouring Edition for photographers

Complete set of tools and training for masterfully creating beautiful pin-up photographs and illustrations

Nashville, TN November 1, 2009 — From digital artist Mama Shan, and photographer and retoucher Mike Long, comes a unique set of tools, training videos and a one of a kind Virtual Room to help pin-up photographers create works of art.

The Pindora’s Box Bundle contains over 230 Photoshop® actions encompassing workflow, retouching, color enhancement, artistic and illustrative. A unique approach to skin smoothing is included, using the MADIMS system to accurately smooth any size of image.
The Virtual Room enables photographers to shoot against a white or gray background, then using the Virtual Room create a limitless number of versions with wallpapers, floors and walls all fully customizable.

The included training videos, all HD quality, show lighting, background and camera settings for a pinup shoot, and also cover every action in the bundle as well as advanced retouching methods.
Membership to a support site is included with purchase, giving buyers a direct connection to the creators and access to the resources created for Pindora.

For additional information on Pindora’s Box, contact:
Mike Long or visit www.portlandpinups.com / Mama Shan www.photoshopmama.net

About Mama Shan and Mike Long:
Mama Shan Canfield has been an artist and teacher for over 10 years, and creates Photoshop® actions and tools to help photographers.
Mike Long has been a retoucher and photographer for over 15 years, and created the Portland Pin-Ups studio brand.

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Posted in Featured, News, Photography | 1 Comment »

James Vs Reality

October 27, 2009

My make-up artist, the fabulous Hollie Olsen (available for any make-up services including bridal: Celebrity Spa Services ) is also an actress. She’s staring in a terrific new short due next year, about a guy convinced he’s a super hero and can save the World.

Trailer here:

James Vs Reality

She asked if I could come to the set (an old abandoned hospital) and take a shot of the cast in character….I’d love to!! After we did the main group shot, I had each of them pose as singles again in character.

Here is the group, Hollie and ‘Rufus’ – the mad janitor! More to come, and this isn’t the final processing yet – just testing. The final DVD cover will probably be more fun!

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Tags: awesome pinup, North West, photographer, portrait, Retouching
Posted in Featured, Misc, News, Photography | 2 Comments »

Two more backstage with Dottie Diamond

September 18, 2009

I’m loving this project – it’s fueling my creative fire big time. These will form a companion to the main Carnival of Sins project. I have no idea where this project will end up, but the journey is very exciting! These shots are meant to look like they’ve seen better days, and are candid views of life backstage at the Carnival. I’ll be shooting similar ones for the other girls and characters.

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Tags: Carnival of Sins, North West, Photography, pin-ups, Retouching
Posted in Featured, Photography, Pin-Up | 1 Comment »

New! Products for photographers

September 14, 2009

New at Katchlight – products to help photographers!

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Pin-Up posing guide:
poseguide

Stuck for poses on a pin-up shoot? This guide is chock full of ideas and scenes to kick-start your creativity. Over 30 unique pin-up poses, with ideas and inspiration for post-production and lighting also included.
Retail price: $99.


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Pimped out Vivitar 285HV:
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Photos © and courtesy of Vivitar.com

The Vivitar 285 HV is the Stobist’s dream flash and perfect for off camera flash work. It does though suffer from two major faults. The hot shoe is very flimsy, and sync cords can be a real pain. Now you can buy a pimped out Vivitar with a super strong metal hot shoe instead of the stock plastic one, and a mini-phone sync cord to connect to your Pocket Wizard hard wired directly into the flash unit! These two modifications make this flash great for weddings and location portraits.
Each modified Vivitar is brand new.

Retail price: $165 + $9.95 shipping (mainland USA only)


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One on one retouching training – Portland:
RTsale

Want to learn the secrets of advertising retouchers? Come sit with me in my retouching studio and learn first hand. Topics covered include:

Advanced extraction of subjects from a background using both the pen tool and layer masks. We’ll explore different methods of masking including color range, brushing and using the channels themselves to create a mask.

Skin retouching – more than just an action. We’ll look at the best way to give clean, super smooth but not plastic looking skin. Just like those magazine ads you drool over when eating your breakfast…

Image extension and object removal using gaussian blur and high pass. Dump that clone tool – it looks like arse when done badly. I’ll show you a trick so damn cool you’ll wet your pants. Twice.

Layers – groups – masks. Using the layers palette isn’t difficult, but using it well will keep your working files organized and make it dead easy to correct should your client want to do so. We’ll look at how advertising retouchers structure a working file for best results. Learning to use layer masks will also help you construct seemingly impossible images from different source files.

Texture overlays – all the rage these days – and they are astonishingly easy to use. We’ll look at using blending modes, masks and using blur to your advantage.

Digital fat sucking…ah yes. The liquify tool – when used well, you shouldn’t even know that Dr Photoshop has been near an image…but used badly, and you’ll look like a moron. Body reshaping using liquify, multiple source images and the pen tool will give you a million new options for your retouching.

This is a one day intensive workshop – for those with a basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop CS2 and above.

Retail price: $599


k

Posted in Featured | No Comments »

Dot-Tee…Carnival of Sins Siamese Twin

September 11, 2009

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Tags: Carnival of Sins, portrait, Retouching
Posted in Featured, Photography, Pin-Up | No Comments »

Allison Pin-up

April 5, 2009

Meet the lovely Allison, a nurse by trade who wanted some hot pin-ups just for herself!!

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Tags: Add new tag, awesome pinup, Mike Long, Oregon, pin-ups, portrait
Posted in Featured, Photography, Pin-Up | No Comments »

Pinuppost.com

January 12, 2009

I’ve had another images posted on Pinuppost.com – this one of the lovely Cherry!! My server is taking a bit of a hit today because of the increased traffic, so bear with the site..it might be slow loading. If you’ve come here via Pinuppost.com, then try heading over to my main pin-up site:

Portland Pin Ups for more about my pinup photography!

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Tags: Oregon, pin-ups, portrait, Retouching
Posted in Featured, News, Photography, Pin-Up | 1 Comment »

2008 Brides

January 6, 2009

I’m in the middle of archiving last year’s work and prepping a new blog for Times Two Studios and going through my brides from this year I thought I’d put them all together in one post! I’m looking forward to capturing many beautiful brides this year too.

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Tags: bridal, North West, Oregon, photographer, Photography, Portland Wedding Photography, portrait
Posted in Featured, News, Photography, Wedding | No Comments »

Pin-Up workshop!

December 31, 2008

In March, I’ll be hosting the first Portland Pin-Ups photography workshop. Open to professional photographers only, I’ll be going through my entire pin-up process including shooting a live model and post-processing too. The workshop is two full days, one with me, the other with awesome photographer and great friend of mine, Andy Armstrong. This workshop is not open to Portland area photographers – sorry guys, but I have to keep some secrets close for those in direct competition!!

Sign up here!

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Tags: Andy Armstrong, awesome pinup, Mike Long, Photography, photography workshop, pin-ups, portland, Retouching, shoot-out
Posted in Featured, News, Photography, Pin-Up | No Comments »

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