Welcome residents of Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Port St. Lucie and Beyond

  This site is different than any other Photographer's site that you will ever see. This is because this site is not designed for people looking to hire the services of a Photographer. This site is designed for Photographers who want to expand the range of pictures that they can create. Instead of a specific course, I am offering a blending of several photography disciplines from taking the photograph(s) to crafting each picture using different Photography software packages to finally displaying your creations(web site, advanced slide shows, print, etc.) I offer a workshop that I call: Custom-Photo-Cation 

Custom Photography Workshops: Warning! Some brief nudity in media show. Must be over 21 to view this show.

 My workshops are different in that only one person takes the workshop at a time. All photography training classes start with one or more pictures that originate from a photo model session(model is an extra cost), a visit to one of the scenic areas in Fort Pierce, Vero Beach or Port St. Lucie, or some decent picture files(jpeg,tiff, photoshop) that you will bring with you. In the end, the ultimate objective is to produce a picture(s) that you can say, "Wow did I create that image.

1. Classes are progressive in that a class may be based on something learned in a previous class.    
2. What I teach is based on what the student needs to learn. This is something that we determine before the class begins. My job is to pick the topic areas in the classes you choose. Also if you indicate a certain type of picture you want to create I might suggest which course will best serve your needs. 
3. When a student finishes my workshop he or she has produced a finished product. This could be anything from a single picture(s) you have crafted using several software programs to a slide or video show and even a basic website.  At the very least, I will help you craft a picture(s) that you can put a frame around and proudly display on your living room wall. In the end I want you to look at that picture and say "Wow I really nailed that picture." 

“The team typically consists of the following: Fashion Stylist, Hair Stylist, Make-Up Artist, Model(s) Perhaps a Casting Director, Prop Stylist and Manicurist, Photographer Assistant(s) “http://www.modelmayhem.com

I wish that I could afford all the talent listed above, and I apologize for omitting the name of the international fashion photographer who made that statement. Nobody, at present is going to hire me at such a rate where I can afford all of that talent, which I am sure took a number of years to find. 

The two images above are at the heart of what I am trying to teach.  If you take a picture you certainly have to make it as good a picture as you can. However, I am trying to go beyond a good image. This implies making changes to every area of an image to get whatever effect that you want. I use On One Photo 10, Photoshop Elements, 10 Topaz apps, 2 Alien skin apps, Particle shop and the other below mentioned apps.  I am not an expert on any of these programs or apps, but I have enough knowledge about what they can do that I can create a variety of images. I also never write down the steps I take to create an image. I want to make every image as individual as I can.

On my Fine Arts America page I called the above picture on the right, “Goddess Divine” for the obvious reason that she really did look beautiful with a little magical background. Compare that picture to the one on the left. She looks attractive, but I wouldn’t call her a “Goddess Divine”. If you take a workshop course with me the course will be about what you can do with your images to create your own version of a “Goddess Divine”.    

I can’t afford a make-up artist or a stylist so if I want to put glamour into an image; I use various forms of photo editing and enhancement software.  In the image on the right, I used Portrait Pro Studio max v15 to change the color of the eyes and lips and add a little more brightness to her teeth. The original picture was taken outdoors with a building and background that flattened the light on the models face.  So I used the modeling effects to get a little more shade and some color on her cheeks. I also made the hair a little bit lighter.

Next I used PortraitPro Body Studio 1 to proportionately slim down the model and make her eyes and lips a little wider. I also made the waist area a little longer vertically.

Next I used Photoshop Elements 14 and clicked on the Liquefy filter.  One problem I couldn’t resolve with PortaitPro body was the area of her hips that flattened out when she sat down.  This required using the warp tool in liquefy to mold the body shape I wanted. Afterwards, I used a Topaz Glow II filter (sorry can’t remember which one).  Last chore I put my signature in the lower right-hand corner and merged into the glow filter.  Image was saved in a Photoshop file.

The final steps were done in On1 Photo 10. First step was in 'Layers' where I used a mask to block out the glow filter on the model's body but kept about 40% of the filter on the model's hair. This caused a problem because the bottom part of her hair was much darker than the crown of her head. This required going to “Enhance” to make the bottom part much lighter and back to 'Layers', to mask out the chances in the rest of her image. I also used the “Clone” tool to further lighten some of the darker parts of the hair.

 Next I used the blur filter in effects to blur the background and apply the Glow filter to put a nice radiance on the model's body. Finally I returned to “Layers” to take out the blur parts on her face and body.

It seems like a lot to do and the above was basically a brief sketch for what I did.  What I teach is not about clicking a few buttons and producing an image, it is about exploring the full range of your imagination. It is sort of like writing, you keep revising until you reach the point where you don’t see anything to revise.

Click on the below pictures to see what is possible.

	This was the original picture I took of Aimee at a workshop. As you can see I included a lot crap in the picture. Not my finest moment as a photographer. If the model wasn't super hot and didn't know how to strike up an interesting pose, I would have pushed the 'delete' button on this picture.		This is an example of how Portrait Professional can change the look of somone you are photographing. Yes, this model is pretty attractive. But I did make changes to her hair, lips and eyes and gave her a little more tan as a way of showing what is possible.
	Finally with Perfect Photo Suite I have masked out the background and inserted a different background. I also put a rich glow on the image while adding a little more intensity to Aimee's features.( note: the next 6 pictures used this image as a base.)		This photo shows a different look with cropping and Perfect Photo Suite 'Blur'.
	Topaz 'Glow' and Alien Skin 'Impasto' filers were used in this picture. Less of these filters were used in the facial area.		Topaz Simplicity 'Oil Painting Black and White 2' filter was used and the image was moved to On one perfect Photo suite to add a little hint of color on the face and more color on the right side.
	Same as above picture with the additon of Topaz extreme color blast. Notice more contrast and saturaton		Topaz Glow 'Into the light' filter was used mostly to make the background, hair and Bathing suit top a little more surreal.
	Used Topaz extreme color blast and dark ghostly. In PPS I painted out around the eyes and set the blend to multiply. In effects the adjustment brush was set to 'magic eye fixer' so that the eyes would pop out.		Used to many effects to explain is this small space. Not a great treatment but a good example of what you can do using several programs.
	Need another alternative picture to the above picture. If you do how about Adobe Photoshop Elements. I used a filter called Sumi and set my blending mode to 100% with Luminence. Notice how the picture pops up her eyes and lips		A black-and-white picture with some color accent could be considered a gimmick. However, this technique can expand the ways you craft a picture. Perfect Photo Suite was used to blend color with black and white.

I included this picture because I wanted to show more of the things you can do with the programs I will teach and the model in the picture is the same model used in the previous pictures. The background picture was taken at McKee Botanical Gardens in Vero Beach, Florida during their dinosaur show. The model was photographed, flash, during an indoor photo shoot. I used Corel Painter Essentials to craft her picture. The background picture was crafted with Perfect Photo Suite 7. I wanted to make the dino bigger, so I created a duplicate file of the background and used the mask feature to get rid of the background around the dino. Then I used the clone feature in Layers(same program) to clone out enough of the dino on the original file so when I combined the larger dino with the original background you would not see parts of the dino from the original file. Then I added the picture of the model and blended this picture with my background picture. Lastly, I used the effects feature giving more contrast and add glow where I wanted glow. The best part of Perfect Photo Suite 7 is that you can add or decrease your effect to whatever degree you want to in whatever area within the picture you think needs changes. The last tweet I made was in Adode Photoshop Elements, ver 9. I used the Comic Book filer to increase the contrast and saturation a little more.   The main point of this paragraph is that if you believe your picture ends at the point where you snap your picture, then you do not want to spend money on one of my workshops. I don't use these programs to compensate for mistakes I have made in taking my pictures. I just don't want limits on how I can create a picture.