The Artistic Thought & Decision Process in Practice

::: The Artistic Thought & Decision Process :::

Live and interactive PAID webinar via Zoom

Perhaps the most important webinar I will teach, focusing more on the importance of making the right artistic decisions and less on technical skills in Photoshop. Focusing on the WHAT instead of only the HOW.

When: March 1, 2026

Time: 3:30 pm CET (Amsterdam) / 9:30 am EST (New York) / 6:30 am PST (Los Angeles)

Duration: approx. 3.5 hours (excluding breaks)

Deliverables:

• Live attendance on March 1, 2026.
• A quick preparation video before the webinar.
• Webinar recording a few days after the webinar.
• A PDF with the luminance wheel and other highlights will be provided after the webinar.
• The recordings are accompanied by subtitles in seven different languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Italian, and Portuguese.

What this webinar is about

Less technical - more artistic 

A webinar on the artistic decision process of B&W fine art photography, and how to design an impactful image in B&W by focusing on a balanced distribution of selective and muted contrasts, tonal zone distribution, and the visual impact of a chosen design.  Intermediate to advanced technical skills in Photoshop are recommended to follow along, and will get less attention. We will also provide you with ideas for inspiration, how to translate them to your work, and suggestions on where to find them.

Outline

This webinar will extensively discuss and demonstrate important topics that are often ignored: the artistic thought and decision process. Topics such as how to analyze an image, how to design it, how much contrast is enough and why, how much darker/lighter and why, where to apply the highest selective contrasts, where the muted contrasts, and why, or how to distribute the tonal zones to obtain a balanced and pleasing image will be addressed.

As much as possible, I will use tools such as the newly developed Luminance wheel, the zone system, proven concepts from the art world regarding relative contrast and selective contrast, markup techniques to design contrast/depth/zone maps, and other relevant examples as a basis to inform the artistic decisions.

Example of one of the tools used: a Contrast Map/Depth Map/Zone map

Seats

The attendance is limited - full is full. After successful payment in full, you will receive an invite with a Zoom link within 24 hours. Please also check your spam folders.

Levels

The recommended level is intermediate to advanced. Familiarity with creating black and white images and intermediate knowledge of Photoshop is recommended. It is not necessary to have the Artisan plugins, but I will use them frequently in the demonstrations to speed up the workflow.

Topics

The recurring theme and main topic:

This webinar discusses extensively key decision points in the artistic decision process that determine the impact of an image. Artistic decision points such as tonal design and composition: what needs higher or lower contrast, how much contrast is enough or too much, how many darker or lighter zones do I need, and where to place them for the highest impact that does justice to my intentions?

This main topic will be demonstrated using several examples. There will be live post-processing demonstrations on how to apply the visual design to a photo. 

We will discuss the most used Mid-Key image and how to design it, and how to design a Low-Key image using the principles.

Sub topics (clarifying the main topic)

• How to analyze the image at hand and use all the information effectively
  
• The importance of Tonal composition is often, if not always, ignored. Spatial composition addresses the arrangement of objects and spaces. Tonal composition addresses what needs to be darker/lighter, lower/higher in contrast, where the highest contrast should be, and where the lowest and why, what needs depth or flatness, etc.
  
• How to make a concrete design of an image based on the analysis and tonal composition using markups and notation techniques from the analog darkroom. Relevant to this, the following play a role:
  
  • Figure/ground relationship
    
  • Making markups to create a Contrast Map in Figure/Ground
  • Making markups to create a Depth Map in Figure/Ground
  • Making markups to create a Zone Distribution Map in Figure/Ground
  • Using Checkerboard patterns
• Visual weight of zones
• The luminance wheel* will be presented. It’s the equivalent of the color wheel used for designing in color.
• Suggested distribution of zones and luminance values based on the luminance wheel and examples for Mid-key, Low-key, and High-key images.
• Suggested distribution and intensity of contrasts, using a variation of the luminance wheel and examples
• How to find inspiration and how to analyze those images and translate them to your own images

*The luminance wheel is a new visual supporting aid, analogous to the color wheel (which is used to combine colors in an aesthetically pleasing way), used to combine and distribute zones from the zone system in an aesthetically pleasing way. If you have never heard of it, that’s correct; I have developed this new wheel very recently, and find its origins in music theory and visual design

Not a plugin demonstration

This webinar is NOT about using the Artisan Pro plugin, but it forms an important part of the webinar to speed up the workflow and demonstrations. All demonstrations can be replicated using Photoshop only. For this purpose, you will receive a short video with an overview of how to map the panel steps to PS steps before the start of the webinar.

Why this webinar

In my previous webinars, I have extensively demonstrated and discussed how to create a black-and-white image in the digital darkroom using the right tools and techniques, following a predefined workflow. The artistic thought and decision process that determines the artistic impact was always only briefly discussed. This webinar will address that important part.

Terms & Conditions and Cancellation Policy

• Cancellation before January 22, 2026: 30% cancellation fees will be incurred
• Cancellation on or after January 22, 2026: No refund will be possible. The full recording with subtitles will be provided.