Reference B&W Processing workshop - iSGM 2024 *Registration closes April 1st*

When: Sunday, April 7, 2024 

Time: 3.30 pm CET (Amsterdam) / 9.30 am EST (New York) / 6.30 am PST (Los Angeles)

Duration:  approx. 4 hours

Seats: The number of attendees will be limited. Seats usually sell out fast. Your seat is confirmed and you will receive an invite with a Zoom link within 24 hours upon successful payment in full.

Recommended level: users with intermediate to advanced experience with Photoshop and the desire to create sophisticated B&W fine art images

Workshop Goal: To be able to create masterfully crafted B&W images using sophisticated combinations and sequences of Photoshop features only, applicable for any genre in photography without any additional software. 

What is the value if I already have the Artisan plugin that automates the workflow? If you are a user of the Artisan Pro software then you will learn the highly sophisticated use of Photoshop behind the scenes and will gain a much deeper understanding of how the plugin works and the underlying actions in the plugin. It will enhance your proficiency with the plugin significantly and you will be able to find new uses of the presets.

Timeline and deliverables

Pre-workshop - 1 week before the workshop starts you will receive:

• A short preparation video with basic information on the PS features I use the most and what you need to know about that so we can go straight into the practical demonstrations during the workshop. 
• An action set to automatically create luminosity masks if you don’t have a tool for that.

During the workshop on April 7 - the following will be demonstrated:

• The reference workflow from start to finish using PS tools only demonstrated on various images: architecture, landscape, and portraiture using the same workflow as with the Artisan panel. Now only manually of course.
• How to use luminosity masks in a sophisticated way.
• Create depth manually: the traditional way with the sophisticated use of the gradient tool in PS and the advanced way of creating depth using wide-range and narrow-range dark and light luminosity masks with overlay gradients
• The restore concept using PS tools only for superior controlled blending
• Adjust local areas using the manual PS version of auto blending
• How to remove/increase contrasts and darken/lighten manually correctly
• How to convert from color to B&W correctly
• How to darken/lighten more accurately than with the ‘blunt’ curves tool, using overlay gradients with or without transitions
• How to bring back details using hard masks intersected with soft masks and how to select the correct luminosity masks
• How to create advanced split tones with 3 separate zone ranges
• How to create color images using a B&W workflow targeted at depth perception
• How to get rid of halos using advanced methods
• Even though masking is not part of this class, I will highlight some important methods and demonstrate innovative tricks to make masking faster and more accurate. Masking is a separate 4-hour class that I will announce at least once a year.

Post-workshop - you will receive the full recording after max. 3 days (allow time for editing the video) 

Workshop background and details

Fifteen years ago in 2009, Joel Tjintjelaar pioneered, a manual workflow for B&W fine art processing in Photoshop, called iSGM. This workflow was specifically designed to create a new visual style in architectural photography that is now synonymous for fine art architecture. A visual style that is characterized by amplified/ altered dimensional depth perception and selective contrast, and can be applied to any genre of photography. 

Both the workflow and the visual style have since been adopted by thousands of photography enthusiasts around the world to become the reference workflow and visual style in B&W fine art architecture. 

After 2009 Joel kept improving and enhancing the underlying theoretical and technical concepts of the workflow for even finer and faster results. In 2016 Joel also developed the first versions of Photoshop plugins to automate and support the enhanced workflow called B&W Artisan Pro.

In 2024 after many improvements of both software and the underlying manual PS methods and techniques, the time has now come to demonstrate the updated iSGM 2024 version of the manual workflow in a 4-hour online workshop. Joel will only be using Photoshop so anyone can recreate the sophisticated images Joel is known for without any additional software.

Cancelation policy

• Cancelation before March 1, 2024: 10% cancelation fees will be incurred
• Cancelation from March 1, 2024 to and including March 10: 20% cancelation fees will be incurred
• Cancelation on or after March 11, 2024: No refund will be possible. The full recording will be provided.