THIS PRODUCT PROVIDES ACCESS TO THE RECORDING - YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO DOWNLOAD.
Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfQFOjfTiE0
Light Is Everything: Editing with Paul Mitchell
£6 · One month's access · Around 2 hours
You come back from a misty morning in the woods, open the files, and they look flatter than the morning did. Somewhere between the camera and the screen, the thing you stood there for has gone quiet.
Paul Mitchell's answer is not to work harder at the computer. He spent forty five years as a graphic designer, sitting in front of a screen all day, and had no intention of spending his evenings doing the same to his photographs. So he built a way of working that is quick, light-handed and almost entirely repeatable. This session is him showing you all of it.
He opens with a run through his own pictures, woodland across all four seasons and landscape work in the New Forest and on the Dorset and Norfolk coast. Among them is the image that won him the Sunday Times Award in Landscape Photographer of the Year, made on a trip to a bluebell wood and containing no bluebells whatsoever.
Then he opens the RAW files and works on them in front of you, start to finish.
In Lightroom: cropping and straightening, why he reaches for the whites slider rather than exposure to build contrast, shadows, clarity and dehaze, the Colour Mixer for bringing back colour that processing has drained, radial and linear gradients and why he always inverts them first, masking brushes, colour grading drawn from his darkroom split-toning days, and lens corrections on a pier that was leaning in at the edges.
In Photoshop: curves as an adjustment layer and the gentle S-curve he puts on almost everything, dodging and burning, and a clone trick on a darken blend layer that removes the bright holes of sky between trees without touching the darks.
He also explains why he edits against a white background rather than a dark one, and what a dark surround quietly does to your judgement before you print.
The theme he keeps returning to is restraint. Light is everything, he says, and post processing can only help you.
Includes Paul's own written notes.
What people said on the night
Learning how to use the tools is easy. The art comes with knowing when to use them. — Lorraine
I really enjoy watching Paul edit. He explains so well. — Claire
Gentle, informative, and an eye opener to the possibilities of Lightroom. — Martin
Little changes make big differences. I could watch all night. — Sue
About Paul
Paul Mitchell is a landscape photographer based in East Dorset and a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, who until recently chaired its Landscape distinctions panel. He spent forty five years in graphic design before turning to photography full time, and now lectures and runs workshops across the UK and in France.
How long you can watch
Your access lasts one month from purchase. The recording streams here on the website and is tied to the person who bought it. There is no download.
More from Paul
Woodland Ways — a year in the woods, from spring blossom to winter hoarfrost.
Beyond The Visible — his infrared talk.
The Seeing Eye — looking past the obvious picture.
Creative Vision — where graphic design meets photography.
Fear of Flying — photographing close to home.
Each is £6, and the code PAULSWOODS takes any three for the price of two.
