Luminous Landscape: Fine Art Printing Video

Greetings,

in case you did not come across this before: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/videos/camera-print.shtml

My own verdict is that the value for money is excellent. If you have broadband, it is around 2.2 Gig all together, and I watched it over the last few nights.

YMMV, but I personally snapped up a lot of useful information, and also found the videos entertaining and well made. I would recommend them!

I must say I have mixed feelings on training videos. A book requires reading, but one can move around and read at any angle in any room in the house irrespective of size.

The video allows one to just observe. However, skipping ahead is a little more difficult and it gan be annoying when the pace is too slow and conversational with uneeded social commentary that would be removed from a book.

I prefer a printed book with clear illustrations! Still, well disciplined videos are worthwhile. I hope you will give a detailed review. So make notes as you go through the 6 hrs and 40 minutes.

$34.9 is a modest price for this much video time.

However, where is it in competition to other "expert" resources?

Could everyone list other resources on expert printing and opinions on how well prepared each is .

Asher

I am in agreement with Asher here. I have bought LL videos before and I have certainly learnt from them. The price for this video is not expensive, especially for us the Europeans with the strong Euro right now. So I might buy it just for the sake of having it and hoping that I can find the 6 hours to watch it.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, the general problem I seem to be having nowadays is the fact that only some 20-25% of any published medium, be it a book or a video (although more often so in the case of a video) is adding something totally new to my knowledge set. Most of the information seems to have already been published and discussed to death in many different forms before, on and off the Internet. So I shy away from buying books or videos unless they really offer some unique information or a fresh viewpoint.

The last book I've bought the other day is The HDRI Handbook by Christian Bloch. Now that is an interesting read and worth the 39.95 Euro I've paid for it ;-).


Cheers,

Cem

Yup, got Blochis book here too.

As for the LL video, yeah well, I am not saying this is a Habilitation on fine art printing, and it sure was not intended to be one, but for a relatively complex matter at hand, they managed to give the listener more than a overview into the entire process, loaded with little hints and tips, of course, from their point of view.

From the history to date developments, to matting and framing of the final product, they do cover a heck of a lot of ground in deed.

For anyone who starts printing, and is that bit more serious about it, I would highly recommend it.

In opposite to Asher, I enjoyed the very few social nic nacs inbetween, and found it quite intersting to hear Jeff's opinion on aspects of up rezing, resolution in general and sharpening, particulary after Bruce passed away and Jeff is working ever so more closely with Thomas Knoll now. You really think they are removed from books? I assume you never read a book from Scott Kelby then. LOLOL

As for the swamping of the market with new book releases, it is a money making maschine, and I got some insights into this while working together with the USA publishing VP of O'Reilly Media last year. Very intersting in deed! See, the release cycles of Adobe, and not only Adobe of course, is triggering those mass market writers/publishers. Inevitably, when CS4 comes out, they will swamp the market again with a phletora of redundant literature, re packaged stuff that has been already written 3 years ago, may be 10-15% is covering new ground/features, the rest has been said plenty times before.

Back to the video, this is very different then the well known Photoshop Videos, the latter I find utterly ridiculous most of the time. Then again, ymmv. As for me writing a detailed review, sorry, thanks but no thanks.

No need for detailed review. Just a couple of sentences after each hour of DVD! Is it worth 6 hours of time? Can one search for a topic?

In my opinion its is worth the time. The total is around 2.2 Gig, seven sections each with QT videos as followed, hence you can choose your topics or watch the whole in succession:

CameraToPrint 01-03
1. Introduction & Disclosure
2. Current Printer Model Review: Epson, Canon & Hewlett Packard
3. Image comparison of HP Z3100 & Canon iPF5000

CameraToPrint 04-06
4. Optimize image at exposure
Calibrating & Profiling your Monitor
5. Scanning Film
6. JPEG compression

CameraToPrint 07-09
7. Optimal RAW Processing
8. Noise Reduction
9. Profiling: Camera
Profiling: Printer

CameraToPrint 10-12
10. Sharpening
11. PhotoKit Sharpener
12. Resolution

CameraToPrint 13-15
13. Photoshop Colour Settings
14. Soft Proofing
15. CS3 Printing from Windows

CameraToPrint 16-20
16. CS2 & CS3 Print settings - Mac OS X
17. Solutions to Multiple Print Settings & Dialogs
18. Print from LightRoom
19. RIPs
20. Books

CameraToPrint 21-24
21. B&W conversion & a basic Workflow in Lightroom
22. B&W in CS3 and three prints on the Lightbox
23. Matte Cutting & Framing
24. Wrap-up

CameraToPrint Extras_1
Photoshop action for Mid-tone contrast enhancement
Matte cutting spreadsheet

A coupon for the free download of the iPod version will be emailed to you with
our thanks within 10 days of your purchase of this HiRes version.

Oh c'mon Georg, you can do much better than just copying the table of contents from the LL web site (LOL).

Asher and I are looking forward to hearing a bit more about your actual experience and what you consider to be particularly interesting/worthwhile.



Cheers,

Cem

Sigh....

I found the entire video collection worth my time in deed, see, it is the attempt to give you an overview on the entire process to create fine art prints, and in that respect, in my opinion they succeeded.

I did not see any of the other LL videos btw., no idea how they are.

Would I buy it again?

Nope, I already have it. <grins>

...and hey it is a 20 Euro product!

Asher Kelman said:

No need for detailed review. Just a couple of sentences after each hour of DVD! Is it worth 6 hours of time? Can one search for a topic?

Click to expand...

Its the best deal going IMHO. Books are great, but seeing the techniques are equally useful. There's a huge amount of information to get in the 6 hours. I know both these guys for year, I picked up a few gems well worth the price I paid and find going back to the segments when necessary (via the chapter settings in the video) easy to do. It is worth the 6 hours, within each video segment, you can move the QT slider or popup and find topics.

Hey Andrew

You are on my list as well! I am getting a 44 inch printer this month, and I look foward reading your CM book.... just thinking, might be an idea to produce such a video on CM as well.... why not colaborate with Michael on that?.... just an idea.

Georg Baumann said:

Hey Andrew

You are on my list as well! I am getting a 44 inch printer this month, and I look foward reading your CM book.... just thinking, might be an idea to produce such a video on CM as well.... why not colaborate with Michael on that?.... just an idea.

Click to expand...

That's Michael's call. Love to do it.

I just popped him an email and suggested it.

We are always happy to host training materials by any means. All one has to to is submit an idea! We're about growth for everyone!

Asher

Andrew,

Hmmm...

Michael is so busy with all his jobs and appointments, he can't even make it to the Photokina this year as he is in Botswana on a Safari Trip when I asked him last week.

Here is another idea Andrew, why no colaborate with OPF on a video concerning CM. As Asher indicated, he is interested in training material, and this might turn into a mutual beneficial and workable proposal quickly.

Your expertise and knowlegde would be most welcome in form of a training video that could be downloaded from OPF, I am certain on that part!

The folks around here are of a much different caliber than the usual pixel peeper fora that are swamped with profile neurotics.

I am somewhat convinced OPF could come up with the needed ressources one way or the other and work something out with you.

What do you think?