BestGFX

In Foundations of Photography: Black and White, Ben Long shows photographers how to develop a black and white vocabulary and explains the considerations to take into account when shooting for this medium. The course follows Ben as he goes on location and explains what makes good black and white subject matter and how to visualize the scene in terms of tonal values and contrast rather than color. Along the way, he demonstrates some exposure strategies for getting the best images. Back at the computer, Ben demonstrates techniques for converting the resulting photos into black and white using Photoshop and other imaging tools, and offers tips on printing and output. Exercise files are included with this course.

Produce Advanced Sequences Without Leaving Your Editor
Premiere Pro CS5.5 is primarily a nonlinear editing system designed for fast cutting of multiple media types, but it is also an advanced special effects and compositing tool. In this course, master editor Maxim Jago describes the tools and options available to create complex compositions using just Premiere Pro, without involving After Effects or Photoshop. You’ll learn how to adjust opacity, use garbage mattes and track mattes, and create nested sequences, as well as how to work with chroma keys, luma keys, and the Ultra Keyer. By the end of this course, you will be able to layer multiple media elements to produce advanced sequences as compositions.

Best Practices for Importing Source Files
• Importing Options
• Browsing Files in Adobe Bridge
• Dragging and Dropping from the Finder/Explorer

In this workshop Jeff Foster — video producer, compositor, visual effects artist, and author of "The Green Screen Handbook" — teaches you the basics of green screen compositing and setting up a streamlined roto workflow with After Effects and a Wacom tablet. You’ll get real-world tips on getting the best mattes and keys from your green screen shots, stabilizing and tracking footage in After Effects, and using the Roto Brush feature to create quick and accurate mattes of anything that moves in the frame. You’ll also learn how to create more believable composites by matching your foreground and background plates, using roto-spline masks, and applying match-moving techniques.

In this exciting programme Karl Taylor takes you on an incredible photographic tour of Paris and shows you the techniques applied to capture stunning travel images. Karl also goes head to head with international award winning landscape photographer Nick Despres in a landscape shootout that shows you step by step techniques for capturing breathtaking images.