News & Reviews

Rick Carpenter, Dave Thompson and Chris Pyle capture 2008's top honors.

Rick Carpenter WPPA Master Photographer of the year
Dave Thompson WPPA Photographer of the year
Chris Pyle Best of show

Professional Photographers of Colorado Spring Seminar

April 20 & 21 Sunday and Monday
Fuzzy & Shirley Duenkel - "Go Home" for Senior Portraits Sponsored by DataTech Monument - $79 members / &99 non-members $50 additional if you are chosen for Monday's Senior Session

Step-Mount style with Photoshop By D. Craig Flory CPP, Craftsman D. Craig was kind enough to share this information.

You can pay a lab $250.00, or more, for a "step-mount" print. Or, you can do it yourself in Photoshop and only pay for a custom print. If you control density & saturation, you could even order a machine print! What do you do to be able to save all that money? I will walk you through one way today: After you open your image, I suggest you first make a low-resolution duplicate as a way of testing out what you have in mind. (Repeat all these steps on the full 16X20 once it looks good) Make a dupe of it and sample a color from the image and fill the dupe with that color. That will be like using a “matte board. Now, on your image, select the rectangular marquee tool. (shortcut is M on your keyboard) Visualize how much to move onto your "matte board". Use the move tool (V) & pull the image onto the board. You can move it around and drop it where it works best. Keep the golden mean points & rule of thirds in mind. If it is a bit too large, you can now use scale to make it proportionally smaller. (edit > transform > scale) Make sure you use one of the corners and it will remain proportional. Once you determine which quadrant to drop it into, and what size you want, you will now want an "accent line" to set it off. In normal step mounts that would involve making another single color 16X20 & trimming it till it was just a bit bigger than your image or putting a color tape over the edge carefully, hoping it was even, and then mounting the image on the matte board. My method will give you an exact accent, and it will be as small as you like. Choose a color from the image that will set off the image, without drawing attention to the accent line, using the color picker. Make sure the thumbnail for your image is active by clicking on it. Select Edit > Stroke and try 6 pixels to start with. (I use 250 pixels per inch files … if you use something else, you may want to try more or less) Remember it is just to be an accent line … experiment till you have what looks best, using more or less. It is less work if you start with less and add more till you have what you need. You should look at it in "print size", and not "fit on screen", so it will appear as it will in your final presentation. Once you have your image in place, and an accent line that works, you will repeat the steps on your full 16X20. You could then flatten and save. But, I suggest that you first save a .psd file, with all layers intact, in case you ever want to go back & change something. Then flatten and save a .tif file for the lab. You may want to have an 8X10 printed to see if it looks like what you wanted. If you like it, you can now have the 16X20 printed and mounted. ( if you ftp your work to the lab via ftp on the net you probably should save and send a full resolution .jpg file) Once you are proficient in these steps, you can add more in the future. Instead of just one stroke color you could use multiple colors. You could also try adding noise or grain to the background matte. Or you could make the background matte a dupe of your image and set off your image with radial blur or other methods. All are possible but beyond what I could teach in an hour & a half. I hope my efforts end with blue ribbons for you all.

Carpenter awarded Photographer of the year at PPC/Rocky Mt. States Affiliated Print Competition

PPC/Rocky Mountain States Affiliated Print Competition Award Results

Judges Choice Awards David Swoboda: Richard Carpenter, Cheyenne, WY Barry Rankin: Richard Carpenter, Cheyenne, WY Jon Allyn: Thomas J. Henn, Monument, CO Randy McNeilly: Karen Rubin, Denver, CO Buddy Stewart: Allison Earnest, Colorado Springs, CO Tina Timmons: Bevan Whitear, Kaysville, UT Paul Tishim: Rick Avalos, Pueblo, CO

Master Division

Best Of Show
Richard Carpenter, Cheyenne, WY
Photographer Of The Year
Richard Carpenter, Cheyenne, WY

FUJI Masterpiece Awards
Illustrative Category Richard Carpenter, Cheyenne, WY
Wedding Category Bryan Cox, West Point, U
Portrait Category Rick Avalos, Pueblo, CO Electronic Imaging Category Tammy Campbell-Henn, Monument, CO
Commercial Category Thomas J. Henn, Monument, CO
Wedding and Event Album Category Sara Frances, Denver, CO

KODAK Gallery Awards
Commercial and Illustrative Category Richard Carpenter, Cheyenne, WY
Portrait Category Karen Kelley, Roy, UT
Digital and Electronic Imaging Category Bevan Whitear, Kaysville, UT
Wedding and Event Category
Jim Kelly, Vail, CO Carl Lindbloom, Minturn, CO

Illustrative Category
1. Richard Carpenter, Cheyenne, WY
2. Richard Carpenter, Cheyenne, WY
3. Bevan Whitear, Kaysville, UT

Wedding Category
1. Bryan Cox, West Point, UT
2. Steve Nissle, Mesa, AZ
3. No Award

Portrait Category
1. Rick Avalos, Pueblo, CO
2. Karen Rubin, Denver, CO
3. Steve Nissle, Mesa, AZ

Electronic Imaging Category
1. Tammy Campbell-Henn, Monument, CO
2. Bevan Whitear, Kaysville, UT
3. David Bailey, Colorado Springs, CO

Commercial Category
1. Thomas J. Henn, Monument, CO
2. Bryan Cox, West Point, UT
3. Dan Hammel, Glendale, AZ

Wedding and Event Album Category
1. Sara Frances, Denver, CO
2. Carl Lindbloom, Minturn, CO
3. Sara Frances, Denver, CO

First Timer Award
No Award

General Division

Photographer Of The Year Bruce Jolley, South Jordan, UT

Best Of Show Rita Bales, Woodland Park, CO

Wedding Category
1. Kent Pettit, Vail, CO 2. James Kelly, Vail, CO 3. Adam Roach, Salt Lake City, UT
Portrait Category
1. Laura Bruschke, Salt Lake City, UT 2. Karen Kelley, Roy, UT 3. Wendy Newman, Chandler, AZ
Electronic Imaging Category
1. Tom C. Henn, Monument, CO 2. Jill Bailey, Platteville, CO 3. Wendy Schicktanz, Colorado Springs, CO
Illustrative Category
1. Cliff Winegar, Sandy, UT 2. Rita Bales, Woodland Park, CO 3. Kent Stuck, Colorado Springs, CO
Commercial Category
1. Allison Earnest, Colorado Springs, CO 2. Tom C. Henn, Monument, CO 3. Jill Bailey, Platteville, CO
Wedding and Event Album Category
1. James Kelly, Vail, CO 2. John Hudetz, Fort Collins, CO 3. No Award
First Timer Award
Kristin Adams, Denver, CO Best Of Show Rita Bales, Woodland Park, CO Photographer Of The Year