About

Scan an image of ordinary objects or aim your camera at a spectacular scene. This workshop will take you through the basic steps of wrestling digital images into the simplicity of high contrast art ready for plate-making.

Using Photoshop Elements as our foundation, we will introduce the basic operations of photo manipulation to convert, modify, and resize images for making letterpress and intaglio printing plates. No prior experience with photo-manipulation software is required, but students should be comfortable with general computer operations on their own laptop computers.

Through hands-on examples you will learn how to import a photograph or scan a drawing, modify its dimensions, shape, tone, and texture. We’ll look at methods for converting color images to high contrast, black-and-white illustrations. Drawing and editing tools will be explored along with basic digital typography. Techniques for separating elements for multiple color printing will be reviewed.

We’ll start by downloading the software (available on 30-day trial) and moving along at a comfortable pace before diving into the power of various filters to isolate key lines, graphic details, and textures, after which the instructors will give individual guidance specific to participants’ goals.

A $10 materials fee will be added to the class fee when you register for the class.

About the Instructors: 

Carl Youngmann and Ellie Mathews are letterpress printers who teach the BARN’s Letterpress Boot Camp and Photopolymer courses. Carl has had a life-long relationship with photography, image analysis and manipulation, including a PhD in Cartography and Computer Graphics. He has taught remote sensing, developed medical image analysis software, and has generally messed around with a lot of cameras, computers, and printing presses. Ellie has worked in cartography, design, and software development. She has enhanced dozens of letterpress broadsides with graphic elements that began life as full-color photographs.