Review: Epson Print Academy

Earlier this month I had the great fortune to attend the Epson Print Academy for the 2nd time in roughly two years time. The first time I attended I took part in Track 2, the more advanced of the two tracks offered, with Jeff Schewe, John Paul Caponigro, Mac Holbert and Greg Gorman. This year I again took part in Track 2 led by Jeff Schewe, Mac Holbert and Andrew Rodney. I wasn’t sure how much I’d pick up that was new the second time around, but I was happy to gain some great new perspectives and tips with the most recent Adobe software.

Organization
First the Epson Print Academy is one of the best organized events I’ve attended. The great organization enables access to view prints both pre-made & framed and those made during the workshop, peruse vendors, talk to instructors, access documentation on software & printers and network with other participants. The day long event is packed with information and to help you not miss a beat lunch is provided. 

Vendors & Discounts
Epson did a great job in San Francisco pulling together (3) three local camera stores to set up shop and provide substantial discounts to their products. In addition the local Epson reseller Meridian Cyber Solution had great discounts on Epson printers (no tax and up to a $500 rebate on printers).  OnOne software, Lexar and others were on hand as well. The breaks were tough to endure as the deals provided were very tempting. I ended up buying a couple pieces of software but held off on a bigger ticket purchase… for now.

Topics of Discussion for Track 2

• Color Management – Andrew Rodney
• Printing with Lightroom – Jeff Schewe
• Printing with Photoshop CS4 – Andrew Rodney
• Art of Digital B&W – Jeff Schewe
• Fine Art Printing & Workflow – Mac Holbert
• Q&A with an Adobe Lightroom Software Engineer
• General Q&A
  Note: Speakers may vary in your city. 

What I Learned

While I still use Photoshop CS3 some of the time I have become growingly dependent on Lightroom 2.x, yet I found the concepts applied were easily translatable to those using CS3 and CS2. Your mileage may vary on this depending on your knowledge and comfort level with Photoshop. Both tips on Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2.x were provided through out the seminar. The discussions were never dry and the friendly yet sarcastic exchanges between instructors discussing Photoshop and Lightroom made the discussions all the more entertaining. If you’re unaware Jeff Schewe is a real ham, but one of the most knowledgeable people you’ll come across. The post-processing and workflow tips were incredibly valuable. Having attended once before I had some information re-enforced, but learned a lot more building on my existing knowledge. I learned several small tips… too numerous to list, but my favorite speaker of the day was Mac Holbert. Mac is credited with inventing Inkjet Printing and is one of the most knowledgeable people you’ll ever meet when it comes to printing and printing workflow. While attending the Epson Print Academy last time John Paul Caponigro was my favorite speaker as his workflow approach helped me optimize my own. While I was disappointed he was not an instructor during this session I ended up learning tons more from Mac. I should clarify in that I learned new approaches to similar challenges previously addressed by John. Mac just has a different approach and it was eye opening.

You’d think I’d have enough of the Epson events, but if I had the chance I’d attend the next one scheduled in San Francisco. Every time I attend I learn something new and while my time is extremely precious these days the value of what I learn far out weighs the time commitment needed to lock up one of my days.

Check the Epson Print Academy schedule to find when they’re swinging through your area. The admission price is a steal for what you’ll take away from the event.

[tags]Epson Print Academy, review, digital printing, digital photography, workflow, post-processing, Epson[/tags]