Belen in Black hat

Belen in Black hat

Diamond Contemplating

Diamond Contemplating

Three Pretty Ginger Kitties in Basket

Three Pretty Ginger Kitties in Basket

"Taking the Mystery Out of Portrait Photography Using Photoshop"
by Susan Cowles, PPSA-CA
Monday, September 16, 7:30 PM


Our second presentation of the year brings us a speaker from CA. Susan Cowles, PPSA who with her husband Larry is attending the PSA Conference in Maine, has agreed to drive down to GLPA early in the conference week to give us a program. Susan is one of the top portrait photographers in the USA winning over 100 medals in International Exhibitions, many of them portrait awards. During this teaching presentation, she will show you a selection of her works including the before and after images of the models. She will then teach you how to take a raw or jpeg image through a step by step process on what you need to do to get those award winning completed portraits. Software covered and used for this presentation includes Imagenomic Portraiture, Nik, Color Efex Pro 4 and Photoshop CS5. During this special program edition she will also touch on Pet Portraiture highlights. Her husband Larry, who is also a top portrait photographer also specializes in Pet Photography and has a one hour teaching program on it. As they are traveling a distance to be with us, our time frame does not allow them to do both presentations on the same night. He has however, made available for us his full program notes along with images. Please print and read the article on Pet Photography written by Larry Cowles for the August PSA Journal by clicking the link listed at the end of this information. Then come prepared to ask any questions you may have about pet photography at the end of Susan’s portrait presentation.

Our speaker has completed a 2 year Professional Photography program in Southern California and has developed expert skills in Photoshop. Her interest in portrait photography has led her to add make-up skills and knowledge of styling to her resume. While much of her photographic activity is making beautiful images for competitions, she has done several community projects. One such project was her recent Pink Scarf series, working with the American Cancer Society, taking images of breast cancer survivors in a pink scarf to bring attention and raise money for Breast Cancer awareness. She has lectured at local camera clubs, PSA conferences and internationally in the United Kingdom and is currently the 2nd Vice Chairman of PSA’s Pictorial Print Division and past Chairman of the Color Projected Image Division (CPID). As an International Exhibition competitor, she competes in four different divisions and has ranked in first place in PSA’s Who’s Who listing for the CPID three of the five years she has competed. A highly qualified judge, she has judged International Exhibitions, PSA Competitions, Camera Councils, and various Camera Clubs. She is currently the Director for the Portrait with Available Light Course offered through PSA.

Pet Photography Article
Presented with the permission of the author.