This course is hands on interactive teaching in which the participants will carry out the various tasks copying the instructor. Every few minutes, the instructor will demonstrate to the class how to perform a certain task, he will then let the participants repeat the same task on the images provided to the class by the instructor. To reinforce the skill, they will then repeat the same task on their own images. Once accomplished, the class will proceed to the next task.
The manipulation of a photo image can provide visual aid to find the most pleasing composition, perfect format, colour harmony and mood prior to painting a picture. It is understood that many will attend these sessions with considerable variation in their skills, knowledge experience and therefore in my initial session I will ascertain what the participants need and expect, and how best to proceed to attain their goals. The course will cover image filing, retrieval, sizing, editing including white balance, enhancement, saving in various formats, editing including image rotation and flipping and correcting perspective. Advanced editing could cover histograms, layer masks, histograms, and combining parts of several images to produce a composite image for painting. This system is not only simpler, but also less expensive than Photoshop.
Mohamed Hirji was born in East Africa. He migrated to Canada in 1977. As a physician (radiologist) he dealt with images which represent the three-dimensional bodily structures in two dimensions. Seeing a parallel of this phenomenon in fine art led him to study art, and he has now been an award-winning painter for almost twenty years. Mohamed most often manipulates his photographic images in image-editing software for greatest impact before painting. See also hirjiart.com
