Z Academy hosted two excellent seminars last January 21st and February 4th, bannered by two of the best in their respective fields in photography.

The first seminar on “The Essentials of Cinematic Effect Photo Editing” was conducted by no less than internationally renowned Indonesian master photographer and visual artist Rarindra Prakarsa. Streaming live from his home studio in Indonesia, Rarindra demonstrated his essential photo editing workflow, using Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop, for achieving his signature “cinematic” images. In the seminar, Rarindra showed and explained how he thoughtfully and logically uses editing tools like global and local dodge & burn, sliders for highlights & shadows, color grading, and sharpening, to enhance a photo’s ambience and focus on subject. The coaching session with Rarindra was especially appreciated by members, who have until then, not yet fully known how certain tools and sliders in the adobe editing apps can be used to create enhancements. The post-seminar excitement was palpable, with members gushing over how they picked up new inspiration and techniques to up their editing game. A simple online search for Rarindra’s works will reveal his mastery of transforming ordinary visuals of life into extraordinary, painting-like depictions. It is hard not to be amazed by the surrealist effect of his renditions.

The second seminar, “Beyond Ambient Light” was spearheaded by renowned wedding and portrait photographer, light master, and Sony brand ambassador Jiggie Alejandrino, who did an on-the -spot demonstration at his home studio, on his basic techniques of portraiture lighting. Jiggie’s impressive wedding portfolio has a strong following here and abroad because of the way he artfully and cleverly combines artificial and ambient lights to enhance the overall look and feel of his well-conceptualized shoots. Jiggie, who is also currently brand ambassador of Phottix pro and Zeiss camera lenses, has worked in many dreamy locations here and abroad for both pre-nup and wedding shoots. A visit to his website also feels like getting a glimpse of your travel bucket list. For the Z Academy seminar, Jiggie chose to do a live shooting cum image curating session, with his beautiful wife as the model. Jiggie clearly explained and showed various setups for bringing out the best in the subject, by using only one light.

Both virtual seminars were well attended by enthusiastic members, who showed their appreciation of the subject matters by actively participating in Q&A. The Z Academy, launched only this year, as a learning platform for Zone V members, has lined up many more seminars for the rest of the year, which are expected to be just as engaging and value adding to the members’ skills arsenal.