This week’s podcast catches up with two industry greats who both have exiting new projects. Melissa Niu digs deep with portrait photographer Brian Smith. Then Rich Harrington catches up with the original Photoshop guru Bert Monroy.

Music on the show from our partner SongFreedom.

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Brian Smith

Screen Shot 2013-12-05 at 9.45.50 AMPulitzer Prize-winning photographer, Brian Smith, considers himself to be one of the luckiest guy on the planet. Hes told Bill Gates exactly what to do for an entire hour, appeared on The X Factor, exhibited at the Library of Congress, dined with the President, written an Amazon Best Seller, shared cupcakes with Anne Hathaway, gotten drunk with George Clooney and married the most beautiful woman he ever laid eyes on.

For the past 30 years, Brian Smiths iconic portraits of famous celebrities, athletes and executives have been used in advertising, by corporations and have graced the covers and pages of hundreds of magazines including Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, Time, Forbes, New York Times Magazine, Elle and British GQ.

His first magazine photograph appeared in LIFE Magazine when Smith was a 20-year-old student at the University of Missouri. Five years later, Smith won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for his photographs of the Los Angeles Olympic Games. He was again a finalist for the Pulitzer for his photographs of Haiti in Turmoil. His photograph of Greg Louganis hitting his head on the diving board at the Seoul Olympics won first place in both World Press Photo and the Pictures of the Year competition.

Melissa Niu and Brian Smith discuss:
  • What is Brian up to?
  • Brian’s latest book
  • What is he shooting on?
  • Why would you need 36 megapixels in an image
  • What else is Brian working on and teaching?
  • Light and making the most of it in you photos
  • Opinions on editing skin
  • Whats next with Brian?
  • Where to find Brian?

Bert Monroy

Bert Monroy27_200x200_thumb is considered one of the preeminent pioneers of digital art. He builds his hyper-realistic digital paintings as a traditional artist would, adding color and texture, except he uses Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator as his media. Bert co-authored the first book on Photoshop.

His film credits include work for Industrial Light & Magic, Pacific Data Images, and R/GA. Bert has taught the Adobe Photoshop Creativity Seminar Tour, and he is a popular speaker at many conferences worldwide. He is a member of the Photoshop World Dream Team and was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame in 2004.

Rich and Bert discuss:

  • Who is Bert Monroy
  • His latest painting Amsterdam Mist
  • How he gets inspired for a painting
  • How does he document for his work with photos and research
  • How does shadows and highlights play a role in his work?
  • How he began teaching Dreamscapes and compositing
  • What classes on lynda.com is coming out?
  • What he hopes his paintings accomplish
  • Where to find Bert