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Steve Bye

Steve Bye is an Adobe Certified Instructor of Photoshop, and has used it extensively since the release of version 4 over ten years ago. He has been a digital photographer since that time, at first scanning 35mm and medium format film and printing digitally. Now he shoots digitally with a Canon 5D in RAW mode and uses Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw to process the images. Final optimization is done in Photoshop.

After shutting down his wet darkroom many years ago, Bye's interest in photography was rekindled when the very first photo inkjet printers became available. His darkroom and film experience is especially useful when helping photographers transition from film and wet darkrooms to digital capture and printing. Over time, Bye has worked extensively with over seven models of Epson printers, using Photoshop to optimize images for printing on fine art papers and new media that simulate silver gelatin papers. Color management is an important step in the process, and is something he has lectured on.

Bye's strength as an instructor is in explaining difficult concepts in easily understandable ways, a skill learned while at Hewlett-Packard as a trainer, engineer, and manager. He is the Digital Lab Manager and an instructor for MCP and has given presentations at community colleges and for the Twin Cities Photoshop Users Group.

Areas of Expertise
Photoshop (CS2 and CS3), Camera Raw, Adobe Lightroom, Color management, Digital printing with inkjet printers, General digital photography concepts, Learning to use a digital SLR, Low-light photography (high ISO, image-stabilized lenses, noise reduction, color balance), Noise reduction software (Noise Ninja, NoiseWare), Colorburst RIP. Proficient in Mac and PC computers.

Jila Nikpay

Jila Nikpay is a filmmaker and photographer. Central to her work is the theme of identity. The characters in her staged photography and lyrical films are archetypal and her work is deeply connected to the traditions of Persian poetry and Islamic mysticism. A recipient of numerous awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board as well as the Jerome and McKnight foundations, she has exhibited at the Walker Art Center, Tehran Contemporary Museum, Minnesota Historical Society, and Print Center in Philadelphia among others. Nikpay's work is in the collection of the Tehran Contemporary Museum, Museum of Modern Art library, Minnesota Historical Society, and many private collections throughout the U.S.

Areas of Expertise Nikpay's inspirational teaching style, offers the students technical proficiency in the area of lighting and portraiture while encouraging them to develop their own voice.

Teaching philosophy:
Teaching to me is a reciprocal process between the teacher and the student-I see myself more often as a mirror rather than a director whether in a classroom environment or as a mentor. I want the students to explore ways by which they can find their own voice, with my feedback and independently as well. +Jila Nikpay

web links
www.jilanikpay.com
www.heroinesproject.com

Lex Thompson

Lex Thompson's work focuses on manifestations of hope, failure, and irony in the American landscape. Trained as a historian at New College of Florida, he furthered his education at Yale University, obtaining a Masters of Religion with a concentration in Visual Arts. Lex continued his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he received a Masters of Fine Arts in Photography. He is Assistant Professor of Photography at Bethel University in St. Paul, MN and was the 2004-2005 Visiting Artist in Photography at Interlochen Arts Academy. His work has been exhibited recently at Exit Art in New York, SF Camerawork and Southern Exposure in San Francisco, the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul, The Soap Factory, SOO VAC, and Minnesota Center for Photography in Minneapolis, and Boxspace in Miami. His artwork and writings have been published in Look-Look Magazine, Neomu Magazine, Religion and the Arts Journal, and Camerawork: a Journal of Photographic Arts.

Areas of Expertise
Film Scanning using Nikon Scanners
Adobe Photoshop: general software use, image optimization, color correction, selections, masks, combining images.

web links
www.lexthompson.com

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