Scott Kelby in Cologne
Hey guys!
How’s things? Scott Kelby has been to Cologne on Wednesday and I visited his seminar from the “Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It! Live!”-Tour. I liked it a lot! Here is what the seminar was like and what I experienced:
As I have no car at the moment, I went to the seminar by train. I enjoyed the ride listening to some audio book for half an hour and looking out of the window. I like to watch the countryside fly by the windows. Nevermind.
When I arrived at Cologne/Deutz central station, I was unsure where to go. After a short walk, I found a sign and followed those into the Congress Center where I was amazed by the escalators with great mirrors. It’s a pity I haven’t had time to photograph them when I left… I have to go back there (when it’s open to the public) and take a photograph.
There was a long queue in front of the registration desk so I queued in and waited till a nice woman handed me a badge and an envelope with some leaflets. Every attendee received a handout with all the stuff Scott talked about in his seminar, a keyboard shortcut leaflet and some vouchers. The quality is amazing! I have never received a handout this good… Glossy cover, good pictures, nicely written and with a collar for notes on each page. Compliment!
By the way: If you ever have the opportunity to visit the Kristalsaal room. It looks gorgous! I liked it a lot!
A bit later than expected, Scott was introduced. He started telling us, that one of the screens isn’t working and that there would be chairs and tables moved to the other side while he started. He hadn’t finished telling us, when one of his team members gave him a sign that everything was right. There was a problem, there was a perfect solution! And: The problem vanished before the solution needed to be taken. Another compliment!
When Scott started, I was unsure what to expect, but his shooting session was really interesting. He started from sketch and added one light after another until the model was perfectly lighted. He explained everything he did and even managed to slip in some jokes! Nicely done!
Afterwards he retouched the taken portrait with Lightroom and Photoshop showing his way of doing it. There was nothing new for me there and I disagreed in some points (he created new copies of the background layer for nearly everthing and things like that, where I would have used non-destructive ways, but nothing really bad ;D). But all in all it was really entertaining and I like his way of presenting!
When he had finished with his first part, we went out into the hall for the first break. I went to the Addison-Wesley booth to talk to Pia Kleine-Wieskamp (the social media women) and Kristine Kamm (one of their product managers). Thanks for the nice time, you two!
The rest of the seminar was really nice, too! Scott photographed pictures with different lighting setups and retouched some of them afterwards. In the afternoon, Calvin Hollywood (Scott introduced him as the “German photoshop Guru”) who showed some of his techniques to add detail to the pictures and some of his other effective little tricks.
In one of the breaks, I talked to Scott for a little while and found, he is a really nice guy!
When I was not inside the hall listening to Scott, I talked to Pia and Kristine or to the Kleber family who travels with Scott or to the guys from the other stands. I had a gorgeous time!
I had to leave at 4pm (an hour early) because of a photo session awaiting me at 5pm. On my way back, I listened to some music and again enjoyed the view.
Even the sun came out again, when I sat there and watched the trees, mellows and villages fly by. It had been a really interesting and entertaining day!
For me the most interesting thing was to see how Scott presents his seminars. I like his easy-going way and how he manages to slip in jokes without being ridiculous 
Compliment!
From the contents I was not the aimed audience, but for less experienced listeners or those who are only experienced in either photography or retouching it was perfect!
Here are some more pictures Sascha Basmer allowed me to use for this blog post:
Have you ever had the opportunity to see Scott in action? What other workshops or seminars have you visited?
Love,
Kate
