Dmitry Kirshner

Dmitry Kirshner is a Winnipeg based photographer who is keenly interested in creative ways of photographing the world around us.  This search takes him to very different photographic genres from macro to high-speed photography to landscapes to photo manipulations using Photoshop.  His day job as a Senior Solutions Consultant for a US based software company requires him to travel extensively throughout North America and, sometimes, overseas.  He takes every opportunity to bring his camera along. Dmitry was born in Russia, but has spent over half of his life in Winnipeg, where he lives with his wife and daughter. 

Presentation Description:

We live in a world where taking photos is so easy to do, that the final result, the photographs, begin to feel disposable and are only there for a fleeting moment between the swipes on Instagram or Facebook.  This is a challenge for those of us who want to create something that could be viewed for a long time, revealing new and exciting aspects of a scene or a subject we capture.  My goal is to keep exploring creative ways of bringing the viewer inside the idea, the thought, the feeling I had when taking a photo.  This might include finding an interesting subject, a new technique or a different way of post-processing an image.  I do not look at photography as a way to record the literal world around us, but as a way to interpret it from the personal point of view of my artistic vision. 

During this presentation I will share my photographic journey and what motivates me to continually improve my skills and equipment.  Post-processing is a big part of my final images, with Photoshop luminosity masks making one of the most dramatic differences in my ability to create images I like.  During the second half of the presentation, I will provide a short introduction and tutorial on what luminosity masks are and how I use them in post-processing.  I will demonstrate the use of TKActions panel in Photoshop to rapidly generate luminosity masks and a number of techniques I employ to selectively control contrast, colours and other aspects of an image. 

For more information about my work visit me at www.dmitrykirshner.com or Instagram @dkfotas.