ALLIED PIXELS OFFERS FREE CLASSES

By STEPHEN HAMMILL

When Robert Rostick and Mark Komula began their business, they envisioned a place where photography lovers could come and learn something new.
Over the past few years, it has become a place where new people come to learn to love photography

Allied Pixels, 4325 Gunn Highway, offers a variety of graphic design and photography services in the commercial realm. In addition, it serves as a photography school of sorts, with classes that include introduction to digital photography, intermediate and advanced classes, studio photography, Photoshop and Web design.

A free introduction to photography class is offered – open to the public, with meetings twice monthly. The class explains how to utilize the basic features common to all digital cameras, and serves as an introduction into the more in-depth paid courses Allied Pixels offers.

Rostick, co-owner of Allied and its chief instructor, said the free course is useful for anyone who has a digital camera and wants to learn to take better pictures. No previous experience is required.

“These people just bought their cameras. We explain to them how digital is similar to film, how it’s different,” Rostick said. “I always open the floor with this question: you came here for a reason, so what do you want to know?”

Upon answering some of those questions, the class moves on to understanding the button functions on the camera.

“The idea of the free class is for people to get used to us first,” Komula added. “We talk about basics, but we also talk about some things that can be done in the other courses.”

Rostick concurred that Allied offers the free course for obvious reasons.

“We talk about what our other classes offer. Once they learn how their camera works, many of them want to learn how to make better pictures.” He said about one-third of the students from the free classes return for the paid courses.

Van ##### Farms resident Chris Volf became acquainted with Allied Pixels through The Tampa Bay Camera Club, of which he is a member. The club meets there each month. He signed up for the portrait-lighting class in an effort to further his studies.

“The students work together here,” he said. Photographers typically pair up during classes – one takes the photos while the other acts as an assistant. After some time, they switch places.

Volf has been taking pictures for years, but said he comes to classes because he is always looking for something to make him better.

“If you come to class like this you will pick up something,” he said.

Donald Smith is also in the portrait-lighting class. An amateur photographer since he was a teen, the Riverview resident said he wants to better understand the relationship to his subject.

“For me the hardest part is learning how to pose the models in a flattering way,” he said. “I’m trying to get more experience with that.”

In the more advanced courses, students learn about common mistakes and lighting challenges, and also learn how to color correct and manipulate photos on a computer, even how to e-mail or print digital photos. Rostick teaches file formats and what they mean, and how to prepare those files for printing, addressing the modern problem whereby digital photos do not find their way off the camera and into picture frames.

“I say to the class, ‘I bet you all of these pictures you take are still on that card!’ We show them how to take the CD and get tangible items they can share.”
Rostick gets a fair share of experienced film photographers in his classes. They’re often unsure about digital photography, and whether they should make the change. Some complain that they took better pictures with film.

“I always say to them, ‘no, you didn’t take better pictures. Wal-Mart threw the bad ones out for you!’”

Rostick has more than 25 years experience in photography and graphic design. As a teacher, he takes pleasure in demystifying the terms.

“The main thing we do is teach you how to see the way the camera sees,” he said. The former instructor at The Creative Circus Advertising School in Atlanta started attending the Tampa Bay Camera Club meetings when he first moved here five years ago. There he met Mark Komula.

“I got involved because I didn’t know anybody here,” Rostick said. The two started up Allied Pixels, an exclusively digital photography studio, a year later.  Both Rostick and Komula find steady work in commercial photography, which helps keep the teaching portion of Allied Pixels afloat.

“Anytime I learn something I want to tell others how to do it,” he said. “We explain file formats. We show them how to re-touch the images, or how to remove red eye.”

Rostick and Komula are the only staff at Allied. The other photographers who teach do so as volunteers. Many of them have taken classes there and are now passing on what they learned.

“We’re a training center, not a school,” he said. “We’re not trying to make professionals – you’re not committed for six months.”

The free classes take place on the first and fourth Monday of each month and last about two hours. People are asked to bring their cameras to the class.

Paid courses run from $99 to $300. The available classes are listed on Allied’s Web site. Class size is limited to 20. To register for classes or for more
information call 264-2633 or visit http://www.alliedpixels.com.
The Tampa Bay Camera Club’s Web site is http://www.tampabaycameraclub.org.