The webpage

I have carried out an exhaustive revision process and upgrade on the old web page (that will stop to work shortly). All the contents have been revised , with a clearer and more accessible form, with a white background and black text for all the articles, tutorials and courses, making their reading easier.

The gallery has also been refreshed, with a blue background like the one of this page, a better presentation, but mainly the fact that all the photos of the gallery have been rescanned. I used a scanner Epson 2450 Photo and the system of administration of the color rofiles has been used in the own scanner and in Photoshop. The used profile is s-RGB IEC 61966-2.1. The pictures of the gallery don't have a profile, since the browsers don't use it, but they had one until I finished the last step.
Consequently, they have decreased something in size compared to the previous web, but that has allowed me to use a smaller compression JPEG.

The section "courses" has also been refreshed and expanded. The illustrations of the courses about the Zone-System and about the flash have changed (more and better animations) and the text as well (revised, corrected and updated). There is also a new course: "Initiation to the digital image", for all the ones who may or may not know about digital technology, which presents in a clear way the most important concepts: image size, resolution, etc.

The section articles has been expanded, now including all the articles that I published in the magazine Casanova until the number 70, when I stopped to collaborate with them because of a lack of time.

A new section has been added to the habitual ones: calibration. Here you'll find all you have to know about how to calibrate your monitor, the operating system, Photoshop and your printer, to get that the colors of your photos don't change in the retouching process and printing.

The section download has also been expanded and reorganized, with more datasheets of films and manuals of cameras. All the links have been tested, but if some don't work properly, would you be so kind as to e-mail it to me please.

Lastly, the section links has been one of those that had a bigger remodeling and amplification. I've divided it in categories and now a multitude of links on hardware and software is included, even more indispensable for the "digital laboratory."

Hugo Rodriguez

I've been working as a teacher of photographic technical in the IEFC (Institute of Photographic Studies of Catalonia) since1998. There, I was in charge of the technology subjects, for the first and second year students and from this year, for the third year students.
This is my true vocation: to teach. The truth is that I have spent all my life teaching, but without knowing it, until that day that I realized that I liked it. And, as the other passion of my life is photography, if I don't include my wife Berta,it became obvious to me I was to teach photography.

In 1998 I bought my first computer (the Spectrum doesn't count...), a Pentium MMX 200 Mhz, and I began to discover the possibilities of computer science. At the beginning, as many people, I was attracted by games, but then I began to learn and control Word and Photoshop 4. In the meantime I began to write for the magazine Casanova Professional, thanks to the good relationship that I have always had with Casanova's people and, especially with "Sesc."

In that same year, I entered in the IEFC to give classes (twice a week) and I began to prepare my own notes. At the beginning I took it as something added to my work for the classes but, little by little I realized that every time it attracted me more to learn how to draw better outlines and to make the notes more graphic, that is to say presenting them using not only text. Nowadays, I have a bank of images of more than 3.500 images for my classes, among those there are some 1.000 illustrations, that I drew for most of them. Nowadays I control quite well a good quantity of programs that I use to generate illustrations. Apart from Word and Excel, indispensable for multitude of things, I use:

My little favorite one is the 3ds Max 4, in which I see infinite possibilities for the teaching. A small sample can be seen in the gallery CG-3D.

My equipment

I began to shoot with a compact camera that I bought for I was going to a college trip (when I was in 1° BUP) and with it I started to realize how enjoyable doing photo was. But it was during my military service, when I ruined that compact one, that my father gave me his splendid Zenith 11 réflex. Then I freaked out. That of the reflex viewer was incredible. To be able to see the photo through the visor as it would be printed out later, to be able to focus, and all those things allowed by the reflex dazzled me. When I processed the first photos I was very surprised by their quality compared to the ones I did with the compact.
Then I bought a Zenith 12XP per 11.000 pts and I began to buy photo magazines: FOTO (which I don't recommend to anybody) and FV (one of the few spanish review that is worthwhile). From then on, my gear has gone being constantly expanded: after the Zenith came a Ricoh, then my first and dear Nikon, the F-801, later the F-90X and finally the F-5. I don't have many objectives, but yet carefully chosen: a 18 mm f/3.5, a 50 mm f/1.8, a 28-70 mm f/3.5-4.5, a 80-200 mm f/2.8 and I have just bought a 24-70 mm f/2.8.

As for the hardware, I use now a Azken Muga workstation which I am very proud of, because it has a year and half and still gives as good results as a monoprocessor computer of the last generation, especially in 3D.
It is a board with double processor AMD MP 1600+ and 1 giga of memory. It takes a graphics card MSI GeForce4 Ti4800 converted to Quadro4 780 XGL and two monitors of 17 inches LG Flatron F700P (an authentic jewels, overcoming in definition to any other one in their category). It has three hard disks: two WD of 120 GB and an IBM of 40 GB, both three of 7.200 rpm.
The printer is an Epson Stylus Photo 890 and the scanner an Epson Perfection 2450 Photo (incredibly good its relationship quality price).

My pictures

The truth is that I prefer to shoot landscapes, but what I do mainly is still-life. I also like from time to time to do portrait and snapshots. My favorites photographers are Ansel Adams, the recently deceased Galen Rowell, Chema Madoz and my wife, Berta Obiols.

The translation

Thanks to a very kindly student, Maud Taylor, this page can be viewed in English, because mine is not very good. She speaks English, French and Spanish and does the translation of all the text.

Do you want to receive updates by e-mail?

Well, you don't have to do more than to send me an empty e-mail to "hurodal" at "yahoo" dot "es" entitled "suscribe me to the web page". You will be added to the list of subscribers and you will receive the news before anybody.