As a student at New England School of Photography in Boston, Bobbi majored in commercial studio and color. She was fascinated by perception-how the eye interprets color and how film captures it. Color also has emotional impact, so between the technical and esthetic aspects, Bobbi was hooked.
Bobbi started teaching color theory and color printing early in her career, both in Boston and then in Los Angeles. She was never able to find the proper materials to support her classes so she wrote her own book, “Creative Techniques for Color Photography” published by Amherst Media. The book covered technical, scientific, practices, color theory, altering color, infrared, filters and gels, balancing light, etc. It was a complete guide for everything that a film photographer would need to know to be technical and creatively proficient.
Then came digital.
A whole new world appeared and although some techniques remain the same, many more have changed. Bobbi photographs people in studio and on location, products, landscapes and sometimes architecture. All of these subjects require accurate color and sometimes effective color. In the beginning, Bobbi tried custom white balancing in camera, visually adjusting color on the monitor, and no matter what was frustrated by the outcome both digitally and on prints.
Her first step was calibrating the monitor with the X-Rite i1. The next was shooting with digital gray card and correcting on the computer. The new world shifted into place, with all devices being calibrated and profiled so there was no more guess work or frustration.
Now Bobbi goes everywhere with the ColorChecker Passport and ColorChecker Classic. In fact she always carries extras so that her students can use them. Every class, especially the portrait classes, is taught how to use these tools to ensure they get the best and most accurate color.