Recently I held an advanced photography workshop out of my home. It was a small group which was ideal for the content as it allowed us to interact with each other much more than a large traditional classroom environment. Also, hosting out of my home office allowed for more casual and comfortable seating and some home baked treats.

I thought it would be fun to share a few images from the workshop. The first image of me is when we were covering “off camera flash”. This image is interesting as it was taken by one of the ladies in the workshop with her Canon DSLR and she was firing 2 of my Nikon flashes (the flash units were in manual mode). I was illustrating that with a third party product, you can fire pretty much any type of flash unit, as long as it will sit/attach to the remote receiver. My camera’s transmitter and remote receivers are Flashwaves. A product identical to the more popular Radio Poppers, but a less costly. They were highly recommended by a couple of pro Photographers whose workshop I attended this past winter in the Burlington area (one of the Photographers was from Australia, the other was a local Ontario resident). They felt price/build quality/range was the best bang-for-the-buck. The Flashwaves were an easy purchase @ Peterborough Photo. I purchased the set that came with 2 receivers, this way I can fire two remote flash heads. In this shot one of the flash units was in front of me (to the right of the photographer), the other was directly behind me to create a fun effect.

For the last session of the advanced workshop we went as a group to Burleigh Falls. On this late Saturday afternoon outing we had the goals of using a tripod, shooting on manual mode (or shutter priority) and using a long exposure to soften the water as it was rushing through the rapids. Some experimented with panoramas as well. Below are images shared with me from some of the workshops participants.  You may notice that one of the images has a texture overlay (the leaf).  That is because in the workshop I gave a quick demonstration how to apply a texture to an image using Photoshop.  It is very well done in this one image.

A huge THANK YOU to all that took not just this advanced photography workshop, but to those that also took my introductory course in January. I really enjoyed my time with everyone and the opportunity to meet all of you.

Below are a few images e-mailed to me by some of the class so I may share their work here.

Doris’ Canon DSLR firing my 2 of my Nikon flashes

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a multi-frame panorama

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a multi-frame panorama

6 Frame Panorama of Burleigh Falls in the early spring

This is a 4 day workshop spread across three in-class hands-on workshops + one ‘in the field’ outdoor workshop

NOTE: This workshop had a small registration with a request to move to Tues nights. Thus Wed nights are canceled and the Tues group is now coming to my home office.

Dates: Tues March 2; Tues March 9; Tues March 16 and Sat March 20
Times: 7PM to 9PM;  Sat: 5PM to 7PM
Location: My home; Saturday outdoor location TBA (probably Burleigh Falls)

Cost: $50 (due on the first night)

Registration: Send me an e-mail or call

This is part II of the recently complete Intro/Intermediate Digital Photography Workshop.  The Intro/Intermediate Digital Photography Workshop covered the basic theory needed to have a good foundation to experiment with more advanced photography.  In this workshop we will explore more advanced subjects that were briefly covered in the previous workshop.

This workshop will be primarily a hands-on workshop.  Bring your camera, your strobes (flash units) and your manuals.

Course Outline:

Day 1 – Quick review of shutter, aperture and ISO.  Review of metering options and the histogram.  Then shooting practice in both semi-auto mode using exposure compensation (+/-) and exposure lock (AE-L/AF-L).  Also shooting in Manual mode.

Day 2  – Review and hands on experimenting with custom white balance and wireless flash (if you don’t have a flash/strobe, don’t worry!  we will be working together as a group)

Day 3 – Computer software.  I will spend time illustrating image processing and answering questions.  We will review RAW processing, colour correction, cropping and straightening images, adjusting exposure, dodge and burn, histogram, JPEG compression, sharpening, selecting a colour space, etc.

Day 4 – An outdoor session at a waterfall/rapids area for tripod, long exposure photography.  If you have a tripod, bring it.  Shooting in Manual Mode.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me or call (705) 768-1072

- Adam

Digital Photography Workshop

Duration: Thursday nights for 4 weeks
Start: Thursday January 14, 2010
End: Thursday February 4, 2010
Time: 7pm to 9pm
Location: Buckhorn Community Centre, rear meeting room

Cost: $50 per participant

Summary: My workshop is geared to the beginner and intermediate photography enthusiast. We will cover most of Sir Sandford’s introductory and intermediate photography courses at 1/4 the cost! We will review traditional photography elements such as F-stop, shutter speed, ISO, focusing techniques, point and shoot and SLR camera characteristics. We will review modern digital camera technology such as the digital sensor, digital noise, colour casts & white balance and using camera pre-sets versus semi-auto mode and 100% manual mode. Last we will spend time in the “digital darkroom” (using the computer to organize your photos and an introductory to photo enhancement). Embrace the world of digital photography!

Prerequisites:
i. Any and all levels of photography skill welcome
ii. All ages welcome, however some concepts may be difficult to grasp for kids under the age of 12
iii. Need to have a camera with you each night with batteries charged and a memory card, ready to use. Digital camera is highly recommended but not mandatory as much of the workshop can equally apply to film technology (photography techniques and scanning of photos to work with on the computer)
iv. Must be ready to be social and have fun!

Topics:

• Typical camera terminology, what it means and how to use it: i.e. Shutter Speed, F-Stop, ISO, Exposure, Exposure Compensation, White Balance, etc
• What are the options for JPEG image files?
• What is ‘RAW’ and why would someone use it?
• Colour Cast (white balance and images coming out green or yellow or blue, etc)
• Reviewing what all those odd buttons and switches due on your camera (what does the ‘Portrait’ option do?; what does Av feature do?; what does the ‘exposure compensation’ button do?; what is the ‘white balance’ option?; etc)
• Recommendations for improving your images (i.e. rule of thirds, composition, adding a sense of depth to photos, turning the flash OFF and using available lighting, etc)
• Review how Depth of Field (DOF) is affected by the lenses F-stop, focal length and your distance from the subject
• Image Stabilization in camera bodies (on the sensor) or in a lens. How it works and how it helps you and what it does not do for you
• What does all of this info on the LCD screen on the camera mean? (i.e. Histogram, highlight blow-outs, EV number, etc)
• What is ‘Bulb mode’ and Bracketing?
• What is the difference between a point and shoot camera and a SLR. Why are SLR’s so expensive? Why do they make a ‘click’ sound when they take a picture?
• What are the optical characteristics of a lens (construction, focal length, aperture capability, sharpness, prime versus zoom, unique lenses like tilt shift and a lens-baby, distortion) to causes a large variety of lenses and price range? When would someone know when to use the correct lens for the job?
• Different media card characteristics (Compact Flash, SD, Sony, etc)
• Understanding the different megapixel options and why more megapixels typically isn’t a good thing
• An explanation of computer monitors and how the colour of your images probably won’t match what is printed. An intro to professional colour calibration
• An intro to colour space and the options some cameras have to capture images in sRGB or Adobe RGB (what’s the difference and why use one versus another)
• Getting the images on your computer (uploading from memory card, or using a scanner to scan a print (i.e. from a film camera)) and organization tips
• Best practices for printing images (print yourself vs a common photo development service vs a professional printing service). What does ‘archival’ or ‘giclee’ (pronounced zee-clay)
• A demonstration of professional photo enhancements. On the last evening I will give a quick demonstration how I use Photoshop to give that professional, creative touch to a couple of photo’s

This workshop is advertised in the fall newsletter (page 4) of the Buckhorn Community Centre Newsletter.

Register by either calling or stopping in at the Buckhorn Community Centre (BCC) @  (705) 657-8833 or toll-free 1-877-300-9767.  

Click here to see a map to the BCC.

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