Residential and online workshops
I have been taking photographs now for almost 20 years, beginning with a 2MP Fuji A202 back in 2002. I quickly moved on through various consumer and enthusiast cameras before finally settling on a D200 in 2007, which made way to my current setup that includes the mirrorless Nikon Z6 and Fuji X-T20 and a Nikon D7100 DSLR. Along the way I have won awards and prizes for my photography, had several of my images published in magazines and newspapers and had my work exhibited in the UK, Portugal, France and the United States.
Unfortunately, my mixture of residential and day workshops in some of the most beautiful areas of the Scotland, including Glencoe, Skye and the Road to the Isles between Pitlochry and Rannoch Station, taking in Loch Tummel, Loch Rannoch, Loch Laidon and Rannoch Moor has had to be cancelled, as have my planned overseas workshops in Lisbon and on Gran Canaria.
I am looking forward to being able to offer a wide range of on location courses and tuition just as soon as I can. In the meantime, I am happy to offer advice on any aspect of landscape photography and photographic tuition and advice online over Zoom or Skype.
I also offer online courses on Adobe Creative Suite apps (Lightroom, Photoshop, Indesign) and Skylum's Luminar 4 and Luminar AI.
Please don't hesitate to contact me for more information.
Single day and residential workshops
My workshops consist of either single day or extended residential workshops and are an ideal way to learn the craft in the field. Single day workshops run on most weekends throughout the year in locations such as the Perthshire Highlands, Glencoe and Fife as well as coastal workshops on the Angus coast and the Loch Fyne. A single day's tuition will be provided covering composition, previsualising the scene, the best lens for the job, using depth of field and using filters to balance exposure and add creativity to the image.
I will also spend time answering questions you may have about the equipment you are using. Technical aspects will be explored, including achieving accurate exposure using the manual setting of the camera along with making creative decisions regarding aperture and depth of field.
The use of filters will be explored. I will help you use them to their maximum advantage. We will cover using neutral density filters to slow the shutter speed, creating atmospheric water movement and extreme big stopper filters to create wonderful movement in the clouds and water.
There really is no better way to develop your craft than by getting out there and doing it. I will provide you with a friendly, fun and informative workshop experience that will, I am sure, leave you with some memorable images to add to your portfolio.
Post-processing
Post-processing is an essential part of the image making process and from my experience it is often the area that lets clients down. What started out as a great raw file with lots of potential hasn’t achieved its full impact. We have all seen overprocessed or oversharpened images and cringe, but it needs careful use of the tools at our disposal to ensure this doesn’t happen to our own photos.
The aim of the post processing session is to first run through a possible workflow and discuss how it might compare to your current practice. As we all know, there are many ways of achieving the same thing in Photoshop, Lightroom and Luminar, and what works for one person might not work for another.
Typically, clients book a post-processing session at the same time as a workshop. This has the advantage that we can set the date, but I also offer a discount to those clients who book the post-processing session at the same time as the workshop.
The image making process will begin in Adobe Camera Raw where we will apply lens corrections, straighten horizons and adjust the exposure. We will then flatten the contrast in the image using the white, highlights, black and shadow sliders.
Editing will also include cloning, spot removal and any other corrections that are required. Decisions about keeping the images as either colour files or converting them to monochrome will be considered. We will mask areas of the image and work on them independently of the rest of the image. When we are ready to open the file in Photoshop we will export it as a 16-bit image and start the Photoshop part of the processing.
In Photoshop we will use feathered selections, levels and curves adjustments, layer masks, cloning, merging layers, dodging and burning and a number of other techniques to ensure that we get the most from the raw file.
Please use this form to get in touch with me.
Thank you!
