Digital Photo Academy instructors are available to accommodate personal schedules and provide a half-day experience with 3 hours of personalized instruction to suit the specific needs of individual learners and groups.
The session, typically begins with a detailed discussion of your specific camera equipment and photographic needs and objectives, then moves into an in-the-field shooting session that aligns with your photography goals. The shooting focus can be on landscape, portrait, architecture or many other photographic categories to match your personal interests.
This private session will conclude with a comprehensive demonstration of various post-capture workflow tasks and digital enhancement techniques. The time allocated to each section of the course will vary based on your individual requirements and the portion of the day purchased. Both class options include a meal break to be scheduled based on your personal preferences and availability.
Topics to be discussed:
Camera Discussion
Are you contemplating the purchase of a new camera, or do you already own a camera that you intend to use as your primary imaging tool over an extended timeframe? The instructor will partner with you to better understand your camera settings if necessary, and explore the full capabilities and potential of your equipment in depth.
Is JPEG or RAW format the optimal choice for you, or do you need any specific image dimensions? Are you photographing for your website, a large print for your living room wall, or social media like Facebook? Do you have a particular photographic category of strong interest, such as flowers, landscape, wildlife, portrait, sports, natural light, studio light, and others? This information will allow the instructor to recommend the best ways to use your camera, including suitable lenses and accessories for your particular needs.
In-the-Field-Shooting
Your instructor possesses extensive knowledge of in-the-field-shooting and has the ability to access private locations and venues not typically available to the general public. Perhaps this exclusive access is not essential, but you feel you would benefit from expert guidance while photographing at a local zoo, an arboretum, or an antebellum mansion. Perhaps sports photography captures your interest. If so, numerous Digital Photo Academy Instructors photograph for city newspapers and may have valuable suggestions and connections to local competitions for you to advance your skills.
Depending on your preferred category in picture taking, from nature and wildlife, to street photography, to studio portraiture and everything in between, your instructor will personalize the curriculum to match your vision and goals. Your private class will include a location that resonates with your personal interests. Your instructor will provide a comprehensive collection of techniques designed to help you capture images suitable for a professional portfolio. Composition is an art form, and you will develop your own distinctive personal style, but your instructor will share proven techniques that will enable you to transform a composition from your imagination and translate it into the final photograph.
Post Capture
After teaching techniques for creating powerful images, an important component of the photographic journey is learning how to organize your collection of work in a way that permits convenient retrieval and sharing with friends and family. At this phase of the day, your instructor will help you carefully examine each image to recognize patterns in how you perceive and frame the world around you. Are you relying on a particular photographic perspective? Do you tend to position the main subject in a particular area within the frame? Do you tend to position yourself close to your subject or at a greater distance from your subject? As you become aware of these patterns in your shooting style, you can decide to embrace them or change them, and you will intuitively recognize new possibilities in future photo opportunities.
In the modern digital world, there are methods available to compensate for errors and limitations that may have occurred in the field. Was the lighting too flat or excessively harsh? Did you not quite capture your intended frame correctly, and wish you had positioned yourself at a better angle? This session will feature a curated selection of images shot that day with a range of Photoshop adjustments to be shown and discussed.
Important Scheduling Notes:
- Scheduling for private lessons is flexible and depends on instructor availability.
- In the unlikely event the instructor is unavailable during the booked date and time, the instructor will contact you and reschedule based on your availability. You also have the option for an immediate refund.
- Course locations are TBD and subject to change. Exact locations will be shared before class begins.
- Please understand that the fee remains unchanged if you bring along friends or family members, if you want to divide the hourly cost.
