Digital Photo Academy instructors are available to accommodate your personal schedule and provide a comprehensive half-day experience with 3 hours of in-depth instruction tailored to the specific needs of individual participants and small groups.
This specialized private session typically begins with an extensive discussion about your individual camera equipment and your specific photographic goals and interests. Following this consultation, you will participate in an in-the-field shoot designed to align with your personal photography objectives. Your shoot can focus on landscape photography, portrait photography, architectural photography, or many other specialized categories to suit your particular interests and skill level.
This comprehensive private session culminates with an extended demonstration covering a variety of post-capture workflow tasks and techniques. The allotment of instructional time devoted to each section of the course will vary according to your individual learning needs and the portion of the day you have purchased. Your class experience includes a meal scheduled at a time convenient for your learning preferences.
Topics to be Discussed:
Camera Discussion
Whether you are evaluating options for a new camera purchase or you already own equipment you plan to use extensively, your instructor will help you develop a thorough understanding of your camera's capabilities and settings. The instructor will work with you to better understand the specific settings and features of your camera if needed, conducting a detailed exploration of your equipment's capabilities and functionality.
Your instructor will help you make informed decisions about technical matters such as whether it is best to shoot in JPEG format, RAW format, or a specific image size depending on your intended use. Are you preparing images for your professional website, a large print for your living room wall, or sharing on Facebook? Your instructor will consider your specific photographic category of interest whether that includes flowers, landscape photography, wildlife photography, portrait work, sports photography, natural lighting techniques, or studio lighting approaches. This personalized consultation will help your instructor advise you of the most effective ways to use your camera, including recommendations for relevant lenses and accessories that will best serve your photographic vision.
In-the-Field Shooting
Your instructor brings extensive professional awareness of in-the-field shooting techniques and often has access to specialized venues and locations not ordinarily available to the general public. Perhaps you are interested in practicing your craft at a local zoo, exploring the photographic opportunities at an arboretum, or photographing the distinctive architecture of an antebellum mansion. Perhaps sports photography captures your interest, and many Digital Photo Academy Instructors have professional experience shooting for city newspapers and possess valuable ideas and access to local competitions where you can develop and hone your specialized skills.
Depending on your preferred category of picture taking, from nature and wildlife photography to street photography, to studio portraiture, and everything in between, your instructor will personalize the curriculum of your private class to match your interests. Your private class will include a carefully selected location that directly ties into your personal photographic interests and objectives. Your instructor will share an extensive array of composition techniques and photographic approaches that will help you capture images worthy of a professional portfolio. Understanding that composition is a true art form, your instructor will help you develop your own unique personal style while simultaneously sharing proven classic techniques. These fundamental techniques will enable you to take a carefully composed image from your creative thoughts and successfully render it into the final photographic image you envision.
Post Capture Workflow
After sharing detailed techniques on creating powerful and compelling images, an important aspect of the photographic pursuit involves learning how to organize your complete body of work in a way that makes for convenient retrieval and easy sharing. During this portion of the instructional day, your instructor will help you closely examine each image you have captured to analyze commonalities in how you see and interpret the world visually. Are you relying on a specific perspective or viewpoint in your work? Do you tend to place the main subject in a consistent portion within the frame? Do you tend to photograph close to your subject or maintain a greater distance from your subject? As you see patterns emerging in your shooting style, you can make conscious decisions to embrace these patterns or intentionally change your approach, and inevitably recognize similar options and opportunities in future photographic situations.
In today's digital photographic world, there are powerful ways to compensate for mistakes and technical limitations that may have presented themselves during the field work. Was the natural lighting too flat or too harsh? Did you not quite capture your frame correctly, and do you wish you had shot at a better angle? This comprehensive session will include a careful selection of images shot that day, presented with a variety of Photoshop adjustments to be demonstrated and discussed in detail. You will understand how professional photographers use digital tools to enhance their work and overcome technical challenges.
Important Scheduling Notes:
- Scheduling for private lessons is deliberately flexible and completely subject to the instructor's availability and calendar
- In the rare event the instructor becomes unavailable during your booked date and time, the instructor will proactively reach out and reschedule your session based on your stated availability preferences. You also maintain the option to request an immediate refund if the new schedule does not work for you
- Course locations are to be determined and subject to change based on weather, seasonal conditions, and logistical factors. Exact locations will be communicated to you well in advance of your class date
- Please understand that the fee structure does not increase if you choose to bring along friends or family members who wish to participate and divide the hourly cost among the group
