Photography courses

DSLR or compact digital photography courses and step by step downloads including trade secrets by Hugh Nicholas a full time professional photographer.

Hugh’s teaching style is a balance between technical detail and simple explanation.

Hugh Nicholas photographer and instructor

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Take a look at Hugh’s wedding and portrait portfolios and visit www.hughnicholas.co.uk to view his commercial work.

Learn from a professional.

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Discover how to take professional photographs with your camera by joining one of our friendly, small photography classes, or download a step by step PDF guide for as little as £3.00 covering many aspects of photography including trade secrets, ideal for one off subjects to help students, schools, college’s, universities, design groups, company’s and individuals.

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Please contact us or click the banner below to select a course or download a PDF on how to..

Adobe Elements 7

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Course timings:
* 2 evenings 7.00pm to 9.30pm £95 per person,
up to 6 people.
* 2 mornings 10.00am to 12.30pm £95 per person,
up to 6 people.

This course is designed for anybody who wants to learn the basics of Photoshop elements 7 to ‘modify’ their images. The modifications can be anything from simple tasks like removing red eye to more complex tasks such as replacing a sky, converting to black & white or the restoration of old, damaged photos.

Because Photoshop elements is the ‘cut down’ version of Photoshop, many of the tools and techniques are the same. So this course would also be a useful primer if you ever intend to use the full version of Photoshop in the future.

Photography course one: DSLR or compacts

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* 2 evenings 7.00pm to 9.30pm £95 per person, 12 people max.
* Daytime, 2 mornings 10.00am to 12.30pm £95 per person, 12 people max.

The course is designed to get great images from your DSLR or compact. It is ideal for anyone who is confused by all the jargon and are new to photography. You will learn how to get the best out of your camera, covering basic program and manual operations.

You will see how composition changes the image and use it to your advantage. You will also discover basic adobe photoshop computer skills to enhance images, remove redeye, burn images to disc and learn the difference between jpeg and tif formats. 2nd evening includes a print critique.

Photography course two: DSLR or compacts

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* 2 evenings 7.30pm to 9.30pm £95 per person, 12 people max.
* Daytime, 2 mornings 10.00am to 12.30pm £95 per person, 12 people max.

Following on from the beginners course, or for people who have a basic understanding of photography. This course will improve on digital camera techniques and cover day, night and indoor photography. You will learn about shutter speeds, ‘F’ numbers, camera raw, tif, jpeg and iso. You will learn intermediate Adobe Photoshop skills to enhance, crop and retouch images ready for printing. We will also discuss lenses and accessories, and which camera would be best for you. 2nd evening includes a print critique. We recommend you bring images on disc to maximise your learning experience.

Photography course three:
DSLR or top end compacts

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* 2 days 10.00am to 4.30pm £395 per person, 10 people max. Includes light lunch and refreshments.

Equipment
Participants must have a camera, and should be able to set aperture and shutter speeds. The camera must be capable of manual settings. Following on from the intermediate course, or for people who have a reasonable understanding of manual settings on a camera and basic computer skills.

The course is on 2 separate days giving you the chance to use your new skills on day 2 from day 1, and to cover any problems you may be experiencing. We will discuss advanced technical skills, lens selection, angles of view, composition, exposure metering, reading histograms, colour control, filtration and using polarising filters. You will also learn how to shoot at night, and get the most out of your pictures by using the sun and shadows to your advantage.

You will be introduced to Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom for work flow and image manipulation. We will discuss working in camera raw, tif and jpeg formats to enhance, crop and retouch images ready for printing. Day 2 will include a print critique. We recommend that you bring images on disc to maximise your learning experience.

DSLR studio freestyle portrait course

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* 1 day 10.00am to 4.30pm £195 per person, 10 people max, including light lunch and refreshments.

Equipment
Participants must have a camera, and should be able to set aperture and shutter speeds. The camera must be capable of manual settings and have an external flash facility. The day will include lighting techniques for a digital studio which is totally different to using film. You will learn how to manipulate flash to obtain, diffused, hard, spot, and coloured lighting, controlling soft boxes to flag lights for greater shadow and highlight control.

The session will cover the importance of shutter speeds, ‘F’ numbers, shooting in camera raw, tif or jpeg. You will work in groups of 5 and take pictures of each other and learn the skills needed to work with people in front of the camera. This is essential to obtain natural, spontaneous images which reflect people as they are or want to be. You will also learn technical and portrait posing skills, lens selection, angles of view, composition, exposure, metering, reading histograms, colour control and basic Adobe Photoshop skills to enhance, crop and retouch images ready for printing.