Basic Photo Editing in Rutland

Learn How to Improve your Own Photos

Many of Photographers on Safari’s clients have learned how to adjust their cameras in order take well exposed photographs on previous workshops. As a company, we are delighted to have assisted in this respect. We take a huge amount of satisfaction in being able to push people to better themselves during a photographic workshop with us. Our aim has always been to demonstrate techniques to enable our customers to return home with better pictures than they would have been able to achieve left to their own devices.

Learn Basic Manipulation Techniques

Photographers on Safari will approach this editing workshop from a different direction than other courses typically available. We will not be tethered to one piece of software. Individual photographers tend to use different programs or techniques to try to achieve a similar end. It is not always helpful to try to totally separate a photographer from what they have already learned and make them start totally from scratch with a new piece of software. We will adapt our tuition to use any of a number of different programs. Our aim is to assist you to easily grasp an understanding of the more basic techniques irrespective of the program used.

Learn While Using Your Own Photographs

It is all very well learning techniques on photos that have little or no interest to you. This is not the best way to learn. We will spend the entire day demonstrating various techniques using your own photos. This has two benefits. Not only will you learn new adjustment techniques on photos that really interest you, but you should also return home with a set of your own photographs that are far superior to those that you arrived with. We encourage you to bring as many photographs with you as you like. A hundred photos would be a good number to work from. There is no problem bringing a larger amount for us to select from. We will work to your own speed. Some people may want us to adjust/improve as many photographs as time allows. Others will want to go at a much slower pace so that they fully understand the techniques involved. The choice is yours.

One-to-One Tuition

Most Editing Workshops involve large numbers of participants on a course and the least knowledgeable people get left behind. They are often too embarrassed to ask what they see as very basic questions. They are also unlikely to request that the tutor repeats the process if they have not completely understood something that the rest of the group have grasped. This workshop will be for just one person (unless you wish to bring a friend). There is no written agenda to get through in the day. It will be run entirely at the pace that you wish it to. There will be absolutely no pressure to try to teach you everything that a program will do. We will teach you what you wish to know in order to improve the photographs that you bring with you.

The Value of Basic Editing

Many photographers have been quite resistant to editing their photographs. I have often heard things like “If you can’t get it right in camera you should not be into photography”. We believe that there is a certain amount of truth in that statement but that if you are not doing at least a limited amount of minor adjustments to your pictures you are doing yourself and your photographs a great injustice. Photographers have been cropping plus lightening and darkening different areas of their photographs ever since photography began. This is absolutely well received by all but a tiny minority. With the improvement in software there is now an ever-increasing trend towards digital art whereby any amount adjustments are both desirable and acceptable. These techniques should not be vilified in any way as long as they are not purported to be original photographs. They should be admired for what they are. Photographers on Safari will not be demonstrating these advanced techniques. All our clients that have attended workshops will have been urged to take a slightly darker picture in camera than they would wish to print. This preserves much more detail in the highlights. Learning how to make basic adjustments to these images will take your skills to another level.

What Will I Learn on this Workshop?

The first thing we will show you is how to quickly select your best photos. Digital photography has enabled us to take many more photos of each subject at no extra cost. This results in the potential for much more time to be spent selecting your best photos. Learning how to vastly reduce time spent on this process will give you more time to be more creative in your adjustments. We will then show you how to improve composition, darken highlights, lighten shadows, add or reduce contrast plus how to add a little clarity to your photographs. This is often all that is necessary to turn well exposed photos into something much more dramatic. It may also be necessary to remove dust spots and maybe some distracting objects such as pieces of grass or branches of trees. There are a number of ways to do these tasks. Different methods work best in different situations. Other basic local adjustments include lightening or darkening different areas within your photo. Colours and saturation can be tweaked to achieve the exposure that was intended when you took the picture. This is not always possible in-camera when taking high-contrast pictures. The final possibility is sharpening, but we prefer to use different techniques that are non-destructive.

Typical Itinerary

As previously stated, we will construct the day according to your individual needs. The workshop will consist of a 2.5 hour session before a 1-hour break for lunch (included) and a 2-hour session after lunch. More time can be negotiated if required pro-rata to the cost of the scheduled workshop. If you decide to bring a friend and you both wish to share our instruction there will be a 3-hour session before lunch and a 2-hour session after lunch. Lunch will be taken from 1pm until 2pm. Please bring your selected photos on a hard drive or CF card if possible. We prefer to work on our computers, but you are welcome to bring your own. We have the ability to project your photos onto a large screen with a viewing area of 2440mm x 1830mm (8 feet x 6 feet) in our new purpose-built studio. RAW or JPEGS (or other formats) are equally acceptable.