Landscape astrophotography - wherever you are! CANCELLED

A unique opportunity to undertake an online astrophotography workshop with live hands-on sessions covering every step from planning out the location, fieldwork, to final outcome on post-production software.

This will be online workshop for 10 participants.  Tickets will go on sale on 1 June.

This course, led by Ollie Taylor, follows Ollie’s highly successful two-night practical landscape astrophotography workshops that were the first ever advertised in Europe a number of years back.  These have given Ollie a wealth of teaching experience over the years and he has also written for and appeared in hundreds of mainstream magazines, books, and guides.

Often people are wowed on social media by vibrant colours and drastic over editing, intense blue night skies, and ultra-vibrant Milky Ways. Ollie teaches a “pure” night style of editing and favours low key style nightscapes truer to traditional landscape photography; unless the detail has actually been captured in the first instance via the aid of trackers and superior dark skies.

The course will help you identify dark sky areas through use of a light pollution map and will involve venturing a little distance away from the city lights if you live within one.  The light pollution map Ollie uses with his groups in the UK and across the globe is called Light Pollution Map and can be accessed via this link: https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/

Once you have loaded the map in your browser, in the map layers to the top right, drop the overlay tab down to VIIRS 2020, otherwise it looks like it is impossible to find a dark location anywhere. Ideally, to take part in this course, you will need access to an area that is not highlighted by any colour, though there are exceptions within the green. Locations will be discussed between Ollie and the group in session two (see below).

Unlike participants on Ollie's in-the-field workshops (who have two nights to get through the course content), you will have an 18-night window to undertake your fieldwork and you can do this anywhere in the world.

The workshop will hold nothing back and deliver a workflow that will push your equipment to the maximum and develop your skills to allow you accomplish magazine quality nightscape images through the structured workflow every time you venture into the field to create landscape astrophotography imagery (weather permitting of course).

Workshop outline

Session 1: Session one will include an introduction outlining the workflow that will be undertaken with a brief discussion about equipment that may be desirable in the future, and what you currently have in your own kitbag. We then move straight into an in-depth global planning session looking at the use of various apps and desktop applications to help participants plan out the best location to undertake their fieldwork shoot anywhere in the world. The course will cover lunation (the moon), twilights, latitude, weather and other factors that must be taken into consideration as well as how to plan what will be in the night sky and when, with the key focus being the centre of the Milky Way.
Participants will then be set a planning task regarding their own shooting location for discussion in the following session.

Session 2: In this session we will discuss chosen locations and run through a mock fieldwork session demonstrating an exact step by step technique that will enable creation of high-quality nightscape images without error in the field.
New Moon & Fieldwork:

Fieldwork: The fieldwork period allows 18/19 days during optimum dark sky dates in August. Optimum nights within this period will have been discussed in session 1, alongside imagery showing the use of the moon, twilight, and light pollution where it cannot be avoided.  During this time participants will have access to 1-2-1 support sessions with Ollie if needed to help achieve the desired outcome, or to smooth out any unforeseen problems that may occur on location; arranged at mutually agreed times via email or Whatsapp.

Session 3: Bringing it all together. A comprehensive post-production session during which Ollie will demonstrate exactly how to edit in Lightroom and Photoshop before going slowly, with the group following step by step on their own images.

For those not using Photoshop, the limitations of only using Lightroom will clearly be explained throughout the course, however Lightroom only users will be able to take part. The entire post-production session can be completed in Photoshop with an up-to-date Camera Raw plugin, for Photoshop users who don’t use Lightroom.

PDF notes will be supplied covering both fieldwork and post-production that will aid users of other editing suites to convert the session in their own time if not on the night.

To participate in this workshop you will need:

- Access to a suitable dark-sky location (see above)
- A basic understanding of manual mode, shutter speed, aperture, and ISO
- Camera (minimum SO capability of 6400, higher recommended)
- Tripod
- Widest fastest lens possible, ideally 24mm or wider and f2.8 or faster
- A remote trigger, or built-in camera long bulb exposure timer capabilities
- Head torch
- A minimum of Lightroom (or equivalent) but preferably Photoshop (or Lightroom and Photoshop)
- Computer with webcam and microphone and internet connection

Your data

Please note: your personal data (name, email address and telephone number) that you supply when booking an event will be passed to the event / workshop leader in order to enable them to:

• contact you in advance of the event to remind you or notify you of joining instructions (or changes thereto) etc.
• contact you at short notice before or during an event in case of any emergency or last-minute changes (eg because of weather).

By booking this event you are deemed to consent to this transfer of your data.