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Covid 19 is all to blame
Early last year, pre-Covid, we were eagerly anticipating a workshop in April run by Celia Henderson on Flowers and Photoshop for the Creative Photographer. (Celia is an IT Lecturer and has combined her love of photography with that of teaching to deliver workshops where you will be inspired, motivated and entertained)
As we all know Covid intervened, and the workshop was cancelled. Not to be beaten, Roger Crocombe, a key committee member of the RPS SE region, started a discussion with Celia about running alternative workshops online.
Online Pilot - Flowers and Photoshop for the Creative Photographer
The result was a pilot, started in April, but this was a pilot with a difference!
Face to face, the original workshop was a day. The online course was designed to be 3 modules, of 3 short workshops, of only 75 minutes each, giving a total of 9 workshops.
Prior to each workshop, Celia sent out a recipe card and images that she planned to use in the forthcoming workshops. (The recipe card is a summary of the skills to be learnt, tools to be used and steps to be followed).
The pilot was a great success. It seems that keeping it short but sweet, means that the participant’s learning is increased. Not only that, a recording of each workshop was made available, so everyone had the ability to go over things they missed or needed to look at again.
Of course, the main ingredient for success was that Celia is a professional teacher and is very good at her job!
Lightroom Tuition added to the mix
Roger Crocombe is also an expert Lightroom user and he devised a course which he called Landscapes and Lightroom - from import to export, which was based on similar principals. The course takes you through importing images, making full use of the incredibly useful features of the Library system in Lightroom, and finally the Develop module.
The course sold out immediately and Roger generously donated his fee to charity.
Roger then went on to design and run a course on Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop Printing.
If you have ever wondered why your prints are always dark and you have to turn the brightness compensation up, then Roger tells you it’s because your screen is probably too bright. If you get the screen brightness correct during printing and make the print look right on the screen, then it will come out correctly.
What have we learnt?
- Send out recipe cards outlining the steps to be taken in the next workshop
- Send out test images to use within the workshop
- Keep the online time for a single workshop short; break it into small manageable chunks - each module consists of 3 x 75-minute workshops
- Always have a recording available
- Limit the number to ideally no more than 20
- Have an introductory session on how to use Zoom and follow the tuition (We recommend 2 screens, 1 to follow the tuition on Zoom and 1 to run LR or PS yourself in parallel)
- Keep the cost reasonable. We have settled on £60 for members per set of 3 modules, which is 10.5 hours tuition for Photoshop
- Rather than just teaching techniques, there was always a final product available using the images supplied
- We had a 95% take up of people starting module 1-3 and then wanting to enrol on the subsequent modules, 4-6 and 7-9
What about the future?
At the time of writing, 1st February, we have started the 4th series of Flowers and Photoshop for the Creative Photographer, and have 18 people booked on the 5th series which does not start until May. The 3rd series of Landscapes and Lightroom - from import to export is also due to start in May.
How do I enrol?
The courses are very popular and sell out quickly. We are considering running further series after September, this year.
Keep an eye on the South East Events page
OR
Search on the RPS website for:
Flowers and Photoshop for the Creative Photographer
Landscapes and Lightroom - from import to export
Printing with Adobe Photoshop CC
Printing with Adobe Lightroom Classic
Below are examples of what you can achieve! It will need some practice, but this before and after is realistically within all of us.
Before:
After:
