Subjects taught at Photography related Workshops:

  First, a bit of honesty, I am not a nationally recognized expert or expert period on any of the courses I teach (save those complicated what if questions for the media experts). I have spent time and money to learn the below software's, mainly because I will never be a big time photographer but I still want to make some big time photographs. While I would love to have an assistant, great lighting setup and a makeup artist I know that at my age that is not going to happen. So I have turned to the below software's to compensate for my lack of big time trappings.  If you take my courses don't expect to be a big time photographer unless you are prepared to do other things and make sacrifices to achieve your goals. The road is never easy especially in photography where anyone with a digital camera or smart phone thinks their stuff is hot.

   I do use the software I am teaching and most of my finished photographs are made with a combinations of various software's. I do not even write done how I make each picture because if I did I would be making the same pictures using the same techniques, instead of editing my work until the picture reflects what I wanted to do with it. You will not become an expert in these course, but will get some basic ideas on how the software's will help you produce interesting pictures and hopefully you will have some fun while you are learning. The information below is what I think will be helpful in expanding your knowledge of the various techniques you can use to create pictures that go beyond the standard stock pictures a lot of photographers produce.

All the software programs that I teach are not difficult to learn the basics of these programs. If they were difficult to learn then I would have never learned these programs. The other reason I like these programs is that each program has enough video training to help you learn these programs. My favorite way of learning is 'hands on' but video training is a close second. Certainly better then some big book that few people can understand.

Portrait Professional If you want to make your portrait subjects look their best without an expensive makeup artist than this is the program you need to buy. This is an easy to learn program using the software's automatic correction system. I will teach this pretty quickly than have you do the same picture again using the software's extensive manual controls. This is the fun part if you want to change the color of hair, eyes and lips and maybe add a little suntan to a subject.

Pro Show Producer: I will teach you how to make a basic slide show using some of the things I did in the slide show on my home page. If you need to make slide shows or combination single picture and/or video show than you have to master this software. Certainly in wedding photography if you are looking for an edge that shows you are a cut above the average photographer. Depending on how much time we have I can show you how to create your own show and put it on your web site and/or YouTube(Bring your best jpegs and I will show you how to creative up your dull slide shows.) Added course instruction: Video training that explores the many things you can do with this software: layers, advanced motion controls, how to add sound to name just a few things you can learn from this software.

Perfect Photo Suite: One of the best masking programs around. I will teach you how to make a basic mask as part of the overall course and show you how to insert the mask into another picture. I will also cover the feature that sets Mask pro from other masking programs. The ability to build your mask using colors to keep and colors that mask out sections from you mask. The other sections include effects, blending, blur and adding frames to your photos. In short, you can use this program to make changes(add,delete, modify) to any area in your picture. Added course instruction: video training as needed.

 Adobe Photoshop elements: How to combine the various effects this program has to make some original pictures. One word of cautions you can make all kinds of effects for your pictures, but if you haven't learned how to craft these effects into a picture that is more than a gimmack than you are just pretending to be an artist. One gimmack I love is the Liquify filter which I use to slim down my femail subjects. I also like the panorama feature. I have added several special feature apps from Topaz and Alien Skin.   Added course instruction: video training as needed



Note: I don't teach Adobe Photoshop which I will freely admit is the gold standard in photo editing software. For years I have used Corel PhotoPaint because it does a lot of things the same as Photoshop does and it was a lot cheaper. Most photographers do not need to learn all the things they can do in Photoshop, and if they did their photographs might be technically great but will they really communicate anything of value or spark a little interest from the viewer. (Before you spend money on these types of software's you have to discover what you are going to do with the software. If you have a vision for photographs that only Photoshop can create, than buy Photoshop - otherwise you are just trying to be a snob and have wasted a lot of money on a program you will never fully use.)

What can you do with some of these programs? Click on the below pictures to see what is possible.

This was the original picture I took of Aimee at a workshop. As you can see I included a lot crap in the picture. Not my finest moment as a photographer.

This is an example of how Portrait Professional can change the look of somone you are photographing. Yes, this model pretty attractive. But I did make changes to her hair, lips and eyes and gave her a little more tan as a way of showing what is possible.

Finally with Perfect Photo Suite I have masked out the background and inserted a different background. I also put a rich glow on the image while adding a little more intensity to Aimee's features.

This photo shows a different look with cropping and perfect photo focus.

Need another alternative picture to the above picture. If you do how about Adobe Photoshop Elements. I used a filter called Sumi and set my blending mode to 100% with Luminence. Notice how the picture pops up her eyes and lips

A black-and-white  picture with some color accent could be considered a gimmick. However, this technique can expand the ways you craft a picture. Perfect Photo Suite was used to blend color with black and white.

I included this picture because I wanted to show more of the things you can do with the programs I will teach and the model in the picture is the same model used in the previous pictures. The background picture was taken at McKee Botanical Gardens in Vero Beach, Florida during their dinosaur show. The model was photographed, flash, during an indoor photo shoot. I used Corel Painter Essentials to craft her picture. The background picture was crafted with Perfect Photo Suite 7. I wanted to make the dino bigger, so I created a duplicate file of the background and used the mask feature to get rid of the background around the dino. Then I used the clone feature in Layers(same program) to clone out enough of the dino on the original file so when I combined the larger dino with the original background you would not see parts of the dino from the original file. Then I added the picture of the model and blended this picture with my background picture. Lastly, I used the effects feature giving  more contrast and add glow where I wanted glow. The best part of Perfect Photo Suite 7 is that you can add or decrease your effect to whatever degree you want to in whatever area within the picture you think needs changes. The last tweet I made was in Adode Photoshop Elements, ver 9. I used the Comic Book filer to increase the contrast and saturation a little more.    The main point of this paragraph is that if you believe your picture ends at the point where you snap your picture, then you do not want to spend money on one of my workshops. I don't use these programs to compensate for mistakes I have made in taking my pictures. I just don't want limits on how I can create a picture.

  Check out my photographs on this site, if you have exceeded what I am doing than you have no need for what I can teach. If you haven't then you have to invest in yourself (the only way you will ever succeed long term.) and sign up for a workshop. 

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