Photography Course/Workshop Yorkshire Dales Visual Arts

Improve your photography within the stunning surroundings of the Yorkshire Dales National Park

Some areas of the Yorkshire Dales have their own unique characteristics, ie, Kingsdale, Ribblesdale and Crummackdale are rich in Limestone scenery, while Swaledale is more notable for it's gentle rolling meadows and hills. Well, at Wharfedale there is just a little bit of everything that goes into making the Yorkshire Dales such a special location to photograph, and this also makes it ideal as a photography workshop location. Expect to photograph wide sweeping views of open countryside, rolling meadows, fields and hills with a crosshatch pattern of dry stone walls and traditional stone field barns. We'll also shoot cascading waterfalls, Limestone cliffs, crags and pavements, and these are just a few of the possible attractions we will be aiming to photograph on the day.

As with all workshops, tuition is tailored to exact requirement. On booking you will receive a simple questionnaire to fill out which helps me to get a better idea of camera equipment, ability level and any ambitions you may have for the day. The questionnaire also allows you to add any areas of your photography that you may have struggled with, and would possibly like to focus particular attention towards on the day of the workshop. Depending on experience and ability level, a typical day can include tuition on the following subjects; Best practice camera set-up, shooting manual and Raw Format and the reasons why, creative uses of both shutter speed and apertures, explanations of exposure, metering, bracketing e.t.c, manual focusing for maximum depth of field (Also known as Hyperfocal focusing) The use of filters, both exposure balancing (Neutral Density Graduated) and creative effects (Polarisers, Straight Neutral Density) This leaves the best part of the day free to discuss the broader and more subjective topic of composition. What makes a good image? Elements to look for when composing images, The rules of composition, possible examples of when to follow them and when to break them, use of depth, scale, distance and perspective and also shoot and location planning around seasonal and differing lighting conditions. All aimed towards giving you the proficiency to go away and successfully plan the best times of year to photograph your own set of locations.

I also go through a typical Photoshop workflow, demonstrating the adjustments used from Raw file through to outputting images for web and print. This also covers some alternatives to using Neutral Density Graduated Filters, in the form of Exposure Blending incorporating alpha channels/luminosity selections and layer masks. I can also tailor tuition to your particular, specific requirements where necessary. Past clients have asked for help on many different subjects and techniques; These have included shooting and processing panoramic images, using tilt & shift lenses, shooting and processing images for focus stacking and exposure blending.

More details