Let’s be honest here, photography in the digital world is not what it used to be in the film days. Film, in so many ways, was a finished and tangible product unto itself. Now, we work with data. Raw files are, by their very nature, unfinished. And thus, our photos never reach their full potential until they are “mastered” or “edited” in a digital darkroom.
After more than a decade of working with wildlife photographers around the world, I can honestly say that this fact alone is one of the biggest things that holds people back from their full potential.
Today, post-processing is arguably 50% of the equation. Pick up a copy of National Geographic magazine from 1982 and compare it to one from 2022. The differences you see in quality, the stunning nature of the photography, have everything to do with this fact.
This workshop isn’t a lecture on the different functionalities of Lightroom. Anyone can buy a book and read through what various features do. Instead, this course breaks down the professional workflow in a way that is actually meaningful and relevant to wildlife photographers. One that will have an immediate impact upon your photography.
These classes are built around tangible concepts that drive how working professionals see, think about, and use Lightroom. Instead of just another how-to on Lightroom, this workshop was built from the ground up specifically for wildlife photographers by approaching the editing process the way that we actually think and work. For this reason, each class is built conceptually such as How to Make Our Subjects Pop, Mastering Color, and Handling Noise and Sharpening for End Use.
In this workshop, where you will learn to finally master Lightroom, and use this powerful tool the way professionals do, I am teaming up with Annalise Kaylor, a renowned documentary and conservation photojournalist, to offer participants the highest quality education on this subject possible.
This workshop will take place over the course of a two week period of time. However, you will be able to participate from the comfort of your own home. We will meet for 2 hours in the evening, three days a week, for two weeks. The presentation portion of each session will be recorded for you to download later, and we have limited these workshops to a maximum of 6 participants for a 1 : 3 ratio of instructor to participants in order to maximize one on one opportunities as we coach you individually through these processes.
Are you ready to change your photography forever?
The Details
- Dates:
- October 10 – 14th, 2022
- Times: 7-9pm EST
- Cost: $2,500
- Participants: This workshop is limited to a maximum of 6 participants in order to create a 1:3 ratio of instructor to participants for the best educational experience possible.
- Location: Online via Zoom
What to Expect
- This workshop is broken up into six different 2-hour long sessions to maximize learning potential and to safeguard from the dreaded “information overload.”
- With two different instructors leading this workshop, we will be able to create an almost unparalleled opportunity for one on one help and guidance.
- This online workshop will help participants master Lightroom by teaching a professional workflow based on objectives and concepts rather than rote memorization of features in the program.
- The post-processing needs of wildlife photographers are very different from other genres of photography. This is one of the reasons many photographers are often frustrated with generic courses and books on Lightroom. This workshop is built specifically to address those unique needs.
- Each session will begin with a conceptual overview of what we will work on for the day and why it actually matters to your photography right now. From there, we will demonstrate techniques so that you can see how the process moves from artistic vision to action before working with each participant to help master these techniques.
- Participants and instructors will all be working with the same images for the sake of continuity, and will be provided with those images before each session.
- The presentation portion of each session will be recorded and made available to download so that participants can watch and rewatch at their leisure after the workshop.
How is the workshop conducted?
In order to maximize learning potential by avoiding the dreaded “information overload,” this workshop will be broken into six different 2-hour long sessions. We will meet in the evenings, three days a week for the duration of the workshop. Each session will be conducted via Zoom, where the presentations of ideas and concepts will be recorded for you, and we will have the opportunity to use “breakout rooms” so that participants can receive personal one on one help from both Jared and Annalise.
What are some of the topics that will be discussed?
Although this workshop is fundamentally different from other approaches toward teaching Lightroom, we will still discuss some of the key features of the program that you will need to know in order to perfect your own workflow. Instead of focusing on the rote memorization of what these features do, however, you will learn how to see and think about the use of Lightroom for the purpose of our intended goals such as “making a subject pop.” In learning this way, elements of Lightroom will be grouped together from various parts of the program to accomplish what we need them to do. In other words, you will learn to NOT simply work your way down a list of editing options, but instead learn to use multiple tools at once for a singular purpose.
Will this be recorded?
Yes. We will record the parts in which Jared Lloyd and Annalise Kaylor present on these topics, and discuss concepts and workflow strategies. These will then be available for download so that participants can watch again at their leisure as a refresher course on the topics.
Will there be 1 on 1 instruction?
Absolutely. We are limiting the number of participants in these workshops to 6 people. This ensures a maximum ratio of 1 instructor to 3 participants at all times. After we present on the topics, participants will then have the opportunity to experiment, ask questions, and demonstrate the skill sets themselves. Both Jared and Annalise will be there to help each person individually to ensure that they have mastered the concepts we will be discussing.
Zoom contains a feature called Breakout Rooms. This will allow us to immediately set up a separate “room” for a participant and instructor to work 1 on 1 together.
Will we use our own photos for this?
No. Although learning this process on your own images does have some benefits, we have found that when the entire group is working on the same images for a particular topic, the process is much easier to learn from.
How is this Lightroom workshop different from others?
For starters, this workshops is geared specifically for wildlife photography. Every genre of photography is different in the look and feel that people strive for. Softening the quality of a model’s skin is very different than bringing out depth and detail in a bird’s feathers, for instance. And so, by its very nature, this workshop will be completely different than one designed for landscape or portrait photographers.
The other difference is that this workshop is not designed to rehash or regurgitate the same information told thousands of times before in books and blogs. Instead of what amounts to be little more than a lecture on features, this workshop is all about teaching you the creative workflow. We are not going to waste our time on features you don’t need. We are not going to get bogged down in pedantic information about never ending feature updates. This workshop is designed to teach you to see and think and approach Lightroom with a functional goal in mind: to breathe life into your wildlife photographs.
Who should take this workshop?
This workshop is for the wildlife photographer who is ready to finally learn how to not only master Lightroom, but to master their own photography. Maybe you have been using Lightroom for years now but never seem to be able to bring your photographs to life to the same magnitude as others. Maybe you are just beginning, you know how to import photos and work through some of the basics, but know there is so much here for you to learn. In other words, this workshop is for you.
We cannot place a designator of “beginner” or “advanced” on this workshop simply because this isn’t how the workshop is built to work.
Instead, we will teach you how working professional photographers approach Lightroom and help you master the techniques and tools we use to achieve our goals.
Which version of Lightroom do I need to take this workshop?
Although there are many fine editing softwares on the market today, this workshop is all about Adobe Lightroom Classic. Programs like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom CC are fantastic programs unto themselves. However, Adobe Lightroom Classic has long been the industry standard for most professional photographers.
To be clear, Lightroom Classic is the full featured version of Lightroom you download to your computer. It is offered through Adobe’s Creative Cloud, but is different that Lightroom CC.