Fall and Winter Photography Classes

It’s time to talk about my upcoming fall and winter photography classes and workshops.  This year the planning has been affected by my very hectic and over booked summer, including various travels, getting our son moved into a new apartment in NYC and our daughter into her new house in Medford Mass (in anticipation of the October arrival of our first grandchild !!).  Also, I am preparing for the Annual Art in the Park which is coming up this weekend at the Ashuelot River Park in Keene. 

Finally, my I’m packing for and exciting trip touring Ireland with a group of dear friends and, since I will be away for a few weeks, I wanted to get the information out, before I left.  While away I hope to have at least spotty email to answer questions and get people on the lists. 

Again, I will be offering my Introduction to Digital Photography class this autumn along with my annual Fall Foliage Photography Weekend Workshop.  My Introduction to Adobe Lightroom Classic will be coming up in March, in hopes of avoiding the worst of the winter storms.   Here are some details

So, here is what is coming and please let me know if you have a comments or suggestions for future programs.

Hope to see you soon.

Introduction to Digital Photography

Sponsored by Keene Community Education

·         Date: Oct. 29 to Nov. 19, Tue.,

·         Time: 6-8pm (8 hrs.)

·         Location: Room 326 at KHS

Keene High School

My introductory class on digital photography has evolved over the years as I have tried to find better ways to inform and excite students about the amazing capabilities of digital cameras.  The course includes 4 two hour classes and two photo shoots. I cover a wide range of topics from understanding the differences in camera types, to image file formats, file management and archiving. Special emphasis is placed on exposure, composition and the use of different types of light.  All these topics are applied to the results of the photo shoots.  This class always fills very quickly, so sign up early at :

https://www.keenecommunityed.org/classes/digital-photography-intro/

Contact Email Erin White at ewhite@sau29.org  for more information

Introduction to Digital Photography, Online Syllabus

Sorry, for health reasons, I have to cancel this year's Foliage Workshop

Fall Foliage Workshop Weekend

October 18th – 20^th, 2019

Monadnock Region and Southern Vermont

This autumn, I will again be offering my Fall Foliage Weekend Workshop.   I will be following the same format that seemed to work well over the last several years.  Again, I picked the weekend after the Columbus Day weekend craziness.  It is an opportunity to see great color without the same crowds that typically congest our beautiful countryside.  Our base of operations will be around my dining room table in Spofford, NH.  I will host the participants at my home on Friday evening for snacks and a discussion about photography in general, and the specific opportunities and challenges of foliage photography.  It will also be time to plan the shooting for all day Saturday and Sunday morning.  

Saturday, we will head out early to explore as many different locations as possible.  My goal. Will be to place the group in beautiful locations and then help them get the most from the opportunities. Depending on the state of the color we may travel west to some of my favorite locations in southern Vermont, such as Guilford and the magic village of Green River, or we may explore the hills and farm around the Monadnock region and my own village of Chesterfield.

In the evening, we will return to the dining room table for an informal dinner of pizza and some gentle critiquing of the day’s shoot.

We will head out again Sunday morning for more of our exploration of color, and I will finally let people go around noon. I promise you will come away exhausted but thrilled with the experience.  I look forward to sharing my love for photography in this special time of year. 

The three-day program is $195, including the delicious snacks and an elegant pizza dinner.  Please get in touch soon, by email or phone, to assure your place in the workshop. If you are coming from outside of the area, I can send you a list of some the best local accomodations.

• 2018 Fall Foliage Workshop
• 2017 Fall Foliage Workshop
• 2016 Fall Foliage Workshop

jeffn49@myfairpoint.net

603-363-8338  

Introduction to Lightroom Classic – AND the Transition to Photoshop

Six Tuesday Evenings March 3^rd  through April 7^th, 2020

? Monadnock Imaging, Main Street Keene New Hampshire

For the last couple of years, Monadnock Imaging has provided facilities for my classes, but I haven’t been able to confirm that the store will still be available after their business transition.  The alternate site will be around my comfortable dining room table in Spofford.

I am a dedicated long-term user of Photoshop, but over the last few years I have become increasingly impressed with the power of Lightroom, in terms of both its image management tools and its sophisticated editing capabilities.  I still bring almost all my images into Photoshop for final tweaking, especially when complicated masking is required, but I now use Lightroom for 80-90% of my global editing.  Given its power and ease of use, for the majority of digital photography enthusiasts, Lightroom is likely all they will need to get started with image management and editing.

 During the last couple of years., I have offered a comprehensive introductory course covering all the essentials of Lightroom.  I run the class as a live demonstration.  Students are encouraged to work along on their own laptops, but a computer is not necessary to benefit from the material.   I’ve had a great time and, as is always true of teaching a course, I have learned a ton. Over the last couple of years Lightroom has evolved and grown, with increased capabilities, and I have worked to keep up with the changes.  

Recently Adobe has complicated our lives by splitting the Lightroom Program in two.  There are many good discussions of the differences between these very different programs, but simply speaking, the new Lightroom CC is an entirely new cloud-based program.  With a simpler interface, but significantly pared down capabilities.  It is designed for more casual photographers, and those who work primarily through a mobile interface.  For more serious photographers who store larger image archives locally on hard drives and who want to use the full features of the “old” Lightroom, the new program has no significant place. 

For me and most serious photographers, the “new” choice is called “Lightroom Classic”.  It sounds disconcertingly like the old “Coke Classic”, but Lightroom Classic is just the old Lightroom CC with all the amazing features and functions and a few new tricks.  This split seems to be designed to create a simpler path for mobile, and other smart phone photographers, without stripping the power of the “Classic” Lightroom program.  Adobe promises to keep up with innovation on both versions of Lightroom.  We will be watching.

If you, like many, are still confused, just know that the CC and Classic versions are both included among the options in the Adobe Photography Subscription Plan, and still for $9.99/month.  

My course will be covering the full power of the Lightroom Classic Program.

I initially thought that that four, two-hour classes would be enough to cover the program's many features, but because of my tendency to ramble and lots of great questions, I subsequently added a fifth class to cover the Slide Show, Book and Web Modules.

A Sixth Class

Lightroom is a great program which covers most organizing and editing needs of the majority of photography enthusiasts, but there are many aspects of fine tuning that can be performed best from within the scary confines of Photoshop.  My Lightroom students frequently ask, “When are you going to do a course on Photoshop?”.  The prospect of trying to organize a comprehensive course on this massive program scares me to death.  But perhaps an easier approach is to take a smaller bite of the pie.  Some time ago I added a fifth class to my Lightroom course and last year I added a sixth session.

In this additional session I focused on the transition from Lightroom to Photoshop.  Starting with pictures which have been optimally edited in Lightroom, I will again examine some of the important ways that Photoshop can refine those images using more precise selections, layers and compositing.  Consider it a chance to dangle your toes in the ocean of possibilities that is Photoshop, but for many who already own Photoshop as part of the Adobe Photography Plan, it can be an encouragement to take the plunge.

There will be. not five, but six, two-hour, evening sessions, and of course, snacks will be provided. The expanded course will be $225.  Please get in touch by phone or email as soon as possible to reserve your spot on the list.

Stay tuned for this coming spring’s offerings including the Spring Waterfall Weekend Workshop, my Introduction to Digital Photography Course.

Jeffrey Newcomer

www.partridgebrookreflections.com

jeffn49@myfairpoint.net

603-363-8338