PHOTOGRAPHING FAMILY

In short...

Preliminary notes: It is mandatory to have completed the 4 introductory courses about basic photographic technique to attend the courses in this package. Book the 4 courses for beginners here

In addition to the 4 beginner courses (see above), This course pack is certifying; it will allow you to obtain the Family photographer certification.

Are your family photos not matching up with the beautiful moments spent together? Too blurry, too bright, too dark, or sometimes completely missing the mark: family photos are certainly not easy! Indeed, photographing your loved ones requires you to adapt to many different situations. This course pack will equip you with the technical photography skills that enable you to take memorable pictures of your family in any situation.

Course #1 - First Steps in Smartphone Photography: Equipment, Applications, Settings (online)

Your smartphone, regardless of its model, range or age, has enormous potential for photography! In fact, nowadays it is not uncommon to confuse a shot taken with a phone for an image captured by a professional reflex camera. These beautiful images, created with equipment as minimal as a smartphone, are at your fingertips thanks to our complete suite of smartphone photography courses, designed to bring you quick results and created specifically for video-conferencing sessions.

In this first course, the basics will be established:

• We will discuss the phone itself and the real differences between certain models.
• We will also talk about the accessories and their impact on the quality of your pictures.
• We will review the available software for shooting, retouching, and sharing.
• We will determine which are the essential and most efficient tools.
• Last but not least, you will understand the different shooting settings, which are crucial for controlling the aesthetics of your pictures.

This session, lasting 2.5 hours, will provide you with a solid foundation for developing your smartphone photography and will allow you to tackle the rest of our series of courses on this subject without any problem!

Lightroom level 1: Organise and select your images (online)

The knowledge of retouching software is a necessary tool in photography: thanks to programs like Lightroom, photographers can achieve the full potential of their raw images. Adobe Lightroom Software manages all the post-production steps of a photograph; from importing and organizing images, through their retouching, to exporting for printing (print, book) or digital presentation (web, slide show).

The first level of our Lightroom training courses will familiarise you with the use of this software. This workshop will be essential for you to understand how the program works, on the one hand, and on the other hand, to learn how to effectively organize and select your images. The selection and organisation phase of images is crucial in photographic post-production work. It is during this stage that stories evolve, series are constructed and a photographer's work is structured. The images selected in this step are the images that will be retouched.

This 3h30 workshop is therefore positioned before the retouching training (which will be taught in the level 2 workshop), and is a fundamental entry point into your Lightroom training... Just as a cook must be able to choose his food with taste before preparing a dish, a photographer must be able to select their images in an efficient and thoughtful way before retouching work...

During this first level of learning, you will be taught:

-The fundamentals of the program and how it works

-The different methods of importing images into Lightroom

-Sorting and selecting images within the software

Portrait

Sometimes, the simplest photos are the hardest ones to take. How do you take an impeccable portrait of a loved-one or of a friend on the spot, and only with the help of natural lighting? How do you end up with an expressive and successful portrait without the aid of a studio?

It is essential to take the environment into consideration when composing a portrait. Managing the background's colours and graphics, choosing the point of view, directing the model - these are all points that will be covered during the course.

Light control is an equally important aspect; in particular, analysing a given moment's light and using it wisely are elements that will be explained to help you make a successful portrait.

This workshop will teach you:

• How to observe the environment so as to guide your aesthetic choices: point of view, directing a model
• How to "read" light and place your subject accordingly
• How to correctly define parameters in your camera according to your desired result
• How to frame and compose an image to highlight the subject

The workshop includes a theoretical explanation, a main "practical" part, as well as a class debriefing at the end. The class takes place outdoors and the debriefing takes place at a coffee shop. The exact meeting place will be communicated to enrolled participants. The workshop is composed of a theoretical part, practical training and a debriefing.