Photography tutorial: here is a quick breakdown of what went into this image taken last week while scouting out new locations for North West Photography Courses.

Great images are everywhere around us. I didn’t know this view was here – it’s the Naden Valley on School Lane in Bamford Rochdale.

– Firstly look around and take in the scene before you pick up the camera and start to take images, those moments of reflection and appraisal often make a big difference to capturing what you remember – then decide how you need to set up your camera.

Breaking down the image and why I shot it this way: –

– 0.3s f11, 19mm iso 100, polariser
– Focused on an object a little over 1 metre into the shot to get good
depth of field where everything is in focus front to back.
– Good strong natural landscape compositions work well with the
foreground and background in harmony.
This scene uses the brook emerging in the foreground guiding us into the
distance with an element of ‘I wonder what’s beyond’ to it. The verticals
and horizontals help to draw the eye into the image and give a sense of
perspective.
– Using a polariser helps reduce glare and achieve a slightly slower
aperture depicting water that shows actual movement without it becoming
‘too’ milky when exposed for too long. It’s a personal view but water that is shown as being milky seems odd and more about being able to get that effect, rather how we ever remember water ever looking.
– Once everything is done think about how you are going to process the
image.
– having spent time composing the image it would be a shame not to ‘get
the most’ from it. The best way is always shoot in RAw (or a digital
negative if you like). This is very powerful and lets you bring out the
most from your images in post production. More on that in a future post.

I hope this photography tutorial is helpful in explaining the thinking behind the image. If there is something specific you would like me to cover, please let us know!

Beginners Photography Courses Offered as Charity Prizes

We are helping North West charity fundraisers by giving away ten places on our beginners photography courses as raffle prizes.

We are offering these places on our courses on a first come, first served basis and all that we ask is that you put out some our leaflets at your event so that people know what they are bidding for and that you give us a mention in your event programme.

We hope that our courses will make an attractive and unusual prize that will have wide appeal and that we will help 10 charities to raise valuable funds for their efforts.

Please note that because our courses begin and end in a private room that we book in the Pack Horse Inn in Birtle, the prize cannot be taken up by anyone under 18. It would be helpful if you made that clear when describing the course so that people are not disappointed.

What’s on our beginners photography courses?

Our beginners photography courses are for people new to photography or who find that they never move away from their camera’s AUTO feature.

By the end of the day the winner will be able to:

• Understand and use the manual controls of their camera.
• Understand exposure.
• Understand how to compose a photograph that is pleasing to the eye.
• Understand light and how it affects your photographs.
• Understand the basics of colour and white balance.
• Use creative techniques to stand out from the ordinary.

All you need do is email us at nigel (at) NorthwestPhotographyCourses (dot) com and we’ll tell you straight away if there any of the 10 courses left and if there are, it’s yours. We’ll send you some lealflets and then after your event, email us the name and contact details of the winning bidder and then we’ll get in touch with them directly to arrange a suitable date from our calendar of courses.

We have courses running every week so there is bound to be one that is convenient.

A Father’s Day Gift Idea He Will Actually Like? How about a photography course that begins and ends in a pub?

After all it’s better than socks, a tie, or something off the list of worst presents ever.

Our beginner’s photography course is the father’s day gift idea with a difference. Not only will your beloved father learn how to take great photographs – a skill he can develop over time and get lasting enjoyment from, he will be out of the house enjoying himself and our setting in the historic Pack Horse Inn in Birtle is tailor made for meeting up with him afterwards where he can show you all the fabulous photographs he has just taken.

We’ll even buy him a drink.

Actually we include refreshments and a light lunch in our course which we are offering at our introductory rate of £75.00.

The nearest dates to Father’s Day that we run courses are Friday and Saturday the 20^th and 21^st June.

What’s in our beginner’s photography courses?

Our photography courses are relaxed and enjoyable and your dad doesn’t need an expensive camera to join in. A reasonable quality compact digital is all you need and after a couple of hours’ briefing over a coffee, we will set out to find locations nearby to test out his new skills.

Most of all he will learn how to get away from always using the AUTO feature and discover how a little knowledge of the various settings on his camera can turn an ordinary photograph into something he will be proud of.

Perhaps your father is now a granddad and he will be able to take much better photographs of the family or he is looking to take up a hobby which he can do year round, without needing special equipment beyond the camera he already has.

If he gets the bug we have a range of other courses from intermediate to advanced to really stretch his imagination and skills.

So instead of a pair of novelty socks that are forgotten a day later, give a gift that will capture hundreds of moments and memories that whole family will enjoy for years.

Photographing bluebells is something we hope to cover in our next couple of intermediate photography courses as the peak season for these amazing flowers is upon us and the woods around Birtle are full of them.

We include these in our intermediate photography courses as the light can be a little demanding under the canopy of the trees.

If you are going to have a go at photographing bluebells yourself here are a few tips to make it successful.

Head for where there are beech trees as this gives tall straight trees and not much undergrowth or offshoots and branches at low level.

If the woods have an open aspect to east or west, all the better, so you can shoot towards a not too strong sun. If you can get shelter from the wind this will help a huge amount and watch the weather forecast as photographing bluebells in the wind is very difficult indeed.

Find a place where you can set up comfortably without straying off the path and trampling flowers that may only just be stirring under the soil.

You need to plan for light that demands low ISO and a narrow aperture and long shutter speeds so a tripod is essential and a remote release is a good idea as well.

In terms of settings if you are looking for a blurred effect the ISO setting is not so important but for sharp images ISO 100 in raw capture will give you the quality you are looking for.

A narrow depth of field (around f/22) with shutter adjusted accordingly will provide real depth and then focus on a point such as a tree.

Your choice of lens will be determined by how rich the bluebell field is. Ideally you will be able to get low and wide but if the flowers are a bit thin you might need to get higher to compress the perspective with a long lens.

If the setting depends on side lighting, then a polarising filter will help with glare and give colours an extra lift.

The leaf canopy will obviously give a green cast so work on your white balance. Setting to AUTO may be enough but a custom setting to counteract the green hue may be required to produce the vivid blue you are looking for.

Finally, it’s May, so it’s going to be pretty damp underfoot so pack your kneeling mat or a strong plastic sheet!

For more details on our intermediate photography courses where we cover more challenging conditions and cover topics such as white balance in more depth please check out forthcoming courses dates.

Discounted photography courses? Why not?

To celebrate the launch of North West Photography Courses we have decided to offer the first three months of our courses at discounted price.

The discounted photography courses are available in all the categories of course that we offer:

• Beginners photography courses
• Intermediate photography courses
• Advanced photography courses

The only course where we cannot offer discounts is on the one to one/one to two advanced photography courses where we are working with Ben the farrier as understandably we need to pay him a facility fee to use his workshop.

Even though these are half price photography courses, the quality of tuition is exactly the same and we will even throw in a light lunch of sandwiches in the price along with teas & coffees and free parking.

We don’t think there is a better value photography course anywhere in Manchester, Cheshire or Lancashire to compare.

The places on these courses will inevitably fill up quite fast so we suggest that you check availability on our calendar and book early to avoid disappointment.

Our standard terms of booking apply to all of these courses so please ensure you have read and understood them before booking as we want you to feel happy and confident in booking with us.

Our main marketing effort to launch the business is yet to kick in (it has taken longer than we thought to build the website and get everything in place) but now that we are up and running we are keen to welcome as many people to Birtle and enjoy the summer weather with a camera in their hand.

We are very keen to hear feedback on our website and the content of our courses and you can use the form on our Contact Us page.

So, don’t miss out on our discounted photography courses and we hope to see you soon.

Here at North West Photography Courses we have a simple belief that “Nothing is Stopping You Taking Great Photographs.”

North West Photography Courses – One of Our Locations

Although we are just a few minutes from Manchester and a very accessible option for those seeking photography courses in Cheshire and Lancashire, our rural setting with deep wooded valleys featuring the remains of some of the oldest cotton mills in the world and open moorland and meadows criss-crossed with dry stone walls, will inspire you to take great photographs and develop new skills and new confidence in your photographic abilities.

The aim of this blog is to keep you up to speed with the photography courses that are coming up and also to share our thoughts on some of the great photographic work we have seen.

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