 I
am happy to announce that I will be offering one-on-one instruction here
in my studio office. These sessions will be a full day with a one hour
break for lunch. The focus of a private lesson is often a great way to
quickly advance your technical skills, and improve your creative vision.
Topics that can be covered include the many ingredients required for making
excellent landscape and nature photographs. This includes developing your vision and creativity, field technique, composition,
post-processing, editing, fine art printing, and refining
the direction of your work. A key feature of our class will be
a portfolio review in order to assess your work and discuss
areas for improvement and development. I am committed to the sharing spirit
of teaching, an example I learned from Ansel Adams. I pride myself in
offering constructive critiques and positive
feedback on how to improve your photographs.
The one-day sessions will be customized to your instructional
needs. You can choose to focus on one aspect such as just post-processing
or printing, or we can make the day a full overview of each step of my
process from capture to fine art print. Prior to attending, I will require
that you email a sample of your work so that I can evaluate your
strong and weak points. I will also ask that you include in your
email, an explanation of what you hope to accomplish and what areas you’d
like to focus on during your private workshop. We can then work together
to develop a program suited to your needs, ensuring that
you get the most out of your day with me.
Over my 16 years of experience with digital photography, I have developed
simple tools needed to achieve quality master files and museum
quality prints. While there are many ways to accomplish high
quality work in Photoshop, I haven’t found the need to concern myself
with learning every trick of the digital darkroom. During our private
session, I will teach you what I’ve learned over
the many years of post-processing and production to achieve high quality
work, but this is by no means a “digital darkroom” seminar.
Instead, I will offer you the “tools” necessary to critically
view your work and recognize what adjustments need to be made to heighten
the impact of an individual image as well as an entire body of work.
At this point in time, I do not intend to offer sessions out in the field.
However, since I am so close to Yosemite
National Park (see below), you can come up to the park for photography,
AND take a private session with me! I think that many folks could maximize
their visit to the area by scheduling a photo field trip to Yosemite Valley,
or even to the High Country and Tuolumne Meadows/Tioga Pass/Mono Lake
while the Tioga Pass is open (generally from June through October). I
will be very glad to provide you with tips and locations for your Yosemite
explorations.
I am offering the opportunity to work side by side with me to refine your own images. You will learn from both observation and participation
in the process. You will aslo benefit from the digital expertise of my
assistant, John
O’Connor. These sessions are personalized to your interests
and needs. Please contact me at wneill [at] sti.net with your questions and for further details!
 Location
My home studio is located in Oakhurst, California (see below). I am about
30 minutes from the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park, and about
1.5 hours from Yosemite Valley. We are also near Bass Lake, the Merced
River Canyon and the Sierra National Forest.
Equipment
Our office is equipped with Apple Mac computers, but the software we use
the most – Photoshop and Lightroom - is interchangeable between
Macs and PCs so that this aspect of the session is not Mac dependant or
specific. For fine art printing, I use a Canon ImagePROGRAF 6100 24”
inkjet printer.
Fee
The cost of this full day (from 9am to 5pm), private session is $600.00.
This fee includes your choice of either Landscapes
of the Spirit or Impressions
of Light in ebook form, and a proof print of one of your own
images produced during our private session.
Payment Options
| We
will accept payment via: |
PayPal
Secure Credit Card via PayPal (no PayPal account
required)
Check or Money Order |
Please send us an email
at wneill [at] sti.net for more details on signup, and include potential dates for your
session. We are not able to book dates beyond 3 months of the current
date. |
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Capture to Master File
Basic Field Technique
- Camera settings
- Exposure
- Composition
- Improving sharpness at capture
Importing to Lightroom
- Metadata – applying copyright, caption and keywords
- Editing, rating, labels
- Prepping RAW file for export to PS
Processing with Photoshop
- Analyzing the image for what to enhance, correct, etc.
- Working with adjustment layers
- Sharpening/Sizing for output
- The Master File Workflow
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From Input to Output
Color Management
- Softproofing
- Using profiles
Paper surface options
Evaluating image quality
- Making adjustments for print
- How to maximize print quality
- Enhancing aesthetic value
- Sharpening for print
Archival methods for maximizing print life
- Matting
- Storage
- Finishing/Protecting
- Presentation
Print evaluation/aesthetics
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Image Critique
Critique/edit of current portfolio
- Identifying/expanding themes
- Photographing in themes
- Critique of individual images
Editing: technical and aesthetic considerations
- Learn the skill/process of critically editing your own work
- Identifying what works, what doesn’t and why
Presentation options
- Boxes/Folios
- Web galleries
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 |
 William
has taught photography since 1980 for such prestigious organizations as
The Ansel Adams Gallery, the Friends of Photography, Palm Beach Photographic
Workshops, The Maine Workshops and Anderson Ranch Workshops. He specializes
in landscape and nature photography and is concerned with conveying the
beauty seen in Nature. Currently, he teaches online courses for BetterPhoto.com.
For more information about Neill's accomplishments, you can find a more
detailed bio here.
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