This online course—Portfolio & Processing Masterclass—guides you through the process of creating a photography portfolio which showcases your unique style and vision. It is a comprehensive and cohesive course with each module building on the last to hone and develop your skills and expand your creativity and photographic knowledge.

We believe that the print has always been the finished product; if it’s not printed it’s not a photograph! Having the skills to not only be able to create a finished print but to do this with intent—that expresses a message to the viewer—is as important as taking the perfect shot in the first place. This course will guide you through this creative process to develop your technique and personal expression in your photographs by defining your style and enhancing your vision.

The Masterclass is designed as a portfolio-builder, we will coach you through the use of image analysis, advanced processing techniques and mastering fine-art-printing. By the end of this Masterclass, you will have compiled your own fine-art portfolio containing 12 of your best photographs. Your tutors Richard Young and Ken Wright will be guiding and mentoring you through the whole six-module course which is delivered online through ebooks, videos and one-on-one tuition.

This Masterclass offers the flexibility of online-based learning. It will run over 6 modules that you complete at your own pace over the course of 6 months, you will receive a new module each month so you can take your time and enjoy every minute. For every module, you will receive the lesson content through ebooks and video tutorials, as well as the assigned tasks to complete over the module. Richard and Ken will assess your work, guiding you through the process with an online one-to-one feedback session each month, so that by the final module you will have a portfolio of your best work. You will also gain access to our photography community from which you can draw inspiration, gain valuable feedback and connect with like-minded individuals. If you select the print option you will have your final set of 12 photographs printed as Twelve 13×19″ Epson Signature Worthy Fine-Art Prints and sent out to you in a Hand-made portfolio box.

 About your tutors

Both Richard and Ken are professional photographers who have years of experience producing fine-art prints. They have both managed art galleries in the past, and both regularly exhibit and sell their photography in galleries. Richard has worked with Lightroom for most of his career, and Ken—as both professional photographer and graphic designer—has 25 years experience in Photoshop. They have each dedicated more than 5 years of their lives to teaching photography, this course represents the apex of years of both in-field experience and teaching. Under their expert guidance, they will help you refine your portfolio to the twelve strong images that best showcase your style.

Richard Young

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Ken Wright

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COURSE CONTENT

• Module 1 - Style and vision

  “This module will explore Style and Vision as an interconnected philosophy, it will help to identify your own personal style and understand your vision”

  Module One—will cover an understanding of Style and Vision. In this first module, you will be expertly guided on your journey of self-discovery to find out how to create both personal and expressive photography. This will enable you to discover what story you want to tell with your work and help you keep consistency with your style during capture and selection to give your portfolio a signature look. During this first module, we will help you refine down your initial collection of photographs.

  Includes:

  • E-book on style and vision—unlocking your path to personal expression.
  • Assigned exercises—focused on refining your portfolio collections.
  • 1hr video call—with Richard or Ken to give you feedback on portfolio collections.
  • Plus: Bonus lightroom ebook—covering catalogue management.

• Module 2 - Image Analysis

  “Discover how to analyse your photographs and unlock the key to processing with an intent, the way to refine your message to the viewer, the personal expression that can be achieved here is as important as that in the field.”

  Module Two—is designed to cover a process of evaluating an image, deciding on what message you wish to enhance, then allowing this to guide your processing. Here we will dig deep into a more complex understanding of the way we view a photograph and how we use it to express our message. Before you can start to edit an image you must have an intent to guide your direction, we will look at an Image Analysis technique you can use to guide your processing work. We will cover how mood, impact, and visual flow affect the way you can deliver a message and how to use these elements to guide the use of adjustments like luminosity, contrast, and colour along with composition to process your final image.

  Includes:

  • E-book on image analysis—to learn how to guide your processing with an intent.
  • Assigned exercises—on how to analyse your work and convey mood & impact.
  • Videos tutorials—unlocking your path to personal expression.
  • 1hr video call—with Richard or Ken to review image analysis of your own work.
  • Plus: Bonus black & white ebook—to explore expression in B&W

• Module 3 - Processing workflow

  “Learn a refined processing workflow from RAW file to the final print, master global adjustments to enhance mood and impact along with content removal tools to remove distractions”

  Module Three—will start guiding you through processing techniques—in both Lightroom and/or Photoshop**—to address your images with intent—covered in Module One & Two—to convey your message. This module is designed to cover a processing workflow harnessing the power of these programs from RAW file to final print. You will learn a colour management workflow, alongside RAW conversion and how global adjustments to enhance mood and impact in your photographs. We will be guiding you through cleaning your images and show you how to remove content to minimise distractions and fix capture defects. This module will also look at how you can use advanced black and white conversions to create dynamic B&W photographs.

  Includes:

  • E-book on processing workflow—along with cleaning and content removal techniques.
  • Assigned exercises—on expressive global adjustments.
  • Videos tutorials—covering global adjustments, cleaning images and content removal.
  • Sample RAW/PSD files—to display processing tools.
  • 1hr video call—with Richard or Ken to cover techniques covered.
  • Plus: Bonus lightroom ebook—covering image development.

  **Please Note: We will be guiding you through the processing tools in both Lightroom and Photoshop, while you can benefit from using Photoshop for some aspects of processing all of the course can be completed using Lightroom only. We will cover the use of some Photoshop tools, but this course is not designed as a full Photoshop workshop.

• Module 4 - Expressive Processing

  “Unlock the creative control in using local adjustment to enhance flow to guide your viewer through an image and refine your own personal expression”

  Module Four—will explore ways to further refine your work to enhance your message and create a truly polished photograph. You will learn how to fine-tune each photograph using local adjustment tools like dodge & burn, and luminosity masking—to enhance tonal relationships, add flow and depth—to your finished photograph. Richard & Ken will share with you how they created the very results you see in their own work with recorded processing examples of some of their best images.

  Includes:

  • E-book on expressive processing—covering local image adjustment techniques.
  • Assigned exercises—to refine the learning of topics.
  • Videos tutorials—showcasing techniques and us of them by Richard & Ken.
  • Sample RAW/PSD files—to display processing tools.
  • 1hr video call—with Richard or Ken to cover techniques covered.

• Module 5 - Fine-art printing

  “It is not a photograph until it is printed—discover the beauty of fine-art printing and shine light into this dark art”

  Module Five—you will be introduced to the aesthetics of Fine Art Printing. You will learn how to set up print files, using a colour managed workflow to turn them into professional-grade prints and ready for printing. The module will cover print sharpening and soft proofing along with selecting the right print size, border and Fine Art Paper for the look and finish that best suits your work and a final portfolio. We will cover the use of Photoshop & Lightroom for setting up print files with

  Includes:

  • E-book on fine-art printing—exploring aesthetics, papers and colour management.
  • Assigned exercises—on setting up print files.
  • Videos tutorials—on printing in Lightroom & Photoshop along with printings problems.
  • 1hr video call—with Richard or Ken to cover printing workflow.
  • Plus: Bonus printing ebook—on printing & soft proofing in Lightroom & Photoshop.

  Printed portfolio option also includes:

  • Epson fine-art paper samples—mailed out to help paper selection for your final portfolio prints.

• Module 6 - Portfolios and presentation

  “Final presentation is the last key—unlock the world of displaying and framing your work along with an insight into selling it as art”

  Module Six—pulls together everything that has taught over the last five modules and helps you to compile your full set of images. We will be guiding you through the presentation of your fine art prints including the options of portfolio boxes, matting, framing and canvas. We will also be giving valuable insight into the world of selling prints. Richard and Ken will present a set of videos showcasing some of their work from capture to print, discussing choice along the way and final presentation.

  If you have selected to have your images physically printed we will print your portfolio featuring the overarching style and vision you have developed and highlighted in your twelve selected photographs. These images will be displayed in a stunning hand-made portfolio box, for you to take home and exhibit. These will be printed on the Epson Surecolour P800 on your choice of Epson Signature Worthy Fine Art Paper and couriered to those who select this option.

  Includes:

  • E-book on portfolios and presentation—covering a guide to displaying your work.
  • Videos tutorials—showing capture-print-presentation with Richard and Ken.
  • 1hr video call—with Richard or Ken to give you feedback on final portfolios.

  Printed portfolio option also includes:

  • Printing of your fine-art portfolio of 12 photographs—at 13x19" on Epson Signature Worthy Fine Art Paper
  • Hand-made portfolio box—to protect and showcase your work.