Science dictates that all engaging visual images are visually efficient and mentally stimulating. Nine visual principles based on science, NOT personal opinions, govern how you achieve this, and they apply to every visual image from painting, drawing, and photography to advertising and graphic design and even retail displays. Every weak photograph can be traced back to one or more of these principles not being applied correctly. Technique doesn’t create your Artistic Vision & Style or define the quality of your photograph; how you apply and blend the principles together does. The first job is to explain, demonstrate, and teach you, each of these principles.

We compare the visual principles to your Photography to identify what’s weak and missing. This allows you to self-diagnose what’s weak and missing in your pictures. You need to be able to identify and understand your weaknesses now, or there will be no long-term and permanent improvement after the workshop. Before moving on to techniques, we must ensure the fundamental knowledge is in place first. The technique is only the production process governed by these nine visual principles. Technique alone only produces meaningless ‘graphic effects’. We must know the principles behind ‘How pictures work’ before covering Photography or retouching.

These nine visual principles influence your concept, choice of subject, composition, and times of day to shoot. The important point to remember is digital photographs are the products of software, not cameras. – We can reduce photographs down to components and use our camera to record these components. Photographs don’t need to be captured as one exposure, ‘in-camera’. The benefits are greater artistic freedom and technical quality. Not having to rely totally on our camera means we can create engaging Photography even when weather conditions aren’t ideal and time is limited. We create pictures we want, not just rely on what cameras give us.

To summarize: We have covered how pictures work and the nine visual principles for creating successful photographs. We have compared those principles to your Photography so you understand what’s weak or missing. – We have also covered how to apply the principles at the Photography stage as well as the concept and benefits of shooting components. All that remains is the most creative part of the picture-making process, creating the final picture under the guidance of the nine visual principles. I demonstrate how to do this using Photoshop. One-day courses finish here, and you apply the principles using the software of your choice. On the full course, the next stage is learning detailed step-by-step Photoshop technique.

Learning all the Photoshop techniques in a minute, step-by-step detail is the most time-consuming part of the workshop, 70%. – The same workflow covers color and black and white pictures and applies to any subject you shoot because the visual principles of all pictures remain the same. You will have at least one file with every step as documentation, and we can also work on your pictures. – If the workshops’ taken online, the entire workshop is video recorded live for your documentation. – Free follow-up advice and mentoring after the workshop ends is also included.