A couple months ago I helped one of my students, James Seith, during two sessions of my online one-on-one photography instruction classes. James is an experienced amateur photographer who has traveled the world taking photographs and needed help processing and enhancing his photos. Via screen sharing with Skype I showed him how to do that using Lightroom, Photoshop, Capture One Pro, Photo Mechanic, and Perfect Photo Suite.
He emailed me a testimonial of his experience which I copied here. You can see more of his work on his website here. If you are interested in one of my one-on-one sessions you can find more information here. These sessions can take place in person or online.
Testimonial:
Best four hours of intensive photography instruction I’ve had in 15 years as a serious enthusiast. I decided on two sessions, both two hours long with a video for my use later. They were exactly what I needed to get a real jump start in Capture One and Perfect Photo Suite and then actually begin to use the tools between sessions. I had a couple of weeks after the first session to practice and to focus in on areas where I wanted additional help in the second two-hour session.
The cool thing about these online sessions was the ability to focus on exactly what I needed for my work and my experience. We talked on the phone before we started, I sent a couple of emails to try and pinpoint what I was after in these lessons, and we launched from that point. When it turned out that workflow was a critical component of my integrating two new post-processing tools that I had only generally considered, we spent a fair amount of time talking about how you set up your workflow in the first session–and then you gave me feedback in the second session about the workflow that I built after that first session.
Another cool thing about this online on-on-one was the ability to jump around. You’d touch on a point, and I’d interrupt and ask about something that came to mind at that moment, and we were able to jump out of that piece and into another peripheral area to talk about that aspect of post-processing–then jump back into the lesson flow. Jumped in and out of Capture One, Photoshop, talked about Lightroom workflows and comparisons, Photo Mechanic, making panoramic images–all in the context of the larger lessons on Capture One and Perfect Photo Suite. And as time waned on the lesson, I was able to ask you to jump to another component right away so I wouldn’t miss anything I had to learn. My learning curve drove the instruction–and you just jumped from one thing to another as I needed and asked, so it was instruction with real context.
This–for me–is a great way for an experienced photographer to take his or her craft to the next level. It’s focused by me, but totally flexible so I can add/delete/make turns–go where I need to go “on the fly” as the lessons unfold. This is truly a case with new processes of not knowing what you don’t know, so the initial plan changes as one’s knowledge grows and/or new material creates new questions. Truly tailored instruction.
Recommend multiple two-hour sessions. One hour is not enough even if one plans multiple sessions–which I recommend so you have the time to practice in between. Two hours, at least for me, gave me plenty of understanding without being overwhelming. I then took the two weeks in between sessions, used the video for reminders–and practiced/experimented. Your cost for this online instruction is extremely reasonable and fair, especially for the quality and quantity of truly focused learning I took from the sessions. No way I could have done this in a busy classroom.
Thanks, Matt. Be back to you in a few months after I get my feet on the ground with the basics and run a few thousand images through the process. Good luck with the show.
Cheers,
Jim