Description
Photography Course Details
Duration: 10am – 4pm
Location: Newquay, Cornwall, UK
Date: This is a 1-2-1 course, book a date that suits you.
No. Participants: Up to two people can attend this course at no additional cost.
Improve Your Photography With Professional Photographer Paul David Smith.
If you have just bought your camera or have not yet ventured off of the auto modes the camera has to offer then manual mode can be scary. You may be in a position where you’ve tried to learn from friends or family, or perhaps you’ve watched some YouTube videos and it just hasn’t made sense?
Our Beginners Photography Course is designed to get you off your camera’s automatic modes and taking advantage of the massive benefits shooting in manual mode has to offer. The good news is, last year we taught over a hundred people how to shoot in manual mode and each and every time we did it in less than a day!
You are smarter than your camera, it’s something we tell people during our training sessions because it is so true. When you use the automatic mode, the camera doesn’t know if you are photographing moving wildlife and want to freeze the action with no blur. Likewise, the camera doesn’t know whether you are shooting a portrait and would like to minimise the depth of field and blur the background. All the camera is trying to do is give you a correctly exposed image, not too bright, not too dark.
When you start to take control of the camera and tell it what you want it to do you open up the true potential the camera has to offer and your photography will improve.
We run this as a 1-2-1 course so we can really focus on improving your skills and you have our full attention. You will improve your skills far quicker this way as opposed to joining a group session where the instructor is trying to help 10 people at once. It also has the added advantage of you being able to book a date and time that suits you.
You are also welcome to bring along a friend or family member with you as up to 2 people can attend this course at no additional cost.
Things You Will Learn On This Workshop:
- Take control & get out of auto mode.
- Benefits of using P, S, TV, A, AV or M modes.
- How to shoot pin sharp images every time.
- Blur backgrounds using aperture.
- Master difficult lighting conditions.
- Understand ISO and the exposure triangle.
- Camera equipment advice.
- Choose the correct camera image settings.
- Use different White Balance settings.
- Stop motion using shutter speeds.
- How to use off-camera flash.
- How to avoid out of focus images.
- Understand lenses and focal lengths.
- Master composition for strong images.
- Post-production image techniques.
- You tell me what you’re struggling with!
FAQ’s
Do I Need Certain Skills Or Equipment To Attend?
This is a beginners course and as such, no skills are required to attend this course. The only equipment you will need to bring with you is your camera and lenses. This course is for people who want to learn their bridge, DSLR or mirrorless cameras.
Can You Recommend Camera Equipment For Me Prior To Me Attending?
I get a lot of requests for help with camera equipment recommendations, almost daily in fact and offer a Personalised Photography Equipment Recommendation service which you can find by clicking here.
Recommending a camera and the best lenses to buy really has lots of different factors involved in it which need to be investigated first such as what the equipment will be most used for, budgets, your expectations on image quality, your current level and aspirations, etc. Hence the above service so we can really drill down into finding you the best equipment.
Alternatively, some people attend my courses and borrow a camera from me for the day to do so, we can then incorporate this recommendation as part of the course at no extra cost. The benefit of doing it this way is that I have a lot of cameras and lenses you can try and see the difference between prior to purchasing anything. The downside is your not learning on your own equipment of course, so there are pluses and minuses to doing it both ways, it depends on what you think works best for you.
Are You DBS Checked?
Paul is DBS checked and is happy to share a copy of his DBS certificate with any client, no matter whether they are a business, charity, organisation or individual.
You can read more about Paul’s DBS check here.
What Is The Refund Policy?
Our Refund & Cancellation Policy Can Be Found Here.
Jean Edwards –
I bought myself a grown up camera at the beginning of the year but had no idea how to use it, I sort of managed to take some photos in auto mode, but had no idea what to do with all the rest of the buttons. I had read and been told that to take consistently good photos, I need to use manual mode, but had no idea how. Shutter speed, aperture and ISO were all gobbledy gook to me.
I found Paul online and booked myself and my husband a beginners course. Paul has an amazing way of putting everything into simple to understand language. I now understand enough about shutter speed, aperture and ISO, their relationship to each other and the importance of getting the settings right, to be able to take photos I am proud of. Very many thanks Paul, we both came away from the day buzzing!
Richard Jelley –
I have been faffing about with cameras and photography for many years, but never really got into the Manual side of things. I was given the beginners course with Paul as a birthday present and I have to say he made things seem so easy when he explained them. He used plain English without all the technical jargon you normally read in articles on line and i was amazed how logical and easy he made things seem! He explained the capabilities and limitations of my particular camera and proceeded to spend the next 5 hours demonstrating how to get the best from it. Absolutely brilliant and well worth the money! I would thoroughly recommend. Now all i have to do is put it all in to practice!
Isaac Johnson –
I didn’t have time to travel to Newquay but from my research I’d decided Paul was the go-to guy for learning photography, so I paid his travel for him to come and run the course in London with me. Hands down this was well worth the money, in actual fact it was probably worth double what I paid in terms of the value I got from the course. I started the day not able to use any mode other than auto, I finished the day somewhat comfortably shooting in manual mode and actually understanding it. Paul has a gift for teaching as well as photography which made him the perfect person to help demystify my camera and really learn how to use it. I loved every second of this course, thank you so much for travelling so far to run it with me Paul!
Karl evans –
I attended this course with next to no knowledge. I was made to feel welcome from the point of going in through the doors. The knowledge Paul has is fantastic and his way of teaching is amazing. I finished the day feeling I had so much more knowledge. Was a fantastic day and have taken so much away from it. Thank you so much.
Hailey S –
It is fair to say that I learn’t more about my camera, the exposure triangle, lighting, composition and storytelling in a single day than I have in the past 2 years of trying to work it all out on my own. I cannot rate this course highly enough, A+++
Harry –
When I started asking around who was the best person or course to learn photography with Paul’s name popped up more than a few times and having now attended the course I can see why. I traveled from Cardiff to Cornwall to do the beginners photography masterclass and met Paul at his shop which is located on top of the cliffs overlooking one of Newquay’s beautiful beaches. Within just a few hours later I was sat there feeling like I could use manual mode on my camera with a full understanding of what aperture, shutter speed and ISO were.
Paul has taught this course a lot, you can tell by how seamless everything is. There is a practical example with every bit of theory, worksheets that are easy to follow and numerous training aids. As a many who has struggled for 3 years to really get my head around the exposure triangle, I’m frustrated with myself for not doing this course earlier as it would have accelerated my learning process so quickly.
An amazing course, a fantastic location, an excellent tutor and a lovely weekend in Cornwall.
Alice –
I absolutely loved the beginners photography masterclass with Paul. He is not only a fantastic photographer, but also such a great teacher and a lovely, lovely person.
I went in with zero experience whatsoever, but very, very quickly Paul enabled me to use manual mode. I found it great because it was a lovely, lovely mix between practical and theory exercises and in a day, I learned so much and it was really good fun and interesting as well.
I learned loads of functions of the camera, all the basics, as well as things like shutter speed, ISO, aperture and all the meanings of the buttons so that I could use manual mode. I think that one of the greatest things as well was the fact that Paul sat down with me and wanted to understand what I wanted from the course, and he tailored it around me with regards to that. So, I highly, highly recommend this course, and I am so, so excited to go out now and try out my new skills.
Fay Watson –
What an amazing photography course this turned out to be. I was given it as a gift and went along not knowing what to expect, I left armed with so much new photography knowledge and confidence. Paul explained things in a simple to understand manner, really impressed.
David Moon –
When I walked through Paul’s door I didn’t know what shutter speed, aperture, or ISO was. In fact, I’d owned the camera a week and hadn’t taken it off of auto mode. Within 4 hours we were wondering along the River Nene and I was photographing swans in full manual mode, freezing them as they flapped their wings and choosing to control my depth of field. I went home and told my partner and she told me it had took her over a year to understand manual mode. I can only conclude Paul is a great teacher who has clearly developed a system which allows him to teach this in record time as it all made sense as he was explaining it and whilst I know I need to practice, I leave the course confident I can keep progressing with my photography.
Steve Johnson –
Taught me manual mode and a whole lot more in less than 5 hours, well worth the money.
Ann-Marie Hemmings –
Thank you for the great photography workshop last week. I learnt loads, and remembered more than I thought! I feel I am able to put it all into practice now.
Aga Couhtino –
Paul is an amazing teacher. I have learnt a lot more in his Beginners Photography Masterclass training course than I had expected I would. He gave me course materials to which I can come back to so I don’t forget important information in the future. He is patient, friendly and enthusiastic. Paul really wants to make sure that I learn photography properly and can take photos in different situations, indoors and outdoors. He gives a lot of different tips. I really recommend him!
Amy Valance –
Paul is so passionate about photography you cannot help but be inspired when you attend one of his courses. I’d been in auto mode on my camera for years and was a little stuck in my ways, I needed somebody to break my bad habits and guide me on the best way forward to improve my photography. Paul certainly did this, his relaxed, calm approach was just what I needed and along with all the theory, we headed out immediately after learning it to put it into practice, this certainly made it stick in my head and confident enough to actually do it all after finishing the training. A great workshop indeed.
Eddy Swift –
I wanted to learn how to create a nice bokeh in the background of my images and blur it out and having watched a few Youtube videos, I quickly realised I needed somebody to show me hands-on. Paul broke it down so it was really simple, he showed me how to control Aperture, but also passed on lots of hints and tips about how to use it in everyday shots to improve my photos. I walked away from the course knowing what I had wanted to learn and a whole lot more.
Ricky Hope –
I’d only just purchased a DSLR camera and didn’t know where to start with it, there seemed like there were so many different buttons and dials and features on it. Paul’s Beginners Photography Masterclass was just what I needed, he showed me all the important functions on the camera that I will actually need to use and had me shooting in Manual mode by the end of the day so I was taking full control of the camera. I feel like I came away from the course with so much practical knowledge that will benefit me and my photography going forward.