Subscriber Content

Light has the power to completely transform any photograph and in this final session Alex teaches arguably the most transformative lighting solutions. His focus is also on practicality because these are also the techniques that he’s found are most easily implemented by photographers on his workshops. This presentation is a mixture of both the illustrated slides as well as a live ‘table top’ demonstration of strobe position, to help you master the details of these techniques. The final section reviews advanced techniques including using off camera lighting effectively and shooting panning shots and double exposures with snooted strobes.

The aim of this talk is to arm you with solutions that work in the real (underwater) world. This talk steers away from principles like the ‘rule of thirds’ and instead focuses on compositions that can be put straight to work underwater. This session goes into detail on how to put together both wide angle and macro pictures underwater. Alex also explains why fisheye and non-fisheye shots should be composed very differently, even of the same subject matter, and why the lenses suit very different subjects. The presentation covers both classic and innovative advice for creating eye catching wide angle and macro pictures. The penultimate section invites you to remember that despite all this advice you should always be looking to break rules and break new ground in photography. The final part of this presentation looks at some classic underwater images (chosen by the original Reboot Group 6), discussing why they are so successful.

Macro photography challenges us in many areas. We need excellent diving skills, marine life knowledge, spotting skills, a sensitive approach to wildlife, a mastery of lighting and even good communication skills and etiquette. This presentation covers all this and more. The session also majors on appreciating a great subject as the starting point of a memorable shot, the work is in making the most of the rest of the frame. Alex presents a host of background options for macro shots. The final section covers a range of popular macro subjects, with specific shooting advice for each from abstracts to seahorses. The aim is to put you in complete control of your macro pictures to regularly produce stunning and satisfying work.

Wide angle photography underwater can feel task loaded. This presentation breaks down the key factors to consider underwater, so you can build successful images. This session covers subject selection, balancing lighting, viewpoints, feeding the fisheye and building depth through backgrounds. The aim is to help you appreciate the importance of optimising each to truly master this discipline. The session also discusses the importance of dividing wide angle into Close Focus and Big Scene and what is involved in switching between them. The final section covers a range of popular wide angle subjects, from dolphins to wrecks (and more), with specific shooting advice for each.

Throughout the course, you will have hopefully had the opportunity to practice the skills and techniques David has shown you. In the final live review session you are invited to submit images for a review and critique evening. This is an incredibly beneficial part of the whole process and everyone taking part greatly learns from it - a real confidence booster.

The second of two sessions designed to allocate time to each participant to have their selected images critiqued and commented on in-depth by Steve.
At the end of this session, there will be a final opportunity to have a Q&A interaction with Steve to ensure that your questions and queries are explored and answered.

The next two sessions have been designed to allocate time to each participant to have their selected images critiqued and commented on in-depth by Steve, drawing on his many years of experience as a professional photographer and as a workshop leader & teacher. This process not only enables him to give advice to each individual but also to draw out generic teaching points of benefit to everyone.
The Remote Working Forum, significantly reinforced & developed through Sessions 4 & 5 will also provide an opportunity for participants to develop their own photographic analytical skills - invaluable in learning how to evaluate, interpret and understand how images impact upon those who view them; an essential foundation block underpinning the production of photographs that successfully communicate an idea, thought, concept or emotion.

At the end of Session 3 Steve will brief participants on an exercise to produce two images – one that applies one of the compositional ideas he talked about in Session1 and one that communicates a thought, idea, concept or emotion.
There will be a longer break between sessions at this point to give participants the opportunity to work on producing these images, to share them on the Forum and to get comment & input from each other (as well as Steve) prior to the next two sessions.

‘Steve believes that successful photography is founded on two things: -
Firstly, the photographer having something to say with a camera. American photographer, Gordon Parks once said “Those people who want to use a camera should have something in mind; there is something they want to show, something they want to say”; and secondly, communicating passion & emotion. Don McCullin (the British documentary photographer) has said, "Photography for me is not looking, it's feeling. If you can't feel what you are looking at then you are never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures".
This session will encourage and teach participants to effectively communicate a thought, idea, concept or emotion via their photographs and how to produce evocative images that convey what they feel as much, if not more, than what they see. Steve will use his images to describe what he was trying to communicate via the photograph (and where appropriate, what he was feeling at the time of taking them) and provide an insight to participants about how he used composition, post processing and other methods to convey his message.

‘In this Session, Steve elaborates on his approach to composition - why the so-called rules of photography should be considered as guidelines only and why & when to break them – and how to use compositional techniques to create stronger images. This will include the choice of focal point, the use of line & shape to take their viewers on a visual journey around their images, the orientation of the camera & the impact of that on how photographs are ‘read’, the need to ‘sweat the details’ to create photographs that not only tell a story but have maximum visual impact and the ‘reductionist' approach to composition to produce simple but effective minimalist and graphic images.

The first session of the course will include a short introduction by the Photography Experts team to explain to how the Masterclass course will work. This will include a full tour of your subscriber features, your document and recording repository, and use of the forum features. There will also be tips on how to make the most of Zoom to fully participate in the live sessions, and engage with Steve and your fellow course members. Access to technical support by Photography Experts will continue throughout the duration of the entire course.

These will be regular events and reboot alumni are welcome to attend on several occasions.
If you have a series of images you wish to be reviewed you are more than welcome to come back to future events. If you do wish to have more than two images looked at by Alex on a single session please contact us direct to make special arrangements. We are sure that the learning experience and ongoing reboot camaraderie gained by sitting in on Alex's review sessions will make each event unique, special in its own right and hugely beneficial.