If you want to create beautiful still life photographs that evoke emotions and tell a story, you need a mix of creativity and skills.
Visual Storytelling 2: Photography & editing essentials gives you the fundamental skills to use your camera in manual and take full control of this wonderful creative tool.
When I learn any kind of topic, knowing how to replicate something doesn’t help me much.
I need to understand the reason behind the instructions, the why, and then put theory into practice to integrate all the concepts, and of course practice as much as possible to hone my skills.
This is exactly how I’ve structured the lessons.
I’ve kept all the technical jargon to a minimum and made clear, concise videos with lots of illustrations and examples, to make it easy to understand how the camera, and its settings, work.
Every time I talk about a topic, a camera setting, or an editing tool, I want you to understand how it all works, and so I explain the reason behind each choice I made in the example shown. This way you can truly learn, and then make your own choices based on your aesthetic vision and style.
In this course you will learn:
– How to take photographs with a DSLR (manual and aperture priority mode) in natural light.
– How to choose camera settings for visual storytelling.
– How to manipulate natural light with reflectors to create airy and bright still life images, and dark & moody ones.
– How to choose backgrounds to enhance your still life, and evoke a certain mood.
– How to use essential composition guidelines for visual storytelling, and create traditional, upright still life photographs and flatlays.
– How to edit your photographs using Lightroom, and choose editing tools to bring your aesthetic vision to life.
Visual Storytelling 2: photography & editing essentials is a self-paced class to help you understand how your camera works, and use natural light, composition guidelines, and editing tools to create beautiful still life photographs that tell a story.
Lessons are grouped into a timeline of 6 weeks, with videos and prompts to help you practice your photography skills. You can start learning soon after sign up, and you will have access to all content for 12 months.
There is no Facebook group for this class, but you are of course always welcome to e-mail me if you have any doubts or questions about the class.
Week 1 – This part of the course is dedicated to learning about exposure and getting familiar with manual and aperture priority shooting modes, and different file types. You’ll learn how to use the main camera settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) as creative tools to help you tell your story.
Week 2 – This week you’ll learn about metering modes, White Balance, focus, and drive modes, so that you can select the right setting for the type of image, and mood, you want to create.
Week 3 – This week you’ll learn about different lenses, and then you’ll focus on natural light. Photography is all about light, so this week you’ll learn how to take photos in different natural light situations.
Week 4 – After an introduction to explain how Lightroom works, this week you’ll learn how to create a classical still life photograph with a bright and airy look. The lessons will cover backdrops and natural light set up, with styling and composition guidelines. I’ll share the camera settings used, and then show you how I edit the photographs for a bright and airy look.
Week 5 – This week you’ll learn how to create a classical still life photograph with a dark and moody look, like the Dutch masters used to paint. The lessons will cover backdrops and natural light set up, with styling and composition guidelines. I’ll share the camera settings used, and then show you how I edit these types of images.
Week 6 – We’ll wrap up the course with a week dedicated to the flatlay – basically a still life photographed from above. Again, you’ll see how I create this type of images from set up to final edit, and you’ll learn about backdrops, camera settings, and styling & composition guidelines.
“Cristina’s Visual Storytelling 2 course is brilliant! Following it is like taking several courses rolled into one as it covers so many topics in so much depth: from shooting modes to equipment, from composition to editing and much more. Everything is explained very clearly in detailed videos backed up by weekly prompts and synopses. I really can’t recommend it highly enough!” – Ruth Eaton
“Cristina is a master photographer as well as an inspiration for photographers. I had the opportunity to take Cristina’s Visual Storytelling 2 course. Cristina’s use of various teaching methods such as videos, class notes, and hands on demonstration will appeal to various learning styles. Her demonstrations of how to create Still Life and Flat Lay photography were excellent and then how to edit the photos in Lightroom were concise and helpful.
Thank you Cristina for sharing your love and knowledge of photography with us.” Ann Davis
Absolutely! The course is online so you can take part from any place in the world :) The fee is in Euros but when you pay it will be converted into your own currency. To check the latest conversion rate, visit this site.
No, you don’t need to be in class at a certain time. You will receive your lessons & prompts by email, and you can watch the videos and practice at any time of your choice.
You will have access to all content for 12 months. This way, you’ll have plenty of time to watch the video lessons as many times as you like.
Yes you can! Your currency will be automatically converted when you check out using either a credit card or Paypal. Visit this online currency converter for an estimate of the fee in your own currency
If you have more questions or doubts, please get in touch here :)
You will need:
– DSLR camera
– Access to a computer
– Access to the internet
– Editing software (Adobe Lightroom – you can try Lightroom for free for 7 days on the Adobe website.)
– Email address to receive class lessons
No, you don’t. The two classes cover two different aspects of visual storytelling.
“Visual Storytelling 1: create your story, find your voice” is about the vision behind your photographs.
“Visual Storytelling 2: photography & editing essentials” is about the skills needed to bring your vision to life.
I created two different courses so that you can focus on different areas of visual storytelling, depending on where you are on your photography journey.
The weekly content is organised in video lessons. Each video lesson lasts between 15 and 30 minutes, and each week there are several different video lessons.
Each week you may expect to spend time watching videos for at least 40 minutes, up to almost two hours.
Then there’s practice time, which is vital for learning new skills. We are all different, and we all process information at our own pace, but the more you practice the more your photography and editing skills will improve.
My advice is to spend at least 2-3 hours a week practicing, more if you can. You’ll find that still life photography is calming, and time spent practicing flies. You’ll soon find excuses to spend more and more time with your camera :)
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