Subjects taught at Photography related Workshops:

  First, a bit of honesty, I am not a nationally recognized expert or expert period on any of the courses I teach (save those complicated what if questions for the media experts). I have spent time and money to learn the below software's, mainly because I will never be a big time photographer but I still want to make some big time photographs. While I would love to have an assistant, great lighting setup and a makeup artist I know that at my age that is not going to happen. So I have turned to the below software's to compensate for my lack of big time trappings.  If you take my courses don't expect to be a big time photographer unless you are prepared to do other things and make sacrifices to achieve your goals. The road is never easy especially in photography where anyone with a digital camera thinks their stuff is hot.

    I do use the software I am teaching and most of my finished photographs are made with a combinations of various software's. I do not even write done how I make each picture because if I did I would be making the same pictures using the same techniques, instead of editing my work until the picture reflects what I wanted to do with it. You will not become an expert in these course, but will get some basic ideas on how the software's will help you produce interesting pictures and hopefully you will have some fun while you are learning. The information below is what I think will be helpful in expanding your knowledge of the various techniques you can use to create pictures that go beyond the standard stock pictures a lot of photographers produce.

Portrait Professional ver9: If you want to make your portrait subjects look their best without an expensive makeup artist than this is the program you need to buy. This is an easy to learn program using the software's automatic correction system. I will teach this pretty quickly than have you do the same picture again using the software's extensive manual controls. This is the fun part if you want to change the color of hair, eyes and lips and maybe add a little suntan to a subject.

Pro Show Producer: I will teach you how to make a basic slide show using some of the things I did in the slide show on my home page. If you need to make slide shows or combination single picture and/or video show than you have to master this software. Certainly in wedding photography if you are looking for an edge that shows you are a cut above the average photographer. Depending on how much time we have I can show  you how to create your own show and put it on my web site and/or YouTube(Bring your best jpegs and I will show you how to creative up your dull slide shows.) Added course instruction: Video training that explores the many things you can do with this software: layers, advanced motion controls, how to add sound to name just a few things you can learn from this software.

Mask Pro 4: One of the best masking programs around. I will teach you how to make a basic mask as part of the overall course and show you how to insert the mask into another picture. I will also cover the feature that sets Mask pro from other masking programs. The ability to build your mask using colors to keep and colors that mask out sections from you mask. Added course instruction: video training as needed.

Genuine Fractals 6:How to increase the size of your picture without losing to much resolution. Fairly easy program to do a basic enlargement. Added course instruction: video training as needed.

Corel Painter Essentials ver4: How to make some basic painter effects from your photograph. How to prepare the photograph to get the best results. Added course instruction: video training as needed.

Adobe Photoshop Elements ver6: How to combine the various effects this program has to make some original pictures. One word of cautions you can make all kinds of effects for your pictures, but if you haven't learned how to craft these effects into a picture that is more than a gimmack than you are just pretending to be an artist. I will also show how to intergrate mask pro and genuine fractrals with this program. Added course instruction: video training as needed

Corel Photopaint: Don't expect to run any courses on this program, but the software does a lot of things that Photoshop does and just about all of my pictures have been shaped by this program. In fact some of the most interesting pictures I have made involved using different combinations of a layer or object with the background. If you look at the model gallery two picture of Val(model) were made using this technique. Added course instruction: video training as needed.

Corel Paint Shop pro ver2: I recently purchased this program as a replacement for photo paint, but I will have something to teach that shows how this program can be used with the other programs to produce some interesting pictures. This is the program designed as a competitor for Adobe Photoshop Elements. My philosophy is if you want to make original pictures than sometimes you need to combine different programs to get what you want.

X site pro ver2: A basic tour of some of the neat things you can do with this software and some of the features of the software that shows you how to make money with your website. This software also has a seo analyzer that shows you how to use your keywords and other factors to improve your search engine ratings. If you already have your own website than you know that publishing a site is only half the battle, the harder part is getting traffic to your website and getting people to buy whatever you are offering. In addition I can also offer a day course so that you can put up a page on my website that shows what you have learned in the courses, or you can spend 4 days with me and create your own site.(note the site can't be published until you return home.) Added course instruction: video training as needed.

Note: I don't teach Adobe Photoshop which I will freely admit is the gold standard in photo editing software. For years I have used Corel PhotoPaint because it does a lot of things the same as Photoshop does and it was a lot cheaper. Most photographers do not need to learn all the things they can do in Photoshop, and if they did their photographs might be technically great but will they really communicate anything of value or spark a little interest from the viewer. (Before you spend money on these types of software's you have to discover what you are going to do with the software. If you have a vision for photographs that only Photoshop can create, than buy Photoshop - otherwise you are just trying to be a snob and have wasted a lot of money on a program you will never fully use.)

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