What will I know after the DLS workshops?

I got an email inquiry about the DLS workshops and figured that this was a great question, and worthy of a blogging.

Depending on whether you engage in the series, the Weekender, or the Crash Course, what you walk away with will vary.  There are write-ups about each Workshop explaining the subject in detail, but summarily here is what you will walk away from the Workshops:

1) a solid and practical understanding of how your camera works to create an exposure, how the settings on your camera affect the image, and how to manually adjust your camera's settings to achieve the image you want;

2) a detailed understanding of vocabulary usually used when discussing photography such as depth of field, composition, contrast, exposure, saturation, and more, and how to manipulate these things in-camera;

3) a general overview of some tried and true practices for composing pictures, taking group and individual portraits, and self-correcting weakly composed or poorly exposed images.

4) hands-on practice with a variety of metering techniques as well as a demonstration of some artificial or controlled lighting such as flashes, strobes, and continuous lighting;

5) access to field trips, discussion groups, and ongoing live support; and

6) develop a network of fellow shutterbugs who are able to share resources, information, and your passion for shooting.

Other special workshops cover things specific to wedding photography, setting up and operating as a business, common basic Photoshop techniques, and old-fashioned techniques for creating textures and special effects without having to digitally manipulate your images during post-processing.

New or special workshops are added from time to time as well, designed by the people who request them, and private tutoring is also available.

I hope this gives a good outline of what your expectations of the Workshops are all about, and look forward to adding some fresh new faces to our wonderful family of workshoppers!