Syracuse Photography Meetup Group

Vermont Fall Foliage Photography Workshop

Mon, Oct 5 · 3:00 PM EDT

Location not specified yet

This is a paid workshop, please don't RSVP until you have registered at https://lorenphotos.com/product/vt-fall-foliage/.

A fall foliage photography workshop and tour in Vermont's back roads with a local professional photographer who knows the best locations should be on every photographer's bucket list. The stunning fall foliage is a visual feast for photographers and professional photographer Loren Fisher will take you on a classic Vermont experience designed to improve your photography skills while photographing the beauty of Autumn in New England.

Based from his art gallery in Woodstock, VT, Loren will take you on an exciting Vermont photo experience in one of the most breathtaking fall foliage destinations in New England.

Loren will give you personal attention and show you how to take your photography to a higher level, whether you are a beginner or experienced photographer. We will meet for classroom instruction at Loren's art gallery in the heart of Woodstock and then spend most of the time shooting in the field at unique locations. A highlight is photographing a colorful island while Loren light paints it with a large flashlight. Loren will help you set up your camera and tell you the exposures as the darkness rolls in. It is a stunning, unique photo opportunity.

You will visit and photograph beautiful farms, a classic Vermont village and a private 600 acre homestead with ponds, flora and an amazing mountain-top view. We will photograph covered bridges, breathtaking scenery, lakes, waterfalls and enjoy true small-town hospitality.

Loren will share with you his thought process, how he plans a shot and how he edits. The schedule will be flexible so we will shoot in the best locations at the right times.

Where: Woodstock, Vt., a classic New England town.

Who should attend: Any photographer wanting to experience the Autumn beauty of Vermont while improving their photographic skills through classroom and field instruction from a seasoned professional photographer. Feedback and critiques are instrumental in the learning process.

What others say about the workshop:
“Absolutely loved the setting - simply beyond gorgeous! Such a warm welcome.” - Marsha, La Canada, Calif.
“You have such a creative, artistic eye and you make genius comments.” - Denise, Staten Island, NY
“Working with you was great. The group was just the right size.” - Ron, Maui, Hawaii
“I enjoyed the deep concepts of photographic expression that Loren shares and his help to deeply understand images that give something of yourself.” - Edgar, Guatemala
“From an "older amateur" traveling the world over the many past years, this workshop was quite an experience!” - Bob, Atlantic City, NJ
"You know when to push, when to pull and when to back off." - Sharon, Elliott City, Maryland

Maximum group size: 11

Equipment needed: A digital SLR camera (and your owner's manual if you don’t know what all the buttons do) and a sturdy tripod. Optional equipment: remote release cable for your camera; polarizing filter; rain protection (you never know), hiking boots (we won’t be doing any serious hiking but we will be on short trails and in fields that may be uneven or wet.)

For more info and to register go to https://lorenphotos.com/product/vt-fall-foliage/

There will be attendees who are not members of this Meetup.

Taking Control of Lightroom online workshop

Mon, Oct 26 · 7:00 PM EDT

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Online

Online

This is a paid workshop, please don't RSVP until you have registered at https://www.lorenphotos.com/product/lightroom-series/

Have you ever spent twenty minutes looking for a photograph you know is somewhere on your computer? Or looked at one of your images and thought, "I know this could look better, but I'm not sure what to do next?"
If so, you're not alone.

Adobe Lightroom Classic is one of the best tools available for organizing and editing photographs, but it can also feel overwhelming. Many photographers only use a small part of what Lightroom can do, while others aren't sure where to begin. This three-part online workshop series is designed to change that.

Each session focuses on a different aspect of Lightroom and can be taken on its own or as part of the complete series. If you're struggling to organize your photo library, the first session is perfect by itself. If you're comfortable with Lightroom but want to improve your editing, you can jump right into one of the editing classes. Of course, the three workshops are designed to build on one another, giving you a complete workflow from importing your photographs to creating finished images you'll be proud to share and print.

Over three evenings, I'll walk you through Lightroom in a relaxed, easy-to-follow way, showing you the techniques I use every day as a professional landscape photographer. You'll learn how to organize your growing photo collection, make your images look their best with a simple editing workflow, and discover more advanced tools that can transform good photographs into great ones.

We'll cover everything from importing and organizing your photos to adjusting exposure and color, using masks and AI-powered editing tools, creating beautiful black and white photographs, removing distractions, and preparing your images for printing or sharing online. Along the way I'll explain not just how to use the tools, but why you might choose one approach over another.

Each session includes live demonstrations using real photographs, practical tips you can start using immediately, and plenty of time for questions. My goal is to make Lightroom less intimidating and help you spend less time sitting at your computer and more time enjoying your photography.

No matter where you are in your Lightroom journey, you'll come away with new skills, greater confidence, and a workflow that makes editing your photographs easier and more enjoyable.

Workshop Schedule
October 26, 7:00 to 9:30 PM
Getting Organized with Lightroom

November 2, 7:00 to 9:30 PM
Basic Editing in Lightroom

November 9, 7:00 to 9:30 PM
Editing Beyond the Basics in Lightroom

Whether you attend one session or all three, you'll leave with practical techniques that you can begin using on your very next editing session.
Each session will be recorded and you can view them whenever you like, so if you miss a session or just want to review, you'll always have access.

Session One
Getting Organized With Lightroom
A great photograph is only valuable if you can find it.
Many photographers have thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of photographs scattered across hard drives, memory cards, and folders with no consistent organization. This class is designed to eliminate that frustration.

You'll learn a simple workflow for importing, organizing, keywording, rating, and managing your images that can grow with you for years. We'll discuss catalogs, folder structures, collections, metadata, backups, and efficient ways to locate any image within seconds.

Whether you're just starting with Lightroom or have been using it for years, this session will help you create a library that is organized, protected, and easy to manage.

By the end of the evening you'll have a complete organizational system that makes Lightroom work for you instead of against you.
Session 1 outline

• How Lightroom works
• Understanding catalogs and your photo library
• Lightroom Classic vs. Lightroom

Building a Workflow

• Creating a catalog
• Folder structure that actually works
• Importing photographs
• Renaming files during import
• Applying metadata presets
• Copyright information

Keeping Your Library Organized

• Keywords
• Ratings
• Color labels
• Flags
• Collections and Collection Sets
• Smart Collections

Finding Any Photo in Seconds

• Library filters
• Metadata searches
• Keyword searches
• Using folders versus collections

Backup and Protection

• Catalog backups
• Backing up photographs
• External drives
• Cloud storage options

Session Two
Basic Editing in Lightroom
This session focuses on the tools you'll use on nearly every photograph you edit.

You'll learn a logical editing workflow that produces consistent, natural-looking results while avoiding many of the common mistakes photographers make. We'll cover exposure, color correction, contrast, cropping, sharpening, noise reduction, lens corrections, and the other adjustments that form the foundation of every successful edit.

We'll also discuss how to evaluate an image, determine what it needs, and make efficient edits without spending unnecessary time moving sliders back and forth.

By the end of the evening you'll have a repeatable editing process that can dramatically improve almost every photograph you make.

Session Outline
The Develop Module

• Understanding the editing workspace
• Working with RAW files
• Reading the histogram

Essential Global Adjustments

• Exposure
• Contrast
• Highlights
• Shadows
• Whites
• Blacks

Improving Color

• White Balance
• Vibrance
• Saturation

Creating Better Detail

• Texture
• Clarity
• Dehaze

Cropping and Straightening

• Aspect ratios
• Leveling horizons
• Composition improvements

Lens Corrections

• Removing distortion
• Chromatic aberration
• Profile corrections

Sharpening and Noise Reduction
Creating Virtual Copies
Copying and Synchronizing Edits

Session Three
Editing Beyond the Basics in Lightroom
Once you've mastered Lightroom's fundamentals, it's time to discover the tools that separate a good photograph from an exceptional one.
This class explores Lightroom's most powerful editing features, including AI masking, selective adjustments, advanced color control, object removal, dodging and burning, and techniques for directing the viewer's eye through an image.

We'll also discuss when advanced editing improves a photograph and when restraint produces a stronger result. Throughout the evening you'll see complete before-and-after demonstrations using real photographs, explaining not only which adjustments were made but why they were made.

You'll leave with a deeper understanding of Lightroom's advanced capabilities and the confidence to tackle more challenging images while developing your own editing style.

Class Outline
Working with Masks

• Subject selection
• Sky selection
• Background masks
• Brush tool
• Linear gradients
• Radial gradients
• Color Range
• Luminance Range

Creative Color Control

• HSL adjustments
• Color Grading
• Point Color

Advanced Tone Control

• Tone Curve
• Local contrast
• Dodging and burning

Removing Distractions

• Healing tool
• Clone tool
• Content-aware removal
• Removing people and objects

Using AI Features

• AI masking
• Adaptive presets
• Noise Reduction
• Super Resolution

Creating Your Personal Style

• Presets
• Saving custom presets
• Batch processing

Preparing Images for Printing and the Web

Who Should Attend?
This series is designed for photographers who are comfortable using a computer but want to become more efficient and confident with Adobe Lightroom Classic. Whether you've been using Lightroom for a month or for several years, you'll discover techniques that will improve both your organization and your image editing.

Participants are encouraged to follow along using their own copy of Lightroom Classic, although simply watching the demonstrations is also perfectly fine.
Each session includes live demonstrations, practical tips, and plenty of opportunities to ask questions.

Workshop Schedule
October 26, 7:00 to 9:30 PM
Getting Organized with Lightroom
November 2, 7:00 to 9:30 PM
Basic Editing in Lightroom
November 9, 7:00 to 9:30 PM
Editing Beyond the Basics in Lightroom

Each session is $59 or get all three for $149

For more info and to register go to https://www.lorenphotos.com/product/lightroom-series/

Photoshop for Photographers online workshop

Sun, Nov 22 · 1:00 PM EST

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Online

Online

This is a paid workshop, please don't RSVP until you have registered at https://www.lorenphotos.com/product/photoshop-for-photographers/.

Photoshop is the ultimate image editing tool and is a complex beast. Learning it is intimidating and can be frustrating due to its extreme power. But most photographers don't need to know everything Photoshop does.

There are several tools that are extremely beneficial, some things that wouldn't be bad to know but aren't essential and then there is a ton of stuff that few photographers really need but graphic designers would use.

This workshop is for photographers and I will show you some of the things you can use to improve the look of your photos. This four hour workshop is not all comprehensive, there are some tools and techniques we won't cover but I feel those things are for advanced users. This workshop is designed to take the fear out of Photoshop and help you get going with the software. I will show you things you can't do in Lightroom or can do much better in Photoshop. We won't be dealing with many things that can be done in Lightroom, like Camera RAW, basic developing, cropping, color balance and organization. I've been using Photoshop for at least 25 years and I still have little floppy discs of Version 2! I'll show you many of the tools, techniques and tips that I have picked up over the years.

This online workshop will be Sunday, Nov. 22 from 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. EDT.
Here is what we will cover:

• Layers
• Adjustment Layers
• Replacing colors
• Masking
• Refining the edges of masks
• Content Aware fill
• Borders
• Getting unwanted objects out of your photos
• Focus stacking
• Dodging
• Burning
• Blurring
• Generative AI

There is a lot more Photoshop can do and we can't cover everything, so if it isn't on the list we probably won't discuss it in this workshop.

This is an online workshop, you'll be able to ask questions and see my computer screen. I use a paid Zoom service for my online classes to assure you have easy access and get quality sound and video. Login instructions will be on the screen after you register. The session will be recorded and you'll be able to watch the video again as much as you like.

Sunday, Nov. 22 from 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. EDT.

Registration $129.00

For more information and to register go to https://www.lorenphotos.com/product/photoshop-for-photographers/