This workshop will help anyone understand and use more easily their DSLR, Compact System Camera or any camera with manual controls. It’s the first in a new series from Redeye, “The Fundamentals of Photography”, aimed at building your photographic style and helping you take memorable images.

Photographer Arnold Newman said “We don’t take pictures with cameras – we take them with our hearts and minds.” But that doesn’t happen until you’ve really got to grips with your camera and it becomes second nature. Perhaps you have a DSLR but it spends too long in the cupboard, or you don’t really feel you do it justice. Or perhaps you shoot mostly on a cameraphone and feel the need to improve your photography with a camera that gives you more control. Either way there’s a wealth of possibilities waiting for you once you’ve learnt how a camera works – and turned it into what Henri Cartier-Bresson called “an instrument of intuition and spontaneity”.

The workshop is aimed at anyone who doesn’t fully understand their DSLR or manual control camera, and who would like more control over their camera and their photos. Even if you don’t have a camera, but are wondering what to buy, you should find the workshop of use. Numbers will be limited to 25. It is a standalone workshop and attendance at other sessions is not required.

Workshop contents:

• Overview of how the camera works and what the main controls are for; what an exposure is, how these are made and what the relationship is between shutter speeds, apertures and ISO.
• What is a “correct” exposure – looking at the work of other photographers as examples – then under- and over-exposure, and how to use this to change the mood of your images.
• Capturing movement – how to freeze the action and when to use blur positively.
• White balance and colour temperature – how to get neutral colours and how to make a photo subtly warmer or cooler; moving on from the stock cameraphone-type “filters” to personalise your images.
• The basics of lighting – silhouettes, Rembrandt lighting, spot metering.
• A quick run through other camera controls – raw and jpeg, colour spaces, depth of field preview, auto and manual focus, how bulb and programme modes work, in-camera processes – and the different lenses available.

What to bring:
If you have one, please bring any working camera (including any lens) that has manual controls – usually represented by the letter M on the dial or a menu. This can be a digital or film SLR, Compact System Camera (sometimes called “mirrorless”) or a digital compact or “bridge” camera with a manual setting. It should have a fully-charged battery, and a card with some space on it – unless it’s a film camera of course.

Speaker:
Adam Lee is a freelance photographer and workshop facilitator based in Liverpool. His work has been published in the Observer, The Observer Escape Magazine, the Independent on Sunday, the The Big Issue North and Granta Books. His personal work has been exhibited at the Instituto Cervantes, Manchester; the Bluecoat, Liverpool; The Writing on the Wall Festival, Liverpool and the Wigtown Book Festival, Wigtown. Adam regularly teaches courses in photography, both for London based Charity Photo Voice as well as on a freelance basis.

Venue and Timing:
The network event will take place at Manchester Central Library, St. Peters Square, Manchester, M2 5PD on Thursday 16 October 2014 from 17:30 - 19:30.

Price:
Standard: £35.00
Redeye Members: £30.00
All prices include VAT.

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