Looking for personalized photography instruction? My courses combine personal attention, hands-on learning, and flexible scheduling to help you build your skills and confidence. I offer custom coaching sessions tailored to your skill level and learning style. No matter where you are in your photography journey, I can help. From learning the basics to refining your technique or developing more advanced skills behind the lens, I’ll tailor each session to your goals.
The goal of my classes is to give the student a personal hands-on learning experience at their pace.
Tom Wiggins from Voyager Baltimore 10/25/2021
Personalized Lessons at Your Pace
The goal of my individualized coaching is to create a comfortable environment where you can ask questions, experiment and grow. From learning basic camera controls to exploring more advanced techniques, I’ll guide you step-by-step. One-on-one sessions allow us to go at your pace and focus entirely on your needs.
Sitting down with Tom to really learn the ropes, and his excellent feedback on what I was doing, set me on a learning curve that is truly improving my photography.
Chris B. 3/27/2019
Introduction to Digital Photography
In the first two lessons, students learn the most basic camera controls. You will gain experience adjusting aperture, shutter speed, ISO (sensor sensitivity), metering and white balance. With this foundational knowledge, you’ll begin moving away from automatic mode and gain confidence in capturing correctly exposed photographs. I hold these first classes at a public location, usually Panera Bread or Starbucks in East Baltimore, Columbia, Hanover, Laurel, Linthicum Heights, Odenton, Olney or Silver Spring. (Find my teaching location here.)
Once you understand the fundamental camera controls, you can apply those skills to other areas of photography. You’ll also explore essential photography equipment, including flash and tripods, as well as post-processing software. Most importantly, students will learn to read histograms, an essential tool for achieving proper digital exposure.
The final lesson is typically a dawn or sunset photo walk in a location we choose together. Here, you will apply everything you have learned in a hands-on, meaningful way where immediate feeback will be available to you.
After students complete the lessons, I continue to support you as they apply what they have learned. I’m always happy to provide feedback on your photos, offer critiques, or answer any additional questions you may have by email.
Advanced Digital Photography
This coaching consists of two field study tutorials, usually held outdoors. During these sessions, we focus on a specific area of photography, such as flowers, sports, landscapes, or portraits. Before you enroll, we discuss the topics and choose the ones that best fit your interests and goals. This advanced course builds on the skills students developed in Introduction to Digital Photography.
Flexible Learning Options
To help you reach your photography goals, I’ll create a coaching plan focused on your technical skills, composition, and creative approach. In-person custom camera lessons are available in Anne Arundel/Howard/Montgomery Counties, and Baltimore City.
I enjoyed the class and feel like it helped me understand my camera much more. This was the kind of information and instruction I was hoping to get and I feel excited to keep practicing and learning from here.
Sue H. 11/7/2015
Passionate, Experienced Instruction
I work with a limited number of students at one time. This allows me to give individual attention to your needs. I’ve taught over one hundred students who now shoot with more confidence and creativity. Ready to begin or deepen your photography journey? My camera courses can help you build your skills and confidence. Reach out today to schedule a private session or ask about upcoming availability.
Frequently Asked Questions
Auto exposure braketing is a camera feature that automatically takes a series of three to seven consecutive photos at different exposure levels with a single press of the shutter button. This feature is especially helpful in tricky lighting situations with high contrast as when photographing a subject in a dark room with a bright window. By capturing a range of exposures, you can then merge the dark, normal and bright photos together using editing software to create a high dynamic range (HDR) image that shows both detail and deep shadows and bright highlights. Read more in my post about AE Bracketing here.
These digital image file formats differ in the amount of data they store, how much they compress the images, and how photographers use them.
RAW files are unprocessed data straight from your camera’s sensor, a digital film negative. These files are very large and contain a maximum amount of data for post processing. You can perform post-processing with programs such as: Affinity Photo, Capture One, and Adobe Lightroom.
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) compresses images to make them easy to view, print, and share. Although JPEG files are small, the format uses “lossy” compression, which permanently deletes data each time you edit and save a photo.
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a high-quality image format that uses lossless compression or no compression at all. The file sizes can be very large. Likely the largest of all three photo formats. Ideal printing photos, taking up a huge amount of storage space.
While I don’t personally offer portrait, event, or wedding photography, I’m happy to recommend Walter Rowe Photography. I’ve known Walter for many years, and his work continues to impress me. He took the portrait of me that I use for publications.
