https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalphotographycourses

Welcome to the DPC Newsletter for August 2020

Hello Folks and welcome to the DPC Newsletter for August 2020

Stop Press. – I have a Virtual Lightroom Beginners Course on Wednesday 5^th August 2020.  
You can find details or download a trial version here - https://digitalphotographycourses.co.uk/lightroom-course-2/

This Month -
We hope that you are all keeping safe and sane as this pandemic eats away at the year.

• NEW Luminar4 Course and Offer
• Beginners & Intermediate Lightroom Courses
• Photoshop Beginners & Intermediate Courses
• Lightroom Masterclass - 50 things you probably didn't know about LR..
• The August Project is "Skies"
• Covid 19 Update - shoved this down to the bottom of the page.

Upcoming Virtual Courses

As I mentioned we have had great success with the virtual courses, including Flash, Macro and Beginners. That said, we have been mainly been running photo editing courses, such as Lightroom, and Photoshop, and I’m also about to launch a new Luminar 4 training.

Luminar 4 as a Lightroom Plugin and Stand-alone program and Lightroom Replacement.

Luminar 4 is a fantastic Lightroom plug-in which also works as a standalone program. It’s an amazing piece of software for anyone into landscape photography or portraits. As a standalone program it is possible to use it as a replacement to Lightroom for those that don’t want to pay the Adobe subscription.

Luminar 4 Sky Landscape Edit. Original Raw File

Luminar 4 Sky Landscape. Edited in AI Landscape module and sky replaced.

Here is a 5 minute landscape edit in Luminar 4 with a sky replacement. I have probably pushed this a little far for demo purposes but I have to say it’s far simpler to achieve this is Luminar than it is in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Luminar 4 AI Portrait Retouch

And a few quick portrait retouch in a few minutes. This sort of thing would probably take 15-20x longer in Photoshop.

If you like what you see then I have an affiliate link with a discount code where you can save $10 on the $89 dollar price. I think there might also be a sale on at the moment as people who have already purchased it, using the link, have been paying about than £50.

If you use the code LUMINAR-FRIEND at this affiliate link it will help me out, with a small commission, and you can save and extra $10 https://skylum.grsm.io/dpc

FREE BONUS Gift. If anyone does buy Luminar 4 through my link I’ll send my pack of replacement skies for FREE. These can be used in Photoshop, Luminar 4 or any program that can handle layers.

Upcoming Courses Facebook Poll

As mention I am concentrating on the virtual editing courses at the moment and I have a poll on the Facebook group asking who wants which editing courses and when.

I need to sort out dates for the next Level 1 Lightroom and Photoshop Courses for the first two weeks in August followed by a Luminar 4 course during Weeks 3 and 4.

I’ll then set up Messengers Groups for each course. You can be in multiple groups.

I’m also considering running the Photoshop and Luminar Courses as individual 4-hour modules rather than one full day. This means I can add extra levels in half-day blocks but I would like to know what you think of this idea. Keep in mind that finding suitable dates for multiple people can be difficult.

Individual modules are £75 each or two for £135. If you have done my LR or PS course before you do qualify for the £75 Refresher rate for two modules.

The August Newsletter Photo Project is Skies

I've noticed that we've had some amazing skies recently as the weather rocks from bright sunny days to storm clouds and lightning. This does not have to be a sunrise, or sunset, but it could be the silhouette of Elvis in a cloud formation. You can include some land, or a subject, but I would like the sky to dominate the picture. You can edit the picture, within reason, and it can include night shots.

Don't forget to post your images on the DPC Facebook Group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalphotographycourses/

Covid 19 and Course Update

Last month I spoke about starting group courses again in August but sadly I don't think this is going to be possible. The government are constantly changing the restriction,  at very short notice, and sometimes having varied restrictions in different areas.

Despite the success of the virtual courses I’m desperately keen to start running live group courses again. Unfortunately due to the restrictions on only allowing one person from a different household in our home at any one time this means that we can only run 121 Private Tuition courses at the at the moment.

I fully understand that this is equally as frustrating for people that have pre-booked a course and if you want contact me we can hopefully look at the various options.

I did enquire about hiring the village hall but this is closed until further notice. I also need to consider Jacqui in any decision I make as she is still working as a funeral celebrant so needs to stay safe and well as she has commitments to bereaved families. 

It a real and constant concern for us, and any small business, that they might be ordered to self isolate at anytime.

If we lived in a country with guaranteed weather we could at least run the courses outdoors, but sadly that’s not the case, so if it rains I would have to send every home. Technically you are also not allowed indoors or to use the loo.

Fortunately there does appear to be hope on the horizon and it’s brilliant to see Oxford University as one of the leaders in the field of vaccine research. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a speedy and safe solution.

Cheers
Glen, Jacqui and Misty.