#1011 Master Class - Florals

Instructor(s): Bryce DenisonLynn Ellen

Tuition: $1800.00

Join us for this eight-month MASTER CLASS for a deep dive into photographing flowers and botanical specimens. Flowers are usually soft, delicate, colorful and even smell good! Artwork of flowers grace our calendars, greeting cards and wall art exhibited in museums, galleries, street art fairs or even the local coffee shop down the street. This MASTER CLASS is designed to not only teach the photographer the ins and outs of photographing flowers but to provide enough shooting and classroom experiences to create a stunning portfolio. We will teach not only how to make your floral images tack sharp, but for a creative alternative we will provide you with opportunities to photograph in soft focus (much different than out-of-focus) for that etherial look using Lens Baby lenses and soft focus filters. We will also encase some flowers in a block of ice for that really different portrayal of flowers.

As a MASTER CLASS, students are expected to already know basic shutter speeds and f/stops, ISO and Basic editing using either Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. Students are expected to already know how to read a histogram and basic lens selection and composition. What the student can expect to learn in this MASTER CLASS is the technical techniques of Focus stacking and how to create a stunning three-dimensional image using a flat bed scanner instead of a camera. Learn about extreme macro and how to blur out the background to insure the viewer of your photograph concentrates on the subject (Flower). Just in case you don’t have expensive macro lenses in your camera bag, MPW has several to share. We may not have a macro lens for every camera platform, but we do have extension tubes and flashes for most platforms for the students to use. Learn composition, how to enhance the relationship of positive space ad negative space, maximizing leading lines and a couple of guest lecturers. One of our lecturers is a Naturalist/Botanist and Master Gardener, who will provide us with the information of flower identification and taxonomy of flowers for your catalog. We will offer more than a half dozen field trips to photograph the flowers live as they grow and several classroom sessions for image review. Part of the reason this MASTER CLASS is so spread out over several months is because different flowers bloom at different times of the year. In order to provide as diverse of floral photography, it will take several months to acquire as many different varieties of flowers as possible.This is not an editing class, but we will include all the editing essentials needed to insure portfolio quality images.

If you sign up for all 15 events, the price is $1800.00, but if you sign up for each workshop/class individually, the price would be $2000.00.

With the number of field trips and the intensity of the material presented, the cost of occasionally purchasing flowers and the visitation to various botanical gardens, and the time spent in review of images, the Tuition is not inexpensive, but bundled together, this MASTER CLASS is definitely more economical that enrolling in each session individually (even though you can pick and choose and enroll in each class individually).

Wednesday March 20, 2024 First Class Meeting; expectations and Flower Taxonomy. $100.00

Wednesday March 27, 2024 Macro Techniques and Studio Flower shoot $100.00

Wednesday April 24, 2024 Image review $50.00

Sunday April 27, 2024 Field Trip to either Dow Gardens or Holland Tulip Festival. $100.00

Sunday May 19, 2024 Mathai Botanical Gardens outdoor trails $100.00

Friday May 24-26, 2024 Field Trip to Tobermory, Canada $695.00

Wednesday May 29, 2024 Image Review and Soft Focus Demonstration $100.00

Sunday June 2, 2024 Field Trip to Upjohn Peony Gardens, Ann Arbor $100.00

Sunday June 16, 2024 Field Trip to Tollgate Farm Gardens $100.00

Sunday June 30, 2024 Field Trip to Imlay City Lavender Festival $100.00

Sunday July 21, 2024 Field Trip to Meijer Gardens $100.00

Wednesday July 24, 2024 Image Review $50.00