...   The Trained Eye Blog

“I attended the 2-day Wedding Workshop last week and just wanted to drop you a note to say thank you.  I thought the course was very well put together and very well presented.

David McNeil‘s and Jodie Chapman‘s styles and passion for what they do really showed through and helped to make it a very enjoyable and useful course.

I am looking forward to attending more courses with The Trained Eye in the future and would not hesitate to recommend you to others – Nick”

Thank you Nick for your high praise and we look forward to welcoming you back soon!

The studio was a hive of activity on Monday with excited students, eager to develop their studio portrait photography skills.  After some shoot preparation advice and business tips, the focus turned to camera settings and light… then it was time for the fun to begin!

Thanks to Caroline and her beautiful seven month bump, our students had lots of individual shooting time exploring lighting techniques to create soft and flattering images. Next on set were the ‘Little Ones’ and we were all captivated by the gorgeous brothers Myles and Cole. Despite just waking up from his nap, seven month old Cole performed brilliantly in front of the many cameras and strange faces. With yummy mummy  (another Caroline) assisting on set with renditions of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Cole smiled and gurgled on cue. Big brother, two year old Myles, an experienced model on our Studio Portraits course, charmed all our photographers with his beautiful big blue eyes and cheeky smile.

At the end of the day, all our students left with full memory cards anxious to get home to review their work and we were all delighted that the day had gone to plan without any tantrums or tears!

We had a great time teaching a lovely bunch of aspiring wedding photographers during our last course of 2011 in November.  Thanks to Mark and Caan who came all the way from the Netherlands for their great and comprehensive blog review, which you can see here:

http://www.definingmoments.nl/en/2012/01/23/wedding-photography-course-with-the-trained-eye/

Glad we could help guys!

Well the last of our wedding photography courses for 2012 has now finished… we enjoyed having a really great group from all over the country (and further afield!) to join us for 4 days of talking all things wedding here at the studios.  I thought I’d share a few shots I grabbed of everyone hard at work over the 4-days to share with you all

The following is a review from one of our recent Wedding Workshop clients.  Richard, thanks for taking the time to write something so thorough and congratulations on a lovely set of images too!…

“I have been thinking about attending the Trained Eye course for a while as I wanted to take my wedding photography business up a level and the course looked as though it would cover all the areas that I would need to do so.  From planning the day to marketing, sales and post work. The course did not disappoint.  I booked on the last place available on the Monday before, so only had a week to wait until the learning could begin.

So after a wedding in Nottingham on Sunday I travelled back down to Kent stopping in Amersham on the way home for a two day wedding course with The Trained Eye. I decided to stay the night before so I would be fresh for whatever was thrown at me over the next two. And I can now say I am glad that I did, as there was a lot of information thrown my way.

Day one started with meeting David McNeil (who was the main tutor over the two days) he spoke about style and how to develop your own style over time and what you want your photographs to say about you and your business.  His style is very bright, colorful, fun and his images have great composition. (Check his site out at www.davidmcneil.co.uk) Hearing that he was running the course was one of the reasons I wanted to attend as I really like the way he poses his couples, using light and shadows to frame them and off setting them within the frame. After the first half of the morning following David a lovely lady by the name of Jodie Chapman (www.Jodiechapman.com) took over to discuss the format of a typical wedding (how she plans a day, the format of the day, certain photographs that she always try to get, etc) It was very informative. Even if you have shot a number of weddings before it is still a good refresher and also you are guaranteed to pick up a few gems that you may have not thought about before.

Her style is softer than David’s and very classic it shows similarities with the great Jose Villa, using movement within the photographs and soft processing.  It was very good to talk to her about how she started her business and how it has evolved over time. Both Jodie and David were very open to any questions we had, from Len’s choices to how they got started as wedding photographers, nothing was held back.

After lunch we all went out into Amersham for a shoot, the first location was a river side church. We were split into two groups of six, one group shot a couple in the church under the instruction of Jodie and the other with David shooting a bride by the river and then we switched over.  After the church we moved to Bisham Abbey and again we were split into groups David with one and Jodie with the other and took turns with the bride and the couple in different locations. It was a great to see how David worked with the models and also the location, using the available light and the surrounding environment. Very inspirational!!

Day two began with David running through workflow and editing using both Lightroom and Photoshop. There was a lot of information to take in so a lot of notes were taken. But now a few days after the course I can say that my new improved workflow is going to save me a lot of time and give me a much more consistent feel to my images.

In the afternoon we moved onto the business side of running a wedding photography business. From knowing your true costs to marketing. This was a fully jam packed afternoon and where I took the most of my notes. Again David didn’t hold back on any information and gave a lot of advice from his experience, it was a great help.

Overall I had a great time over the 2 days, met a lot of new people and learnt a lot. I would recommend the course to anyone who wants to take there business to the next level and truly get an understanding of how to run an efficient business.

Thanks to all involved with the course at The Trained Eye.

Please see below some of the photos from the shoot on day one. Let me know what you think?

Rich.

RICHARD’S BLOG POST AND IMAGES CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://ware20106.c4.cmdwebsites.com/blog/?p=625

We recently hit the road and took the Funky Portraits course to sunny Brighton. Normally, the course is all about urban London but who could resist the opportunity of a summer shoot on the coast? Thanks to everyone that came along … the feedback has been as good as ever! Here are a few of our favourite images from the various shoots so you can see what you missed!

Here is an email we received today from Lucy yesterday about the new Lighting For Little Ones course -

Just wanted to say thank you for a really amazing course on Friday “Lighting For Little Ones” covered exactly what I needed to know.

Victoria was fantastic, she was full of encouragement, enthusiasm and expertise. I was able to put everything I learnt into my first maternity shoot on Sunday, which went really well so thank you!! I’m back with you on 8th August 2011 for your Digital Masterclass so see you then – thanks again!!

Here is a client’s view of the latest running of our 2 Day Wedding Course.

Dear Karen

I just wanted to pass on my sincerest Thanks to You, Mike, David & Victoria.

I came up for the 2 day Portraiture course on the 19th May, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The course was exactly what I’d hoped it would be and more.

The tutors were so friendly and helpful and made me feel so relaxed. Even when I didn’t understand something they made me feel really at ease and helped me understand the issues I was having.

Before I came my weaknesses were Composition and using Exposure Compensation – now I can happily say that I am not afraid of these anymore! David taught me to really push the exposure and I can’t believe the difference it has made to my images.

I have booked onto the “lighting for little ones” course with Victoria in August and I can’t wait to get back up there!

Thanks again

Sandra xx

We were emailed this write-up of our Wedding Portfolio Builder course today, thought it would be great to share what the day was like from a student’s point of view

http://beechesimages.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/call-up-to-bisham-abbey-of-sorts/