My Biggest Photography Course Ever

Photo Serge Institute of Photography

$4,994

or 3 Monthly Payments of $2,000

Photo Serge Institute of Photography

If you are here, it means you are serious about being a Certified Master Photographer. Otherwise, this is not for you.

After several years of photography, I discovered the best way how everyone could learn photography. The Institute of Photography, that includes over 60 video courses and over 30 practical exercises.

With LIVE coaching from me and interact with like-minded photographers in a private community for any level of photographer, from beginner to advanced.

You will get honest feedback on your work to see how you can improve by Eliminating your weaknesses. And put your skills to the test in the final exam to claim your Certificate of Photography Mastery.

Everything you need

Photography techniques, camera settings, and composition. Anywhere on Earth from Paris to South Africa, New York to Los Angeles, no place is impossible for a stunning picture for you.

Certification

Earn a Certificate from the Institute of Photography when you pass the final exam. To show the world that you are a Master Photographer.

"Serge's video trainings are SO GOOD I always watch them to the end because he's so enthusiastic about photography! He helped take my passionate hobby and turn it into a Full-Time professional landscape photography business!"

Tim Shield
Professional Photographer

Sneak Preview

Watch the 1st lesson right now! Camera Choice: What camera I’m working with. DSLR Canon T2I, Sony A7r3 and iPhone

Lessons

63 (Stream or Download)

Length

10+ hours

Level

Beginner to Advanced

Required

Photoshop, Lightroom & Aurora

Part I

Camera choice

What camera I’m working with. DSLR Canon T2I, Sony A7r3 and iPhone.

Intro to lens

What are the basic lenses? Understanding the focal distance.

Assignment: Intro to lens

Go outside and with the same subject open your lens as much as you can, take a photo and zoom in little by little, so you can see what focal distance you have on that lens. Do that for all your lenses, it is a great exercise to do to understand better your lenses.

The automatic mode

Why you should not use it and how to start using your camera.

Assignment: The automatic mode

Turn your camera on and take a photo with the Auto Mode and now go to the AV mode and take the same shot, notice if there is a change in luminosity.

The aperture value mode

Understanding the depth of field in your camera and why it is an artistic decision.

Assignment: The aperture value mode

Take whatever lens you have to make a portrait of a friend who is close to you, go to AV mode and open as much as you can your aperture like 1.4 or 2.8 or 4 whatever your lens offers, then take another shot with the aperture closed completely like F22. Compare both backgrounds.

Shutter speed mode

I explain you what shutter speed is and the effect that different speed has on movement.

Assignment: Shutter speed mode

Put your camera on a tripod and go the TV mode and try different shutter speeds on a scene that has flowing water, like a fountain, a river or the sea and see for yourself the relation between shutter speed and movement.

ISO

What is the use of ISO and why you should always aim to be at 100 ISO.

Assignment: ISO

Take a photo on a tripod at 100 ISO of a night scene and take the same shot with a very high ISO by hand and look at both photos on a big screen and see the difference of grain!

Time Square from the top

Example of use of ISO for shooting at night.

Part 2

Retouching roof top Time Square

Let’s see how we can do a quick retouch on this 500 ISO photo and if the photo is usable.

Assignment: Retouching roof top in Time Square

Go to a terrace in your city by night where tripods are not allowed and by using the self-timer and putting the ISO at around 500 to 1000 get a good city shot, look at it and retouch it in Lightroom. Load the photo here.

Focus modes

In this video I show the different Auto Focus modes and what are their use.

Assignment: Focus Mode

Take photos of things in movement and see the difference between the Auto focus continue and the Auto Focus Shot (Non-moving vs moving objects)..

Roof top Time Square

In this video I show a practical example of a situation where you have no choice but to play with the ISO because tripods are not allowed.

Top of the Rock the quality of the light

In this video taken in New York at the Top of the Rock I show the different times of the day of the same scene, the amazing view of the Empire State Building form the Top of the Rock.

Assignment: Top of the Rock the quality of the light

Find a great stop for a landscape or cityscape around you and take the same framing, first during the day, then one hour before sunset, the golden hour, at Sunset, during blue hour and then at night. Compare the results for yourself what do you like the most? Load the best one here.

White balance

White balance is an arbitrary, it is an artistic decision, I show you various examples.

Assignment: White Balance

During the day go and put your camera on Auto White Balance and take a shot, now put it on Day light and take another shot, you should see almost no difference. Now put your White Balance in Tungsten mode and see how blue it is. Now at night do the reverse, put your white balance on Daylight and take a photo and see how warm it is and now put at Tungsten and see how realistic the colors are.

Raw vs JPG

If you shoot JPG you let the camera decide of the white balance and in post production it decides of the retouching options, if you shoot RAW you get a lot more post processing options.

Assignment: RAW vs JPG

Take a beautiful sunset as a RAW file and then as a JPG. Open up the RAW file in Lightroom and bring the highlights completely down, the shadows completely up and play around with the white balance, synchronize that with your JPG and then compare the look. Select both photos and press C on your Keyboard to go into compare mode and see for yourself.

Part 3

An introduction to composition

Learn the most fundamental rules about composition.

Assignment: Introduction to composition

Take a photo with rules of third Take a photo with leading lines Take a photo with a specific foreground, a middle ground, a background Take a photo with a frame in the frame Take a photo with a strong story. Load your photos here

A morning adventure in Paris

In this video I show you many photography techniques, we start combining everything we have learned so far.

Retouching sunrise

I show you a classic retouch of that first sunrise shot from the hotel using the usual Lightroom tools.

Assignment: Retouching Sunrise

Go out and shoot a sunrise or a golden hour and use the tools in Lightroom to make it pop. Post it here.

Sunrise HDR

Now we take the same photo and we retouch it using Aurora HDR to get a more spectacular result.

Assignment: Sunrise HDR

Do a HDR of a sunrise or Golden Hour and use Aurora HDR to make it into a great photo. Make sure you don’t over expose it and take it so that you don’t have too much lens flare that could ruin your photo. Post it here.

More window

There was a lot more photos I got from this hotel window and I will show how we can use what we have learned so far on the rest of the photos.

Art Bridge Part 1

Let’s see all the photos we got and do a classic retouch in Lightroom.

Art Bridge Part 2

Now we take the best one we had and make it even better in Luminar.

Assignment: Art Bridge

Take one of your Golden hour or Sunrise Photo and retouch it first in Lightroom and then into Luminar. Post it here.

Part 4

Turn the light on Louvre

In this video I show you how to do a HDR in Lightroom and how to turn on the light on the beautiful lamps of the Louvre.

Assignment: Turn the light on the Louvre

Do a standard HDR in Lightroom and turn on some city lights in your shot, exact same concept that I showed you in the video but in a city of your choice. Load it here.

Foggy sunrise

I show you how to add fog using Luminar and why it is important to shoot where the nice light is. I had a lot of bad photos that morning too.

Assignment: Foggy Sunrise

Take a photo at sunrise and using Luminar fog filter add some fog to make one element more visible. Load it here.

Inside Louvre

In this video I bring you inside of the Napoleon Apartments inside the Louvre and show you one of the most breathtaking hidden view of Paris.

Napoleon Apartements

I show you a really cool trick to make your interior photo shine.

Assignment: Napoleon Apartments

Find an amazing interior location near you and take a photo using the lowest possible ISO either by hand or on a tripod and retouch it using the magic of the Radial Circle. Post it here.

The Louvre terraces!

One of the most unique view deserves a special Photoshop treatment to make it awesome!

The roof of The Arc de Triomphe

After a nice sunrise let’s look at how to take photos in the fog when tripods are not allowed!

Arc de Triomphe retouch

Let’s see what came out of this photoshoot, what worked and what didn’t work and how to retouch this night foggy photos.

Assignment: Arc de Triomphe retouch

Go out and shoot some sunrise very foggy in the city or at night and retouch it based on these principles.. Post it here.

"I was a professional Golf Player and looking for a new adventure in Life, I came across Serge Ramelli training and never look back. I now own of the largest Interior Design business in Spain with over 6 staff and we are the leaders of High End Real Estate in Spain and some other countries"

Charly Simon
Professional Photographer

Part 5

Top of the rock Canon

I retouch all day light and golden hour taken with the Canon Camera; I show you some cool trick to make Golden hour photo pop.

Assignment: Top of the rock Canon

Take a photo of a golden Hour toward the west where the sun sets and with the technic that I just showed you try to improve the photo into Lightroom, using the gradient and circle technique. Post it here.

Top of the rock Sony

In this video I show you how to retouch sunset photos, and also we talk about composition and why some photos just don't work.

Assignment: Top of the rock Sony

Go and take a photo of a high view in a city with sunset and retouch it as showed in this video. Post it here.

Top of the rock night

I will show you how I retouched the blue hour and sunset photos and what composition worked and what did not work.

Assignment: Top of the rock night

At night find a city view and try to zoom in on a specific element at sunset so that your photo has a clearer message, give it that sunset look as showed in the video. Post it here.

South Africa Cape Town Camp Bay

In this video I will show you one of my favorite photoshoot I did in Cape Town's beautiful beach.

First grand selection Camp Bay

I have a very precise selection technique to see what is a potentially good photo and what is a bad photo.

Refining selection

Let’s go through all the photos that have one star and take the best of the best.

Retouching the best Camp Bay

Now we finalize the best of the best.

Panorama Camp Bay

Let’s retouch the two panoramas of that day and see what we can get out of it!

Assignment: Panorama Camp Bay

Go out and make sure you are in Manual Mode and take a panorama of a sunset and retouch it using this instructions. Post it here.

Part 6

Shooting New York in a helicopter

A behind the scene of my wife and I taking photos in New York.

Retouching New York helicopter photos part 1

Let’s first make a selection of the best of the best photos.

Retouching New York helicopter photos part 2

Let’s retouch the first photo and find the right sky or look.

Retouching New York helicopter photos part 3

A lot of sky replacement in this serie, because we have a great subject but poor light.

Assignment: New York helicopter

Go out and make sure you are in Manual Mode and take a panorama of a sunset and retouch it using this instructions. Post it here.

Kruger Park South Africa

One of the best photography day in my entire life, behind the scene.

Selecting the photos Kruger Park

Let’s go through the selection and let’s create a nice composition of this amazing day in the Kruger Park.

Selecting the photos Kruger Park Part 1

Let’s start to retouch our 2 stars, we start off by a stylish, fast and easy look.

Installing Skies

For the next project we have to install some skies.

Assignment: Installing Skies

Take the sky replacement bundle on photoserge.com and install in the skies library as shown above so that you have them once and for all.

Elephants Making Of

Become an expert at sky replacement..

Shooting roof of New York

In this video I show you some photos from a roof top under the rain in New York.

Retouching roof of New York

I show you a work around if you cannot stick your panoramas in Lightroom because you don’t have the exact same focal on all your photos.

Part 7

Roof top of the Printemps

In this video I take you with me on the top of the Printemps one of the largest department store in Paris and one of the best view!

Retouching the Printemps

I’m going to show you what I considered a good photo and a new retouching technique including dramatic night black and white.

Assignment: Retouching the Printemps

Go take another superb sunset from a high view of your city and retouch it with all your knowledge so far, making sure that colors are strong but natural and that the message is clear. Post it here.

Table Mountains

Let’s go back to south Africa on the top of the famous Table Mountain in Cape town.

Selecting Table Mountains

Let’s do a short selection and see which one is usable and can have a potential with retouch.

Retouching Table mountains

Now we have a good selection of the potential let’s retouch the best and let’s do one more sky replacement for fun!

Shooting Boulder Beach Cape Town

One of the nicest beach I have seen with great penguins.

Selecting Boulder Beach photos

Let’s go through another shoot and select the best one and let’s talk composition and storytelling!

Retouching Boulder Beach photos

Let’s retouch the boulder beach photos and make some awesome blue hour photography.

Assignment: Retouching Boulder Beach photos

Go out and take some blue hour photo on an overcast day, make sure you proper expose your photo and retouch them as shown here so you have some amazing dramatic blue hour sky. Post it here.

Part 8

Shooting at the Eiffel Tower

Let’s go back to Paris and take some photos around the Eiffel Tower.

Selecting Eiffel Tower photos

Let’s see which photos work and which don’t of this Eiffel Tower evening.

Retouching Eiffel Tower photos Part 1

Let’s retouch all the golden hours and play around with profiles!

Assignment: Retouching Eiffel Tower photos Part 1

Go take a photo of a great subject in bracketing and do a HDR with Lightroom and another with Aurora HDR and compare both. Post it here.

Retouching Eiffel Tower photos Part 2

We now retouch the blue hour section and sunset. In this one I will try to do a natural HDR in Lightroom compare to Aurora HDR and see which one I like better.

Shooting a portrait/landscape with Speedlight flash

I will show you a technique of portrait that I love, it is kind of a movie poster and a mixture between portrait and landscape.

Selecting the photo and erasing the assistant

Let’s see what are the best shot we got and how to erase the assistant using the flash.

Retouching the red dress portrait

In this video I try different styles to see what would fit better.

Assignment: Retouching the red dress portrait

Use a similar technique if possible, with flash, you can see the gears I used here: Merge the photo like I did and create as much as you want on it with different skies until you have something that you like. Post it here.

Shooting in point in Malibu Portrait

Let’s do a more natural spring vibe portrait where the flash is optional.

Retouching the Malibu spring shot

Same technique but this time we go for a more natural result.

Assignment: Retouching the Malibu spring shot

Go out and without a flash take a portrait in a landscape where we can see the beauty of the model and the environment. Post it here.

"I have watched almost every live video of Serge Ramelli retouching our raw photos. Seeing his workflow and creativity opens my eyes to new ways of editing. He's given me helpful advice how to improve and answers questions I have about photography. It has made a huge difference in my growth as a photographer. Thank you, Serge!"

Liesl Walsh
Fine Art Photographer

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