Hi {name},

Welcome to the Lenscraft in Focus April 2020 newsletter.

It’s been a difficult month for many people, and I hope this reaches you in good health. In all honesty, this isn’t the newsletter I planned to write but then the world has changed overnight. Given a lot of people now have to spend time indoors I thought I would adopt a theme.

This month I’m focusing on free courses and tutorials that I managed to find or develop. This includes giving away access to one of my courses for free; I’ll explain more about this later in the newsletter.

I’m hoping this will help everyone to stay busy with something photo related over the coming month. As for me, I’m reprocessing old photos like this one.

Urgent and Important Emails

Unfortunately for me, keeping busy isn’t a problem but being busy is. In the past few weeks, emails and queries have flooded in. I’m now receiving many times the usual number of questions. I’ve always made a point of replying personally to all emails but now I can’t keep up. For a little while at least I must prioritise the urgent problems. I will then catch up with the remaining emails as time permits.

I hope you understand, and I’ll try to get back to normal as soon as possible.

New Lenscraft Content

Over the past month, I’ve focused on publishing new tutorials and updating old ones. Here’s the list of what you can find on Lenscraft.

YouTube, Instagram & SlideShare

I suspect you may already know but I also publish a weekly “How to” video on YouTube. If you didn’t know, you can find my channel here.

As well as YouTube, I like to share my photos regularly on Instagram. I may not post every day, but I like to share my photos regularly. Here’s the link to my portfolio

Have you heard of SlideShare? It’s a way of sharing presentation slides. A lot of business use it but I’ve realised it’s a great way to summarise tutorials. If you want to see an example, look in the summary section of the following tutorials on Lenscraft:

     How to Add an Image Border in Lightroom

          How to Level the Horizon in Lightroom

          How to Crop an Image in Affinity Photo

So far, I’ve only produced a few SlideShare presentations, but I will do more. I’m hoping you’ll find them helpful.

Camera Club Presentations

Unfortunately, with the spread of the virus in the UK and government restrictions, I’ve suspended all camera club presentations. Once life gets back to normal I’ll publish a list of presentations here.

From Around the Web

This month, rather than only sharing snippets of interesting news I’ve included a few other things you might find useful.

DxO Webinars

DxO are hosting free webinars throughout the month of April. There are a few different ones for both DxO PhotoLab and the Nik Collection. I’ve been told the webinars are perfect for beginners as well as seasoned photographers. They offer step-by-step workflows and tips on a wide subject range including Landscape and Nature Photography.

If you can’t make the live webinars, the DxO website also has a library of recorded webinars you can watch. Just remember there are separate sites for Nik and PhotoLab.

Here’s the schedule of upcoming webinars:

TAKE YOUR NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY BEYOND THE ORDINARY WITH COLOR EFEX PRO

Hosted by Dan Hughes

Tuesday, April 7 – 6:00 PM GMT

HOW TO REVEAL DETAILS IN SHADOWS AND HIGHLIGHTS USING DXO PHOTOLAB 3'S SMART LIGHTING

Hosted by PhotoJoseph

Thursday, April 9 – 6:00 PM GMT

DISCOVER THE NIK COLLECTION 2.5 BY DxO IN ACTION WITH AFFINITY PHOTO 1.8

Hosted by PhotoJoseph

Tuesday, April 14 – 6:00 PM GMT

CREATIVE WAYS TO ENHANCE COLOR AND DRAMA USING VIVEZA IN THE NIK COLLECTION BY DxO

Hosted by Dan Hughes

Thursday, April 16 – 6:00 PM GMT

LEARN ABOUT HYPER-REAL LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY WITH THE NIK COLLECTION BY DxO

Starring DxO Ambassador Fabio Antenore

Hosted by Laurie Rubin

Thursday, April 23 – 7:00 PM GMT

You can find out more and register for events by visiting the Upcoming Webinars pages for DXO PhotoLab and the Nik Collection.

Adobe Creative Cloud Users Get 2 months Free

Another reader shared this article PetaPixel website explaining how to take advantage of the offer. I understand everyone, even existing users can use this.

11 Things You Can Do During the Coronavirus

An interesting article with a few suggestions from ePhotoZine

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/11-things-photographers-can-do-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak-34588

Nucly Free Masterclasses

Nucly sell video courses for photographers and digital artists but they also run a few masterclasses you can join for free. It’s worth a look at their website. I even managed to get one of their paid courses for free, although this offer appears to have ended.

Canson Infinity Seminars

Canson are offering a series of FREE educational videos that will help you hone your skills from capture through to print. Use the following form to register and you will be sent a link to access the videos https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScxA6WJw3o8yqXfwo3tG2EjKrXvW734elg2dbZpvQhPHYMKSw/viewform

Thinking of a New Camera

If you find yourself thinking about getting a new camera, I found this interesting article by National Geographic. It’s their top 10 compact travel cameras. But watch out, I wasn’t thinking of a new camera before I read this and now I want two.

Creative Applications of Colour Theory in Landscape Photography

The title may not be catchy but this article by Erin Babnik (previously covered in the Lenscraft January newsletter) is a valuable read.