Mentoring for the keen amateur photographer

The best way for a keen photographer to improve the photography is to regularly shoot a variety of different subjects, review their work, develop creatively and learn new skills. It can sometimes be hard to find the time and motivation to do this, and even if you have the enthusiasm, often people get hung up with technical niggles. Some people can read a book and work all of this out for themselves, other people like to be guided through the process in person.

You might want to be mentored by Steve as you:

• Are preparing for that trip of a lifetime (or even want continued guidance and help whilst you are away)
• Are studying on a photography course, such as an MA and want more practical help than the course offers
• Simply want to improve your photography and get more out of your hobby

Typical ways that Steve can help include:

• Setting and reviewing photographic projects
• Helping you to edit selections of work for web galleries or print on demand books
• Guiding you through entering competitions
• Answer technical questions
• Advice on equipment and travelling
• Providing encouragement and motivation

Hourly rate - £45.00 per hour! 5% discount for 10 hours; 10% for 20 hours.

"In 2009, I decided that I wanted to improve my photography having just read Steve Davey's Travel Photography book so I booked one of his photography tours to Morocco. During this trip, I learnt a lot about taking better images and creating visual stories. Subsequently, I have been on a number of Steve's London based courses and photo tours which have been very useful in reinforcing my learning and refining my our skills. To improve further, I have found that it is necessary to shoot regularly with a clear goal preferably trying to create a story. Steve's advice in helping to formulate the story and in reviewing the output has been invaluable. One of the things that I find hardest is editing my work, especially picking which images to use - having Steve's expert and critical opinion on this has massive assisted in improving my own editing skills and confidence. Overall, my ongoing and regular contact with Steve has been invaluable in my progression as a photographer."

NC, London

Portfolio review for the keen amateur photographer

Steve will provide an extensive review and critique for a portfolio of up to thirty images. If required, this service can include editing down from a wider selection of up to 50 images, before undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the following criteria:

• Positives and negatives from the selected images
• Areas where you can improve compositionally
• Areas where you can improve technically
• Stylistic and technical areas that you should explore to develop further

Pictures will be submitted online, and the review delivered by email. This makes it available to anyone - regardless of where they live.

Introductory rate - £50 for up to 30 images; selected from up to 50!

Mentoring for the aspiring professional editorial/travel photographer

Establishing yourself in this very competitive field, can be bewildering. Whilst Steve can't guarantee that he can help you to make it as a professional photographer, he can certainly help and support you. With a combination of encouragement, advice and practical assistance, Steve will help you to dramatically increase your chances of having work published, and taking the first steps to forging a career. It is worth pointing out here that whilst Steve will advise as to the sort of publications that you should contact for work, this is not an opportunity to plunder his contacts book. He will not be representing or marketing your work, but helping you to do this yourself.

Typical ways that Steve can help include:

• Setting and reviewing photographic projects
• Helping you to edit selections of work for your website
• Advice on copyright and contracts
• Guiding you planning shoots and coming up with story ideas
• Helping you to create pitches
• Answering technical questions
• Advice on equipment and travelling
• Providing encouragement and motivation

Hourly rate - £60 per hour! 5% discount for 10 hours; 10% for 20 hours.

For more information about our mentoring service and to talk over the options with Steve, please fill out the form below.

Portfolio review for the aspiring professional travel photographer

Steve will provide an extensive review and critique for a portfolio of up to thirty images. If required, this service can include editing down from a wider selection of up to 50 images, before undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the following criteria:

• Positives and negatives from the selected images
• Areas where you can improve compositionally
• Areas where you can improve technically
• Stylistic and technical areas that you should explore to develop further
• Professional relevance and suitability of the selected images
• Suggestions for places where you can try to sell or market your work
• Ways that you can develop professionally to make you work more saleable.

Pictures will be submitted online, and the review delivered by email. This makes it available to anyone - regardless of where they live.

Introductory rate - £70 for up to 30 images; selected from up to 50!

Mentoring in Lightroom and Photoshop

Lightroom is a remarkably powerful and creative tool for processing your RAW files, and when combined with Adobe Photoshop it opens up a whole new world of creativity. As well as being able to process pictures into different artistic styles, you can master the techniques to convert images to black and white, whilst retaining the same creativity that used to be enjoyed with a black and white darkroom. You can learn how to make localised changes, and even change the colours and the look and feel of an image with the new grading function.

Mastering this software can even change the way that you take pictures which will change the way that you take pictures. With this powerful combination, you can blend images to subtley deal with extremes of contrast, or to maximise depth of field - ensuring that everything in the frame is completely sharp.

Typical ways that Steve can help include:

• Helping you to set-up your Lightroom Catalog
• Giving you an overview of the software and what you can achieve with it
• Guiding you through processing pictures and the various settings you should use
• Explaining other functions, like tagging images with gps co-ordinates and creating web galleries and print-on-demand books
• Helping you to create panoramas and HDRs
• Looking at how Lightroom interacts with Adobe Photoshop
• Helping you master more powerful creative tools like blending and graduated filters

Hourly rate - £25.00 per hour! 5% discount for 10 hours; 10% for 20 hours.