CLASSES BY
WILLIAM B. FOLSOM TIMOTHY P. WILLIAMS
Photography is an adventure, and those that are brave enough and passionate enough for the endeavor are rewarded greatly! Whether you're a mother wanting to know how to photograph your beautiful children better, or someone with some photography knowledge already in hand and ready to take it to the next level, we are here to help you achieve the next step. We have 2 skilled instructors ready to encourage and challenge you!
We know that many people have different ways of learning, so we use a 2-step approach that really works! In the first hour you will receive classroom instruction with William. During the second hour you'll go outside with Tim for a hands-on shooting session! Later, once you've gotten to know your camera, we'll spend both hours in the classroom.
BRAND NEW!
Wedding Photography Classes
THIS IS THE CLASS FOR YOUNG PROFESSIONALS WANTING TO BREAK INTO WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY.
This lecture series aimed at professional level photographers interesting in successfully entering the highly competitive wedding photography business.
See below for more details.
We also give a short version of this lecture to brides wanting an insight into preparing for their wedding but knowing how to avoid wedding disasters seen by professional photographers. Limited to two brides.
CLASS LIST
BASIC PHOTOGRAPHY
$50 Per Class
Our Basic Photography Course set is great for beginners with little understanding of photography. We offer 10 lectures consisting of 19 classes in the Beginner Photography Course:
INTRODUCTION TO PHOTOGRAPHY (A FREE CLASS)
THE BASICS (Three classes)
INTRO TO DIGITAL & MIRRORESS CAMERAS
(Four classes)
BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO COLOR
EXPOSURE PART #1 (Aperture & Shutter Speed)
EXPOSURE PART #2 (ISO and review)
THE ART OF COMPOSITION
BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO LIGHT AND LIGHTING
FLASH FOR BEGINNERS
FINAL REVIEW
INTERMEDIATE PHOTOGRAPHY
$75 Per Class
Our comprehensive Intermediate Photography Course set is great for those with a basic knowledge of photography, and this set builds upon what you've learned in our Basic Photography Course. Classes included in this set are:
EXPOSURE PART 3
EXPOSURE PART 4
UNDERSTANDING WHITE BALANCE
THE BEAUTY OF LIGHT
SHARP IMAGES
FOCUS
GOING FOR THE GOLD
ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY
$100 Per Class
Our Advanced Photography Course set will leave you with a Master's knowledge in technique and photographic practices. This course list includes:
BETTER PEOPLE PICTURES
POSING TECHNIQUES
NEW! WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY - 5 Part Series
FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY PART 2
MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY
STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY
Williams Photography of Fort Mill, South Carolina, LLC. offers all the Photographer services you need.
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
The Full Story
I'm William, the photography instructor for Tim Williams Photography of Fort Mill, SC, LLC. I've been giving photography classes for over 20 years. I developed this course of step-by-step photography lessons based on 40 years of experience as a professional photographer. I illustrate my classes with lots of photographs and carefully explain concepts 4 or 5 times in different classes until students really understand!
I began my career in the 1980's working with magazine editors who used my photographs from both cover and interior photographs. My photograph of an American soldier appeared on the cover of Time International on November 27, 1995 highlighting a decade of over 100 magazine and book covers.
During the next decade I photographed weddings in the Washington Metropolitan Area. After several hundred weddings I shifted to commercial assignments photographing businessmen and women, their staff, commercial products, and facilities. I was active with the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce as their photographer.
I discovered the wonders of wildlife photography during my early years as a photographer and my enjoyment of nature photography led me to write two books: The Art and Science of Butterfly Photography and Butterfly Photographer's Handbook, by Amherst media. I honed my skill as an outdoor photographer as the staff photographer at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virgania. I started teaching photograpny classes at Meadow Gardens. While there I helped organize and run the "Meadowlark Nature Photography Exhibition" starting in 2003 until it outgrew the Garden's facilities in 2009. The event moved to the Hylton Performing Arts Center as "Nature Visions Photo Expo" in 2010.
During my last decade as a photographer in the Washington, DC area I linked up with a fellow photographer, James P. Goodridge, and together we specialized in photographing commercial and social events. The result was the collaboration in writing a third book: Event Photography Handbook by Amherst Media. We operated a portrait studio in Vienna, VA until we both retired. I moved to Fort Mill, SC in 2012 where I teach photography classes and assist my nephew Tim Williams as a backup photographer, lighting assistant, and image processor.
Advanced students and new professional photographers will find my knowledge and experience as a multi-faceted professional photographer invaluable when it comes to learning photography. I offer a selection of specialized classes on a one-on-one bases for these students.
I use Nikon equipment and am a Nikon Professional Services Photographer.
BEGINNING CLASS DESCRIPTIONS:
INTRODUCTION TO BEGINNING PHOTOGRAPHY
This is a FREE lecture designed to show you how I teach, with samples taken from all my classes. Want to know how to create creamy smooth backgrounds? I'll show you the technique. The same with how to control motion, so you can photograph and stop the motion of a bird in flight. It's a FREE class, so come join us.
THE BASICS
I begin slowly introducing the basics of photography to you! You will walk away with an overview of what will be covered, what you will need, and it will reassure nervous beginners!
INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL & MIRRORLESS CAMERAS
First I will review cameras on the market. Then I will show you how to take your camera out of Auto and give you guidance with some basic controls to achieve better images. Next we will review the controls typically found on most new DSLRs and mirrorless cameras..
INTRODUCTION TO LENSES, FLASHES, AND EQUIPMENT
My 3rd class reviews many lenses, filters, tripods, & flash units on the market. This class is useful for anyone intending to purchase these items. If you are planning on purchasing more equipment now or in the future, this class will be beneficial.
COLOR: Beginner's Guide to Color
The importance of color in photography. Tips on using color to enhance your photography with illustrations to show how important color can be to photography, including the absence of color in black-and-white photographs.
EXPOSURE | APERTURE, SHUTTER SPEED, ISO | PART 1
This class focuses on Aperture and Shutter Speed. Understanding how these 2 functions influence exposure is the basis for good photography. Both of these settings are also important in producing artistic and interesting images!
EXPOSURE | APERTURE, SHUTTER SPEED, ISO | PART 2
In Part 2 of this class, I will show you can adjust your camera's sensitivity to light by adjusting the ISO. We will then move into how all 3 functions - Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO work together to create the perfect exposure. At this point you are shooting in manual mode! What an accomplishment!
THE ART OF COMPOSITION
This entire class covers compositional techniques, rules, and tips that will help you take consistently good photographs. There will be close to 100 different ways that you can create better images by following these important steps. These steps are what make you much more than a beginning photographer... they will help you come a great photographer.
BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO LIGHT AND LIGHTING
This class shows you the importance of light and how to use different light, no matter what time of day, to take pictures that will impress your family and friends! Light is the single most important part of creating beautiful images.
FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY FOR BEGINNERS
I'll show you how to use your camera's built-in flash or a flash unit that fits on top of your camera. Many beginner's are afraid of flash, but I assure you I'll show you how extremely easy they are to use and how to get stunning results every single time.
FINAL REVIEW
You have finally reached the end of the Beginner's Course! Congratulations! In this class we will go over everything you've learned, and if you need a little more help in an area or 2 this is the time for use to tackle it together!
INTERMEDIATE CLASS DESCRIPTIONS
EXPOSURE | PART 3 | CAMERA CONTROLS AND TECHNIQUES
Exposure requires knowledge on how to use aperture, shutter speed, and ISO in complicated circumstances. In this class we go through more complex scenarios.
EXPOSURE | PART 4 | ADVANCED TECHNIQUES
This is where my students really begin to appreciate the sophisticated methods they can use to produce creative photography under many difficult lighting scenarios. Stunning photographs require the photographer to use creative exposure settings to capture beautiful lighting scenarios.
HISTOGRAMS
Understanding what a histogram does, where to find them in your camera and how to use histograms to create finely exposed images.
UNDERSTANDING WHITE BALANCE
Your white balance controls the color of your entire photograph, which makes white balance extremely important. The human eye has such a wonderful dynamic range that we see white as white under most circumstances. The camera cannot differentiate under different lighting conditions. YOU have to tell the camera what to do!
THE BEAUTY OF LIGHT
Photography is essentially seeing subtle differences of light and exposing properly to capture the light in an interesting or unique way. We will explore natural and artificial light in this course. Finding good light is the most important aspect to photography.
FOCUS
Learning the tricks on focus goes hand-in-hand with producing sharp images. Both of these 2 classes will help the advanced photographer produce the type of images sought by photo editors or art galleries: Crisp, sharp images with perfect depth-of-field and exposure. These are skills you will learn in these 2 lessons.
SHARP IMAGES
Subject or camera movement are the 2 major causes of blurry images. I'll teach specific things you can do to eliminate almost all movement and allow you to take really sharp images, such as stars in distant galaxies. There are other techniques, such as using liveview, mirror-up, a tripod, or other tricks that will help you take really sharp photographs.
GOING FOR THE GOLD | How to produce award-winning or publication quality photographs
I'll share tips on how I produced over 100 cover quality photographs - including the cover of the November 27, 1995 issue of TIME International, many inside photographs, advertisements, and hundreds of photographic assignments. These clear guidelines will make you much more likely to produce successful photographs for publications.
ADVANCED CLASSES
BETTER PEOPLE PICTURES
This is another really important class for new professionals wanting to photograph babies, children, teenagers, adults, and older people. We will discuss equipment, props, and a few posing techniques. Next we will discuss photographing families, couples, and individuals in different types of light.
MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY | A CLOSE-UP LOOK
This class is very comprehensive, and it includes all of the equipment as well as general settings and techniques that you would want to use.
FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY | PART 2
If you're going to succeed as a photographer, you will eventually need to control multiple flash units. This class shows you how to do this successfully indoors and outdoors, as well as gives you an overview of different equipment and ways to actually transmit to multiple flash units.
STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY
In this class we work on any topic the student wants to specialize in to include portrait photography, family photography, food photography, jewelry photography, landscape photography, wildlife photography, etc. If you have a special assignment and need to work in a studio environment we'll be there to coach you and assist you with lighting and setups.
POSING TECHNIQUES | SECRETS FOR WINNING POSES
There's a lot of good information in this class that will help entry-level photographers pose clients. There is so much more to posing than having people look at the camera and say "cheese". We discuss total body posing to include fingers, hands, feet-the little micro-adjustments that make up a total pose and how to have the maximum impact for what you're trying to achieve. With over 100 magazine and book covers, I can assure you that good, natural poses are extremely important.
WEDDINGS | For new wedding photographers.
You are a new professional photographer with lots of creative ideas, plenty of excitement and are ready to become a professional wedding photographer. Getting into wedding photography is easy. Staying in is difficult. The competition is tough! If you don't know what you're doing, you can easily miss critical shots. Then you get flustered and don't know what's next up. Your batteries fail. Things just don't go right. You fail to deliver acceptable photos. Disappoint your clients and you'll gradually fade away. Our 5-part session on photographing weddings is very extensive. We've combined 20 years of photography into 6 classes: Preparation - Processional - Vows - Recessional - Formals - Reception. We'll show you how to plan for great photos for each part of the wedding. How to capture beautiful images. What to expect next. How to anticipate those poignant moments and look out for pitfalls. We'll teach you how to succeed. You need to learn all these items before are in the middle of a wedding and don't know what to do. For new professionals wanting to break into the wedding photography business. Limited to two students.