Mentoring Programme

In 2014 we introduced our mentoring programme: an extended programme of study, designed for photographers who are committed to extending and refining their photographic and postproduction skills. If you’re serious about improving your photography this programme is a great place to start.

What makes mentoring so successful? The short answer is that each program is developed especially for you, and before we start we’ll have a detailed discussion centred on what you, the student, would like to achieve during the programme.

What skills do you want to master?
What do you want to be able to do that you can’t do now?

Most likely, given David’s expertise, your answers will be centred on postproduction, but could also include reference to a range of related photographic skills. We will also examine your existing technical and creative skills, and how these can be integrated with the skills you are aiming to develop.

"David has, through his straightforward teaching style, cleared the fog that surrounded post processing of my photographs, particularly using the powerful tools in Photoshop. He has taught me to see clearly what is required to bring out the qualities of each image, and provided me with the means to achieve the best possible artistic result in a straightforward way. To the extent that it is possible he has made Photoshop simple and given me the confidence of knowing that I can now work with my images to achieve my artistic vision. Over the course of the last few weeks I have had many ‘’aha’’ moments while working with David, and I know that I will never be able to watch second rate ‘’how to’’ photography videos again. Absolutely brilliant! Thank-you so much David."

"David Nightingale’s Mentoring Program is an invaluable training process whereby the student develops a level of confidence, competency, and knowledge that take him/her to the next level in their photography and post processing skills. David is extremely competent and has the skill sets to help students succeed in whatever area they feel is most important to them. And, in the process of helping the student, David is most encouraging, kind and helpful. Taking this course will be one of the best investments in your future in post processing and photography."

“David's mentoring program is probably the smartest investment I've ever made in photography. You can easily spend thousands of dollars on gear and software, but there's no substitute for having a world-class image maker spend real time with you dissecting your images. David has a very straightforward manner and he won't hesitate to tell you when you're doing it wrong. He's the Simon Cowell of photography instruction!”

From there we will agree a series of instructional sessions and topics that we will cover, and begin to develop a range of assignments that you will work through during the remainder of the programme. There will be an assignment per fortnight or thereabouts, but the exact schedule will depend upon the scope and depth of each topic. Some assignments will be relatively straightforward, such as those based around purely technical skills which may only take a week to complete, whereas more complex assignments will require more time. The instruction and assignments, combined with discussion and critiques, will give you a whole new skill set. Not only will you learn a range of new skills, but you will know when, how and why to implement them.

Our interaction during the mentoring programme – instruction, discussion and critique – will be through regular weekly or fortnightly meetings of an hour or so, using software that will allow us to talk, screen share and make collaborative changes to images. Each session is recorded so you will accrue a unique personal library of training resources that you can refer to whenever you need. If appropriate you will also receive detailed written responses to your assignment notes, and we’ll keep in touch through email and social media.

You can sign up for our mentoring programme for 13 sessions, 26 sessions or 52 sessions. There are two reasons for an extended period of study.

The programme has been designed to enable you to develop a range of advanced skills, not just solve a simple problem or work towards a specific but limited goal (our one-to-one sessions are much better suited to that purpose).
Mentoring is much more successful when a student makes a firm commitment to an extended programme of learning and reflection.

At this point you might be expecting us to add a whole bunch of hype – about how great this programme is, how it will benefit you, and what you will be able to do by the end – but we won’t. We need to know that your aims are achievable and that we can work together over an extended period of time to realise them.

If we can agree those aims, we will work with you to develop your individual mentored programme.

Please note: Places are limited as we can’t accept more than 6 students onto the programme at any one time.

Current Students

Places Available

What next?

If you’re seriously committed to developing your photography, and think that this programme might be for you, email David to arrange an initial discussion and we can take it from there.