Cityscapes – Chicago Afterhours

Learn to capture the beauty of Chicago at night!  Join Gerri Whitley for a class focused on techniques to elevate your night time city photos.  Learn to balance light and find beautiful compositions of our sparkling city at night.  This 6 week class meets Monday nights from 7-9:30pm with four classes on-location in Chicago and two classes on zoom.

What you will Learn:

• How to capture stunning night photos from high above the city streets
• Photographing the L, locations and techniques for capturing this Chicago icon
• Whether representational or abstract, capture the unique and iconic architecture of Chicago
• Using reflections and depth of field for stunning images
• Editing Finesse using primarily Lightroom

Required Equipment:

• Students will be required to purchase entry to 360Chicago for one class, cost is $35-$40.
• We will be riding the L for one class, students will need a fare card to ride
• Camera or iPhone
• Sturdy tripod 
• Cable release or remote

Each on-location class will focus on specific skills and techniques for capturing the beauty of the city after hours.  The order of class topics will be driven by the weather conditions.  Classes will cover the following topics:

• Capturing the city from the 360Chicago observatory, you’ll learn techniques to shoot the city from above, including how to eliminate reflections, spots and smudges when shooting through glass.  
• Photographing the L, we’ll ride the rails to photograph the train and the city from the unique perspective of the iconic Chicago L
• Another class will focus on lens selection and techniques for capturing the unique and iconic architecture of Chicago
• Use motion, depth of field and reflections to capture beautiful and unique night time photos of Chicago

The two zoom classes will focus critique and editing, we’ll work to add finesse to our Lightroom edits.  There will be a little Photoshop editing instruction, though the main focus is using the tools available in Lightroom.  Students will present a final project in the last class.

This is an on-location class, we’ll be doing moderate walking most nights.  Our on-location classes meet rain or shine.