by Ben Willmore | Aug 20, 2015
Hi gang! I just wanted to post a mini update on where I’ve been, and what’s coming up. The annual Photoshop World Conference & Expo just wrapped up in Las Vegas. As usual, it was a great event, loaded with lectures, workshops, demos and other fun stuff related to photography, Photoshop and other photo-related software. I was really excited to be able to teach two classes on Adobe Lightroom this time around. I just love Lightroom! It’s so powerful and is where I spend most of my photo-processing time, by far. The classes I taught were “Up to Speed with Lightroom 6/CC” and “Organizing Photos with Lightroom.”
If you love photography and have never been to Photoshop World, I highly recommend it. It’s not only full of educational events but the KelbyOne team really puts together a fun learning environment, hosting parties and other after-hours shenanigans.
The entrance to the conference & expo at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
My image, featured in the Epson booth at the trade show.
Upcoming training events
I’ve got two classes coming up at the end of the month, and the great news is that they are both online classes, and they are free to watch during the live broadcast! As with all CreativeLive classes, they are free to watch during the live event, and then you can purchase the course to download or stream at your leisure and get access to the class handbooks and other bonus materials. The two classes are one-day each and cover photo restoration and the latest Creative Cloud updates to Photoshop and Lightroom.
Here are the details:
Photoshop Mastery: Retouch & Restore | Aug. 27, 9 am-4pm PST

Class Description:
Photographs are among our most treasured possessions, but not every photo was shot under optimal conditions or preserved in an ideal way – making photo restoration a big business opportunity for skilled photographers and retouchers.
If you want to answer every, “can you fix it?” with a resounding “yes,” Photoshop Mastery: Retouch and Restore with Ben Willmore is the class for you. You’ll learn:
- Advanced color correction and enhancement techniques
- Retouching and scratch removal strategies
- Detail enhancements
- Folds, scratch, mildew, ink and water stain repairs
- Reconstruction of missing pieces such as torn corners and rips
- How to make fix faded images and make skin tones more lifelike
You’ll learn what actions to take, the optimal order to perform them, and which tools are right for the job. Ben will share time-saving tips and offer insights on the corrections that create the biggest impact.
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Photoshop & Lightroom Creative Cloud Additions in 2015 | Aug. 28, 9 am – 4 pm PST
Class Description:
Technology is always evolving – make sure you keep pace with it. Join Ben Willmore for Photoshop and Lightroom Creative Cloud Additions and get up to speed on 2015 updates from Adobe.
In this comprehensive class, you’ll learn about all of the changes Adobe made in 2015 and how to integrate them into your daily workflow. You’ll learn about:
- Raw high dynamic range
- HDR + raw panoramas
- Dehaze Adjustments
- Retouching tool changes
- Face Detection and Recognition
- Blur Gallery changes
- Rendering trees and flames
- Local adjustment additions
- Radial and gradient brushes
- Hidden and hard to find additions
If you’ve watched any of Ben’s previous courses, this will be a great way to update your knowledge and ensure you know about all the latest features.
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More to come!
by Ben Willmore | Jul 10, 2012
Hi gang! After a great workshop in Iceland, we returned to the bus in Colorado and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. Unfortunately, the weather was extremely stormy/rainy while we were there, but it gave me some time to regroup a little after the trip, get some work done and focus on future events. I wanted to use this post to talk about what’s coming up. I hope you’ll be able to join me at one of these great events/workshops in the future!

Namibia: Sept. 19- Oct. 1, 2013
Join me and Journeys Unforgettable on the photographic adventure of a lifetime. In this two-week journey to Namibia, you’ll be staying at the best camps, working with the best guides and photographing the most amazing sights your lenses have ever focused on! From wildlife, to the iconic sand dunes, to the breathtaking Skeleton Coast, you’ll be seeing it all on this adventure. If you’re looking for THE trip, the one you’ve been waiting your whole life for … this is it. Learn more HERE.

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
Oct. 4-7, 2012
The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is a world-renowned attraction and destination for balloon pilots and photographers. For more than three decades, the first week in October brings the smell of roasting chiles and the beautiful, magical moving picture show of hot air balloons sailing silently through the crisp fall air. This will be my third time photographing the Fiesta, and I can promise you that it’s a true feast for the eyes… and the lens!
The colors and textures will boggle your senses and you will come away with some of the most incredible images you have ever taken. We’ll throw in enough HDR training if you want to get a bit crazy with your creativity. Learn more HERE

The California Photo Festival • Oct. 10-14, 2012
The California Photo Festival is five days of digital photography immersion. Intensive workshops, seminars, lectures, shooting, parties, and more with over 15 industry leading photographers and digital industry gurus designed to boost your creativity, spark your passion, and take your photography, art, or business to the next level. Click here for more info

Zion National Park
Thurs., Oct 18 thru Sun., Oct. 21, 2012
Massive canyon walls ascend toward a brilliant blue sky. To experience Zion, you need to walk among the towering cliffs, or challenge your courage in a small narrow canyon. These unique sandstone cliffs range in color from cream, to pink, to red. They could be described as sand castles crowning desert canyons. We will be experiencing the beauty of this tranquil place when the trees are the most colorful. Click here for more info

Mastering High Dynamic Range Photography
Nov. 29-Dec. 2, 2012
At the Light Workshops, in Los Osos, CA
Learn to capture the full brightness range of a scene and present it to your viewer as either a photorealistic image or as an image that more closely resembles a hyper-detailed drawing.
With over two dozen choices of HDR processing software, you’ll learn which software is worth using and which should be ignored. You’ll also see why you should avoid Photoshop’s standard HDR processing and how to use alternative methods in Photoshop and Lightroom to produce far superior results. Click here for more info

New Iceland Event in the works! Special sneak peak!
If you’ve been following this blog in the recent weeks, you’ve read all about my amazing workshop in Iceland. We just wrapped up last week, and I’m still processing all the incredible images I captured there. Iceland is one of my favorite places to visit and photograph… and that’s why we’re already planning two workshops in 2013! We’re still arranging the details, so consider this a special insiders’ heads up to my blog readers. Here’s what we know so far.
Workshop #1: Our plans for the next Discover Iceland event is in the works for the summer of 2013. It should be a week-long workshop where we are out in the field shooting 80% of the time. When we’re not out on location, we’ll be in a classroom setting doing some training and photo-editing sessions. Iceland is a true paradise in the summer… from breathtaking waterfalls, to iceberg-filled lagoons, to vast green mountains, to storybook horses… Iceland has got it all. Stay tuned on the blog for exact dates and more details. We should have those solidified in the next few weeks!
Workshop #2: I’ve been to Iceland several times, but never in the winter. This is something I’ve been eager to experience and we’re finally making it happen. We have room for up to 12 eager photographers on this adventure. Now, you might be asking what there is to photograph in Iceland during the winter, given it’s dark out most of the time. Well, for a night photographer, this is a dream come true! And night photography will be our focus during this trip. We’ll be capturing some long exposure landscapes, we will light paint, explore the eerie and serene ice caves (that you can only enter in winter) and maybe, just maybe, be fortunate enough to photograph the northern lights. Our target time range will be the second half of February 2013. Again, stay tuned as we finalize the arrangements.
by Ben Willmore | Jan 27, 2012
Hi everyone! I’ve got a lot of great workshops and events going on in 2012 and would for you to join me on some. Here’s what’s coming up:

Discover Iceland: A Photographer’s Paradise
June 24-30, 2012
Get ready to discover one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Iceland features black sand beaches, waterfalls, geysers, volcanos, geothermal features, glaciers, icebergs, lighthouses, turf houses, storybook horses and interesting architecture, all packed into a country that is 1/95th the size of the United States. Its unspoiled countryside offers breathtaking vistas, dramatic weather and such a diversity of subject matter that after a week’s time, you will feel like you’re just scratching the surface. You’ll see so many waterfalls (including the largest in all of Europe) that they’ll become ubiquitous enough that you might even start to ignore them. This will be my fifth visit to Iceland in the last seven years!
Click HERE for more information and to register.

Photoshop Mastery: A two-day workshop in Honolulu
February 25-26, 2012
Master the creative tools of Photoshop . . . in Hawaii.
In the first day, gain a deep understanding of the fundamental foundation of how Photoshop’s adjustments work. See how you can substitute curves for almost half of Photoshop’s adjustments since many of them use curves behind the scenes. Learn what’s special about camera raw and find out how to best apply adjustment layers and layer masks to make your adjustments more versatile.
In the second day, learn how to creatively alter your images to make them look more appealing. Topics covered include blending modes, working with color globally and selectively, colorizing B&W photographs and learn to apply antique color, soft contrast and painterly effects. Learn how to Influence what a viewer is attracted to within your image, stylistically unify a group of photos, and apply certain tricks to help your viewer stay with your image longer. Employ unique effects to help develop your own personal style.
Click HERE for more information and to register.

The Peoria Camera Club: From Capture to Wow
March 17, 2012
Learn to make better captures – starting with equipment choices and camera settings. In this jam-packed day of photography and Photoshop, I’ll share my techniques for quickly evaluating shooting locations and creating compositions that are dynamic and interesting. You will learn how to think about post-processing techniques in the field to capture the most ideal images for later digital enhancement. Then, I will demonstrate my favorite post-processing techniques for enhancing and fine-tuning images on the computer. You will learn how to use digital processing tools to create images with more visual impact so you can develop your own style and take your creativity to the next level.
Click HERE for more info and to register.

Photoshop World
March 24-26
The must-attend conference for photographers and Photoshop Users
Designed to help you boost your skills, Photoshop World offers three days of pulse-pounding training with classes from renowned experts in the fields of Photoshop, photography and lighting and a once-in-a-lifetime experience guaranteed to enhance your skill set and help your work soar to new heights!
My Photoshop World sessions are: Mastering Adjustment Layers, Understanding Color Adjustments and Panorama Stitching.
Click HERE for more info.

Page, Arizona
May 10-13, 2012
Page, Arizona is a little-known spot with great photo opportunities. This small town, located on the Colorado River and overlooking the Glen Canyon Dam, will be base camp for our photo adventure. During the course of the workshop, we will photograph the Slot Canyons, Monument Valley, Horseshoe Bend and Lake Vistas, just to name a few.
Our location is ideal for exploring many of the American Southwest’s renowned national parks and monuments, and discovering the unique culture of the Navajo Nation.
UPDATE: As a special bonus for attending this workshop, OnOne Software is giving each participant a FREE copy of their award winning software, Perfect Effects! (a $99.00 value)
Click HERE for more info and to register.

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
Oct. 4-7, 2012
The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is a world-renowned attraction and destination for balloon pilots and photographers. For more than three decades, the first week in October brings the smell of roasting chiles and the beautiful, magical moving picture show of hot air balloons sailing silently through the crisp fall air.
The colors and textures will boggle your senses and you will come away with some of the most incredible images you have ever taken. We’ll throw in enough HDR training if you want to get a bit crazy with your creativity.
Be overwhelmed by this seldom experienced spectacle and you’ll be amazed at the photos your creativity will find.
UPDATE: As a special bonus for attending this workshop, OnOne Software is giving each participant a FREE copy of their award winning software, Perfect Effects! (a $99.00 value)
Click HERE for more info and to register.

Zion National Park
October 18-21, 2012
Massive canyon walls ascend toward a brilliant blue sky. To experience Zion, you need to walk among the towering cliffs, or challenge your courage in a small narrow canyon. These unique sandstone cliffs range in color from cream, to pink, to red. They could be described as sand castles crowning desert canyons. We will be experiencing the beauty of this tranquil place when the trees are the most colorful.
UPDATE: As a special bonus for attending this workshop, OnOne Software is giving each participant a FREE copy of their award winning software, Perfect Effects! (a $99.00 value)
Click HERE for more info and to register.