Workshops.

Does your photography need a boost?

As this has been a holiday week for me, I have been away from my computer, so this weeks post is a little different. I hope you will excuse a little self indulgence and self promotion.

This week I thought I would write about my workshops and the experiences of some of my students.

I have been doing one-to-one workshops at my studio/darkroom for about 20 years and have never advertised or promoted them (Black and White Magazine produced free booklets on UK workshops for a couple of years and I was mentioned in those a couple of times), preferring word of mouth and personal recommendations to bring people to my studio/darkroom. Some attendees were kind enough to write to me afterwards and express their thoughts and comments and I will include some of those at the end.

I do two types of workshop, groups and one to one. The groups are done in colleges and universities, mostly on behalf of Ilford, who I have had a close relationship with for almost 20 years. In all of these I was teaching groups of between 5 and 30 people.

From the beginning I had a strong belief; At school I was the quiet kid at the back who tended to get overlooked and ignored, and I didn't want that to happen in any teaching situation that I was running. When I did the large groups for Ilford, the effort of ensuring no one got left behind was often exhausting, but I always made sure that I covered the room many times over.

If someone was paying to learn, I wanted to give them value for money, so for me individual tuition was the way to go for my private workshops. I started them around 2005, though my memory is hazy about the exact date.

Many of the photographic workshops that are available with other photographers are group events in exotic locations, but that was never my thing. I wanted to be more about teaching the real principles that underpin film and darkroom work, not be a tour guide.

Another point about the group workshops that others offer, is that because they are teaching groups, they have to stick to one subject or technique: Landscape, Glamour, Wildlife, Wet Plate, Weddings etc. My workshops are not like that, I try to identify what each student needs and adapt my teaching to that. The workshops are totally flexible and can change at any point according to each persons needs. The day might begin with the intention of learning about camera operation, shutter speeds, apertures and exposures, and if the student is a quick learner we can move onto processing and printing, or some other thing in the afternoon.

The workshops are so absorbing that I always forget to take pictures for my social media, so I can't add any here, though I can give you a quick tour of the place.

I make no apologies for my cluttered space, it's a working space not a show home. It doesn't look like a lab, it's not spotless and there is a lot of stuff in there.

How does a workshop day go?

I meet my student at the darkroom and we sit and have a chat about how long they have been shooting/processing/printing and I try to get an idea about what level to pitch the information. I don’t want to be too basic and patronising, but neither do I want to get over complicated and technical if they are not ready for it. Hopefully the student has brought some examples of work so far and this gives me much more information.

We have a look through the students negatives and they explain to me which ones worked or didn’t and which negs have been difficult to print in the past.

We mutually agree on a negative and take it into the darkroom to make a print, and I do the first print, explaining as I go along what I am doing and why.

At this stage there are quite a lot of small details to pay attention to, so I ask if the student needs a moment to write anything down. We then go back to the same negative and I make an interpretive print with selective burning and dodging to show the student how much further the image can be taken. This is usually a bit of a revelation. Once that is done we can move on to other negatives. When the student feels ready, they have a go, right from the very beginning, putting the negative in the enlarger, focusing, making a test strip, etc. If anything was missed out or done wrong we discuss it without any pressure or guilt. As I often say; we learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes.

We get another print or two done and break for lunch and this gives us time to discuss how things are progressing.

After lunch I ask the student if they want to carry on in the same way, or move onto other techniques or subjects. Often there will be questions about contrast control, or pre flashing, maybe even toning. Any of these and many more can be discussed and demonstrated, depending on time. The day usually ends with us running out of time and in most cases the prints from the afternoon session are not dry, so I post these on a day or two later.

On many occasions I have had students book three days in a row so that a number of things can be covered, and quite a few come back a second or third time.

Conclusion.

So there you have it, a brief summation of a printing workshop. I also cover a number of other related subjects, techniques and styles, such as:

Basic camera operation, Metering and Processing/Printing, Night Photography, Exposure and how it relates to processing/printing, Still Life, Portraiture, Hand Colouring, Split grade printing, Experimental techniques, Paper Negative, Landscape, Pinhole photography, Using Large Format, and seeing Photographically.

Details;

The location is Holmfirth, west Yorkshire, UK.

Workshops run from 9.30 am to 5.00 pm and cost £350.00 per day. A non refundable deposit of £100 is required on booking.

Cancellation Policy: Withdrawal from the workshop two weeks before the session start date will receive a refund (if the workshop has already been paid for). Deposits are not refundable. No refunds will be given for cancellations made less than two weeks before a workshop start date. Andrew Sanderson is not responsible for airline ticket cancellation costs or fees.

Please email me; andrewsandersonphoto@gmail.com

Testimonials

These are genuine testimonials from some of the students I have taught over the years;

As a self taught darkroom printer, your workshop taught me so much in one day, more than I expected while your calm attitude and patience to answer my thousand questions was greatly appreciated.

Just a quick note to say thank you for the workshop on medium format photography and darkroom skills. It was out doubt the most informative and rewarding workshop I have ever attended, the skills you shared have transformed my photography immediately. I learnt more in those two days than I have managed to incorrectly teach myself in years. It was also an exceptional experience to have one to one instruction from an artisan who genuinely enjoyed passing his skills and experience onto someone else. Thanks very much. Tony Hayes

Hearing your detailed explanations while watching you print my negatives was a real eye opener on the so many variables available in the darkroom especially the toning part.

Your workshop had the same effect as your books. After leaving your studio i had to go shoot a few rolls!

Thank you once again for all your help, I will definitely contact you again in the near future to come over for another workshop!

Andrew is very much a hands-on teacher and manages to teach every student individually at their own level. He has the ability to explain complicated subjects in simple terms which really allows the student to understand more than would otherwise be the case. Sue Stockwell.

Thank you so much much for the mind-blowing workshop. Recently I started my journey with Film photography and I had a very clear idea in mind of why I wanted to do it. I felt saturated with Digital Photography and spending time in front of a computer editing bothered me, and the fact that those images were hardly ever printed. Within a few weeks doing film I have more prints than I have ever had with years of shooting digital.

My idea is clear, I want the thought that goes into film and the process, the wait, the thought of every image and a personal project I have always wanted… to paint photographs.
When I searched, Andrew was one of the few left that knew the same technique that I used myself in my early days. I needed a refreshment workshop and Andrew provided not only that, but opened my mind of what it is to physically shoot with Medium Format and Large Format. To be able to share two days with him has opened up a universe of possibilities. All I can say is that I am speechless.

Andrew showed, created, explained, shared, laughed, reasoned, and talked his vision, and that is priceless.

I left the workshop with so much more than I ever expected, and a vision for the next years of my creativity to fly and I hope to go back again, as his knowledge is so many light years ahead. I was very intimidated at first, but his humility and sense of humour made my rudimentary skills seem not so bad and his encouragement and joy is second to none. I cant wait to go back.

My thoughts for any film lover are that Andrew does, has, and shares everything and no matter what level you are at, he will help. He will help open many doors for you that you didn’t know even existed.

Montse Gimferrer September 2020 x

Good god – I LOVED it. I think the surroundings made it more exciting. I have gone from being an obsessive snapper with no real clue about what makes a picture to someone who thinks about composition and light. Andrew has taught me to visualise the end result and concentrate on what’s possible. A thoroughly enjoyable and useful workshop. Hazel Davis.

First of all I’d like to thank you for the two days I spent with you recently. It was without doubt the best workshop I have attended, due not only to the content of the learning, which was second-to-none, but also to your style, which I found to be very affirming, and suited both the subject and me. It was clear that you occupy a unique place in British photography, and I feel privileged to have had the chance to work with you. The attention to detail and very practical instruction benefited, I am sure, from having been born of experience.

Thank you for yesterday Andrew, your expertise, clarity of demonstration, coaching, artistic nowse, bon homme and workspace were all very much appreciated and recognised. I'll digest what I have gained. Give it a few months and I might be back with some 8x10 negs.... Robert Webb, UK.

Andrew takes photographs of people and things that are close-to-home, in the normal course of daily life. His pictures show a deep connection to the people and things around him. They seemed to have that ‘sparkle’ that I was looking for. When I discovered that he also ran workshops, I knew that he was the right person.

Sometimes you just have to go with gut instincts……. So I went on a two-day, one-to-one workshop at his darkroom in Yorkshire. It’s the best thing I have ever done for my photography as it opened my eyes. I arrived under the impression that improving my darkroom technique would improve my prints. I left knowing that technique was the least of my problems. Looking through his prints in his studio and talking to him about photography makes you realise how much further you can go.

Since then, I’ve been back several times…….. Finally, on a more personal note: my gut instincts about Andrew have been borne out. Not only did I receive excellent tuition in his darkroom and in the field, but I also got something that I had not expected. Andrew cares about his students. He stays in touch and is always available to give advice and encouragement. Following my workshops with him, my own photography took a decisive shift towards a more expressive idiom – that of bromoil. I am very grateful to Andrew for providing me with the sparkle that I needed back in 2016. Tony Cearns.

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Andrew Sanderson August 2025.