Photo workshop: Enchanting Tuscany
Shooting, editing, fine art printing & getting to know Tuscany properly
5 days in a Tuscan country house in a small group of maximum 6 people. Discover the most beautiful locations from sunrise to sunset, experience the Val d’Orcia with its more than 30 photo spots and Siena and Pienza. Take pictures that you will remember for the rest of your life, discover new techniques and perspectives. Improve your workflow in Lightroom, Capture One, Photoshop etc. And fine art printing – we help you prepare your best pictures for fine art printing and print your most beautiful pictures in A3 & A2 on Ilford and Hahnemühle paper
In the evening we go out to eat in small enoteca’s or restaurants to experience the Tuscan culture. The tour ends with a meal together in our country house where we can look back on the best moments. Experience these moments and much more with Frank Werner, photographer, Lightroom, Photoshop and Capture One trainer and Phase One Certified Expert with over 20 years of workshop experience. We offer the workshop on exactly those dates when we expect particularly great motifs and light moods in Tuscany due to the seasons.
If you’ve always wanted to do an all-in-one workshop in one of the most beautiful places in the world, this is the place for you.
Enchanting Tuscany – Phase One Edition
For anyone who has always wanted to work with a high-end medium format camera, the “Phase One Edition” is the right choice. Frank Werner is probably the only trainer with a Phase One Certified Professional qualification who has been working with Phase One cameras for over 10 years. That is why we are allowed to organize the workshop with / for Phase One. In this workshop the number of participants is even smaller (only 4 instead of 6 participants) and each participant gets a Phase One IQ4 150 Back for the workshop and can switch between different cameras XF, XT, XC and ALPA and associated lenses and get to know everything. Attention, there is only 1 date and only 4 places!
Dates Tuscany
- Saturday to Wednesday: April 26 – 30, 2025 (4 of 6 free places)
You can see current real-time availability when booking – this is not automatically updated here
Experience Tuscany
Discover the classic motifs, unknown locations and local life.
We will visit the most beautiful Tuscan landscapes in the surroundings of our villa near Buonconvento / San Quirico d’Orcia / Pienza. Here we are centrally located in Tuscany and only a few minutes’ drive from the most beautiful locations. A day trip to Siena, for example, provides us with more great motifs. We have our own comfortable Mercedes Vito (or similar) minibus which we use to get to our locations. This way you don’t have to drive yourself, can’t get lost and we get to the most beautiful places quickly and easily. We will take a lot of photos, but we will also edit our pictures together in Lightroom, Capture One and/or Photoshop and print them on a fine art printer. You will learn everything you need for high-quality fine art photography hands-on. Instead of learning Lightroom or Capture One in theory, you will learn it hands-on during the workshop from one of the most experienced Lightroom, Photoshop and Capture One trainers in Europe.
You’ll come home with lots of great pictures, wonderful impressions of Tuscany and plenty of new workflow knowledge and printed fine art prints. If you want, you can also try out high-end medium format photography with a Phase One XF / XT, an Alpa STC and Plus with shift and tilt and 100 and 150 megapixel backs from Phase One. Tuscany is one of Frank’s favorite destinations in Europe for photography and he often travels to the region where our workshop takes place. That’s why he knows numerous well-known but also less well-known locations, knows on which day of the week and at what time of day it is best to be where, to get the most beautiful lighting moods and to have as few selfie tourists as possible standing next to him. He also knows numerous beautiful, regional osterias, entoteca’s and restaurants, so that you can also get to know Tuscany here.
- Blue hour and sunrise, with luck also with fog in the most scenic places in Tuscany
- Lunchtime shoots for great contrasts and B/W images
- Panoramic shootings of Tuscany from different viewpoints
- Twilight and night shoots at various locations until the blue hour.
- Two trips to Siena and Pienza – two of the most beautiful Tuscan cities.
- Workflow coaching in Lightroom, Capture One and Photoshop
- For those interested: Medium format cameras such as a Phase One XF and an XT with Phase One 100 and 150 megapixel backs and a technical camera from Alpa, an STC for working with shift and tilt are available to try out.
- Fine art printing hands-on coaching with a fine art printer (up to A2) (up to 10 A2 prints or 20 A3 prints on Hahnemühle or Tecco paper included in the workshop price)
- And we are open to ideas from participants depending on the time available
- Discover the gastronomy of Tuscany: We go to small local restaurants, beautiful entoecas, nice osterias, i.e. places where the inhabitants of Tuscany also go to eat.
- If you wish, we can also take you to Montalcino to visit one of the best wine merchants in Tuscany.
- Supervision by Frank and Cornelia Werner
Our location
a Tuscan villa / country house in the Val d’Orcia
We all live together in a Tuscan villa / vacation home with 7 double rooms, 8 bathrooms and large communal areas. This means we can come together at any time to discuss, edit, learn and print images on a fine art printer. Accommodation, drinks and breakfast are included in the workshop price. We do breakfast according to the self-catering principle. This means we get bread, butter, jam and some sausage and cheese and have breakfast together after the morning shoot. Important: We don’t live in a hotel and we expect everyone to lend a hand and sometimes overlook small imperfections. Note: The pictures are from locations we had already rented. As we do not always manage to book the same villa, these pictures show examples – however, we cannot guarantee an exact villa, only that they are all very beautiful, well-kept and clean.
Participants from partners
Partners are very welcome!
You are welcome to take your partner with you for an extra charge of 300 euros per person. They will then stay with you in the same double room. However, we only have transportation for the 6 participants. Therefore, he can only come along to photo sessions, restaurant visits etc. if you provide transportation for him. (Travel in your own car, ride with another participant). Before the course, we will ask the participants about their planned journey and can then possibly organize carpooling for partners. The 300 euros include accommodation, breakfast on a self-catering basis & drinks in the villa/holiday home (as described) and tourist tax.
Important information
All important information about the workshop
| Participants: | Small group with a maximum of 6 participants |
| Location: | In Val d’Orcia, Tuscany, Italy, in a Tuscan villa / country house |
| Course duration: | 5 days |
| Course times: | 1st day Sunday Arrival until 14:00h Last day Thursday: Departure approx. 14:00h |
| Costs: | 2799 € – 2899 € incl. 19% VAT and overnight stay in a double room with bathroom (for single use) Supplement for non-photographing partner in the same room: 300€ |
| Previous knowledge: | Good photography skills, confident handling of your own camera, great interest in new knowledge. For the dedicated amateur to the professional. |
| Bring along: | Own camera (system camera, DSLR or digital back), memory card, battery, own laptop (loaner MacBook Pro with 6-core processor can be provided on request), external hard disk, mandatory! Tripod, possibly filters (ND filter, polarization filter). Photo backpack (preferably not a bag, as we will sometimes be walking further along country lanes etc.) Lenses: Ideally 24-70 and 70-200mm or similar. I mainly work with fixed focal lengths with 15, 24mm, 50mm and 85mm focal length on full format, as there are no longer focal lengths for my camera, so I miss out on many a motif. If available, a super wide-angle or a longer telephoto lens is also welcome, but both are really optional and rarely needed. Comfortable shoes: preferably hiking boots or similar. Clothing for all weathers – The weather can vary from -3 degrees to 30 degrees, from fine weather to icy gusts of wind that freeze your fingers off, to stormy but moderately warm rainy weather. We photograph in almost any weather! Headlamp, rain jacket, possibly hand warmer See also Equipment tab (above) |
| Equipment: | As a base accommodation we have a 500sqm villa / country house near Buonconvento / San Quirico d’Orcia / Pienza with 7 bedrooms and very large and cozy common areas. Here we set up a workshop room, which we equip with a high-end projector, an A2 fine art printer and fine art papers. Anyone can work here in their free time and print if they wish. |
| Accommodation: | Each participant has their own double room with bathroom in the Vila. These are furnished slightly differently and all have their own bathroom (although in some rooms the bathroom is not directly connected to the room as the building is 400 years old – so please bring a bathrobe). The rooms are furnished in typical Tuscan style. The entire villa is air-conditioned, although we will hardly need it in the fall and spring. |
| Arrival: | Ideally by car or plane/train + rental car. We can also pick up rail travelers at the train station in Buonconvento (prior arrangement is essential). |
| Included in the course price: | Support and training from Frank Werner in photography, workflow and fine art printing. Up to 10 A2 or 20 A3 fine art prints on fine art Ilford paper. (Costs with printing service provider approx. 400-600€) Overnight stay in a double room for single use. Drinks in the villa (water, juices, regional wine, Prosecco), basic ingredients for breakfast (bread, rolls, eggs, sausage, cheese, jam, honey etc.) – all on a self-service basis – assistance with activities such as washing up, tidying up, possibly cooking is expected. |
| Not included in the course price: | Travel, meals that are not explicitly stated above, e.g. meals in restaurants or on the road, special requests, entrance fees and everything that is not explicitly stated. |