Photo workshop: Mysterious Venice
Shooting, editing, fine art printing & experiencing Venice.
A 5 – day all-in-one photography, workflow and fine art printing workshop in Venice. We offer the workshop on various dates, on which we expect Venice to be particularly empty based on our experience. You can expect:
- Your workshop leader Frank Werner, fine art landscape photographer with over 30 years of experience, who lived in Venice for over a year. (Phase One Certified Pro, professional imaging consultant, Lightroom, Capture One and Photoshop trainer working with the latest cameras from Phase One, ALPA, Fuji GFX and Canon)
- Our Venetian guest lecturer and Leica Ambassador Marc de Tolenaere will introduce you to street photography in Venice and take you to small locations (workshops, stores, sights) that are not accessible to locals.
- Cornelia Werner, who will make your pictures shine on our FineArt printer in the best quality, accompany you as a co-trainer for street photography and other photo walks and is responsible for the partner program.
Highlights:
- photograph the most beautiful, classic Venetian landmarks at the best times of day, in the best light
- Photo walks to places that a “normal” visitor to Venice never sees
- Street photography with Leica Ambassador Marc de Tollenaera
- Half-day water cab photo tour through the canals of Venice and to Guidecca
- Learn professional techniques for Lightroom, Capture One and Photoshop for FineArt photography
- Take home your own fine art prints worth up to €500
- experience the real Venetian cuisine in the most beautiful small restaurants and osterias in Venice, which Frank got to know during Corona and where he is a regular guest.
Dates Venice
- Thursday to Monday: March 06 – March 10, 2025 (4 of 7 places available)
- Wednesday to Sunday: November 26 – November 30, 2025 (6 of 7 places available)
Don’t wait too long to book, so far almost all our workshops have been fully booked 3-4 months before the start of the course.
Experience Venice
Discover the classic motifs, unknown locations and local life.
Enchanting Venice – experience Venice in all its facets. 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, Capture One & Photoshop in a seminar, we learn hands-on. We will do a lot of photography but also optimize your workflow, learn photographic and image editing techniques and deal with high-quality fine art printing. You’ll come home with lots of great pictures, a once-in-a-lifetime experience – having seen Venice like a Venetian and lots of new workflow knowledge and printed fine art prints. If you like, you can also get a taste of 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. Frank lived in Venice for almost a year for location scouting and now knows the most important areas of Venice like the back of his hand and can therefore guide you to the most beautiful locations at the best times of day. Even after the course you will get to know Venice from a more unknown side – small restaurants that only locals or regulars know, famous places like the Caffè Florian or small bars of Venetians and students round off your experience in Venice. Your partner is welcome to accompany you and can join us on many occasions. That’s as good as it gets for a photo workshop.
- Blue hour and sunrise at St. Mark’s Square, Accademia, canals of Venice etc.
- Lunch shoots in Castello, Guidecca, San Polo with a visit to Banksy’s in Venice.
- Panoramic shootings of Venice from different viewpoints (San Giorgio, Guidecca or Giardanetti)
- in case of bad weather: visit to the Teatro La Fenice with photo shoot (without tripod!)
- Twilight and night shoots at various locations in Venice, possibly Aqua Alta shoot with reflections (if Aqua Alta…)
- Drive to Burano to see the world-famous colorful houses.
- Highlight: 4-hour street photography photo tour in a small group of 3-4 participants with Marc de Tollenaere, Leica Ambassador and photographer e.g. for National Geographic, who has lived in Venice for almost 30 years and will show you his Venice.
- Highlight: Water cab photo tour in small groups of 3-4 participants through the Grand Canal and to unknown places in Venice that can almost only be reached by water cab. Here, in contrast to the vaporetti, we can get very close to the desired motifs, stop and photograph your favorite motifs and thus get rare and particularly beautiful pictures.
- The highlight tours take place alternately so that everyone has the opportunity to take part in both highlight tours.
- 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 Ilford paper included in the workshop price)
- And we are open to ideas from participants depending on the time available
- Discover culinary Venice: We go to small local restaurants, beautiful entoecas, famous cafés, small bars and experience Venice as you only know it as a local.
- Supervision by Frank and Cornelia Werner
Important information
All important information about the workshop
| Participants: | Small group with a maximum of 6-7 participants |
| Location: | Venice, Italy |
| Course duration: | 5 days |
| Course times: | 1st day: Arrival until 14:00h Last day: Departure from approx. 13:00h. If you want, you can print your pictures until about 15:00h. You can also extend your stay in our hotel at our special conditions and stay a little longer, or come 1-2 days earlier. |
| Costs: | 1799€ incl. 19% VAT |
| 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 can be provided in exceptional cases), external hard disk, mandatory! Tripod, possibly filters (ND filter, polarization filter). Photo backpack (preferably no bag, as we will be walking a lot) Lenses whatever you like – I mainly work with fixed focal lengths with 24mm, 50mm and 85mm focal length on full format. For our photo walks we also like a 24-70mm zoom, for example. If available, a super wide-angle or telephoto lens is also welcome. Comfortable shoes: preferably hiking boots or similar. Headlamp (simple model will do) Clothing for all weathers – The weather can vary from -8 degrees to 25 degrees, from beautiful spring weather, to icy gusts of wind that freeze your fingers off, to stormy, medium-warm rainy weather. We photograph in almost any weather! If cats lift off the ground or swim away, we stop, otherwise it gets really exciting. See also Equipment tab (above) |
| Equipment: | We have a common room for the workflow parts of the course, a projector + large screen for the presentation of the pictures and a fine art printer up to A2 so that you can print your most beautiful pictures directly on Ilford or Hahnemühle fine art paper and take them home with you. Participants can also use the room independently by arrangement. |
| Accommodation: | upscale 3 star hotel, our favorite hotel in Venice, just a stone’s throw from St. Mark’s Square, exact address will come after registration. Special conditions for participants: Overnight stay incl. Breakfast for only 100€-145€ per night depending on dates The hotel normally costs €189 to €299 per night, depending on the season. Please send us your arrival and departure dates and we will forward them to our hotel. They will then take your booking for you. For an extra charge of only about 10-15€ you can take a companion with you who sleeps in the same room. |
| Arrival: | By car, plane or train. After registration you will receive detailed travel recommendations for all means of transportation. |
| Included in the course price: | Support and training from Frank and Cornelia Werner in photography, workflow and fine art printing. Course fee for Streetphotography Workshop with Marc de Tollenaere 3-hour water cab photo tour with one of the best Venezuelan cab drivers with supervision by Frank Werner Use of common room, printer, projector, canvas etc. (not available at any other workshop in Venice) 10 A2 or 20 A3 Fine ArtPrints on Hahnemühle or Ilford paper. (costs with print service provider approx. 400-600€) |
| Not included in the course price: | Travel, accommodation, meals, ticket for the water cab (45-65€) or possible entrance fees |