Dorset Landscape Astrophotography Workshop
Price range: £400.00 through £1,500.00
SOLD OUT – 14th – 18th May 2026 – 4 Nights: Dorset Landscape Astrophotography Workshop with professional tuition throughout the duration from an award-winning landscape, and widely published night photographer who knows the Dorset coastal area like the back of his hand. Please scroll down the page for further information.
Description
DORSET PHOTO TOUR AND WORKSHOP
Photography in Dorset
14th – 18th May 2026
DORSET LANDSCAPE & ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
Dorset photography combination workshop concentrating on traditional landscape and astrophotography, with the itinerary tailored towards the weather daily to suit conditions.
Tutor: Chris Frost
PRICE
£400 Deposit
£1500 Total
DATES & AVAILABILITY
PARTICIPANTS
Max 6 Photographers
Tutor: Chris Frost
EXERTION LEVEL
LOCATION
Dorset
United Kingdom
ACCOMMODATION
Large Holiday Home
Single occupancy bedrooms unless sharing is requested.
Landscape Photography Tuition
This workshop includes some traditional landscape photography in the evenings with tuition where required.
Nightscape Photography Tuition
This workshop includes innovative night sky photography planning, shoots and tuition.
Expertise
The workshop is aimed at newcomers, beginners, and advanced beginners within night photography. An understanding of manual camera mode is essential
PACKAGE Includes
Luxury Accommodation
Transportation
Professional landscape photography & astrophotography tuition and advice throughout the tour
Digital darkroom sessions on Lightroom and Photoshop
In-depth location and shoot planning for both day and night photography
PACKAGE Excludes
Travel to the workshop location
Personal travel and equipment insurance
Meals and snacks
Contact Form
DORSET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
Our astrophotography workshops originated in Dorset and have been running in the county since 2013, this one offers the chance to photograph Dorset’s stunning dark skies and spectacular coastline by night, and day.
This Dorset Astrophotography Workshop with Chris Frost at the helm, will deliver a structured step-by-step nightscape workflow that delivers results every time, also providing tuition on exactly how to plan locations and shoot times. Learn to process your own images taken on the workshop as the team follows Chris’s on-screen demonstrations, using your own images, on your own laptop, as he guides you through a well-refined editing workflow. Handouts are also provided bullet-pointing fieldwork and providing all the post-production information covered.
No previous night photography experience is required, nor is landscape photography experience, though a thorough understanding of manual mode in camera is a pre-requisite. The course will prioritise astrophotography and nightscape photography, however, this is a day and night combination course so sunsets and blue hour will also be covered with tuition where required. The course will be adjusted to the weather daily to help the group aquire the best landscapes and nightscapes possible.
DORSET Photography Workshops FAQs
Ollie’s nightscape workshops were the first of their kind in the UK, pioneered in Dorset. He has almost 15 years of experience teaching landscape astrophotography on top of prior years of general landscape photography. Chris has also plied his trade for the best part of two decades, becoming renowned for his ethereal landscapes of his home county (Dorset) and beyond, winning him prestigious awards along the way. Whether you book on a Dorset workshop with either Ollie or Chris, both tutors know Dorset like the back of their hands and are capable tutors within both genres of photography.
The group will learn a structured beginner to intermediate astrophotography fieldwork and post-production workflow to include layer blending, stacking, and essential nightscape planning. Landscape photography fieldwork tuition will also be given to those who require it, alongside some post-production tuition.
EU, EEA, and Swiss nationals can stay in England and the wider UK for up to six months without a visa, Irish citizens have complete freedom of movement within the UK, and many other countries can travel on an easy to obtain tourist visitor visa.
Dorset workshops run on different months, predominantly May or September, days are mild, and nights can be mild to very cold on the coast at night.
- Comfortable light hiking pants or shorts
- Windproof hiking pants
- Light summer tops
- Coat/jacket (windproof, thermal ideally)
- Hoodie, jumper, and multiple thermal mid-layers
- Base layers if you feel the cold
- Hiking trainers or good grip trainers
- Sandals/crocs/flip flops/slippers (for chilling around the accommodation in the early afternoons)
- Scarf/snood/gloves
- Sunscreen
Nice to haves!
- Lightweight neck scarf (dust protection)
- Handwarmers
Only light fitness is required for the Dorset Photo Tour, though the days can be long and there may be up to five/six hours on your feet with the camera equipment for long astrophotography shoots. Some coast path walks are around 30 minutes, uneven, and can have 20/40 metre gradual inclines.
The Dorset Photo Tour is self-catered with the group collecting their own supplies from local supermarkets. The group may also use local cafes and restaurants on occasion.
Fieldwork Equipment
Full frame, crop sensor, and micro four-thirds can be used, alongside larger format cameras; however, as technology and therefore techniques and workflows advance, it is recommended the camera body has an absolute minimum ISO of 6400 due to the demands of astrophotography, with 12800/25600 and above preferred. Entry level DSLR/mirrorless cameras are welcome.
- Camera Body
- Wide lens (fast if possible but F4 can be used if the camera has high ISO capabilities), ideally in the 14 – 20mm range, these can be primes or wide zooms.
- 24 – 70mm Focal range recommended for landscape photography, a 70–200mm may also come in useful.
- Sturdy tripod
- Remote timer or long exposure bulb control built-in on the camera timer, ie, the camera can expose for longer than 30 seconds
- Landscape photography filters such as polariser, ND’s and ND grads (please contact us if you need help with filter selction/specification
- Spare camera batteries
- Head torch with a red mode (this is not for night vision, it makes it easier to work as a group, and stops us blinding one another)
- Warm clothes and layers for nightfall, hiking boots/trainers, warm socks, hat, gloves, neck warmer, hand warmers; lighter clothes for the afternoons/evenings on location
Post-production & Planning Necessities
The group will cover two/three post-production and planning sessions looking at both landscape and night sky photography images that we produce whilst in the field.
The planning and post-production are critical elements of astrophotography, hence they have been included in our group workshops since 2014. For those that don’t use Adobe and are using other post-production software, it will be up to you to transfer the workflow to your chosen platform; the second phase of the workflow requires software with layers (ie Photoshop or similar).
- Lightroom (please make sure this is Lightroom Classic)
- Photoshop (or another suite with layer options)
- A laptop running the above ideally with a minimum of 8GB Ram though 16GB and over is now more ideal
- This part of the workshop can be undertaken with no laptop and note writing, though following on a laptop is recommended
Recommended apps that will be taught and demonstrated:
- Photopills (paid one-time subscription)
- Stellarium (free on desktop), free mobile version, the full mobile version now costs a fee
- Starwalk 2, Sky Guide or similar “what’s in the sky mobile/tablet application”
DORSET Photography TOUR ACCOMMODATION
Accommodation
The accommodation used for Dorset Astrophotography Workshops has changed several times over the years and has gone from our friends’ B&B to large scale multi-bedroom and bathroom holiday homes. Holiday homes are favoured for nightscape workshops, meaning nobody else is in the building to wake people up as with hotels, naturally, there may be late fieldwork finishes. Currently for the May 2026 workshop we have a large 6 x bedroom 6 x bathroom holiday home in Weymouth, subject to change if ever we feel we are offered something that is more advantagous.
Accommodation – Check-in 16:00 – 18:00
Accommodation – Check-out – 10:00
Transportation – The group use a 9-seater minivan to travel to locations.
Own transport is required to travel to the accommodation with parking around the property or in the town car parks nearby (this may incur a fee).
It may be possible to arrange collection from Weymouth train station for those arriving by train. Please liaise with us at the time of booking.
The Spectacular Dorset Landscape
Dorset is famed for its coastal ruggedness along the famous UNESCO Jurassic Coast, chocolate box coastal villages, woodland, misty waterways and rural landscapes. The county boasts some of the best locations to photograph the Milky Way in the UK, and many of its locations have long been landscape photography haunts of professional and hobbyist photographers alike. Trails are usually well kept, slightly loose underfoot and can have large inclines and declines as the coast path follows the high cliffs.
BOOK YOUR PLACE
If there are spaces left, you can book your place on this photography tour below.
If you have any questions please click here to contact Ollie Taylor.
Additional information
| Group Course | Deposit, Full Price |
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