TRANSITIONS

Class Description: 

This class is designed to take you beyond the basics of the point-and-click camera found in your cell phone. Understanding light and the advanced functions of your photo camera will allow you to be more creative in making images that will stand out. The class will include hands-on demonstrations and exercises to reinforce the lessons.

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Requirements:

No previous experience is required, however, you must own a camera that will allow fully manual mode for shutter, aperture and ISO (DSLR, Mirrorless or otherwise). It is recommended you bring your camera to the sessions so that you can apply the lessons directly to your own equipment and participate in the hands-on demonstrations - sharing is allowed. While not required, it is also recommended that you have a sturdy tripod and an off-camera flash.

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Resources:

Resources will be made available to assist you with the class as the weeks progress to supplement what is covered in the class. A DropBox folder will be shared for the duration of the class in which students will share images and other resources with each other. If you do not have DropBox yet, you can install it for free here: DROPBOX

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Policies:

This is a community class offered for personal enrichment. Attendance is not mandatory, however missing one session may make it difficult for you to catch up on the material covered in each session. While a lesson will not be repeated, I am available for questions outside of the session time and will respond to email questions as much as possible. In class questions are encouraged and the class is flexible enough that we may dive deeper into any given subject if there is something a student wishes to explore more deeply.

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Assignments are provided to encourage you to practice what you have learned. While they are not mandatory, they will help you and the other students if you take the time to complete the assignments.

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Class Outline:

The following topics will be covered over the eight weeks, however it is the goal of the class to allow flexibility depending on the individual needs of students. Content may be adjusted from time to time to better cover material that is desired by students. Content will be a mix of technical instruction, hands on practice, discussion, question and answer and review of images:

• Understanding your camera 

• DSLR vs "Mirrorless" vs "Point and Shoot" vs Cell Phone

• Automatic and Manual Settings (Shutter, Aperture, ISO and focus)

• Lighting – natural and artificial

• Composition

• Working with your subjects

• Workflow and basic editing

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What follows is a weekly outline of the curriculum. Note that what is covered in which week may be subject to change depending on the group and progress in each session. This is a general guideline only:

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Lesson 1 An introduction to the class and to each other. We will review the basics of what a camera is and how it works. We will also take a look at automatic settings, when and why we might use them.

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Lesson 2 Photography is all about light. In this session we will discuss the properties of light and how they affect the images we create.

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Lesson 3 We will begin to look at each of the functions within a camera that let us adjust how we take images. Starting with Focus, we will also look at Shutter Speed and Aperture.

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Lesson 4 After a short review of shutter speed and aperture, we will look at ISO, then combine all three to allow us to be creative in taking our images. We will discuss fully manual as well as manual assisted modes.

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Lesson 5 Now that we have an understanding of light and how our cameras capture it, we will look at composition and discuss some guidelines for creating better images.

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Lesson 6 As it all comes together, we will return to lighting. We will look at using both natural and artificial light and explore how we might use them creatively in making our images.

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Lesson 7 Having covered the technical aspects of the camera, it is important to remember that the subject is in front of the camera. This session we will discuss the interaction between the photographer and their subject.

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Lesson 8 Creating images is fun - so much fun that you will end up with hundreds, even thousands of images. In this last session we will discuss workflow and editing your images to prepare them for presentation, along with several ways to present your images. Note that this lesson only scratches the surface on editing. If you would like to learn Photoshop, you may want to consider the Photoshop Primer course.