basic 8 weeks photography course

photoworks68

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I have been asked to dispense a 8 week basic photography course at my local community center.

I am not sure how to approach it and what to cover.

Have you guys ever taught a photography class in your community ? I think the course cannot be too technical as there will be people who will only have a basic digital camera or just a camera on their phone. But beyond that I am not sure. Do you guys have any suggestion?
 

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Ces1um

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Since there are no requirements for specific equipment, you might want to focus more on composition I'm thinking. Now if everyone has some kind of camera with a manual mode you could go into the exposure triangle (or whatever people are calling it these days) and how shutter speed/aperture affect the final results. Exposure compensation or knowing how to judge a scene to get a better result could be useful (like backlit subjects or exposing so snow doesn't look grey). If everyone just shows up with their iphone though, I'd try to develop their "eye" and their skills at composing a photo.
 

Valerie

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PM sent
 

jtk

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I taught a course in Calistoga CA... "students" brought prints of all sorts (e.g. drugstore, family album, "art" as well as slides. We had a lot to talk about...attention wasn't on tech, it was on photography.

One of Minor White's lesson plans centered on pages from various magazines...time didn't get wasted on tech stuff until third meeting. One meeting began with relaxation exercises (something like meditation) folllowed by print sharing.
 
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photoworks68

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I have come up with the following suggestions for a photography class plan:


  1. Know your camera:

    People attending the class should bring their camera.
    The course will differ depending on which camera they bring.
    By doing that, every student will learn digital photography properly by holding/using their own device which will make it easy for them to learn.
    The importance of shooting raw vs shooting jpeg.
    Useful modes and settings on the camera.

  1. Basic of correct exposure:

    Relation of aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

  1. The art of Photography:

    The importance of composition,
    The rule of third,
    Colors, textures and shapes,
    colour filters for black and white.

  1. Post processing:

    Transfer images on your computer,
    File size,
    Editing softwares available (Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, The Gimp, Affinity Photo.
What do you think?
 

jtk

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Welcome to 1999 (except for rule of third, which is 1850).

Teach digicam, basic Photoshop and be done with it.
 
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MattKing

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Your course looks good. I don't know that I would list the rule of thirds, but I might teach something about how there are patterns in what people see and appreciate, and how some of those patterns are often referred to as rules.
If you can get people to appreciate how some good photographs look and move people, and some of the ways to get there, you will have given value.
If you intend to survey the available photo editing offerings, don't ignore the freeware options (Fast Stone being an example) or some of the other competitors, like the Corel products I prefer.
 
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