"Beyond Point and Shoot" A 4 week course at the Arts Castle April 23, 30, May 7, May 14, 7-9pm Register here: http://www.artscastle.org/
Beyond Point and Shoot: Photography Class Outline Intermediate/Advanced
Class one: Photographers and their equipment
1. What is our equipment? Pull out all your camera stuff. Tell us your first name and briefly what have, what you like most, and what you want to learn more about.
2. Slide Show with music created by John Holliger. “Photographers and their equipment.” Prepare to laugh. How do you identify?
3. What do you hope to learn, to experience, in this class?
4. We will learn about Sam Abell, a photographer who worked most of his life for National Geographic. What are his principles for his photography and his life?
A brief slide show with music introduces Sam Abell. There will be several of his books to learn from.
5. We’ll look at the first set of images participants have brought on flash drives. We’ll open Photoshop Elements 11 and demonstrate Photoshop Elements Adobe Raw 7.3 using the class photographs.
6. Homework: take your camera out for a walk every day, if possible, for 15 minutes or more, and just shoot anything that draws your attention. Then bring in 10 of the ones you liked the most. At the end of the week, what was it like to shoot for a little bit, each day?
Class two: Light and Shadows
1 Rembrandt figured out highlights and shadows long before Canon or Nikon. We’ll see a large print of one of his paintings, to see how he used light and shadows.
2 Shadows are really a photographer’s friend with gold for us, not our foe. Questions we’ll consider: when to include shadows; when to leave them alone. How to create shadows that enhance the focus of your photograph. AND, how to bring out shadows when that would improve you vision for the photograph. We’ll use Photoshop Elements Adobe Camera Raw 7.3 once again.
3 Just as we can’t order specific kinds of whether when we are on vacation, this week we’ll shoot on cloudy days, snowy days, windy days, any day that comes along. We go out and shoot. What are the ways to go with the weather we are given, rather than complain and fight the weather?
4 Light and shadows in portraits of children and loved ones in the soft light of windows or the shade of a tree.
5 An introduction of Yousuf Karsh, a little biography, and when a chance to look over several of his books. What might we learn from his photography. What did his lighting look like, when he created portraits?
6 Homework: photograph friends or people in windows, in a chair beside a light, outside under a tree, --play with how they naturally stand, lean, sit, read, gaze, close their eyes and imagine…..
Class Three: Ways of interacting with others you want to photograph; beginning lighting with off camera flash
1. Getting to know you. How Dorothy Lange worked with people. Handout of George Elliot. Ways she connected and spoke and interacted with just anyone, she hoped to photograph in their environment, in their situation. We’ll hear a brief biography of Dorothea Lange and look over several of her books.
2. Learning about using one off camera flash with umbrella
3. Learning about light and shadows by seeing the effect as we move a focused light all around one person; what are the possibilities and when would we use the. We don’t always have to see a person’s face to create a portrait of them.
4. Dragging the shutter to create fill light.
5. Photoshop Element brushes will be explored in this class as tools to improve light/shadow issues.
6. The effect of second shutter release for freezing action at the end of a movement—photographing artists at work.
7. Homework: Take a walk with your camera, when you see someone who is curious and different from the crowd; figure out different ways to ask to take their photograph. “Excuse me. I’m a student take a class in photography. And just a few paces back you did something really neat looking, or the way you were walking was just beautiful, or your tats are really amazing, would you mind if I take your photograph for class?”
Class Four: Photographing what is small 1. Bring tripods, external shutter release cables, flash drive of small things you have photographed. The good, the bad, the ugly.
2. Discovering the effect of opening and closing the lens f stop; adapting to slow shutter speeds.
3. Using natural light, window light, adapting to light wind.
4. Some examples of photographing flowers, vegetables by classic photographers like Mapplethorpe and Edward Weston.
5. Photoshop Elements layers and layers masks will be explored in this class.
7. How many ways can we arrange/compose an inviting photograph of something tiny?
8. Focusing tools of Photoshop Elements: how to know when over-focusing, when and how to blur backgrounds, providing backgrounds for light flowers/objects.
9. Homework: take a walk daily with your camera and play.
Class Five: What to do with your photograph?
1. Bring in 2-3 prints of photographs you like the most—5x7 or 8x10
2. We’ll explore how to mount, matte, frame 8x10 photographs.
3. Power Point slide shows with music and text. Using the participant’s images from flash drives, we’ll learn how to create a Power Point slide show with smooth transitions and music.
4. Creating a simple free website using Weebly.com software