Class One (9/15)
Class began with a disclaimer: The description I turned in for the class is nothing like what is written in the UNT Continuing Education:
SECRETS OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Take better photographs and have more fun doing it with the fascinating technology that is catapulting the photographic world into the 21st. century. We'll discuss the basics common to all digital photography; equipment, software, printing, internet and e mail use. You'll also explore strategies for taking excellent photos in all types of situations, including portraiture, landscape, macro and still life using your own digital camera.
Wow. That's a pretty big order, especially compared to what I actually wrote in the original description. It reminds me of Elaine's job in Seinfeld; "... and it looks just as lovely on the Serengetti as on the streets of Manhattan."
OK, so we will take everyone and anyone into the promised land of digital imaging. Come along.
I was pleased to find three repeat students from my now defunct 35-mm class once offered in the dark ages of film photography. Three students also professed desires to be professional photographers - God help them and me!
I managed to come up with a coherent 3 phase approach and broad outline for the 5 session class just before the dry erase marker touched the board. The three phases are:
1) Digital capture / storage
2) Correction of images and manipulation
3) Image output
Tonight's topics included -
methods for importing images into computer
digital workflow begins -
archive images immediately
File types: RAW - TIFF - JPEG - DNG the new universal raw conversion from Adobe
The pros and cons (there are none) of upgrading to Adobe Photoshop CS2
We managed to convince one student to rent equipment from either Dallas Camera Exchange or Competitve Cameras instead of rushing out to buy without trying out different options.
It seemed to become clear by the end of the first session that this is not a class for beginners who do not understand exposure and the elements of f.stops and shutter speeds.
Future qustions yet to be answered:
How to look at images made by students
Students upgrading computer systems
Upgrading of software
Now begins the process of building this blog by you the students, the surfers and whoever has a nugget of knowledge to add to the mix.
Feel free to think -sd
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3 comments:
larry m - It would be easier to go over features if all camers were the same model. We'll definitely go into more detail on the benefits of high iso's and other aspencts of digital that apply to all cameras. Generally, choosing equipment begins with price point. All, and I mean all, manufacturers compete at price points. Find your price then you will find you have narrowed the field considerably.
If you want a computer that virtually never gets viruses, crashes and constantly upgrades its system software there is only one - APPLE. When was the last time Microsoft upgraded anything?
Computer software for photography is dominated by Adobe. There are other software plug-ins, add-ons and utilities that work well with Photoshop, but make no mistake, Adobe is the virtually uncontested champion.
Ahh, there is life out there! Thanks for bringing your knowledge to the digital table - so to speak. Right now I am still overwhelmed by FC Pro. However, I am also committed to going cold turkey off iMovie and iDVD. As for using music on DVD's and such, I too have the understanding that if music is provided by folks in the DVD it is all good. This is officially a "grey area" and one that the music industry is sure to pursue revenue streams from in their attempt to make some small profits. So, I say BEWARE. I do have someone who can create original scores for DVD's - in house. No vocals, but very good modern music created with help of Garage Band plus original bass, keyboard and electric guitar added.
YOUR OWN WEB SITES can be had for very little extra money. I pay no more than 5. per domain name per year, and live large by paying a whopping 35. a year for hosting. The simplest solution I have to offer is to purchase a .mac account as it has 1-gig of storage, website, e mails and free software downloads for 99. a year. I do not know how well it works with a PC though.
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