Basic Photography Course - Advice Please

i do think its clever how your doing this locally but wouldnt it be better to get a photography club together because it would last longer and would definitely help the library, at my local library a girl created a toddler tuesday event and its still going after 4 years. ive always thought about doing one at school but im in year 10 so i'll only have a year to appreciate it.
 
In my basic course, it covered basic camera handling and the controls. Also use of apperture, shutter speeds, depth of field, ISO and the relationship between them. When it would be more appropriate to use TV, or AV.

It then moved onto basic compositional skills, plus a brief use of studio lighting for portraits and then a bit of still life abstract stuff.

The one I went on was ten weeks, and was too basic for my requirements but if you really are a total beginner, it`ll resolve some of the mysteries of exposure etc.
 
Im new to all this and was considering a course too. But to be honest i think im going to try and gain my own experience for a while. I mean, just reading on here will teach me alot about what stuff does.
 
Also, there will be alot of people with compacts so it should also be about maximising the way they use the equipment they do have.
 
minky_monkey said:
Also, there will be alot of people with compacts so it should also be about maximising the way they use the equipment they do have.
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yeah im targetting the compact users mainly, thinking of more SLR work in an advanced type course.

Thing is the compacts have modes such as Portrait and Landscape which are used more than SLR users use them really i find...i was thinking...

Lesson 1 – settings and basics
Lesson 2 – lighting, composition & rock houses [local nature spot] (good for small landscapes and lots of macros with limited lighting available)
Lesson 3 – local nature park - landscapes and hidden macro shots [on location again]
Lesson 4 – moving the pictures to the computer, email & flickr (help people share world wide with family etc)
Lesson 5 – tweaking, basic editing, b&w, levels, printing etc

??
 
I've found it is a good idea with beginners to show them how get the pictures from the camera to the computer quite early in a course. If they are not that computer savvy (and many are not), it can be a bit of a shock and steep learning curve, :eek: but those are the people who may have memory cards with hundreds of vulnerable pictures on. ;)

From your timetable, I'd re-order the classes this way:-

Lesson 1 – settings and basics
Lesson 2 – moving the pictures to the computer, email & flickr (help people share world wide with family etc)
Lesson 3 – tweaking, basic editing, b&w, levels, printing et
Lesson 4 – lighting, composition & rock houses [local nature spot] (good for small landscapes and lots of macros with limited lighting available)
Lesson 5 – local nature park - landscapes and hidden macro shots [on location again]

Like I said, beginners come either with cameras with hardly any pictures taken, or with a memory card with hundreds on, which they they haven't yet transferred to a computer. ;) And even when they can transfer pics, they choose to leave loads of pics on their memory cards to show people. :lol:

They generally are only using the Auto setting too. So maybe mixing the first two classes may be a good idea.

If you are using the Library, make sure you are able to use the computers fully. Some Libraries have security set so tight (in some Liverpool Libraries at least) that you can't connect a USB pendrive as it will wipe all your info. You wouldn't want that to happen to images on a connected camera. ;)
 
Sorry but at what point in all that do you explain say... how f-stop works.. what it is and how to use it.. if its not in settings and basics then you seem to jump straight ahead.

Also to yourself and everyone else.. the whole world doesnt evolve around flickr.. personally I think its bad and the only reason its populor is a bit like windows.. you dont know any better :)
 
Everyone brings there favourite sites and useful links to a course.

Hopefully it is a broad range of sites you show, but you will inevitably emphasize your favourites, and the fave sites of the moment. :shrug:

Learners, especially total beginners, take notice of sites, services and products that a tutor may use themselves, no doubt in the belief that they have the experience and should have chosen wisely. 'If it is good enough for him/her, then it will probably be good enough for me'. The wise tutor will give learner pluses and minuses for what they do/use. imho

Give all them information to make an informed choice. Then you won't get blamed if it all goes wrong for them. ;) :lol:
 
redhed17 said:
Everyone brings there favourite sites and useful links to a course.

Hopefully it is a broad range of sites you show, but you will inevitably emphasize your favourites, and the fave sites of the moment. :shrug:

Learners, especially total beginners, take notice of sites, services and products that a tutor may use themselves, no doubt in the belief that they have the experience and should have chosen wisely. 'If it is good enough for him/her, then it will probably be good enough for me'. The wise tutor will give learner pluses and minuses for what they do/use. imho

Give all them information to make an informed choice. Then you won't get blamed if it all goes wrong for them. ;) :lol:
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yeah so dont tell them you have a canon:lol:
 
I chose flickr as an easy way for people to share with friends and family, using online or using the software not because its a fave site (i barely use it in honesty)

Although I may touch on D.O.F many beginners dont need to know a lot and, as someones mentioned, will often just use automatic so its composition, lighting and use of flash etc that they will want to know about I imagine
 
danieljamesphoto said:
Although I may touch on D.O.F many beginners don't need to know a lot and, as someone's mentioned, will often just use automatic so its composition, lighting and use of flash etc that they will want to know about I imagine
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Beginners will mostly be using Auto mode, and getting them to use more of the features of their camera should be one of the main aims of a course for beginners imho.

Most newer compacts have a huge range of ever more obscure scene modes which should give better results, in the appropriate situation, than Auto mode. Explaining what the camera changes in each scene mode may allow users to use scene modes to get different effects away from the specific situation they were designed for. It can also lead on to the more technical aspects of digital cameras, such as Apertures, White Balance, Metering Modes, Continuous Focus/Drive modes etc as well as DoF and the more general photography subjects.

And although you can plan a course, you will have to adapt to the equipment people turn up with. With a beginners course, you may find yourself with a range of cameras from a £50 fixed focus Argos job which has only digital zoom, to a DSLR costing £xxx's. Both have to be incorporated into what was initially planned.

I personally wouldn't want to deliver a class in a Library if it was during normal opening hours with other patrons wandering about. :nono:

I hope you get it all together, there are many many people with digital cameras. :)
 
When you're showing the tweaks you need to consider what software they're using.

Your class may not own anything as 'advanced' as PSE, so I would recommend using something like Picassa - it does the basic tweaks and a few effects and it allows emailing, webalbums etc and most important - it's free.

Of course this supposes that you are allowed to add any software to the library computers.
 
The biggest challenge you will have is meeting the needs of the entire class. As someone has already noted, one person's beginner is another person's advanced user.
 
exactly! Im thinking of doing the course then offering say £5 per hour one-on-one lessons where people can get much more specific about what they want to know how to do

Software wise i agree, i'm thinking something like Picassa but I will point out GiMP for those really wanting to get into it (free equivalent to Photoshop, in many ways anyway)

Im aiming for a small, maybe 9-10 classroom and calling on my friends, one who's doing a degree in photography and another who's just learning the SLR route to help out with advice in smaller groups etc
 
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