Digital Photography I

Course Description

The objectives of this one-semester course are to focus on three aspects of digital photography: taking better photographs, providing a technical background, and using image editing software.

The principles of good photography will be discussed, and tips for taking better pictures will be presented. Good versus not-so-good composition examples will be analyzed. Students will be encouraged to analyze their own photographs as well as those taken by other students.

The basic technical foundation of digital photography will be explained, including the basics of how digital cameras work.

Students will be introduced to image editing software. This software will be used to organize as well as improve photographs. Students will perform tasks such as resizing, cropping, modifying lighting and coloration, and removing defects.

Prerequisite: No previous experience is required. Student must have access to a digital camera. Any type of digital camera will work.

[Open to grades 10-12, limited to 25 students per section]

Course Outline

I. Taking Better Photographs (about 30% of class time)

A. Composition

1. Visualization

2. Subject

3. Center of Interest

4. Background

5. Point of View

6. Picture Orientation

7. Framing Picture

8. Direction & Movement

9. Moving Subject

B. Critiques

1. Procedure

2. Self-Critiques

3. Group Critiques

C. Techniques

1. People

2. Children

3. Landscape

4. Nature

5. Travel

6. Action (Sports)

7. Night

8. Sports Photography

9. Close-up

10. Photojournalism

II. Understanding Digital Photography (about 20% of class time)

A. History

B. Camera Basics

1. Point and Shoot

2. Intermediate

3. Single Lens Reflex

C. Lens

1. Wide Angle Lens

2. Normal Lens

3. Telephoto lens

D. Digital Pictures

1. Pixels

2. Size

E. Digital Film

1. Image Sensor

2. Image Size

3. Resolution

4. Compression

5. Storage Media

6. Transfer Time

F. Using a Digital Camera

1. Modes

2. Shutter

G. Exposure

1. Light Meter

2. Gray Card

3. Aperture

4. Time

5. Sensitivity

6. Noise

H. Focus

1. Sharpness

2. Spot Focus

3. Depth of Field

4. Focal Length

I. Color

1. Hue

2. Saturation

3. Temperature

4. White Balance

5. Color Spaces

6. Monitor versus Printer

J. Light

1. Contrast

2. Brightness

3. Shadows & Highlights

K. Flash

1. Red Eye

2. Synchronization

3. Guide Number

L. Image Retrieval

1. USB

2. Memory Media Reader

M. Terminology

III. Working Digitally (about 50% of class time)

Using Adobe Photoshop Elements (version 5)

A. Storing Digital Photographs

1. Transfer from Camera to Computer

2. File Naming

B. Organizing Digital Photographs

1. Tagging

2. Viewing

3. Stacks

4. Collections

C. Fixing Digital Photographs

1. Red Eye

2. Cropping

3. Resizing

4. Color Balance

5. Lighting

6. Sharpening

D. Editing Digital Photographs

1. Straightening

2. Selection

3. Brushes

4. Spot Removal

5. Cloning

6. Transforming

7. Filters

8. Layers

9. Re-coloring

10. Manipulating

E. Presenting Digital Photographs

1. Printing

2. Slide Shows

3. Creations

4. Sharing

Updated: August 17, 2007