How to Do: Digital Photography

The best camera in the world does not make the picture on its own. Understanding the gear is less than half of it. Understanding photography is is also less than half of it. The rest is made up of understanding digital images and how computers work with them

Digital cameras have changed everything. No one minds shooting a load of pictures these days to get the perfect one. People are being bolder becasue they are not going to run out of film, or spend too much on film and processing costs. The results are instant and pictures can be taken, not only, with cameras but increasingly with phones as well.

At the other end ‘professional’ digital cameras are becoming more affordable. You can still spend tens of thousands of pounds on Mamiya and Hasselblad cameras but Nikon and Canon and others have really good hand-held digital SLR cameras for a few hundred pounds each and prices are falling all the time.

My own interest in photography goes back to well before digital. I was designing all the advertising for Ricoh Cameras at the time. It was Ricoh who produced the world’s first consumer compact digital camera. They were kind enough to give me one so that I could assess it before designing all the promotional material for it (I still have it). I have been taking digital pictures daily since. I have spent much of my professional life producing advertising and promotional material for companies such as Mamiya Profesional Cameras, Cokin Photography Filters, and Sharp ViewCam. While none of this makes me a photographer, I am at ease with the technology and have art directed plenty of photo shoots and had many of my own pictures published.

In brief, the best camera in the world does not make the picture on its own. Understanding the gear is less than half of it. Understanding photography is is also less than half of it. The rest is made up of understanding digital images and how computers work with them.

This course focuses on better digital photography. It is aimed at the beginner, with a step by step approach, taking things slowly but surely and eventually leading to better digital photography. Starting with how to hold the camera.

The lessons will go through a range of others points including:

Photography verview: subject to camera to computer to print
Resolution, colour profiles and image/file type

About digital cameras – good, bad and expensive
Holding the camera
Keep both eyes open

Following the subject
Composing yourself and the image
Lighting
Different lenses
Filters
ISO settings
Depth of field
shutter speeds
Black and white
Using a tripod
Watching out for photo opportunities
Downloading images
The computer’s digital darkroom 
Getting your images printed
What next?