Beginners Digital Photography Course

Course Notes (Part 1)

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR BEGINNERS

Held on Thursday 28^th July 2011 at The Guildford Institute

Tutor: Mike Sleigh, Photographer at Polypodphoto.

A one day course aimed at those who have a basic digital camera and wish to know how to use it and capture good photographs.

“Now anyone can be a Photographer...”

The advent of digital photography and reasonably priced digital cameras giving good quality images has seen a major take up by people who may not in the past have used a camera on a regular basis mainly due to the cost of film and processing.

The ability to see and review what has just been taken has made photography a lot easier without incurring any cost - just reshoot or delete as necessary.

Digital Overview

Digital cameras: types of digital camera available, their plus points and their limitations, other considerations and how to achieve good results.

Any digital camera, even the most basic, can capture an image suitable for use on the internet. It’s not the resolution/file size that is a problem but the limitation of what the camera can do – fine under good lighting conditions but not so good if taking photos indoors, under adverse lighting or where the subject is moving.

The better the camera the more opportunities there are of getting an excellent image but it usually also requires the person taking the photo to have a ‘good eye’ - technical aspects of the image OK but poor visual awareness (some people just can’t see things in a creative way!).

A lot of the benefits of digital photography reply on post capture computer processing using Photoshop or similar software, unlike film where once the shutter button is pressed further options are limited and usually involve time consuming darkroom work.

Digitally processing and enhancing an image does take time and requires an understanding of the software but in many cases the original ex camera image can be used without enhancement but it may still be necessary to adjust the resolution/file size for its required end use.

Types of Camera available:

Camera Phones

Compact Camera and Advanced Compact Cameras

Small, light, easy to carry around.  Usually fully automatic with some control over the image settings.       

Bridge and Compact System Cameras (CSC)

Between point & shoot cameras and Single Lens Reflex (SLR). Smaller and lighter than SLR’s yet offering comparable power, image quality and creative control. Interchangeable lenses on CSC .

Single Lens Reflex (SLR)

Complete control over image capture. Able to see through  the lens for precise framing and composition. Interchangeable lenses.

Camera Uses:

Camera phones: Probably only good enough for web use and on screen viewing, are limited when it comes to producing good quality prints.

Compact cameras: Use for ‘snaps’ and basic photography under good lighting conditions and where the subject is not moving quickly. Image/file size suitable for the web and for prints up to 7x5”. Camera limitations – unable to see precisely what you are taking due to LCD screen on back of camera, little creative control, focusing/exposure time lag, small file size on low end cameras.

Compact System Cameras: Use for ‘snaps’ and more creative situations where a small physical size camera is more convenient. Good for web and quality prints up to A4 size. Limitations – limited range of lens available.

Single Lens Reflex cameras: To achieve the best possible images, with full creative control in all situations. Limitations – Overall size and weight.