Course Description

Author Ron Lacey has been an avid amateur photographer and dark room enthusiast for over 25 years. This class is designed to introduce you to the basics of photography in general and digital photography in particular. The age of digital photography is upon us. High quality megapixel cameras are now available at affordable prices. In the LVS Digital Photography class you'll go beyond your camera's auto exposure mode and learn how to use shutter speeds and apertures to your advantage. Find out what makes a good photograph and improve your own photos by learning the basics of good composition. If you already have a digital camera this class will help you get the most out of it. If you are one of the many considering the move to digital or are thinking about upgrading your present camera, we'll help you decide what you need to look for in a new digital camera. This is a 6 week, self-paced, online course. If you need additional help understanding the material presented, you can communicate with the instructor and fellow classmates. LVS Online offers many wonderful learning tools to help you get the most out of your online course, including an online portfolio service that manages all your course registrations, a class discussion board to interact with your instructor and fellow classmates, free hosting account, and a student upload area. LVS is a Corel Training Partner. LVS students may purchase Corel products at a significant savings. Follow this link for details. LVS students are also eligible take advantage of special offers made available by famous software developers such as Andromeda, AV Bros, Extensis, Harry Heim, namesuppressed, Nik Multimedia, and Ulead. Details are provided in the classinfo link found in the confirmation of registration. If you would like to receive more information regarding this course, click on the "Contact Us" link in the Information section and we'll try to answer any of your questions within the day.

Course Requirements

You will need a digital camera, though much of what we'll cover will be applicable to a conventional camera as well. To get the most out of this class, you should have a digital camera or a scanner and conventional camera combination. Image editing software to reduce the size of your images, preferably Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop or Elements Basic HTML page WS_FTP SmartFTP Students should have working knowledge of their operating system: Free Windows Class Here Directory Structure Tutorial Here Zip files may be necessary to complete the exercises provided each week. WinZip, PKZip, Windows Compression or similar program is required to unzip these files. Winzip Tutorial Here Windows Compression These tutorials will show you how to crop and resize images that you want to place on your homework pages: Resize Images for the Web using Irfanview, a Freeware program *Mac* Resize Images for the Web using Goldberg 2.3, a Freeware program All lessons are available in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view/print the lessons. Plan to devote 2 - 4 hours per week on the lesson and assignment.

Course Prerequisites

Class Level - Intro None

Course Syllabus

Lesson 1 - What to Look for in a Digital Camera Why should I go digital? What resolution do I need? What's this digital zoom? What about an optical zoom? What about memory? Exposure Options Do I need a manual focus option? Lesson 2 Shutter Speed Aperture Beyond the Auto Settings Program or Auto What is ISO? Why use aperture priority? Why use shutter priority? Metering Lesson 3 Composition Focal Point The Rule of Thirds Use the Entire Frame Locating the Horizon Use Lines Framing Know When to Go Vertical Point of View Lesson 4 Flash Range Distance Determines Exposure Flash Sync Speed Fill Flash File Formats Printing Your Photos PPI and DPI Lesson 5 Macro Viewfinder Problems Focusing and Depth of Field Exposures and Backgrounds Using a Reflector Using a Light Tent Using Flash in Close-ups External flash Close-up Filters Ring Flash Units Lesson 6 Exercise Your Creativity Turn off the Colour

Course Excerpt

LESSON 1 This Week's Lessons: The Camera Why a thing you take pictures with of course. All cameras, digital or conventional, share certain basic parts as illustrated in Figure 1.01 The purpose of the camera is to capture a bit of light and convert it into a lasting image. On it's way to becoming a picture the light has to come from somewhere, usually this would be the sun. After traveling 93 million odd miles it bumps into our subject and bounces off in all directions. Some of that light will bounce off in the direction of the camera. The first camera element it comes to is the lens. The lens bends the light to focus it, and sends it on through the aperture. The aperture is simply a hole in the camera body and one of the ways the camera regulates how much light is allowed in. The camera does this adjusting the size of the aperture using the iris. The other means of egulating the amount of light allowed in is the shutter. The shutter is sort of a door that opens and closes long enough to let just the right amount of light in. The length of time the shutter is open is called the shutter speed and is usually measured in fractions of a seconds. Finally the light reaches the medium. This would be the film in the case of a conventional camera or the sensor in the case the digital camera. Basically the only difference between conventional film and digital cameras is the medium. Film In the case of the conventional chemical medium the light hitting the film reacts with tiny particles of light sensitive chemicals called silver halides. When light hits these particles a latent image is created on the film through a complicated chemical reaction. This image can't be seen, and in fact the very act of trying to see it will destroy it. First it must be developed and fixed with photographic chemicals. Once that is done we have a negative which has to be transferred to photographic paper through the same process it was created. This time light is passed through the negative and is focused with a lens on to a piece of photographic paper creating another latent image to be developed and fixed. This is printing. Digital A digital camera uses a small, rectangular piece of silicon rather film to record incoming light. The afore mentioned sensor. This silicon wafer is a solid-state electronic component which has been manufactured and segmented into an array of individual light-sensitive cells called photosites. It is the number of photosites on the sensor that determines the resolution or mega pixel count of a digital camera. The photosites accomplish their task of sensing incoming light through the photoelectric process which takes advantage of the ability of certain materials to release an electron when hit with a unit of light called a photon. The electrons emitted within the sensor remain within the area of the photon strike. As long as photons are allowed to hit the photosite electrons will accumulate. When the source of light is extinguished (the shutter is closed) electronic circuitry and a microprocessor are used to unload the CCD array, count the electrons in each pixel, and process the resulting data into an image. Once the counting is done the tally is sent in digital form to the cameras memory storage system. It may surprise you to learn that a photosite is colour blind, that is it can only determine that a photon has hit it but not what colour or wavelength the light is. Because of this the light hitting a single photosite is first passed through a colour filter, either red, green, or blue. These filters only allow light to pass that is their given colour and filter out all others. The photosite takes a photon count of the light passing through it's filter. The filters and photosites are arranged in what's known as a Bayer pattern in which, due to the nature of human vision, there are twice as many green sensitive photosites as red and blue. The colour assigned by single photosite to the pixel it's responsible for is an interpolation of it's count and the eight photosites that surround it. 99% of all digital cameras available today use a Bayer Pattern sensor array. The one exception are the DSLRs produced by Sigma which use the Foveon sensor. In the case of the Foveon sensor each photosite is capable of capturing and counting red green and blue light separately by implementing three photo sensitive layers on each site. If all that sensor stuff has you totally confused don't worry, it's just technical and knowing or understanding it is really of no great value to you as a photographer. Continued... Please note: Lessons provide step-by-step instructions with detailed screen captures.

Course Goals

I plan to give you a basic understanding of the things involved it producing good digital photographs. This will include: What to look for in a digital camera How modern cameras work and how to use them Lighting and exposure control Flash photography The essentials of good composition Black and white photography

Course Reviews

Rita: "Ron really put a lot in time into each and every one of us. He took the time to explain things in great detail. Also, the man has a great sense of humor and keep the entire course interesting! Thank you Ron, you're the Man!!" More...