Course Description

Photography Basic III HDR (High Dynamic Range) & Panorama Stitching online course will introduce you to the world of High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. These images can also be combined into a single panorama image and the first two weeks of this course will concentrate on how to produce a panorama image using standard JPG images. HDR will increase the dynamic range of your images. Many times our exposures will have blown out highlights and look flat and dull. HDR will help you solve this problem and reveal highlight and shadow details you never thought were possible. Instructor Al Mierau has been an avid photographer for over 50 years. For 15 years he was professionally photographing commercial and residential structures for mortgage, fire insurance, and courtroom evidence. Air Canada, Gardens West Prairie Edition, and Heritage Canada magazines have published his photographs. Some of his work can also be seen at the Menno-Hof museum located in Shipshewana, Indiana. This is a 5 week, self-paced, online course. If you need additional help understanding the material presented, you can communicate with the instructor and fellow classmates. The instructor will monitor and track your progress throughout the class. 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, certificate of completion option, 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 eligible to receive software and hardware at a discount. Follow this link for details. Students are also eligible take advantage of special offers made available specifically for LVS 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. Show off your LVS Online spirit with an item from the LVS Store 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

A digital SLR camera that allows bracketing at least three images at a times is preferred. Digital cameras that do not allow bracketing can also be used however setting the controls for three different exposures without moving the camera from the scene is difficult in many cases. A good quality tripod and ideally a control cable to trigger your shutter release. (The control cable can be an option but is preferred if you intend on doing a lot of this type of photography in the future) Image editing software to reduce the size of your images such as Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop Elements, CS4. For panorama stitching extensive use will be made of AutoStitch and is free for non-commercial use and can be downloaded at: http://people.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html If you already have software that does panorama stitching of images, and feel comfortable using it, that is fine. For HDR work this course will make extensive use of Photomatix Pro 3.2.6 which is available on a trial basis at: http://hdrsoft.com/ Homework must be reviewed by the instructor in order to earn a certificate. Students have the option of using the Student Upload Area or free web hosting made available for LVS students. Details are provided in the classroom. If you prefer to use your own web space, you must know how to upload your files to a server. Free tutorials are available: Basic HTML page WS_FTP SmartFTP Students should have working knowledge of their operating system and must understand directories and paths: 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 All lessons are available in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view/print the lessons. Plan to devote 3 - 4 hours per week on the lesson and assignment; on this class that may vary according to how much experimenting you choose to do with actions and the other subjects of the class.

Course Prerequisites

This is an advanced course and you should have ideally completed my Basic I and Basic II classes.

Course Syllabus

Lesson 1 Definition of High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Panorama Images Review of various software How to photograph images to produce a good looking panorama image JPG vs RAW images Lesson 2 More work on panorama images Aperture control of your camera and setting your camera for bracketed shots Examples of bracketed images Lesson 3 Creating your first HDR images and a review of screen shots on how this was accomplished Lesson 4 Creating more HDR images Lesson 5 Creating a HDR panorama image Creating a HDR image using only one JPG image Lesson 6 Combining your differently exposed images into one image with details in shadows and highlights using Photomatix 3.2.6 HDR black and white HDR black and white panorama images

Course Excerpt

Photography Basic III will introduce you to the world of High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. HDR will increase the dynamic range of your images. Many times our exposures look flat and dull. HDR will help you solve this problem and reveal highlight and shadow details you never thought were possible. HDR images can also be used to create panorama scenes. You will learn how to do both. Continued... Please note: Lessons provide step-by-step instructions with detailed screen captures.

Course Goals

Photography Basic III will introduce you to the world of High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. HDR will increase the dynamic range of your images. Many times our exposures look flat and dull. HDR will help you solve this problem and reveal highlight and shadow details you never thought were possible. HDR images can also be used to create panorama scenes. You will learn how to do both.

Course Reviews

New Class January 2010