Gavilan College
Course: DM/CSIS/Art 80: Introduction to Digital Photography
Instructor: Robert Beede. See instructor’s page for office hours.

Schedule: Fall ’05

New, but still in progress!

Open Studio DM hours (open lab) can be found here.

Here is a link to iPhoto help and information: http://www.apple.com/support/iphoto/.

• August 22 Lecture: Course description and requirements. Introduction to the digital photography tools available in Studio DM.
  Lab: Use of browsers for course information. Intro to lab procedures, computer use, network, and printing. Read on the web, one of the photographer storys at http://www.apple.com/pro/photo/. Be ready to share and discuss the story. Good stories from A Day in the Life of Africa can be found at http://www.apple.com/pro/photo/africa/.
  Assignment: Buy book and read Chapter 1 and 2. Finish lab reading assignment.
• August 29 Lecture: Use of the lab and software. Discussion of lab reading assignment. Digitizing: resolution, color depth, compression. Quality of digital: Digital vs. Standard Point and Shoot cameras. Pro and high end digital. . How digital cameras work.
  Lab: Explore digital camera review web sites (e.g., http://www.dpreview.com/, http://www.steves-digicams.com http://www.pcphotoreview.com, http://electronics.cnet.com/electronics/0-1429209.html?tag=st.cn.1.cameras.1429209, or http://www.digital-cameras-info.com) for information about your camera or one that you are hoping to purchase.
  Assignment: Read chapter 2. Bring your camera next class! Assignment #1, Finding the Best Digital Camera
• September 12 Lecture: Basic photography and camera inforomation. Digital Cameras--choosing. Digital Media has Canon Powershot S200 Digital Elphs (manual), Canon A70 (manual), and S30 Clamshells. More manuals in PDF file format are at http://www.powershot.com/powershot2/customer/manual.html.
  Lab: Class photography: With a partner, shoot a photo with lots of depth of field and little depth of field. Shoot a picture with ISO = 100 and another with ISO = 400 (or close). Download the pictures to iPhoto on the lab computers, select a few, export from iPhoto, then burn a CD backup using Toast.
  Assignment: Read chapter 3. Finish assignment #1, Finding the Best Digital Camera, due September 19. Buy a camera if you want.
• September 19 Lecture: Using the flash: settings, speed and flash compensation, fill flash, and red-eye reduction. After a short lecture, form groups of 2 or 3 and take 4 (or more) pictures! Photograph a backlit subject, a super contrast scene (i.e., lots of lights and darks), and a subject both indoors both with flash and without flash. All settings except flash = on can be automatic at this point.
  Lab: Import them into iPhoto and print 4 of them combined on a single page. See printing instructions. Use the Epson 2400 printer with regular paper, but with a quality setting. I will go over this in class.
  Assignment: #2: Print an N-Up photo sheet from iPhoto.
• September 26 Lecture: Camera settings: White balance, ISO, Zoom, exposure compensation. It's picture time around Gavilan again. Read this article on dynamic Range, http://www.scantips.com/basics14.html. Explain assignment #3 and 4 due on October 3-10.
  Lab: As a group, explore your camera’s settings. Finish assignment #2.
  Assignment: Read chapter 3 and 4. Do assignment #3 due on October 3. Start assignment #4.
• October 3 Lecture: More camera settings such as aperture priority, shutter priority, manual focus. Use of the histogram.
  Lab: Picture taking at Gavilan. Work on lab portion of assignment #3 and assignment #4. Explore advanced camera settings. Use your camera's manual to help you.
  Assignment: Shoot (i.e., record) pictures according to assignment #4 and assignment #5. Study for the test in 2 weeks. Make sure you have read through chapter 2.
• October 10 Lecture: Macro, candid, and portrait photography. Lenses used, aperture settings, and techniques. Lighting including fill flash, reflectors, back lighting, and 3 point lighting. Web sites that have good information on lighting equipment and techniques are: http://www.photoflexlightingschool.com/, http://www.istockphoto.com/tutorial_2.2_lighting.php, http://www.fodors.com/focus/focselect.cfm?catid=7, and http://photoinf.com/General/Klaus_Schroiff/Using_Light.htm.
  Lab: Explore web site Pink Headed Bug. As a group take macro and pictures of each other.
  Assignment: Complete lab assignment. If you haven't already done so, take people and Macro pictures per assignment #5. Read Chapter 3 and pay close attention to different methods of selection.
• October 17 Lecture: Test next week on camera functions. Introduction to Photoshop. Go to www.atomiclearning.com for tutorials. Compositing images on a page. Basic image editing. Color management, image sizing/croping, and interpolation. Color theory.
• Lab: Explore Photoshop. Work on assignment #6: Preparing images for color correction. See example. Take a Halloween photo. Best photo in class wins a prize!
  Assignment: Finish assignment #6: Preparing images for color correction. Read chapter 3 again.
• October 24 Lecture: Note: Bonfante Gardens has not returned a number of calls, so class will be in the lab today. Because of a scheduled meeting, it will also end at 2:50. Color correction. Using brightness and contrast, hue/saturation, color balance, selection, and levels to color correct and enhance photos.
  Lab: Work on assignment #7 Color Correcting Your Off-balanced White Photos.
  Assignment: Finish assignment #7. Take a Halloween photo. Best photo in class wins a prize!
• October 31 Lecture: Healing tools, cloning, channels, and layers.
  Lab: Work on assignment #8 and print Halloween photo.
  Assignment: Work on assignment #8.
• November 7 Lecture: Rain!! looks very likely, so field trip is cancelled. We will do one though as soon as we can. Healing tools, cloning. Question and answers. See final project description.
  Lab: Finish assignment 8 which is due November 28.
  Assignment: Make a project management chart for the final project
• November 14 Lecture: Field trip to Moss Landing. Take pictures that are not ordinary (i.e., something that most folks would pass up).
  Turn in your best picture at the end off class next week. Do not be afraid to crop the image. Do touch up as necessary and note the things you did to make the image look better.
• Assignment: Finish book.
• November 21 Lecture: More photo editing. Use of Layers and layer masks. Painting corrections.
  Lab: Work on assignments.
• Assignment: Finish book.
• November 28 Lecture: Layers, layer masks, and masks again. Special effects/filters, compositing for artistic effects. Printing and Scanning? Preparing photos for screen presentation (e..g., web, video, cell phone).
  Lab: Complete Assignment #8. Turn in at end of class.
  Assignment: Select and prepare images for final project. Bring at least 5 to class next week.
• December 5 Lecture: Preparing photos for the web and printing. Burning the DVD slide show.
  Lab: Work on final project.
  Assignment: Work on final project
• December 12 Lecture: Questions and answers. Final Project help.
  Lab: Work on final project.
  Assignment: Work on final project.
• December 19, 1:00 - 3:00 PM. Final Exam and Final Project presentations!