Archived course
This course comprises five half-day sessions.
Summary
You’re the proud owner of a sophisticated camera – one with lots of controls to fine tune its performance. It’s probably a digital SLR or, perhaps, an advanced bridge camera or one of the new breed of compact system cameras with interchangeable lenses. All of these cameras go beyond simple point and shoot operation by offering full control to the user. Trouble is, it all seems very complicated.
So far, you’ve used the camera in automatic mode, or maybe even in some of the preset “scene” modes – portrait, landscape and so on. You may have the basics straight in your mind – you know a little about exposure, shutter speeds and apertures, but want to go further with your photography. Although a lot of the information you need is in the manual, knowing where to start is a challenge. This course will show you how to get more out of your camera by taking control yourself, instead of letting the camera do the work.
Please read the course details for important information about what to bring with you.
Details
This course is intended to take you beyond the basics. It covers some of the same fundamentals as the introductory “Getting the most from your digital camera” but then quickly moves on to explore and explain many of the functions available on more advanced modern digital cameras.
Topics covered will be somewhat driven by the group, but are likely to include:
- Exposure control – making sure your pictures are not too bright or dark
- Focus – making sure your subject is not blurred
- Semi-automatic and manual modes
- Understanding your camera’s exposure aids
- Using the flash gun
- White balance
- Image stabilisation
- Understanding noise
- Drive modes
- Exposure and focus lock
- Metering
- Macro photography
- Raw mode
- Zoom
- Composition
- Ensuring your pictures are sharp
- Creative use of filters
- Composition techniques
Equipment to bring
Students should bring along their own digital camera, complete with the associated battery charger and the cable for connecting the camera to a computer. Make sure you have a fully-charged battery and a plenty of space on your memory card – ideally there should be no pictures on it at the start of the course.
It would useful to have the camera’s full user manual available (either printed or in electronic format) in case we need to refer to it. A printed “Getting started” guide is usually provided with your camera, while the full manual is often provided as an electronic document on the disk supplied with your camera.