Courses and Classes

This is the course for you if you're ready to take photography to the next level. Whether that involves setting up your own studio to explore portrait photography or selling your landscape photography to support your camera gear habit, we can help.

Foundations

This course is part of our Foundations Series. For a side-by-side comparison of all our Foundations courses, click here.

 C1MAC3 - Photography 3 (Advanced Photography techniques)

You have mastered taking photos that are technically sound - the basics. And you've learned to apply the principles of composition and visual design to take photos that are artistically pleasing. What is left to learn? We're glad you asked, because we have an answer. And that answer is: a lot.

Our Photography 3 course will show you how to build on your technical mastery and creative development to become a truly accomplished photographer. We'll teach you how to sling some gear (beyond just your camera and tripod). We'll show you how to work with your subjects effectively so that you're collaborating to make stunning images, rather than dictating directions to models in a detached way that undermines the subject-photographer relationship. We'll dive into two powerful photo organizing and editing tools to give you the most control possible over how your images turn out. And, finally, we'll help you begin to get a handle on the thing many find most challenging: the marketing, pricing, and packaging of your photographic skill and products.

The course will be offered as a classroom course and online via Zoom at the same time. If you feel you learn better in our classroom, come in for class. If you feel you'd rather not travel to class, join us online on your favorite internet device that'll put you right with us in the classroom. Included with the course is your own personal course book with work sheets for Class 8. Each chapter corresponds to a class in the course and contains all the relevant information you may need.

This course runs only once a year in Fall.

Requirements:

A digital Point And Shoot or SLR (strongly recommended) camera

Recording medium (e.g.: Film, Compact Flash or SD card)

Instruction booklet that came with the camera

Later in the course, a laptop with Lightroom and Photoshop installed will be very helpful

Here's how we help you take it to the next level. C1MAC3 Course Syllabus:

Class 1:

Recap of Photography 1 and Photography 2

We'll hit the highlights of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, and then cover how they interconnect. We'll give a refresher on whitebalance and light metering so that the mechanics of your camera don't trip you up. Finally, we'll review the elements and principals of visual design and refresh your mind on how to apply them for pleasing composition and subject placement.

Class 2:

Back Button Focus and Advanced Autofocus

You may find it helpful to separate your camera's autofocus function from the shutter release. We'll talk about how to do that and why you might want to, and then we'll explore the more advanced capabilities of autofocus to give you the most creative control over your photography possible.

Class 3:

Flash Photography and an Introduction to Studio Lighting, advanced lighting concepts

Not all of your photo shoots will present you with ideal lighting conditions. We'll show you how to best use your flash to better manage murky lighting conditions. And then we'll introduce you to studio lighting equipment and teach you how it's used for total lighting control. Learning to see light sounds easy but takes some time. We'll get you going on the road of dramatic illumination.

Class 4:

Directing and Posing Subjects

Getting people to look their best is only easy if you don't do it yourself. Finding someone's optimum angle and best pose is an intuitive dance between subject and photographer. It requires a connection and a dialogue each time. It can be uncomfortable - but it's necessary if you want your photography to be as good as it can be. We'll show you how to start.

Class 5:

Setting Up Your Workflow

Nothing derails your plans to create amazing images like discovering you can't find the images you want to work with. We'll show you how to set up a file structure to manage your photo catalog so that you'll be able to find any image from any shoot in seconds.

Class 6:

Using Lightroom to Select and Edit Images

Coming back from a photo shoot with an onslaught of images can be overwhelming. Unless you have a system in place for culling images and organizing your editing to help you get a handle on things. We'll show you the approach we use in our studio to sort and select images to edit.

Class 7:

Introduction to Photoshop

Brace yourself. Photoshop is amazingly powerful. And with great power comes great confusion, sometimes. We will help you make sense of how Photoshop works and guide you past the frustration that can come from trying to learn the program on your own.

Class 8:

Graduation night and Student Showcase Slideshow. Hit us with your best shots. Receive your certificate in Photography 3.