About the Course
This class is for photographers who need one-on-one help in setting up their cameras so that they can take full advantage of their camera’s capabilities and produce correctly exposed and composed photographs. Basic compositional approaches will be discussed and explained.
What Will You Learn?
Students will learn not to miss photos by not having your camera's basic settings correct, by not having the photo sharp, or because you are trying to find a setting you want that is buried somewhere in your camera’s settings menu.
Students will also learn:
Slow shutter speeds mean unsharp photos, and what shutter speeds and apertures are appropriate for different situations
Composition guidelines (There are no rules in photography.)
What focal length lenses work best who what subjects
The relationship between shutter speed, aperture and ISO, to understand what to pay attention to when shooting on automatic settings
Focusing tips and what depth of field means
What lens focal lengths are most suited to different types of images
How to recognize good light for photos and what bad lighting is
Photographers’ rights for photographing people
What photo editing tools (Lightroom and Photoshop) can do to make your photos better
Good file organization on your computer to more easily find certain photos
All these mean it will be easier for you to more quickly take pictures that are sharp, well-exposed, correctly color balanced, and more pleasing because of good composition.
It can take a while on your own to figure out what camera settings are important to set right for most photos. Annoyingly, all camera manufacturers and all models of cameras they sell have the physical controls in different places and have settings menus that can be a challenge to figure out. I love my Fujifilm camera, but after seeing that some of my photos weren’t sharp, when they should have been, it took a month to find that there was a setting that, despite its generic name, meant, ”Do you want the camera to focus, when you press the shutter button or wait that microsecond later until the lens has had a chance to focus?” Now I have it set correctly to the wait mode.
It is important to me that everyone gets a chance to learn about the characteristics of a good photo, from composition to editing in Lightroom or Photoshop. Since editing your photo can make a huge difference in how the photo looks, I do a short overview of both those programs, so you can see whether you might be interested in using them at some point.
I love to teach because I can help students get past a number of obstacles that it can take a long time to figure out. I don’t want anyone to have to work hard just to do something that should be easy.
We go outside to practice some of what we’re learning in class. But I also ask that students shoot some photos during the week that reflect the lesson of the day, along with the type of photos that they really like to shoot. I review them in class to provide any helpful guidance. Remember, there are no grades here! From the many students I’ve taught this class to, I can say that everyone has about the same skill level to start. I just want to help everyone to get better. But it is not mandatory to do the extra shooting.
I have a syllabus that lists what will happen in each class that I can send you if you want more information about what the class will cover. And I’m open to discussing anything about photography that you may want to talk about that isn’t listed. Everything is related, and helps in the understanding of shooting better pictures with less effort.
You can email me at rabatch@comcast.net for the syllabus, or with any other questions.
Your Instructor
Richard Batch
Richard has taught Digital Photography I and II, Digital Printing I and II, Kids Camps, Meet & Shoot, Smartphone Photography, The Negative, and Developing a Personal Style. In 2021 he is introducing The Art of Photography, a class that discusses the elements of great photographs and applies them to current work.
He shoots pictures of life happening, and recently produced a book of somewhat surreal and unusual photographs, Twilight in the Void. Richard’s photography was influenced by Richard Avedon, both his portrait and candid work, both of which showed people being vividly alive. He enjoys passing on what he has learned, helping people become better photographers with less effort.
“I aim to make it easier for my students to achieve what they want, not only by presenting techniques I'm teaching, but by helping with any specific area that interests them. This helps to broaden the scope of the class, and benefits other students (and sometimes me) as well."