Course: Digital Photography

Topic outline

General
General
Welcome to Digital Photography

Your computer is your darkroom.
Your software is free.
The world is your gallery.

This lesson is a sample course written by Paul Nelson. The content and photographs are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. That means that you can use it, improve it and share it.

Download in Moodle format: moodle_digital_photo.zip

;-) pnelson@nwresd.k12.or.us
Topic 1
Topic 1

Assignment:
The People In Your Life

This is your first photo assignment. We'll start with something important, the people in your life. During this course we'll learn about lighting, composition, camera options and photo editing but none of those skills alone can make a great photograph. It takes YOU to make a great photograph. Enjoy your first lesson!
Topic 2
Topic 2
Assignment:
Senior Photo Shoot
You have seniors in your school who will enjoy posing for this assignment. Consider everyting you're learning about light, lines, texture and composition and you'll end up with some great photos.

#1 Tip: USE A TRIPOD. Nothing ruins a great photo like camera shake. Don't risk blurry photos. Use a tripod.
Topic 3
Topic 3
Assignment:
Lines Pattern Texture

Look around and you'll find interesting patterns and lines everywhere around you. One of the best places to look is in the school parking lot. Use your macro setting and get up close to shoot some tail light lenses.
Topic 4
Topic 4
Assignment:
Backgrounds

What is the perfect background? Most are sized at 1024x786 pixels and have interesting shapes and patterns. Some are landscapes or funny scenes. Find yours and you can upload it to Flickr's collection.
- Create a Desktop Background Assignment
Topic 5
Topic 5
Assignment:
Still Life Photography

A still life is a portrait of a thing as opposed to a person. The good news is that things don't complain when you pose them in odd positions for long periods of time. Be sure to explore shooting from different angles under different lighting conditions.
Topic 6
Topic 6
Assignment:
Themed Photo Shoots

Turn your photographer's eye loose on your city this week. The first theme is street photography. The second theme is age.
Topic 7
Topic 7
Assignment:
Framing

We're not talking about the framing that holds up the walls of a house and we ARE talking about more than picture frames. Framing in photography can be around, behind and/or in front of the subject. See the framing tips resource for some good examples.
- Tips on Framing Page
- Framing Assignment
Topic 8
Topic 8
Assignment:
Exploring Light

Backlight, sidelight... In this lesson you'll explore how to take advantage and even create interesting lighting for your photographs. It doesn't take expensive equipment to make a lighting studio. Just borrow the livingroom table lamp and use a tripod to eleminate camera shake.
Topic 9
Topic 9
Assignment:
Panoramic Photography

Panoramic photographs were popular 100 years ago. Take a look at the fill-size version of the photo above and you can see there are lots of ways to have fun with these kinds of photographs.
- Panoramic Photography Assignment
- Gallery Day #6 - Photo Journalism Photo Essays Assignment
Topic 10
Topic 10
Assignment:
Photo Essay

Your final project will be a photo essay. First we'll take a look at photo essays from other photographers. Then you will create your own photo essay. Your work in this assignment will showcase much of what you have learned in this course.
- Photo Essay - Part 1 Essay Critique Assignment
- Photo Essay - Final Project Assignment
Topic 11
Topic 11
Topic 12
Topic 12