Course Description

Effective: 2015-01-01

General Course Purpose

This course is designed to acquaint the student with the intricacies of photographing nature and to meet the needs of inexperienced (or complete) beginners through advanced photographers who would like to learn how to photograph the natural world or who want to upgrade their photographic skills.

Course Prerequisites/Corequisites

None

Course Objectives

• Properly select equipment (lenses and accessories) for micro, macro (close-up), telephoto and scenic photography
• Determine the ?best light? for various types of outdoor photography and adjust the ISO setting for various lighting conditions.
• Use filters to correct or enhance a photograph.
• Calculate and use the hyperfocal distance to gain maximum depth of field in scenics.
• Read and adjust the depth of field scale.
• Properly compose a picture using standard and advanced compositional guidelines (sweet spots, rules of thirds, s-curves, diagonals, triangles, oval, radii effect, odds, evens, wedge, etc.)
• Determine correct placement of horizons depending on the desired mood or effect.
• Determine exposure compensation in unique lighting situations (i.e. snow, black objects, etc.)
• Use complimentary colors to highlight or set a mood.
• Determine the correct shutter speed/f-stop combination for various outdoor photographic situations.
• Use equipment to produce professional photographs.
• Make choices regarding advanced equipment to use in the future.
• Learn basic digital photo processing to optimize the image.

Major Topics to be Included

• Selecting equipment
• Lighting
• Photo composition
• Color theory
• Hyperfocal
• Photo processing
• Animal behavior