Course Description

Effective: 2014-10-01

General Course Purpose

This is an advanced course in wildlife, outdoor and nature photography. The purpose is to cover topics such as flash, hyperfocal distance and maximizing the cameras digital potential. The course includes seminars and field oriented activities on specific subject areas such as animals, plants, birds, insects, and landscapes

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 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.
• Present a visual and verbal critique on assignments
• Use photo EXIF metadata for reflection of planned (expectations) vs. how the slide actually turned out (results).
• Optimize photos for image processing (Photoshop etc.)
• Learn the use of various flash techniques; macro, ring, single, fill, multiple, diffused, chimera, bounce, omni, plus others.

Major Topics to be Included

• Selecting equipment
• Lighting
• Photo composition
• Color theory
• Hyperfocal
• Metadata
• Image processing
• Flash techniques