Introduction to Digital Photography - PHT 164
https://courses.vccs.edu/courses/PHT164-IntroductiontoDigitalPhotography
Effective: 2025-05-01
Course Description
Introduces fundamental techniques of photography, including digital camera operation, postproduction, and printing. Includes technical and conceptual exercises, individual project development, and group critiques.
Lecture 2 hours. Laboratory 3 hours. Total 5 hours per week.
3 credits
The course outline below was developed as part of a statewide standardization process.
General Course Purpose
This course provides students with a foundation in digital camera usage and with a fundamental understanding of the editing software.
Course Objectives
- Hardware
- Operate a fully adjustable digital camera.
- Photographic Controls
- Adjust exposure, tonal range, and color balance.
- Critical Thinking
- Solve technical, formal, and conceptual problems to develop an individual project.
- Post-production
- Use professional software to adjust and alter digital photographs, manage image files, and generate required outputs.
- Output
- Prepare images for color-managed photo-quality printing and digital display.
- Critique
- Use relevant vocabulary to evaluate and critique photographic works.
Major Topics to be Included
- Camera operation
- Manage settings for aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to obtain a desired result.
- Control depth of field using aperture, focal length, and focal distance.
- Framing and Focus
- Make effective framing, focus, and vantage point decisions.
- Exposure
- Choose aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exposure value compensation, and read histograms to obtain a desired result.
- Light
- Identify the quality and direction of light sources.
- Understand and control white balance.
- Raw capture, image processing and manipulation
- Understand the difference between RAW and processed files.
- Control in-camera processing and post-production changes.
- File and Color Management
- Choose color profiles appropriate to print and other media.
- Organize and manage multiple digital files.
- Understand how to use metadata to organize digital files.
- Print output
- Operate a photo quality printer in a color-managed workflow.
- Make informed decisions concerning paper type and scale.
- Project Development
- Complete individual creative projects using decision making and problem solving.
- Critical Discourse
- Discuss formal and conceptual aspects of images.
- Analyze images using multiple theoretical approaches.
- History and Theory
- Respond to and learn from works by historical and contemporary photographers.
- Recognize a variety of approaches to the medium.
- Presentation of images
- Prepare images for print and/or digital exhibition or publication.