About this Course
This class focuses on creative photographic expression and inspiration while building your technical competence. Through interactive discussions and demonstrations, we’ll address topics such as the art of "seeing," visual storytelling, experimentation, style and how to manage personal creative challenges. Outside of class, assignments encourage you to explore, problem solve and sharpen your perceptive, creative and technical skills in photography.
To make the most of your RAW captures, you’ll explore essential digital production tools in Adobe Lightroom CC and progress to Photoshop CC later in the quarter. You’ll learn professional workflows for importing, organizing, culling and rating photos, selective color and tonality adjustments, HDR, panoramas, basic retouching and basic B&W conversion. You’ll also learn RAW workflows to move between Lightroom and Photoshop to harness the power of layers and masks. As a quarter-long project, you’ll propose a themed photographic series of six related images for review during the quarter and to present on the last class.
Professional photographers, artists and program alumni will visit us to share their knowledge, work and experiences and answer questions about the creative, technical and business aspects of their photography.
Past guests have included:
- Patrick and Patricia Bennett, corporate, photography and videography team
- Kevin Cruff, corporate, advertising and editorial photographer and videographer
- Chris Jordan, acclaimed photographic artist, author, speaker and filmmaker
- Mary Dee Mateo, fashion, beauty, portrait and lifestyle photographer
- Rosanne Olson, portrait and corporate photographer, instructor and author
- Daniel Silverberg, outdoor lifestyle and product photographer at EVO
- Mukul Soman, landscape, wildlife and CGI artist
- Kiliii Yuyan, National Geographic photographer and filmmaker
What You'll Learn
- How to make informed creative choices to express your vision in photographs and tell a story within an image or image series
- How to use your camera in new ways to discover and guide your intention, intuition, awareness, vision, exploration and experimentation
- An increased understanding of all light (natural, modified, artificial), color, composition and timing
- How to control Lightroom CC’s library, develop and presentation workflows
- Ways to analyze, critique, write and speak about your work and that of others