Ideas for one day seminar?

I have to help a women in the outdoors get together, later this summer with a

two-hour crash course on digital photography. These women are for the most

part 30+ in age and will be doing other things like an archery class, outdoor

cooking, gardening class for some of the other events. I have access to

electricity and such in the ranger station to start out inside, but I'd like

to get them out for a short assignment and come back and look at the results.

Anyone have any ideas? Have you done something like this before? I only have

two hours from 9 a.m.-11 a.m. in early June. We are at a state park and have

access to some nice backdrops and water, etc. I need some suggestions on how

to steer this course and gear it towards my students and their needs. I think

for the most part they will be novice users with point and shoot type

cameras. Suggestions greatly appreciated.

Just a few brainstorm ideas:

-landscapes- rule of thirds

-macro - how to shoot flowers, leaves

-night shots - tripods and timers

-running water - how to get those misty looking rivers

-computery stuff - show them something using something like Picassa how to download and organize pictures and then illustrate basic editing like cropping, colour/contrast enhancements, b&w, sepias etc.....

If it were me I'd try and show them tidbits of stuff to get them interested instead of showing them stuff so that they'll go home with a head full of basic knowledge.

How to pose and flatter human subjects (the basics inluding avoiding bright sun, squinted eyes, how to back light and standing the subject 45 degrees to the camera).

The most common snapshot is of people.

I think Terry is on the ball, teach them the basic techniques that'll get them started so they

can impress not only themselves, but their friends. Send them out on a half hour shoot in

the 'wilderness' to take photos of flowers, landscapes, etc. Set up say, 5 set areas with

tripods in what you would consider the 'best' landscapes, give maps to the areas and have

them take photos. Before they leave, teach them the basics of tripods and rule of thirds,

etc (should take 15 minutes) get them out there and have them come back in 45 minutes.

give them a 15 minute demo in uploading files and storing them, and the a 45 minute

post-processing demo.

Good luck!

Alex I

As usual, I'm a bit confused. Are you teaching "digital photography" or, in effect, "photography in general"? If it's the former, than I personally would go over how digital is different than film because that's likely what they've been (pardon the pun) exposed to.

I would talk about storage options, why it's important to format your CF/SD cards in camera as opposed to erasing the photographs after copying the photos off. (Your CF card can become "fragmented" just like a disk drive); The importance of backup and a real biggie: The histogram, which for many, (wisely or not) has, in effect, replaced the light meter.

In that histogram discussion I would tell them about blown highlights and how, if they're truly "blown", they'll never get any information back. Thus, while "exposing to the right" can be a good thing, one can over-do it if they clip their highlights.

Many of the above suggestions are excellent; however many of them apply to film photography too and are not digital-photography specific. So you might want to decide whether or not you want the class to concentrate on digital photographic idiosyncracies, or simply how to take a nice photograph using the rule of thirds, etc, etc. Good luck!

Sandra has it right on the money; teach them how to quickly look for good light and what

good photogrpahic light actually is); how to gently pose and how to direct.

I'd also include the benefits of using a tripod --sharper pix, ability to frame and compose

with more thought, leaves the hands free, makes a session less tiring.

The title says one day, but then you say you only have two hours. That's not much time to present much theory, have them shoot, and then analyze the results. And 9-11 am probably presents harsh light, unless it's a cloudy day.

<p>

Are they using their own equipment? Is it P&S or something more sophisticated? Are they specifically interested in nature photography? Scenics? Macros? People?

<p>

Just guessing at the answers, I'd shoot for something that will help an average vacation snapshooter make better vacation snapshots. The kind of thing that John Hedgecoe covers very well in a number of his books. I'd go with how to pose people in front of natural backgrounds in a flattering way, somewhat along the lines of what Sandra suggests. This covers a bit of composition, avoiding the "bulls-eye syndrome", posing, finding nice light for the human subject, perhaps touching on fill flash.

Along the lines of Sandra and Ellis, make it the simpler basics: how/why to avoid camera shake, what a larger/smaller aperture does, trying different points of view, avoiding too much contrast.

Just a few tips, and illustrate briefly before going out on your laptop or whatever

I'm no teacher, but have been on several trips with my "real camera", and when P&S people asked for help, they glazed over real fast when I talked about the reciprocal of shutter speed/aperture, dynamic range, etc. So I just stick with "put it on something solid if you can, always move over a few yards, check around the edges, don't grow a tree out of a head".

The ones who want to learn more will ask you