(light piano music)

- Welcome to Digital Photography.

This class is designed for the beginning,

intermediate or even advanced photographer

who's interested in exploring camera arts

at Columbia College.

In this video I'm going to go over

some of the basics of camera handling

and what your requirements
are for this class.

This course does require a
digital single-lens reflex camera

or a DSLR such as this.

It can be any brand,

there's a lot on the market.

I happen to be holding a Nikon right now.

When you're looking for a camera,

you may already have one or
you're going to borrow one,

you may want to take a camera
shop up on renting a camera

to try out a few different ones

if you have a local camera shop in mind.

If you do buy one from a
store some things to look for

are getting a good camera
bag to go with your camera.

You want a bag that's roomy enough

to hold your lenses and your camera

and importantly you want to
be able to hold your manual

and bring that with you

while you're learning digital photography.

Your camera manual

is a really important
guide for you this course.

It's going to go over how
you control your settings

and learn basic camera functions

while you're doing the assignments.

Additionally,

you want to get a spare SD
card to store your images.

With digital photography

your SD card is where
your pictures are stored

and I suggest getting
a high-quality SD card.

Additionally,

you want to get a tripod,

a tripod is required.

And you want to have a ...

This is a lens hood,

a lens hood is nice.

Some of your camera kits
come with a lens hood

but it's not required.

I find it really helpful

when I'm photographing in
situations that have varied light,

like coastal areas.

I may not be in the right
direction of the sun

and lens hood served a purpose.

You always want to have
a lens cap on hand.

And importantly,

the other piece is that
you want to have a filter,

a UV filter.

A UV filter is a clear filter

that protects the optics of your lens.

I never take this off my camera,

but you want to keep
yours on just like me.

(laughs)

You want to keep your filter on,

it protects your camera from dust

and in the case of an accident
where your camera tips over

what's gonna get dented is
your filter not your lens,

and believe me that's happened a lot.

Another nice thing would
be a backup battery,

camera batteries are very helpful.

The assignments that you're
gonna work on this term

range from photographing objects,

places,

people,

setting up a narrative,

telling a story and capturing emotion.

Make sure that you get in the habit

of taking multiple takes on each shot.

You want to practice taking a lot

so that you can edit your images.

And what I mean by that is
take a large pool of images,

and then select the one
that best fits the criteria

for the assignment.

The focus of this class

isn't in image editing using
Photoshop or adding filters,

instead the focus

is on making minor
adjustments to color balance,

to converting images to black and white

or making slight adjustments to color.

I hope you have a great class.