Fundamentals of Photography Course Guidebook
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Topic Subtopic Better Living Arts & Leisure Fundamentals of Photography Course Guidebook Joel Sartore Photographer, National Geographic Fellow PUBLISHED BY: THE GREAT COURSES Corporate Headquarters 4840 Westfi elds Boulevard, Suite 500 Chantilly, Virginia 20151-2299 Phone: 1-800-832-2412 Fax: 703-378-3819 www.thegreatcourses.com Copyright © The Teaching Company, 2012 Printed in the United States of America This book is in copyright. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of The Teaching Company. Joel Sartore Professional Photographer National Geographic Magazine oel Sartore is a photographer, a speaker, an author, a teacher, and a regular contributor Jto National Geographic magazine. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism, and his work has been recognized by the National Press Photographers Association and the Pictures of the Year International competition. Mr. Sartore was recently made a Fellow in the National Geographic Society for his work as a conservationist. The hallmarks of his professional style are a sense of humor and a midwestern work ethic. Mr. Sartore’s assignments have taken him to some of the world’s most beautiful and challenging environments, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. He has traveled to all 50 states and all seven continents, photographing every- thing from Alaskan salmon-fi shing bears to Amazonian tree frogs. His most recent focus is on documenting wildlife, endan gered species, and landscapes, bringing public attention to what he calls “a world worth saving.” His interest in nature started in child hood, when he learned about the very last passenger pigeon from one of his mother’s TIME LIFE picture books. Mr. Sartore has since published several books himself, including RARE: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species, Nebraska: Under a Big Red Sky, and Photographing Your Family: And All the Kids and Friends and Animals Who Wander through Too. His most recent book is titled Let’s Be Reasonable. In addition to the work he has done for National Geographic, Mr. Sartore has contributed to Audubon magazine, TIME, LIFE, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, and numerous book projects. He and his work have been the i subjects of several na tional broadcasts, including National Geographic’s Explorer, NBC’s Nightly News, NPR’s Weekend Edition, and an hour-long PBS documentary titled At Close Range with National Geographic. He is also a regular contributor on the CBS Sunday Morning show. Mr. Sartore is always happy to return to home base from his travels around the world. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, with his wife, Kathy, and their three children. ■ ii Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Professor Biography ............................................................................i Course Scope .....................................................................................1 LECTURE GUIDES LECTURE 1 Making Great Pictures .......................................................................3 LECTURE 2 Camera Equipment—What You Need ...............................................8 LECTURE 3 Lenses and Focal Length ................................................................14 LECTURE 4 Shutter Speeds ................................................................................20 LECTURE 5 Aperture and Depth of Field ............................................................27 LECTURE 6 Light I—Found or Ambient Light ......................................................33 LECTURE 7 Light II—Color and Intensity ............................................................40 LECTURE 8 Light III—Introduced Light ...............................................................47 LECTURE 9 Composition I—Seeing Well .............................................................53 LECTURE 10 Composition II—Background and Perspective .................................59 iii Table of Contents LECTURE 11 Composition III—Framing and Layering ...........................................64 LECTURE 12 Let’s Go to Work—Landscapes ........................................................71 LECTURE 13 Let’s Go to Work—Wildlife ................................................................77 LECTURE 14 Let’s Go to Work—People and Relationships ..................................83 LECTURE 15 Let’s Go to Work—From Mundane to Extraordinary ........................89 LECTURE 16 Let’s Go to Work—Special Occasions ..............................................96 LECTURE 17 Let’s Go to Work—Family Vacations ..............................................102 LECTURE 18 Advanced Topics—Research and Preparation ...............................108 LECTURE 19 Advanced Topics—Macro Photography .........................................115 LECTURE 20 Advanced Topics—Low Light .........................................................121 LECTURE 21 Advanced Topics—Problem Solving ...............................................127 LECTURE 22 After the Snap—Workfl ow and Organization ..................................133 LECTURE 23 Editing—Choosing the Right Image ...............................................140 iv Table of Contents LECTURE 24 Telling a Story with Pictures—The Photo Essay.............................147 SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL Bibliography ....................................................................................153 v Fundamentals of Photography Scope: aught by a contributing photographer for National Geographic magazine, this course will show you how pictures work and how to Tmake them work for you. You’ll learn the basics of operating a camera and get dozens of practical tips to take your photography to the next level, illustrated with real-life examples. You’ll also learn about all the elements that come together to make a good picture and how they relate. After each lecture, you can complete the suggested homework assignments to help you put the principles of this course into practice, making them second nature. Anyone interested in photography with any level of experience can benefi t from this course. For those just starting out or thinking about upgrading their equipment, there’s an entire lecture devoted to researching and purchasing equipment. Instead of focusing on the bells and whistles of camera technology, you’ll see how to fi nd just the right tool for the job at hand. You’ll learn the basic dials and buttons found on most cameras and how to use them to get the effects you want in your images. You’ll also learn how to choose the right equipment for different photographic situations. The course covers the nuts and bolts of exposure: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. You’ll see how these three elements affect the fi nal image and when to vary what. Aperture and depth of fi eld are critical concepts that are discussed in-depth. You’ll also learn to read an exposure histogram and fi nd out what kind of exposure gives you the most fl exibility. The course’s twin centerpieces are in-depth, three-lecture discussions of composition and lighting. Both take you inside the thought processes of a professional photographer as he makes images. You will explore composition techniques, such as framing and the rule of thirds, that are easy to remember and apply and can be used with any kind of camera, from an advanced SLR to a simple point-and-shoot. You’ll discover how to make backgrounds work for you—rather than against you—and how to harness the power of 1 perspective in your images. The ultimate compositional goal—a layered image—can be achieved by combining and applying these principles. Entire books have been written on photographic lighting, and there is a great deal of nuance to the subject; the basics, though, are simple. The lectures on lighting cover fi nding and getting the most out of natural light, recognizing how color and intensity affect your pictures, and using and controlling artifi cial light sources. You’ll also see how to use unconventional light sources to get great results. This course features a number of on-location shoots to show you how a professional photographer thinks through a variety of real-life photographic situations. You’ll see fi eld demonstrations that showcase photography of rural and urban landscapes, wildlife, people, special occasions, and travel. In the process, you’ll discover what makes an image look forced and posed and how to avoid those pitfalls to get a candid image that communicates something meaningful about your subject. You’ll learn to recognize, think through, and solve a variety of visual problems, from cluttered backgrounds to bad light. The later lectures cover advanced topics and share professional methods for research and preparation, low-light photography, and macro photography. Proven journalistic techniques for research and preparation are presented— critical aspects of any photo project. You’ll also conquer macro photography and fi nd out how to capture the tiny world that’s so often overlooked in pictures. Although low light poses a challenge, it’s also ripe with photographic opportunity, and you’ll discover how to spot and capture great images in low-light conditions. To round out the fundamentals of photography, you’ll learn how to curate your own images. You’ll see a demonstration of digital workfl ow, with each of the steps in the process explained. You’ll also get practice in