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Photography for International Award at DBGS

Photography for the International Award

Photography can be done as a skill at Bronze or Silver level. At Bronze level you need to work on photography for at least three months. For the Silver Award you must work on photography for 6 months or more.

The course

This is a self-guided course. It will help you explore photography and develop your techniques and style. The aims of the course are:

  1. To help you understand your camera and how to get the best out of it
  2. To learn to use composition, colour and content
  3. To develop your photographic style
  4. To introduce powerful software like Adobe Photoshop CS3 & Lightroom
  5. To give your work a presence on the web

There are units on Composition, Content, Colour, Photoshop 1, Photoshop 2, Self Portraits, Photo Stories, Sports, Using Low Light, and creating a Gallery

What do you have to do and how is it assessed?

For the Bronze Award there are twelve units that you should try and follow. Each unit will ask you to do some reading or research and then produce photographs of your own to show what you have learned.

This website is not indended to teach you photography. It is here to help you find the information you need to learn about the skill and art of photography.

You will post your photographs to the Web so that the other students and teachers can see what you have been doing. Each unit is designed to take at least an hour to complete - although you can spend more time working on it and you don't have to do it all at once. Remember the International Award can be completed within 6 months, but it can also take longer!

What kind of camera do you need?

You can take great photographs with any camera. An SLR camera would be best, but any compact camera or mobile phone camera will be OK. If you don't have a digital camera that is OK too, but you will have to have film developed every week or two to provide evidence of what you have been doing. If you don't have a camera at all then try and borrow one or share one. The rest of the course will assume you have a digital camera of some sort. If you don't, talk to the teacher.

Unit 1: Getting to know your camera and setting up a Flikr account

Find the manual or handbook for your camera. Read it and find out what the different settings mean. Look for the following features and see if you can work out how to use them.

Exposure mode - you might only have fully automatic, but better cameras give you control over exposure. Look for Aperture Priority, Manual, or Exposure Compensation controls.

Histogram - a histogram is a graph that shows you how good the exposure is. Turn it on, it will soon become essential to your photography. Simple cameras might not have this.

ISO control - this is the 'film speed' and controls how much light gets to the camera's sensor. Low ISO numbers generally give you clearer photographs with less noise or grain. High ISO numbers help you take photographs when the light isn't so good.

Flash control - learn how to turn it on and off.

Getting Started

Some basic tips if you are a complete beginner: Ten Steps for starting Digital Photography from About.com. More

Exposure & The Histogram

There is a lot to learn about exposure in photography, but lets keep things simple for the time being. Basically, if you underexpose a photograph it looks too dark and you lose details in the image. If you overexpose a photograph it will look washed out or too bright and you will lose detail in the highlights. You can use the histogram to check your exposure. It will tell you if you need to change the settings on your camera. Read this article: Learn how to use your camera's histogram.

Flikr

We will share photographs on Flikr. This week you should set up your own Flikr account. Go www.flikr.com and see if you can do this now.

Once you have set up your Flikr account post a few of your own photographs. If you gave your teacher an email address, you will have been sent an invitation to join the DBGS Flikr Group. Choose 3 of your best photographs and share them with the group.

Assessment

To pass this unit you have to post three of your photographs to the DBGS Flikr group.