Monday 4.30-6.30p.m. Introduction to digital photography and image manipulation

The course will run for 5 weeks, it is ideally suited for anyone new to digital photography equipment and techniques. Ideally you will have your own digital camera or be ready to move into the digital world.

Throughout the course students will be guided through the minefield of digital technology, helping with individual photography problems that will occur in the early stages of working with digital images.

The course will start with the safe working practice of how and where to store files taken on digital equipment, covering how to take the files off the camera’s storage cards and creating new folders to store the files in. The students will be given information on various external storages devices so they can then make an informed decision on where to store there precious memories.

The course will then work through to an introduction on how the camera takes the image and will explain why photographs appear too light or dark. We will also work through examples on why photographs may be blurred when taking in low light.

We will work through popular camera settings and be informed when and where to use them. There will be practical lesson on photographing flowers or close up objects.

You will be shown the benefits of using software to manipulate the image and given information on making various items from your files – Photo books, greeting cards etc.

The cost of the 5 week course will be £30.00

Wednesday 1 –3 p.m. Digital manipulation using Photoshop/Adobe Elements

The course will run for 10 weeks, it is ideally suited for students who have grasped the basics but want to take digital photography to the next level. You will ideally be able to take a good image from your camera, although there will be opportunities to ask any question on any photographic problems you may be experiencing.

The course will go through how a correct exposure is achieved and take the guesswork out of setting the camera to take a picture.

You will work on computers each week on various projects. The class will work together using photographs supplied by the tutor to work through Photoshop. You will see how to layer images to produce worksheets or montage photographs. You will work through how to change parts of the image colour and how to work to a colour theme.

There will be information on how to add text to an image and how to change the text settings to produce professional looking documents.

You will see how useful tools like the clone tool are and when and where to use it. This will be useful for people wanting to repair old photographs

You will work on image and see how to add textures to the images.

Throughout the course you will be shown examples of work and items produced from photographs to help inspire you and give you ideas on how to progress.

This will be a very relaxed class where you can work at your own level and discuss and swap ideas on all aspects of photography.

Ideally you will own or have access to a computer

The cost of the 10 weeks course will be £65.00

Thursday 7 – 9 p.m. Digital Manipulation using Photoshop/Adobe Elements

This course will run for 10 weeks and will ideally be suited to students who have a basic understanding on how their camera works but want to see how to progress through working on the photographs using specialist software.

Although there will be opportunities to ask photographic questions, the course will be a practical course on how to improve the image taken, or using the image to produce other pieces of work.

Each week there will be a demonstration followed by a class practical on various Photoshop topics.

The course will include working with layers on Photoshop and how important they are in producing all types of work. You will experience blending images to produce a montage photograph or a greeting card.
There will be a session on adding and editing text, also included will be altering colours on a coloured photograph and working to a colour theme.

You will experience how to add a texture to your images and also how to cut out parts of an image and combine other images into the cut-outs.

Students will ideally have access to a computer with an adobe photographic software on it (Photoshop or Elements). Students will be set extra tasks to be covered at home.

The course is aimed at helping you get to grips with basic manipulation techniques while showing you the path to progress further. The classes will be held in a relaxed atmosphere with no pressure.

If you want to learn manipulation techniques with a class of like minded people and bounce ideas around then this course is for you.

The cost of the 10 weeks course will be £65.00