Photography II: Advanced

This advanced course focuses on taking you beyond the basics of photography. Reinforce integral visual concepts while developing a photographic series for more exciting pictures, advancing your personal style and building a stronger foundation for artistic decision-making.
Prerequisites: : Understanding Your Canon/Nikon DSLR and Photography I:Basic, Editing class (Lightroom or Photoshop), and Lighting class (Studio or Flash); additional coursework or experience very helpful.
Equipment Needed: DSLR Camera

Cost: $235
Ages 18+
Instructor: Chris Bisset

Tuesdays, 6-8 p.m., October 8- November 26 *no class October 15

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Understanding Your Canon DSLR

Are you intimidated by your Canon digital SLR or mirrorless camera? Don’t settle for photographs that are less than your camera is capable of delivering, and don’t be left in the dark about the vast array of features that you can use to take professional-quality images. Learn to navigate the menus, submenus, options, settings to the best  advantage, gain confidence in the handling of your camera and further one’s photographic skills . Bring your camera and manual to class. 

Equipment Needed: Interchangeable lens camera (DSLR or Mirrorless)

Cost: $235
Ages 17+
Instructor: Chris Bisset

Tuesdays, 6-8 p.m., August 20-October 1

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Understanding Your Nikon DSLR

This course is designed to help you understand the available options and unlock the vast potential of your digital Nikon. The course begins with basic camera settings, advances to auto focus, exposure compensation, and flash options, and concludes with customizing your camera for your needs. 

Equipment Required: Nikon DSLR Camera

Cost: $235
Ages 18+
Instructor: Mike Nelson

Thursdays, 6-8 p.m., August 22-October 10*no class September 19

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Creative Fine Arts Photography

Fine-art photography is a medium for creatively and passionately expressing the vision of a photographer, while also communicating an idea, emotion or concept to the viewer.  This course will thoroughly examine the basic fine-art image constructs of subject selection, lighting, composition, colors, tones, moods, depth, and perspective to challenge and inspire students toward a personal style and a consistent, skilled and refined approach in their work.  The course will also introduce a series of specific creative photographic techniques such as print treatments, hand coloring, infrared, black & white and multiple imaging to guide students as they strive to identify individual goals and objectives in their work.  Image finishing, matting, framing and presentation will also be covered. 

Requirements: Digital camera, tripod

Cost: $235
Ages 18+
Instructor: Ken Boyd

Mondays 6-8 p.m., September 9 -November 11*no class September 30 & October 14

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Photography I

Building on the intro classes, this course is designed to help you take more effective images using the capabilities of your DSLR or mirrorless camera. Increase your understanding of photographic technique and composition. Topics covered include exposure, selecting the appropriate aperture, shutter speed techniques, lighting, basic principles of framing and composition. 

Equipment needed - DSLR Ca,era
Prerequisite: Understanding Your Canon, Nikon, or Sony Camera

Instructor: Mike Nelson

Ages 18+

Cost: $235

Wednesdays, 6-8 p.m., October 16 – December 4 *no class November 27

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Architectural Photography

Discover architectural photography, exteriors, interiors, with technical challenges of composition, distortion, lighting. Assignments to emphasize designs, styles, eras, on-location problem solving. Field trips: 3 all-day, out of town; 1 half-day near Birmingham. Dates, times TBD in class. Admission fees: $30 total. Field trips are not required but offer excellent photography experiences.

Prerequisite: Understanding Your Canon/Nikon/Sony; Photography I
Equipment Required: DSLR or mirrorless, lenses, tripod, thumb drive to present images in class – or upload to a class  drive. Google account, to submit images for class.

Cost: $235
Ages 18+ ; Student(s) must be high school graduates, or have GED. We will be going on field trips; photographing locations with historic, cultural significance; meeting guides, location representatives, and students must conduct themselves accordingly. No tag-along’s permitted, such as family or friends, unless student has a disability and needs assistance, and kindly discuss with instructor prior to field trip.
Instructor: Meg McKinney

Wednesdays, 6-8 p.m., October 23 - December 11*no class November 27

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Outdoor & Landscape Photography

Learn the principles of outdoor/natural light and landscape photography in this class. This includes initial visualization, suggested lenses, accessories and camera settings through various choices of software for editing photos. Topics will include composing landscapes, creating panoramas, using multiple exposures, blending single exposures, identifying layers of interest, flowing water and lowlight/harsh light techniques.

This class meets for 7 weeks, includes weekly assignments and 3 or 4 weekend outdoor sessions at locations to be announced at the first class. In previous classes we have invited special guest photographers to discuss their approaches to making good photos. Efforts by the instructor will be made to make any outdoor locations and times as convenient as possible for all class members. The instructor encourages frequent contact throughout the weeks of the class through email, phone, or texting.

Prerequisites: Prior to the first meeting of the class, students are encouraged to submit up to 10 jpeg samples of their photos so the instructor can seek to understand their starting point for the class. Students should have a working knowledge of their camera’s basics and an interest in learning more about taking better pictures outdoors.
Requirements: DSLR or Mirrorless camera, tripod, computer with internet. While not required, some knowledge of Lightroom or other editing software would be helpful.

Cost: $235
Instructor: Cliff Brane

Thursdays, 6-8 p.m., September 12 – October 24

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Adobe Lightroom

Adobe designed Lightroom specifically for photographers who want to organize and edit digital images quickly and safely. This course is designed to teach photographers how to edit images and to learn a complete start to finish workflow. Adobe Lightroom is the preferred software for creating beautiful images and it integrates with other postprocessing software programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Lightroom is safe and nondestructive to your original images making it perfect for photographers that are new to editing. With Adobe's new AI technology now is the perfect time to get started with this fantastic program. 

Prerequisite: basic computer skills.

Cost: $235
Ages 18+
Instructor: Mike Nelson

Summer 2024: Thursdays, 6-8 p.m., June 13, 20, 27; July 11, 18, 25; August 1  *no class July 4

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Essential Color Printing

Learn about preparing your photo files for printing and the inkjet printer choices photographers typically consider. Discussion will include requirements for completing the printing portion of the SAOTA Capstone. Students will look at images printed on various types of fine art papers and how they affect the look of the print. The course includes the student selecting a photo(s) for printing, choosing appropriate paper from a provided set of papers based on judging the way their photo(s) will look on that paper and finally creating a print(s) on the Samford Academy Epson P900 printer. Bring your 10 best photos files to the first class.

Requirements: Laptop & thumb drive

Prerequisites: Photography I, Adobe Lightroom or other editing software.

Cost: $160
Ages 18+
Instructor: Cliff Brane

Wednesdays, 5:30-7:30 p.m., September 25, October 2, 9, 16

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