The Beginning Digital Photography Workshop will teach you how to really use your camera and understand its functions. This is key to capturing photographs that will last a lifetime. If you have a camera, love to take pictures, and would like to understand all the tools it has to offer, if you are unclear about the various functions and programs, F-stops, shutter speeds, when to use which settings, processing your files, this two-day intensive workshop is the course to take.

Without a doubt this workshop will not only clarify all these mysterious buttons and options on your camera but it will also build a strong foundation based on the proper understanding of the digital world you are working with.

In addition to the technical aspects, participants will learn how to see creatively and hopefully answer the question “Why don’t my pictures look like that!”  Participants will learn the time-honored rules of composition, lighting, and space, then apply those rules to their fullest through assignments during the workshop.

We will also talk about vision, how to “see” photographically. What makes a good photograph (there are rules)?  And why people see things a certain way throughout the image.  Participants will, by the end of the workshop, know how to not just “take pictures” but “create images” that they will be proud to show and that others will admire as well.

Visit our calendar to sign up for Mitchell’s next workshop on the weekend of April 14-15.

Technical (i.e boring but necessary) topics covered:

  • Camera buttons, dials and key menus
  • Understanding resolution and how a camera creates a digital file*
  • Full frame vs. cropped and 4/3 sensors*
  • The Photographic Trinity: ISO, shutter speed and aperture
  • Autofocus options
  • Metering and Exposure
  • Highlights and Histogram*
  • Understanding the JPEG vs. RAW choice*
  • Exposure Modes: From Auto to Manual
  • White Balance and Lens choices*
  • Basics of flash
  • Image resolution and how it affects email and prints*
  • Sharing – email, print and web
  • Iphone/Android apps to help your photography

Creative (i.e what you want to learn after the boring stuff) topics covered:

  • Light-Available/Natural, Golden, Artificial
  • Foreground and Background
  • Rule of Thirds
  • Depth of Field
  • Horizontal vs. Vertical
  • Point of View
  • Leading Lines
  • Natural Frames
  • Pattern and Symmetry
  • Phi: The Golden Ratio
  • Scope and Scale*
  • Contrast*
  • Color and Tone*
  • Visual Mass-how and what the eye sees in a photograph*
  • Vision, creativity, and you*

*Due to the large amount of topics covered in a short amount of time, these topics will be mentioned in passing and covered in a more in-depth fashion during the Intermediate Photography Workshop

Workshop Timetable

Day 1-Morning Session (9:30am-noon)

  • Introduction to the course / showing work By Mitchell Masilun (10 mins)
  • What do you want to learn? (10 mins)
  • Famous photographers/inspiration (10 mins)
  • Technical topics covered (45 mins)
  • Creative topics covered (45 mins)
  • 5 minute assignments-shooting around The Hutong (45 min)
  • More technical and creative topics covered (1 hr)

Day 1-Afternoon Session (1:30-5)

  • Finishing up anything missed in the morning session/more shooting (30 mins)
  • Short critique / Feedback (1 hr)
  • Homework Assignments and Questions (30 mins)
  • Group shoot at a place determined by the participants (1.5 hrs)

Day 2-Morning Session (decided by class)

  • Meet at a predetermined location choice of the participants (Optional)

Day 2-Afternoon Session (1pm-5pm)

  • Basic workflow and editing techniques using Photoshop/Lightroom (1 hr)
  • Demos (chosen by students) (1 hr)
  • Final Critique / Questions / Feedback (1.5 hrs)
  • Photography and you-what you need to do to be a better photographer (30 mins)
  • Wrap-up / Intro to Intermediate Class / preachy section by the instructor (10 mins)

The students will also have choices on demos/lectures including:

  • Difficult lighting conditions
  • Filters (on-camera)
  • Flash (fill/off-camera)
  • Photoshop (layers/masking/cloning/healing)
  • Post production techniques (Texturing/Filters/Addons)
  • Camera raw
  • Black and white photography/conversion
  • Editorial Photography
  • Macro Photography
  • Event Photography
  • Travel Photography
  • Wedding Photography
  • Natural light Photography
  • Nature/Landscape Photography
  • Night Photography
  • HDR Photography
  • Street Photography
  • Photojournalism
  • Time-lapse / Long exposure Photography
  • Social media and photography

Photo Equipment

A digital SLR with interchangeable lenses is a plus but not a necessity.  Any camera is suitable but some of the topics covered will be of no use without a camera that has at least: manual exposure modes and manual focusing. If you are not sure, you can contact the instructor.

Additional lenses, a tripod, and flash are helpful, but as a famous photographer once said, “Gear is good, Vision is better.”

A camera manual is required since the instructor cannot know the details of every make and model camera out there in order to troubleshoot technical problems. If participants don’t have manuals (or they are in Chinese), you should be able to download one from the manufactures’ website.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops, it is understood that some will not have one, but it will speed up class time if those that do have it can edit, view, and work on their own images.  A minimum of a flash or hard drive will be required to get images off the instructor’s computer after editing and viewing.

Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop are optional, but will be used and demonstrated during the workshop for basic workflow and possible demos. You can visit http://www.adobe.com/products/tryadobe/main.jsp and download a 30 day free trial.

Cost for the workshop will be 880 rmb, 800 for members, with participants getting a DVD with videos, books, and information regarding photography at the end.

For any questions regarding the content of the workshop, please contact 1world1eye (at) gmail.com.

Mitchell Masilun is a Beijing based freelance photographer and educator. He is a contributor to Getty Images and has been published in various magazines and newspapers both inside and outside of China. Before coming to China, he was a photojournalist working in the Chicagoland and Central Ohio areas, with images circulated nationwide through the Associated Press, The Chicago Tribune, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution and other newspapers.  He has a degree from The Ohio State University, and one of 100 participants chosen out of thousands to be a part of the Eddie Adams Workshop. His images have also been published in four books and he is currently working on a documentary about Kashgar’s Old City and the geographical line that separates China’s East and West Territories.

For more images from the instructor, please go to www.1world1eye.com