Photography Course: Technical Skills

What you'll learn

Learn to improve your technical photography skills with our photography short courses in Sydney!

Photography is both a creative and a technical art form, the two go hand in hand. Without the creative vision, the technical skills are useless, and without the practical skills, the vision is just a dream. Once you have mastered the basics of your camera functions, all beginner photographers need to be able to master the technical aspects of their camera to make their creative vision come to life.

Perhaps you want a shot to look a certain way but you don't know how to light it, or you may want to achieve a certain depth of field but can't seem to replicate your idea in the viewfinder. This technical photography course takes your beginners knowledge and adds the tools of lighting, metering, correct exposure, motion blur and a helpful understanding of the various camera accessories at your disposal and emboldens any budding amateur to take that next leap into taking images with real impact.

The aim of this photography course is to combine theoretical and practical knowledge to enable you to approach a shot with more proficiency and confidence. If you're looking to grow your skills as an amateur then this photography course is for you!

Learning outcomes

By the end of this Technical Skills course, you should be able to:

Use light quality to enhance the impact of your photography
Apply creative camera techniques when taking photos
Devise and implement methods of using directional light for image capture
Control light quantity and quality with in-camera techniques and external modifiers
Master manual camera exposure variation skills

Course content

What will be covered in this Technical Skills course?

Week 1 - Camera skills

Bracketing & Auto-exposure bracketing
Tonal Range & Dynamic Range
High Dynamic Range (HDR)
Lens filters
Practical session: Bracketing techniques

Week 2 - Capturing light

Quantity & quality of natural light
Types of light & diffusion
Directional light & angles
Modifying natural light
Practical session: Shooting with modified light
Practical session: Directional light

Week 3 - Exposure variations

Histograms & exposures
Exposing to the right
High key / low key exposures
Night and low light exposures
Reflections
Practical session: night exposures
Practical session: reflections

Week 4 - Camera skills

Motion blur photography
Panning techniques
Practical session: Blur techniques
Practical session: Panning techniques

Week 5 - Controlling light

Time of day & natural light
Colour casts & artificial light
Colour temperature
White balance & colour corrections
Presentation: DYI Food photography
Practical session: Shooting with light
Practical session: Product photography

Intended audience

Who is this Technical Skills course for?

This technical photography program is for all photographers who want to improve their technical skills in photography and who have completed our Photography Course for Beginners or an equivalent course, or are confident and experienced in camera operations. Special consideration can be given to students who feel they meet the requirements so please check the learning outcomes of our Photography Course for Beginners.

This course is for photographers to broaden their capabilities to other genres of photography; for photographers with a new camera who want to get back into photography; for previous students of photography who want a technical update course; or have upcoming travel plans; for photographers who want to consolidate their skills across a variety of conceptual and practical site conditions; or who want inspiration in their photographic journey and want interesting challenges to solve.

You should take a particular interest in this course if you have are looking to focus on developing technical and practical skills that pertain to specific camera functions rather than focusing on compositional and creative aspects of photography.

Course materials

What to bring to class

Digital SLR /Mirrorless Camera + lenses as available
SD Card with a minimum of 8GB of memory
1 fully charged camera battery
Tripod or monopod is helpful but not a requirement

Course testimonials

Jane said: I love the photography courses at Sydney College, Richard is a wonderful teacher. I'm a repeat student as I love his teaching style and how well he explains complex subjects.
Stephanie said: Tutor was experiences, fun and a wealth of knowledge.
Brett said: I learnt a lot on this course so achieved all I wanted to get out of it. I found the venue challenging. The room we were in was regularly without air conditioning which could make it stifling and stuffy. Even opening the door and letting in air (and noise) made little difference. The quality of the content and teaching worked well for me despite the almost constant discomfort.

Course tutors

Richard Lynch

Richard is a product of career diversity across industry sectors of Photography, Botany, Horticulture, Teaching, Science, Landscape Design & Construction, Open Spaces Management, and Training and...

View Richard Lynch's profile

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