UNIVERSITY APPROVED DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE

UNIVERSITY APPROVED DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE

In the past 5 years  photography has become all pervasive. Virtually every cell phone sold  today has a built-in digital camera. In fact the electronics associated with the camera and the memory for saving your photographs along with the pixel editing software constitutes more than 50% of the price of the phone. Considering that cell phone manufacturers skimp on the actual phone circuitry hence they constantly drops calls and distort  voice communication. Be that as it may, Selfys or selphys on Facebook, Pinterest, Myspace and Instagram has reached a record high. People's fascination with themselves as subjects is currently the order of the day. But every photograph on display is not a good photograph because there is a huge difference between the photographic quality of the average photograph taken with a Samsung / Apple  iPhone / Sony Ericsson / Blackberry / Motorola / LG / HTC cell phone camera and a photograph taken with a SLR Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, and Sony,  Mamiya, Sigma, Leica, or Hasselblad  camera with a compound lens consisting of numerous optical lens elements needed to  correct optical aberrations as much as possible. 

All telephoto lenses with optical zoom beats phone camera digital zoom by a 1000:1, besides camera phones don't do depth of field or fish eye or long exposure open aperture photographs or distant night shots. A cell phone cameras generally has  a poor excuse for a lens, even it was made by Carl Zeiss himself.  The advantages of an SLR camera by far exceeds that of a phone camera even if some phones cost as much as Single Lens Reflex Cameras. In fact they are not even comparable. So, it is better for you to invest in an average cell phone purely for communication and use the rest of the money to buy a decent SLR camera. Take pride in the photographs you shoot because one of them could become an award wining photograph. Photography is an art and not a point-and-shoot-exercise, kinda like clay pigeon shooting. Composition is a key element in photography especially in portraiture, wedding photography and even landscapes. But most of all, you need to know your camera to take National Geographic like quality pictures. 

The University of Cape Town is offering a 10 week (70 hour) photographic short course for R8,100  / 627.785 US Dollars which focuses on getting to know your camera. This includes understanding aperture, ISO/ASA and shutter speed, when and how to use a flash and  basic photo editing techniques useing computer software. However, if you not in a position to fork out that kind of cash but have an interest in learning all there is to know about photography then its best that you follow http://photo-magix.blogspot.com. Our tutorials will guide you from a novice that knows nothing to a professional photographer absolutely free.  Our successive blogs will cover:- 

Differences between Cameras
Box cameras / disposable cameras / View finders / 126 / 135 / film cameras / digital cameras / etc..

Manual Cameras Vs Automatic cameras
Depth of field / Auto Focus / Lens types / Target audience  / etc..

Choosing a camera to suit your personality
Camera size / weight / type / cost / compatibility / split screen focus / ground glass focus  / etc..

Getting to know your camera and understanding its operation
Interchangeable lens mounts / Shutter speeds / Prism / Dust covers  / etc..

Understanding  lenses, aperture and depth of field
Lens elements / focal length / fast & slow lenses  / etc..

Focal place shutters Vs Leaf shutters 
Camera settings / freeze and blur / Cable release / Self timer

Film ISO/ASA Vs Pixel density and Luminosity
Grainy film / fast film / Digital display / Back lighting / reciprocity

Using a  flash, strobes and sychronized flash units
Hot shoe / flash bulbs / strobes / umbrella flash / soft box  / etc..

Photographic composition
Subject height / Colours / Backgrounds / position / Angle / Stance / Seating  / etc..

Wedding photography and Portraiture
Close-up bellows / Closeup & UV filters / Flash fill  / etc..

Objects Landscape and Commercial Photography
Panoramic photographs / 3D photographs  / etc..

Pixel editing techniques with Photoshop.
Image resizing / pixel density / colour depth / sepia tone / monochrome / touch-up  / etc..

Feast your eyes, lick your lips,

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