Photo Course 1

Course Overview

This part-time course, run from our studios in Courtenay Place, Wellington central, provides an introduction to the basic skills of photography through practical workshops and assignments that explore the medium's major themes and techniques.

You will need either a digital SLR camera or film SLR for the workshops, but we do have 35mm film SLR cameras you can borrow for the course.

Photocourse 1 is intended to get you past just setting your camera to Programme and shooting photos that look like anyone else's. We will teach you to take creative control of your camera, rather than let it dictate the kind of photos you take.

We aim to teach you photographic techniques that will help you to realise your visual ideas. You will start to see photographically, creatively and differently. With a small class (limit of 8) and two experienced tutors, we can offer you plenty of individual attention.

The workshop component of the course comprises workshops that Photospace has previously run independently, but they're presented here as a package.
They are:

• Landscape - a day at Makara shooting eith digitally on on slide film
• Introduction to studio lighting - still life & portraiture with controlled lighting
• Low light photography - an evening with an emphasis on experimentation

Please note: Photocourse 1 is not specifically a darkroom course. Inverlochy Art School runs darkroom classes.

The main part of the course comprises eight evening classes, to review the workshop results, teach new techniques, set new assignment work, and learn to edit and evaluate photographs.

Topics covered include:

• Portrait photography
• Documentary photography
• How to take creative control of your digital or film SLR camera
• Camera technique: creative use of shutter speed and depth of field
• Light metering and exposure
• Aesthetics: colour, composition, light quality
• Editing your photos
• Introduction to studio lighting
• Making & using your own pinhole camera (optional)

The course is limited to eight people so please phone or email to book early, or drop in to Photospace.

Course fee: The cost of the programme is $650.00 including GST.

To reserve a place, a deposit of $200.00 is required. This is non returnable, except in the event of the course being cancelled or postponed. A minimum number of participants is required for the course to proceed. We generally ask for deposits once we have a list of eight people interested in the course.

The fee includes all materials and processing for the workshop components of the course, but students will need to pay for their own print processing for the assignment work, (which these days is very cheap - 10x15cm prints are less than 20c each). If you shoot the assignments on digital, we will want to see small prints. If you choose to shoot 35mm film, you will have to purchase your own film.