Digital Photography for Beginners

If you have a digital camera and either are baffled by all the settings, or want help moving your photography up a step, you could give us a try!

This course will run from time to time, typically once a year, when there is enough demand. We need a group of 6-9 people to make it effective, and you can add your name to the waiting list by replying below. Once there are enough interested people, I shall contact you all to establish the best timing. We usually meet for seven 2-hour sessions over 7-14 weeks, so with time between meetings for homework!

Based on the experience of past years, here are a few notes on what to expect, and also some "ground rules" to make sure that the group as a whole is as useful as possible to all.

1.         This will be a practical group, so you must have a digital camera; a computer, or access to one, is also desirable though not essential. Expect, too, to do some work between meetings.

2.         You need to have had a little experience with using your camera, at least just for plain all-automatic snapshots. It seems to be too difficult if it's a new camera just out of the box.

3.         You need to have enough time available to come regularly - obviously you may miss the odd meeting, but it is neither useful to you nor fair to others on the waiting list if you are going to miss numerous meetings.

4.         Similarly, you need to be free to spend a few hours in the fortnight between each meeting, doing some work on your own.

5.         You'll need to bring your camera to all meetings; and for the first,  perhaps a few photographs you've taken and would like to show us and discuss. Also come with an idea of what you want to get out of the first few meetings.

6.         There will a twin emphasis
- learning the techniques needed to go beyond just using your camera on auto.
- looking hard at, and taking a serious interest in, the quality of the work you are producing. Your purpose may be artistic, or social, or recording a topic of interest such as nature, crafts etc.; but whatever it is, we'll be looking at how to do it to a good pictorial standard.

7.         Although we shall look at simple corrections in the computer, this is not going to be a place to learn computer manipulation of images - I'm not equipped for that. We will be concentrating on the actual photography.

8.         The group leader will certainly take on a teaching role as well, part of the time. However, this is not a heavily structured course and there is no curriculum. The underlying idea is that everyone has a contribution to make, so expect to be helping other people as well

​Some members from past sessions have moved on to the Digital Photography Group to continue their journey.

If you need help choosing a new camera, or with other photographic problems, you can also leave a message below and I'll be glad to try to help.