Tip

CAMERA Manuals/Quick Start Guides

Most camera manufacturers only provide a quick start guide in printed form. Keep the quick start guide in your camera bag!

The manual is usually in an electronic form on the disk that ships with the camera. Most camera manufacturers also keep a manual on-line.

The following links take you the the manufacturers manual page.

  • Nikon
  • Canon DSLR
    • Select the camera (Single Click) Then choose the Brochures and Manual button
  • Canon Compact Cameras
    • Select the camera (Single Click) Then choose the Brochures and Manual button
  • Sony Consumer Cameras
    • First select the camera model number
  • Sony (alpha) DSLR
    • Select α (alpha) DSLR Cameras from the list
  • Panasonic
    • Enter your model number
  • Olympus
    • Enter your model number
  • Fuji
    • Click on Series Letter, Choose Your Camera
  • Pentax
    • Choose Type of Camera, Choose Model #, Select The Manual Check Box, Then click the Submit button, download the manual!
    • Whew!

Releases

Before you can sell a photograph, you need to have a "model release" form signed...

The release forms are in pdf format. Right click to download.
Model Release
Minor Model Release
Property Release
Media Release

What to bring to class...

  1. Camera
  2. Empty memory card
  3. Batteries. A fully charged battery should last all through the class.
  4. Manual and/or quick start guide for your camera.
  5. A USB card reader or USB cable for downloading photos from YOUR Camera to a Computer
  6. Lunch or Lunch money

Part 1 --Hands on with YOUR Camera

Things you need to know about your camera

Press the Shutter Button Half Way!

Goldie Locks and the Digital Camera

How to Get the Light Right!

  • Presets
  • PASM --Taking Control
  • The Histogram
  • Exposure Compensation
  • Flash Compensation
  • Exposure Bracketing
  • High Dynamic Range
  • An HDR Tutorial
  • Nikon Active D-lighting
    Nikon Website

Part 2 --Composition

  • Use The Rules of thirds
  • Use one of the Golden Rules
  • Shoot an odd number of objects
  • Use your instinct, look for lines, diagonals, foreground/background frames, patterns...
Picture1 Picture2 Picture3b Picture4 Picture5picture6

Learn even more about your camera

Read the reviews about your camera at:

The reviewers are so good that they find things about your camera that you need to know. If they find issues, they publish work arounds!

Part 3 --Shooting Tips

A Photography Safari
--Applying Photo Techniques in and around the Clark College Campus

Nota Bene

  • If you Capture in "Raw" Format slightly over expose...
  • If you Capture in .jpg Format sightly under expose...
  • Put the camera in Program Mode (It's automatic, but you can take charge and over ride the settings)
  • Always verify shooting mode when shooting a new subject
  • Here's a Shooting Check List

It's a Scavenger Hunt A Suggested Shooting List

Part 4 -- What to do with the photos --The Work Flow

Now that you have pictures, what do you want to do with them?

There is a large variety of image processing software. Your camera should come bundled with a an image enhancing program. Below I have listed a few alternatives.

Windows Software

Mac Software

Image Processing Check List

  1. Down load and Archive
  2. Pick the Keepers
  3. Process the Images
  4. Analyze the Photo. Use the histogram and the Highlight and Shadow clipping indicators.
  5. Eliminate highlight clipping Set white balance first, then Exposure...
  6. Recovery: Recover details in the highlights
  7. Fill Light: Recover shadow details
  8. Blacks: Eliminate black clipping levels
  9. Brightness-Contrast: redistribute mid-tones around mid-gray
  10. Add Presence
  11. Fine tune the toning
  12. Target and Fine tune hue, saturation and Luminance
  13. Sharpen, If you only do one thing to your photos this is it. Sharpen
  14. Remove noise
  15. Crop to straighten horizons and eliminate distractions.
  16. Retouch, dodge and burn, lens correction, and add gradients if necessary.
  17. Move to Photoshop to merge with other photos, remove or add compositions.
  18. Archive Keepers
  19. Print it!
  20. Share

Software for output, sharing your photos.

Share Your Photos!

"Yogile"

All you have to do is click the upload button "Click here to upload in album"

That's it! (Your photos have to be in .jpg or .png format. and SHRINK THEM to 1024 x 768 pixels)

However, your upload will be from Anonymous


If you want to attach your name to the photos you upload use this web link (http://www.yogile.com/ymjkzb0l/upload). It will take you to the above album page. When you click the "+ add more photos" button you'll be given a choice to sign up for a free "Yogile" account, or not. If you sign up, the pictures you upload, will have your name attached to them.

The hard part will be to choose a dozen or so photos to share from the Class Photo Safari.

You can learn more Yogile FAQ's here.

A free "Yogile" account has a 100 Megabyte Monthly Limit.

For an annual fee of $24.95 you can have unlimited uploads.

Slide shows from previous
Photo Safari's