Welcome to Digital Photography I

Welcome to the Digital Photography online class.  Digital Photography is a natural to offer as an online class because of the ease in creating and posting your work electronically.  I find eLearning to be cumbersome in general and have decided to publish the course syllabus on my own website, http://jnevins.com, and run the entire experience using the web, a blog, and a public hosting site. Blogging is easy and intuitive.  If this is your first time posting to a blog, please click the link in the upper right side of this page titled, "How to post to the blog".

Class runs from June 4th until July 14th. All work needs to be completed by then.

There are three elements we need to juggle in order for this to be a successful experience for everyone...

1.  The class syllabus... here are all the assignments and links to readings that you will need to work through the problems for each week of the class. The syllabus is found with this address:  jnevins.com/digitalphotographysyllabusonline.htm or click here.While you are at it, browse around the rest of my site to get to know me better.  I have posted a portfolio of my photography, links for finding galleries and museums online, my teaching philosophy and more. The assignment for each week is posted on it.  Read it carefully and work to incorporate the main idea into your work that week. Visit the syllabus for each new assignment and click on the links which serve as your readings for the class.

2.  The Class Blog.  This is where we will build a sense of community.  It is important to post examples of your work each week as well as comments about your images to accompany the images posted as well as comment on the work of others in the class... you can ask questions to me personally anytime via email, but here is a public place to offer suggestions, ask questions and just generally where we can create a class environment.  Blogger is very easy to post to...
Your grade is based on your posts to the blog and more importantly your portfolio of photographs, illustrating your understanding and completion of the assignment for each week.  The expectation is that you will post 6 - 10 of your best edited pieces each week... To get strong enough work that you can be proud of, shoot at least 50 images for each assignment and only choose the strongest ones to post.

3.  Photoshop... The latest version is available as a free download at http://adobe.com/downloads and after the trial, offered on a subscription basis for $9.99/month to students.  You need either a Windows or Mac... Chromebooks don't run Photoshop.  Alternately, you can get an older version of Photoshop, CS2... This is available free with a lifetime serial number as Adobe no longer wants to officially "support" it.  You can do everything for class with this version. First create a free login at Adobe then click:  http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/  Be sure to copy the serial number and observe if you are downloading the Windows version or the Mac version. Taking the picture is just the first step!  You need to edit each picture you care about for light, focal point, contrast, color balance, etc.  I have videos linked in the upper right hand side of the blog to show you how. 

Me photographing on the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland, May 2018

Click on image to expand to full size.

Students who are shooting with a phone camera can edit with Photoshop (best) or the very professional Google offering, "Snapseed" offered in the App store for your phone.  Snapseed is free.

This first week, we must iron out all of the technical issues to be sure that everyone is up to speed.  I have asked for you to post a creative self portrait and to tell us something about yourself.  This is an art course and its primary focus will be on your portfolio as the basis for your assessment.  Study the syllabus to get a sense of what I will be looking for.  Links I have posted to visual images and readings are an important component of the class... I'll be looking at how you are in dialog with the images and ideas linked in the syllabus as a component of your grade.  Also important is that I get a sense of your  spending time at the assignments and are growing in the medium of photography as the course unfolds.

Only new work counts towards your grade.. Images of your trip to Puerto Rico last summer don't count!

Any comments, suggestions, or observations as to how I can smooth the way for you as we get going will be welcome.  My goal is your success and your feeling that this was well worth your time.

Looking forward to launching this new class!

Best wishes,