Category Archives: Final Evaluation

This was a fabulous class!!  I’ve always been a fan of photography, but before this semester, I had looked at backlighting, especially by the sun or a cloudy day’s diffused lighting as a hindrance to taking pictures, rather than a useful and creative tool.  I learned about proper portrait lighting and terminology.  The painting with light class was one of my favorites because it was so creative and I’d had no idea how that was done prior to this semester.  I also noticed that I have been taking photos for years utilizing certain terminology/techniques, without knowing it.

I’d seen many photographs that used shallow depth of field (thought I didn’t know the terminology) and knew that professional photographers were doing this on purpose, but I did not know how create this effect and when this would accidentally happen in some of my photos, I would see it as a failure of my skills and the photograph.  Now I know how to do this intentionally and make use of this technique.  I truly understand the function of the shutter speed and how to use it.  I’m still struggling with function and use of the aperture; I think this is partially due to the limitations of my current compact digital camera, and the fact that there wasn’t enough time to work with it in class.  I’ve been considering getting a DSLR on and off for years, but felt that I didn’t know enough about how to use one.  Now I am confident enough to purchase a DSLR and know that I will have plenty of time to practice with it next semester in Photography 2.  This was one of my two favorite classes this semester and I expect Photography 2 will be a favorite next semester as well.  I look forward to learning more!!

 Another thing I really enjoyed about this class was the personal interaction when we worked in groups in class.  I liked the fact that the groups were always changing.  Although I didn’t get to work with everyone in the class, I worked with many.   In so many classes you can go through the whole semester and never talk to or even know your classmates names.  

This class has given me more confidence in my skills as a photographer.

I really enjoyed taking this class. I think it was my favorite of the semester, in fact. Before taking this class I never thought I would be able to take good pictures, I was just not confident of my skills (and in fact they weren’t good:p) but since I started with this class I started building more confidence about taking pictures and even got better at it! I liked this class so much it encouraged me to take photography 2 next semester. I hope it will be as fun as this class and that we learn as much as we did with this class. The only recommendation I would give to this class would be to have more sessions per semester since it teaches a lot of techniques and fun practices.

I loved the class. I learned a lot about cameras that I never knew before. I really just can’t wait to get my hands on a SLR again. I really enjoyed all the assignments. I really want to take  Photo 2 but since its an elective and I plan on taking other electives, I may not get that chance unfortunately. I used to think that taking pictures were easy with SLR because of the commercials and boy was I wrong. It is not easy. There’s so much more that I want to learn on using those cameras and I would of never got the chance had I not taken this class. Even though it is required, I do know for a fact that I would of taken it anyway just because I wanted to so you know what, I might do that for photo 2. On a side note my favorite shoot was painting with light and the the portrait pictures in different styles.

This is one of my favorite course I took this semester. Honestly at first I thought anyone can take a nice expensive camera and just take pretty picture but I was wrong. This class taught me so many things that I never knew before. I learned how to use the camera in manual (also been using auto),  which included learning about f-stops, ISO, shutter speed, white balance and many more photography terms.  I really enjoy all the class shoots that we had especially painting with light. I would love to take photography 2 next fall because I had an amazing time in photography 1

At the beginning of Digital Photography class, I thought I wouldn’t be able to take good photographs or be able to handle a camera in the classroom studio. However, I proved myself wrong. I have learned so many things such as how to handle a camera with and without a tripod, set the camera settings, how to think about composition while taking my own photographs, how to work in a studio, and the most important thing-lighting. Although all of my images were taken by my iPhone, I learned that Adobe Bridge, Camera Raw (which I had never heard of)  enhances images to make it look better. My favorite/fun camera exercise we did in the classroom studio was painting with light and motion. That definitely gave me a sense of what the DSLR camera can really do. During my spare time, I will definitely get my hands on a DSLR to recreate that exercise with my close friends. Overall, this course had done its job successfully, thanks to Professor Michals.!

Since I’ve taken this course, I have learned many things that I was never taught before. The first and most important thing I have learned in this class is how to use a DSLR. I’ve always used a point and shoot and learning how to use a DSLR has opened up my eyes on how much you can actually control when taking a photograph. I even bought myself a DSLR to continue practicing on taking better and more beautiful photographs. Another important thing I was taught is to use camera raw to edit photographs before bringing it into Photoshop for final retouching. I never knew how much you can change in a photograph, from its exposure to its vibrance and saturation. One last thing I’ve learned in this class is the vocabulary that is used in the field. It’s great to describe photographs with more specific terms.

This course will really help me for designing because now I am not limited to just using stock photographs for my designs, rather I can take a picture myself and fully control how I want my photographs to look like.

Something that I would like to learn in this course is a basic lesson on how to use Adobe Lightroom. I have seen this program a few times and are curious on how you can edit photographs with the program.

This class has introduced me to a lot of new things that I did not know about photography. In the beginning, it was difficult and sort of challenging, but as time went on I began to understand and like the course more. When I first signed up for this class, I thought it was going to be more focused on the after production of photography, like editing and retouching photos from off the camera in Adobe Photoshop, hence “Digital” Photography

Three important things that I learned from this course were the use of c0mposition and lighting to make an effective photograph. I learned that those two components were key to a great picture. I learned how to work a camera more efficiently, and I learned all the different settings on the camera and how they helped make a photograph.

This course will help me in the future and my career, because now I can incorporate photography into my Graphic Designing.

I think what could have improved this course was to include how to edit photographs more, and more of the computer based aspect of Digital Photography, but overall I enjoyed this class.

I always like the beauty that photography has to shows me.

Since I start this course, I have learned a lot. It was a little it difficult at the beginning and I had to read a lot of materials before I started to get the camera settings.

Every project that we did in class and  homework assignments were new ways to practices what I had read before.

It was really nice and fun. Create ideas and make them to become real on each image.

Now I can say I know much better how to work and set a camera: Aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance and so on.

I would love to learn a lilttle bit more about Adobe Photoshop edition and Adobe Bridge but it was a good start.

I finally got my own camera so, after all the things that I have learned from this class I will keep taking pictures and get better in this field. It has been something that I always like and with all the knowledge that I have now, I can keep practicing and take this as a new hobby in my life.

This class has been extremely useful to me. I have considered myself a photographer since I was in high school, but I didn’t really understand any photographic terminology.

I’ve found that throughout this course I’ve actually come to appreciate and make use of composition and lighting, things that I didn’t give a second thought to before. Because of that, I find that my pictures nowadays are a lot better and actually have some degree of artistic merit.

I’m also glad I learned about the Camera Raw feature in Bridge. Seriously, I had no idea Bridge was that useful, or that it even had a use. I honestly used to think it was bloatware.

But mainly, what was most important to me was learning how to manipulate my finicky, cheap point-and shoot camera in creative ways and making it work for me. Discovering the macro feature on that thing is the single most important thing I’ve learned about it. I will exploit it to death.

As a designer, I feel like this class is the one that finally taught me to appreciate composition and its relevance in the design field as a whole. Composition is one of the most (if not THE most) important thing to understand when you’re a designer, so I feel like I can put this newfound knowledge to good use. Also, I’m almost certain that my growing ability to take decent pictures will come in handy at some point in my career. It’s always good to have multiple talents.

I feel like this course could seriously be expanded to teach students how to take good indoor shots at home, and overcome the limits of not having professional photo equipment lying around. While outdoor photography isn’t too hard to master, indoor photography presents a whole new set of challenges for those who aren’t used to manipulating lighting and camera settings. Basically what I’m saying is that most indoor shots I see are shoddy, and I’d love to learn how to make it work when I have a cheap camera and limited lighting.