Teaching a class

[mknabster]

I was recently elected to be the co-chair for my school (http://www.bk.psu.edu/)'s Student Art Show coming up in April, and I volunteered to teach a student-run photography workshop in mid-March. At home, as part of my business, I teach photography lessons to owners of DSLRs and advanced compacts, and I was hoping to do the same along the lines of that with this workshop. I spoke to the art director, and she told me I need to dumb it down a bit, make it for compact users as well. What I normally teach is the manual features of the camera, and how they all work together. I don't really know how to do something like that with compacts. She did say that I might be able to do my original agenda as an advanced class, but she wants to see the outcome of the first. Can anyone give me some ideas of things I could cover?

[photodrew]

Without being a smart A**

basic class:
Point & Shoot!

advanced class:
Thats where the real learing is!

[mknabster]

what kind of curriculum do you think i should have for the basic class?

[20droger]

How about the concepts of exposure, composition, flash, and similar basics.

What are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.
How do they relate to each other.

What is focal length.
What is depth of field.
Why do small-sensor cameras have such large depths of field.

The rule of thirds.
Why it works (golden rectangle).
When to break it.

Full flash vs. fill flash'
The inverse-square law.
When not to use flash.

Camera noise.
Small versus large sensors.

The megapixel race.
Why more is not always better (pixel density, dynamic range, etc.).

Focal length.
Angle of view.
The fallacy of the crop factor.

[mknabster]

Those are some of the kinds of things I would teach as part of the advanced class, but you can't really control those options on most compacts, or at least i don't think so. I'm guessing I should cover thigns like the diferent shooting modes on compacts, how to use white balance, framing a shot, things like that?

[photodrew]

for the basic class, I would think basic composition.

it really is as simple as point & shoot.

they wont be able to control depth ot view. or shutter speed, or any other varialble you can control with the Dslr...

[iAMB]

About the only thing you can do for the point and shoot users is teaching them composition and how to read the camera manual. I would guess that 9/10 people never fully read the manual, and would have no idea where to look when you tell them to get away from using automatic

[mknabster]

Yea my advisor said that a good majority of people probably have a point and shoot, so that's what I should probably plan for. I have a good 2 weeks to figure something out, there's a local park that's a walk away from campus, so i'm planning on bringing everyone there, or maybe even meet them there, i'll have to see about that.

[neilwood32]

I would concentrate on trying to get them off Green box mode even if its only as far as P (or similar mode - most P&S will have P)

That way they can see the effect of changing shutter speed or Aperture can have ie show them freezing motion vs motion blur as an effect. DOF will be pretty moot with P&S as any difference will only be noticed in extreme conditions.

Also Composition for better framing, lighting (using on camera flash better, natural light, reflected light as well as fixed lights ie standard lamps and room lights)

Also how important time of day can have (golden hour etc)

[mknabster]

Putting all these ideas together, I think i have a pretty solid curriculum down. I like the idea of thinking outside the green box, as well as using the flash the right way, and things like that. Thanks for all your input, i really appreciate it!