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Take Better Pictures with JD Beltran, Award-Winning Photographer (On Campus Session)

Class Sessions

Date Delivery Method Cost
  • Thu Nov 16, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Birch Hall 105 (Birch Lab A) - 1 session $450

Class Code

ITS-1488

Class Description

Note: This is a fully in-classroom session and will not be held on Zoom. Please consider not enrolling if you are unable to attend in-person. All participants will need to adhere to the Stanford Health Check guidelines.


Discover and learn how to create professional-looking shots and wildly creative photography with a simple cellphone camera. Become proficient at wrangling your shots in Photoshop and discover the joys of having a personal photo studio that sparks your creativity.

Prerequisites:

  • You must provide your own (charged) cellphone camera [no tablets]
  • Adobe Photoshop software will be provided. No experience in Photoshop necessary! 

Goals

  • Learning the basic principles of photography and building fundamental photography editing proficiency using Adobe Photoshop  
  • Gaining knowledge and basic proficiency in the key photographic skills: choosing your light, composition and framing, rules of thirds, controlling your background, vantage, and viewpoints, guiding your subject (portraiture), and timing your shot

Objectives

In this one-day course, we will cover: 

  • Brief history of photography and key concepts and terms 
  • Fundamentals of photography: light, composition, framing, background
  • Outdoor photoshoot: finding inspiration in the landscape
  • Portrait photography: how to tell the story of your subject in flattering light 
  • Basic Photoshop editing

Figuring out how to take strong, compelling photographs and then editing them in Photoshop may seem daunting. In this course, however, you will soon discover that learning the key photography concepts to achieve those great shots -- and then learning how to power up those shots in Photoshop -- is simpler than you might expect. 
 
Cellphone cameras have become so sophisticated in their toolset and resolution capacity that now almost 40% of professional photographers (except for those who require super-high resolution shots) use their cellphone cameras in their studio practice! This one-day course will arm beginning photographers with the key skills and concepts to take great photographs, and then edit them in Photoshop to their maximum potential.


University IT Technology Training classes are only available to Stanford University staff, faculty, students, and Stanford Hospitals & Clinics employees, including Stanford Health Care, Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley, Stanford Medicine Partners, and Stanford Medicine Children's Health. A valid SUNet ID is needed to enroll in a class.