[BrianR]

Since people remember little of what was said and even less of what was read, but a great deal of anything they've done, the best way for them to learn what shutter speed is about is to point out that control on their camera, let them loose on a water fountain for ten minutes, and get them to report back to you and the others their finding. For aperture, point out the control and set the task of getting all three people who are sitting in three different seat rows in focus, etc.

This is absolutely the best way to teach shutter speed & aperture (and most things for that matter). As an added exercise, make them print 4x6's of these experiments and paste them into a binder.

[aslyfox]

interaction with your audience is always the best way to teach IMHO

if you are going to use written materials, please do not just read what is on the material

that is stuff they can read in advance or later

in class, you supplement what is on the written materials, answer questions about it, further explain or highlight the more important parts

be as interactive as possible

[normhead]

If it were me, after 15 years teaching photography

Start with exposure. This is easiest with black and white. A good picture with a a grayscale attached to one side. So students can see how exposure affects the reproduction of the grayscale and the image. Students must produce one image that accurately reproduces the grey scale and thus the image.

Next up, understanding depth of field
One assignment for wide DoF, one assignment for narrow DOF.

Moving on to this.


Pick a few and have students try and effectively try and use various combination of the elements, principles and pictorials rules of composition.

You can fill out the whole first semester... learning to incorporate these composition guidelines into photographs. There's lot's to understand there. I used to ask for more than one in each assignment, but I don't remember what went with what.

[Just1MoreDave]

Once you decide on a curriculum, you should ask prospective students to tell you what cameras they'll be using in advance. Then you can make up a cheat sheet for those cameras: here's how to change to manual mode, shutter speed, ISO, etc. So when you have a lesson on ISO, everyone knows how to get there on their camera. Otherwise you might spend a lot of class time helping the least experienced student with their T3i.

[Wasp]

Don't forget about post processing. Digital photography does not end with the press of the shutter button. Do use open source tools like Darkroom in preference to commercial software.

[aslyfox]

i would go for things like composition and photography areas first rather than the technical aspects. I think the former is more appealing to novices. Ofcourse some things go hand in hand. You could explain the triangle with interesting examples that appeal to people.

there is another " triangle " to discuss: experience, knowledge, equipment

in other words:

experience alone won't make you the best photographer you can be

equipment alone won't make you the best photographer you can be

knowledge alone won't make you the best photographer you can be

but if you combine them together - - -

[acoufap]

Many Thanks to the @jcdoss for introducing this topic and everybody offering ideas and experiences in this thread!

At the moment I'm also thinking about leading a course about photography and / or a related topic (Oktober / November this year). Coming week I'll have a talk with the responsible person for courses.

I already know that another guy will teach composition. He's a local professional photographer who owns a studio.

Two or three weeks ago I thought about photographic topics, let the brain storm and documented the results using the mind mapping tool freemind. I was overwhelmed by the broadness of topics that came to my mind and spread in front of me!

Now I have to figure out what and how I'd like to teach and coach. With this engagement I'll leave my comfort zone (if I sign up). Never did such in the area of photography. So, very exciting to even think about it.

Some people I know have been photographing a long time. But they fail to understand todays advanced and extremely function overloaded digital cameras and discussions about it.

So I guess this could be my direction. Give some lead in this digital technology world including the real basic photographical topics like the ISO-aperture-exposuretime triangle. A journey through technology that supports todays photographers to realize his/her photographical vision digitally based on photographical experiments and the digital workflow. That's my actual idea. Something more for intermediate/advanced photographers than for beginners.

[jcdoss]

I'm glad I'm not the only one getting so much excellent guidance from this thread, acoufap. Of course, knowing the good folks here, I expected no less. This place is easily the greatest internet community I've ever seen, and it's regretful that I'll get to share beverages with so few.

Norm, your advice is fantastic for the 400 level course. I have no idea what kind of people would show up. Maybe just a bunch of older folk, but hoping maybe to get some interested high schoolers. If I can come up with a 4 to 6 week course in basics, then your stuff would most definitely be in the next level.

Or maybe I should just direct them here and go home. 😀

[monochrome]

I would agree with this. Things aren't the same as when we were learning photography back in the film days. With film, getting the proper exposure was crucial, given the limited abilities to correct things after the fact. Today, modern cameras are great at getting workable exposures and when you combine that with the capabilities of the digital darkroom and shooting in RAW, there's a lot more latitude. I think the pictures of most novices could be improved quickest by giving them tips on composition...watching your background, getting closer, rule of thirds, direction of light, leading lines, etc...

Absolutely concur. Green Mode is specifically designed to allow the user to concentrate on the characteristics of a pretty pircture and let the camera take care of (within reason) the technical aspects of exposure.

Manual esxposure and use of assisted manual exposure (AV, SV, etc.) are great subjects for a second Module with #1 as a prerequisite,

[monochrome]

Having been voluntold

NO is not a word in the adult Boy Scout Lexicon

recently with my oldest kids transition to Boy Scouts that I should become a merit badge counselor for the troop for photography I would suggest something that follows the basic requirements for the badge as a starting point. Skip things in requirement 1 and 8 as they would't be applicable in your situation and add or subtract as you feel necessary. In a couple of months the troop wants to do the badge as a troop over the month (3 meetings) so I will be working through creating that so they can meet the requirements and also provide some expanded information in some areas. One thing I plan on doing at end is a critique even if it isn't required since receiving feedback really does help one grow in skill, ability, and understanding. The nice thing about starting with that is that it was designed assuming no prior knowledge or experience for the participant and to provide a good starting point to begin to understand the basics.

Remember when critiquing Scouts(and adults), tell them fifteen things they did well, then ask them what they think about the things you’d like them to change or improve. Keep asking, or saying, “what would you think about. . . . . . . “ until they answer the question themselves from their Merit Badge course knowedlge and experience.

Jason can use the E.D.G.E.R. Method (modified EDGE Method) in his course.

Explain
Demonstrate
Guide
Enable
Review (SM, MBC Review - a Review is not a Test)

For those not familiar with Scouting teaching methods, these principles work equally well with adults. It is all about giving your student the confidence and courage to try by offering direct teaching (Explain), examples and doing it (Demonstrate), hands-on experience (Guide - let them do it with your supervision), positive reinforcement (Guide - coaching), constructive criticism by making a statement in the form of a question (Guide - you did this well; how could you improve this?), and then putting them in a position to use the new skills for independent, self-directed purpose and action (Enable). If you plan to critique, there are no wrong answers, they’re just telling you wnat they learned using their photos as their examples. It isn’t a juried submission for a grade)

Jason: I can dig out links to an MIT online Photography Course for ideas about structure and content. MIT publishes its entire course catalog on line and open access with the idea that anyone should have access to their knowledge for free.

[aslyfox]

You might want to encourage folks, if they have computer/internet access, to visit a few threads here

I would recommend strongly, this thread:

PentaxForums.com → Pentax Lenses and Accessories → Pentax SLR Lens Discussion → prime, prime, everywhere a prime...

Read more at: prime, prime, everywhere a prime... - PentaxForums.com

since the contributors show what can be obtained using different types of lenses, both the latest and vintage, and show what can be obtained with various camera bodies ranging from the newest to older models.


it would help to show that results do not necessarily flow from using the newest most expensive equipment [ great plug for Pentax ]

of course, you may have to help point out to the class members what cameras and lenses are used but that would not be hard by referencing the materials under " Cameras " and " Lenses "

other threads here can show the fun folks can have creating images for various purposes.

[R. Wethereyet]

For twelve years I was a physics teacher, Jase, and as a general principle, once you've settled on your topics, avoid lectures, what we used to call 'chalk and talk'.

Since people remember little of what was said and even less of what was read, but a great deal of anything they've done, the best way for them to learn what shutter speed is about is to point out that control on their camera, let them loose on a water fountain for ten minutes, and get them to report back to you and the others their finding. For aperture, point out the control and set the task of getting all three people who are sitting in three different seat rows in focus, etc.
This approach has lots of variations and lots of names given to it, but not a bad one is 'directed learning'.
It also removes the pressure off you to be some sort of actor or performer in front of an audience, and more of a convenor and coach.

Agreed, I have been involved with a training organization that uses this method of training and it accomplishes a few things:
1. Maintains student attention
2. Minimizes boredom, since students are sitting, standing, moving, thinking, listening ... not just sitting, staring, and zoning out to the "mwaw, mwaw, mwaw" of the teacher
3. Breaks the topics into bite-sized pieces that are more easily understood
4. Provides immediate opportunity to apply what was learned
5. Helps the students get acquainted with their own gear right away
6. Encourages questions, and learning through "discovery" (try it & see what happens)
7. Gives the instructor more control of the pace of learning so that the students get a chance to absorb the more difficult topics.


Good luck with your course!!

[MossyRocks]

Remember when critiquing Scouts(and adults), tell them fifteen things they did well, then ask them what they think about the things you’d like them to change or improve. Keep asking, or saying, “what would you think about. . . . . . . “ until they answer the question themselves from their Merit Badge course knowedlge and experience.

I've been involved in scouting since my oldest joined cub scouts 6 years ago and got voluntold to be an assistant den leader working with the kids and am very familiar with the process for teaching skills. For critiquing I actually was going to have the scouts critique each others work and before final sign off have each scout have one image that we can discuss to review the concepts from the merit badge and how they used them for creating the image, or how they image could be improved by using techniques that should have been learned in the merit badge.

The nice thing is that the youngest boy scouts (the group my oldest just came in with) have already covered some of the basics as there is a Webelos activity that has photography as part of it and we did that last year. So any of them will have a bit of an advantage hopefully remembering some of what was covered then. Granted that was even shallower coverage of the even more limited material but they know how to operate a camera that isn't a cellphone one.