Photography 101: Introduction to Photography

4-Hour Fundamentals Workshop

---

Course Description

Photography 101 is a structured, four-hour fundamentals workshop that introduces students to the core technical principles behind image-making. The curriculum is built around a systematic understanding of how cameras work, how light behaves, and how compositional decisions affect the final image. Students will leave with a working knowledge of manual camera controls, exposure theory, and basic post-processing — a solid technical foundation for any photographic pursuit. No prior experience is required.

---

Hour 1 — Camera Mechanics & The Exposure Triangle

The first session establishes the technical groundwork for everything that follows. We begin with camera anatomy — how light travels through the lens, strikes the image sensor, and is converted into a digital file. Students will learn the difference between sensor sizes and how they affect image quality, field of view, and low-light performance.

From there we move into the exposure triangle in depth. Aperture is measured in f-stops and controls the size of the lens opening — a wider aperture (lower f-number) admits more light and produces a shallower depth of field, while a narrower aperture (higher f-number) increases the zone of acceptable focus. Shutter speed determines how long the sensor is exposed to light, directly affecting motion rendering — fast speeds freeze action, slow speeds introduce motion blur. ISO sets the sensor’s sensitivity to light, with higher values introducing digital noise as a tradeoff for usability in low-light conditions. Students will work through the reciprocal relationships between these three variables, learning how to compensate one setting against another to achieve a correct exposure while controlling creative outcomes.

---

Hour 2 — Composition & The Physics of Light

Hour two addresses two interconnected topics: how to organize visual information within the frame, and how the physical properties of light shape the look of an image.

On the composition side, students will study the rule of thirds, leading lines, framing, symmetry, figure-to-ground relationships, and the use of negative space. We’ll examine how focal length influences spatial compression and perspective distortion — why a 35mm lens renders a scene differently than a 85mm lens even from a comparable vantage point — and how lens choice is itself a compositional decision.

The second half of this session focuses on light as a technical variable. We cover the inverse square law and how it governs light falloff over distance, the difference between hard and diffused light sources and how they affect shadow definition and texture, color temperature measured in Kelvin and how it shifts from artificial tungsten sources to daylight, and the role of white balance in neutralizing or leveraging those shifts. Understanding light not just aesthetically but physically gives students a reliable framework for analyzing and recreating any lighting condition.

---

Hour 3 — Structured In-Class Shooting Lab

The third session translates the technical concepts from hours one and two into direct practice through a structured, classroom-based shooting lab. Working with a series of instructor-designed exercises, students will photograph controlled still-life setups arranged specifically to isolate and test individual technical variables.

Exercises include bracketing exposures across a fixed scene to observe the effect of each variable in isolation, deliberately varying aperture across a tabletop depth-of-field study, using slow shutter speeds to capture controlled motion blur using available classroom light sources, and comparing images shot under different white balance settings. Students will review results directly on their camera screens and in pairs, comparing outcomes and identifying the cause-and-effect relationships between their settings and the resulting image. The instructor will review work in real time, reinforcing the connection between the theory covered in earlier sessions and what is actually appearing in the frame.

---

Hour 4 — Editing Fundamentals & Technical Review

The final hour introduces students to the post-processing stage of the photographic workflow. We cover the fundamental difference between JPEG and RAW file formats — how RAW files preserve unprocessed sensor data and afford far greater latitude in post-processing, while JPEGs apply in-camera processing and compression at the point of capture.

Using a standard editing interface, students will work through the core tonal and color controls: exposure, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, contrast, and clarity. We address white balance correction, how to read and interpret a histogram, and how to use it as an objective diagnostic tool rather than relying solely on screen preview. Sharpening and noise reduction workflows are introduced as the final stage of a technically sound editing pipeline. The session closes with a side-by-side review of edited versus unedited images from the lab session, reinforcing how disciplined in-camera technique reduces the corrective burden in post-processing and produces a stronger final result.

---

Who This Workshop Is For

This workshop is intended for beginner photographers who want to build a genuine technical understanding of their craft rather than rely on automatic settings. It is well-suited for students new to interchangeable-lens cameras, photographers who have been shooting on auto mode and want to transition to full manual control, and anyone seeking a structured, classroom-based entry point into photographic fundamentals. All camera types are welcome — DSLR, mirrorless, and smartphone — though students with interchangeable-lens systems will have the greatest opportunity to apply the hands-on technical exercises in real time.

---

Duration: 4 Hours · Format: In-Person, Classroom-Based · Level: Beginner–Intermediate · Bring: Any Camera