Photography may seem like a simple thing to do. Students will just need to point the camera and press the shutter button. However, there are many things that school photography club can do:
- Learn the history of photography: Students should be given knowledge on the development of photography. They should know about camera obscura and the evolution of photography. They can even be instructed to create a small pinhole camera; even if each already has real cameras.
- Learn about focus: Focus is essential in photography and students can be taught to take images with focus in and out. Depth of focus should be reviewed and topics like lens opening should be discussed.
- Learn about focus: Students should learn about shutter speed and exposure. They should know when they need to use fast or slow shutter. Photo experiments should be performed, by incorporating different settings on shutter speeds. High speed photography can be experimented with flying insects and water drops. Waterfalls with their steady flow of water are a good object to experiment with different speeds.
- Learn about sensitivity: Students should know more about ISO settings and sensitivity. We should know when we should apply low or high sensitivity. We should take a series of images with different sensitivity. In the end, we should examine the impacts of each image. As an example, we should know differences between 100 and 800 films. Although beginners will likely use digital cameras, it is also important to be familiar with characteristics of manual, film cameras.
- Learn about exposure: Students should know that exposure is affected by light, sensitivity, aperture and shutter speed. Students should know about exposure compensations. In this case, we should vary parameters and try to get the proper exposure. Instructors should discuss about automatic and manual exposure in a proper way.
- Learn about color management: Students should be familiar with color wheel and saturation. Photos can be transferred to the computers and saturation can be tweaked more comprehensively with appropriate tools, such as Adobe Photoshop. It is better if the club has more than a few camera models, so students will know that each camera has different color characteristics. In this case, some camera brands can be more appropriate for specific functions and situations.
- Learn about black and white photography: In this digital era, black and white photography is still an important aspect in the photography industry. Students should be taught how to prepare photos specifically for black and white photography.
- Learn about filters: There are filters that students can use. They should discuss about the applicability of different density filters. They should review and experiment with cooling or warming adjustment filters.
- Learn about editing: With digital cameras, it should be easy to review different photo editing tools. There are different basic functions that can be incorporated. This is an additional learning experience that can help students more comfortable with computers.