Training Plan

Basic Photographic Skills

Ali Awais 094532039 M Muzzamil Mughal 094532-052 M Saqib Latif 094532-105 Sohail Anwar 094432-059

This Document contains the data regarding Basic Photographic Skills Training Plan which includes Training Need Analysis, Training Objectives, Trainees Abilities and Motivation and Training Methodology.

Contents
Training Need Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 3 Training Objective ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Trainees Abilities and Motivation ................................................................................................................ 4 Training Methodology................................................................................................................................... 5 1. Content ............................................................................................................................................. 5 Photo Composition ............................................................................................................................... 5 Lighting .................................................................................................................................................. 8 Subjects and Styles................................................................................................................................ 9 Post Processing ................................................................................................................................... 11 Some Advance Stuff for DSLR Users ................................................................................................... 12 2- Instruction Methods ........................................................................................................................... 12 3- Program Duration ............................................................................................................................... 13 4- Trainers Qualification......................................................................................................................... 14 5- Support Resources .............................................................................................................................. 14 6- Training Location & Environment ....................................................................................................... 14

Training Plan
Basic Photographic Skills Training Need Analysis
Before choosing the topic for training we analyzed our trainees and as they are all of business studies background so we presumed that most of them doesnt know much about the basic photography techniques and rules. So this provided us an opportunity to share our knowledge of photography with them and nourish their hidden skill of capturing moments in their cameras.

Training Objective
As all of us now have the mobile phones and other devices which holds a good camera within, so having said that the objective of this training is to deliver the basic knowledge of photography to the trainees so that they can capture photographs which attract others attention. This training also expects the trainees to be able to differentiate between good and bad photographs so that they can choose better photographer on this basis for any of their photographic requirements i.e. weddings, corporate photo shoots and personal photo shoots. After attending this training, trainees would have understanding of o o o o Composition of a Photographs Lighting of a Photographs Subjects and Styles Post Processing of Photographs

Trainees Abilities and Motivation

For this specific training, trainees must have the ability of watching and they must have their hands working normally because these are very basic and necessary abilities to do photography. They must have the cameras to capture things and they must have some experience of capturing photos. Now days, technology has given everyone an easy access to capturing and preserving their precious moments and share them with their relatives and friends. Everyone wants to have that skill to capture the moments perfectly and efficiently so that they can cherish those moments later on in their lives. Social media is ruling most of the peoples life and surely our trainees too, they all need to capture the photos in routine life in order to share them on social media either for personal purposes or business purpose. This will give the trainees a motivation to seek more about photographing perfectly. As our trainees would be of business studies background, they will be needing photography services for their businesses or employers and few of them may be consider photography as a profession as it earns you handsome money if you work with devotion. Having photography skill on hand will also help the trainees to save handsome amount of money by doing it themselves on different events and even in their businesses. Through this training we would help them understanding the difference between a good photograph and a bad one so that they can hire good photographers in future for different life events either they are personal or corporate.

Training Methodology
1. Content
Photo Composition Good Composition is a key element of good photographs yet is something that is hard to define. It is something which makes a photograph appealing and watchable. Following are the components and rules of photo composition.

The Rule of Thirds

Perhaps the most well known principle of photography composition is rule of thirds. The Rule of Thirds one of the first things that budding digital photographers learn about in classes on photography and rightly so as it is the basis for well balanced and interesting shots. In my point of view, ignoring this rule will surely make your photographs necessarily unbalanced and uninteresting. The basic principle behind rule of thirds is to break up the photograph down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts. As follows

The theory is that if you put point of interest in the intersections or along the lines then your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that while viewing images peoples eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.

Diagonal Rule

One side of the picture is divided into two, and then each half is divided into three parts. The adjacent side is divided so that the lines connecting the resulting points form a diagonal frame. According to the Diagonal Rule, important elements of the picture should be placed along these diagonals.

Rule of Odds

The rule of odds states that images are more visually appealing when subjects are in odd numbers. For example, if you are going to place more than one person in a photograph, dont use two, use 3 or 5 or 7, etc. Studies have shown that people are actually more at ease and comfort when viewing imagery with an odd number of subjects.
o Lines

Lines guide the viewers eye from one point to another through the photo. Look for lines that lead towards your main subject. Avoid lines that lead the viewers eye out of the photo. Remember, lines can be curved as well as straight.
o Shapes

Once youve understood the role in which line has to play within the composition of your image, youll be able to begin to appreciate the influence of shape as well. Try to detach yourself from looking through your viewfinder at subject matter and consider the shapes of each of the elements in the frame. Its important to understand how the shapes interact with one another. Strong shapes such as triangles and squares will be much easier to frame than softer circular shapes, but by appreciating how each element is formed, youll be able to powerfully portray the shapes and their correlation as subject matter.
o Framing

Framing a subject effectively is the basis of strong composition. The natural inclination is to put the main focal point dead centre of the frame but that can often look odd and out of context. Try offsetting the focal point either to one side or in a corner of the image to see if you can create some context for the image.

Negative Space

Its important to consider the negative space within an image. When working with smaller objects, the tendency is to try and fit the whole of the focal point into the shot. In actual fact, the composition of a macro subject is far more dramatic if you either fill the frame with the subject, getting right up close, or you employ some negative space around the image to let it breath and sit within the space around it. Try experimenting with something simple like a sea shell or a watch to see how you can vary the composition, rather than just shooting it, try getting up close or giving it some space.
o Symmetry & Pattern

The effective exploitation of symmetry and pattern can make for an extremely powerful shot, particularly when working with subjects such as architecture. Take time to observe the subject and recognize patterns (using the shapes and lines). Find the midpoint and be careful to set up the camera so it is square to the subject. Avoid external distractions that spoil the symmetry or pattern so you maximize the effect.
o POV (Point of View)

Before photographing your subject, take time to think about where you will shoot it from. Our view point has a massive impact on the composition of our photo, and as a result it can greatly affect the message that the shot conveys. Rather than just shooting from eye level, consider photographing from high above, down at ground level, from the side, from the back, from a long way away, from very close up, and so on.
o Backgrounds

The human eye is excellent at distinguishing between different elements in a scene, whereas a camera has a tendency to flatten the foreground and background, and this can often ruin an otherwise great photo. Thankfully this problem is usually easy to overcome at the time of shooting - look around for a plain and unobtrusive background and compose your shot so that it doesn't distract or detract from the subject.
o Cropping

Often a photo will lack impact because the main subject is so small it becomes lost among the clutter of its surroundings. By cropping tight around the subject you eliminate the background "noise", ensuring the subject gets the viewer's undivided attention.

Lighting Light is the most important part of every photo we take, it's what creates everything that we see and affects how it appears. There is a saying that Photography is nothing but light. Understanding a little bit about it can really help to improve the quality of our photos and videos.
o Direction of light

Before capturing the photographs we must first examine the direction of the light, in case of portraits we can easily handle the direction of light by moving the subject from one place to another. It is better not to take photographs with bright light in background unless it is intended to take some creative shots. Light preferably be indirect because it saves the subject from unwanted shadows but in case of still life we can capture photographs in morning and in evening when the sun is not that bright and light doesnt ruin your subjects.

Subjects and Styles

o People

Even if it is only to take pictures of family and friends, portraiture is one photographic subject that every camera owner tries to tackle at some point. Whether it is with a camera phone or a top-line SLR, a portrait does not just capture a moment of time- it can capture something of the persons personality and tell you about their way of life.

There are many different styles of portraits. Pictures can be carefully planned and posed-or you can take a candid approach by waiting for the right moment to fire the shutter unannounced. The picture can be composed to show the person alone or you can give extra clues about their life by revealing what they are doing, and their surroundings. While capturing the portraits the eyes of the subject should be placed on the upper third portion of the picture following the line of rule of thirds. This makes the portrait appealing to normal human eye. The following image displays the dos and donts of the portrait photography. While composing or cropping in post process, you should not crop the portrait on the red lines mentioned in the given image.

Still Life

Shooting still life subjects is probably one of the best ways of learning photography. By capturing the things that do not move, you can get variety of photographs. You can experiment with them by making certain arrangements of light and angles. You can take lots of photographs of same subject by changing angles and light settings, as digital cameras have made it so easy to watch the photograph right away.
o Architecture

Man-made structures and buildings can provide unique challenges- simply because you have far less control over the picture than you do with other subjects. You cant move them into position and you are forced to make do with the existing light. The diagonal rule and rule of symmetry, patterns and shape works best in architecture photography. Photographing buildings requires wide angle lenses but you can capture panorama if you dont have wide angle lens or DSLR camera- panorama can be made by capturing 2 plus photographs of same subject by moving the camera in same direction- it can be vertical or horizontal.

Landscape

You may not be able to move mountains, but it is wrong to think of landscapes as being static photographic subjects. Much of their appeal comes from the fact that the scenery around us is constantly changing- from moment to moment and from season to season. In landscape photography you can place the point of interest whether it is the surface of earth or the sky- on three forth of the photograph. You can also apply the rule of thirds and diagonal rule in landscape photography.

Post Processing Camera helps us capturing the moment as we want but it doesnt give us with finished photograph. Every camera produces a raw photograph which needs to be processed in computer through different software.
o Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is one of the best software not only for photograph post processing but also for graphic designing, digital painting, photo manipulation and for many more artistic purposes. Following are some of the options we can use to make our photographs look different and beautiful.
Black & White Photographs

Some photographs look graceful in black & white mode. Photoshop helps us converting the photographs to black & white from colors.
Sepia

Other than black & white there are more tones of the photograph one of them is sepiaPhotoshop gives us an option to change the tone of any photograph.
Saturation and hue

Sometimes camera doesnt give us photograph rich with colors, so we need to give real colors of our choice by changing the saturation and hue of the photograph in adobe Photoshop.
Image Resizing

Now days social media is playing important role in our lives, we all need to upload photos on social media and for that we can resize our photographs by using Photoshop.
Red Eye Reduction

Photographs captured with mobiles and point n shoot cameras sometime cause red eye, it can be removed by using red-eye reduction tool in Photoshop.

Some Advance Stuff for DSLR Users Exposure Triangle Long Exposures Panning Light Painting Shape Bokeh Levitation Panorama Exaggerated Angles Zoom Panning Forced Perspectives Star Trail Tilt Shift Fish Eye

2- Instruction Methods
As this training will be enhancing the skills of the trainees, so we will use lecture method supported with visual and practical demonstrations. Some time will be given to trainees to practically implement the knowledge delivered during the training session so that they can absorb the told information about photography.

3- Program Duration
Whole training would be consisting of 35 minutes following with the 5 minutes of trainees immediate feedback. The training time schedule is as follows 1- Introduction and display of trainers photography work/ achievements 5 Minutes Group Introduction - 1 Minute Trainers Introduction 1 Minute Trainers work display 3 Minutes

2- Photo Composition 10 Minutes Rule of thirds 2 Minutes Diagonal Rule 1 Minute Rule of Odds 1 Minute Rule of Lines 1 Minute Shapes 30 Seconds Framing 1 Minute Negative Space 1 Minute Symmetry & Patterns 30 Seconds POV (Point of Interest) 1 Minute Background 30 Seconds Cropping 30 Seconds

3- Lighting 5 Minutes 4- Subjects & Styles 5 Minutes 5- Post Processing 7 Minutes 6- Advance Stuff for DSLR Users 3 Minutes 7- Questions & Feed Back 5 Minutes Total 40 Minutes

4- Trainers Qualification
Trainer would be Ali Awais; he is a hobbyist photographer and currently running a Design + Photography studio and working as lead photographer there. He has been into professional photography for almost 1 year and has won 1 photography contest conducted by London based studio on face book and one of his photograph was displayed in 2nd national photography exhibition 2013, held at Al-Hamra Art Gallery by Pakistan Photographers Association. Total 82 photographers were selected out of 150+ applicants to display their work in that exhibition. He has attended 2 one week photography workshops and also conducted one week photography workshop for beginners at his studio in January 2013.

5- Support Resources
The word photography has lots of knowledge hidden in it which requires a lot of time to be revealed, 35 minutes would not be enough to transfer maximum knowledge of photography thats why we will provide our trainees with 2 soft copies of books (The Art of Digital Photography by John Hedgcoe and Fast Track to Photography by Meera Vankipuram & Gagan Gupta). These books will help the

trainees to seek more knowledge of advance photography even after the training. As we have planned to give brief overview of photograph post processing, so we will provide the trainees with the copies of post processing software which includes Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Adobe Light Room. These software would be helpful for enhancing picture quality. We will also give those handouts consisting of basic photography rules and techniques. This would help those who do not have professional camera.

6- Training Location & Environment

Training location will be the class room allotted for HRD regular session and we would just change the sitting arrangement of the class else the environment would remain the same.

REFERENCES
http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/10-top-photography-composition-rules http://photo.tutsplus.com/tutorials/composition/master-the-art-of-photographic-composition/ http://www.pinkbike.com/news/basic-light-tutorial-2011.html http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/04/12/10-rules-of-photo-composition-and-why-they-work/ http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/10-top-photography-composition-rules http://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds http://www.colorpilot.com/comp_rules.html http://www.ephotozine.com/article/12-top-photography-composition-rules-17158

Book-The Art of Digital Photography by John Hedgecoe Book-Digital Photography by Rob Shephard