Portrait Photography Short Course
Course description
This course guides students through how to develop a portrait photography style, combining creative approaches and technical knowledge.
Through a series of technical sessions and practical exercises, students gain an insight into the history of portraiture and build their understanding of the medium, including how to work with a sitter, composition and inspiration.
Technical sessions cover a range of topics including portable and studio lighting, how to work with daylight, an introduction to Adobe Photoshop and key digital camera settings.
Students also have the opportunity to put their knowledge into practice by working with a model.
Course outcomes
By the end of the course students should have:
- Developed a portrait photography style.
- Knowledge of the history of portraiture and key portrait photographers’ work.
- An understanding of various compositional techniques.
- Become comfortable working with both natural and studio lighting.
- Learnt how to work with a sitter to make inspiring portraits.
Who should attend?
This course is aimed at anyone with an interest in portrait photography who would like to build their knowledge and understanding of this medium. It would be an excellent fit for photographers, artists, creatives, art directors, etc.
Level: All levels welcome. Best suited for people who already have some knowledge of how to use a camera (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc).
Clear, easy to understand lessons:
- Our tutors will explain things in easy to understand, accessible English. If they need to use any special terminology they will make sure they explain what they mean.
- New methods will be shown to students through live demonstrations, in a way thats crystal clear and easy to understand.
Experience life on campus:
- Study at Central Saint Martins, Granary Square a world-famous art and design college
- Network and share ideas with students from across the globe
- Access the technology and materials relevant to your discipline
- Shop in our college shops for any materials you might need
- Ask questions of your tutor in real time
- Receive feedback and critique on your assignments
- Experience the many sights of London on your down time
A certificate of completion:
- You've put the work in so we want to make sure you have something to show for it!
- As long as you attend a minimum of 80% of your classes, we will provide you with a certificate of attendance.
- We always recommend you attend all of the classes so that you get the most out of the experience!
- Certificates are great to compliment your cv.
Available dates
Details
Topics covered:
- Looking at key portrait photographers’ work and the history of photographic portraiture.
- Regular discussions of each student’s work.
- Ways of approaching portraits and poses.
- Compositional techniques.
- Key camera settings such as focusing methods, focal lengths and metering.
- Advice on cameras and lenses.
- Working with natural and ambient light.
- Portable flash lighting - including fill-in flash and balancing daylight.
- Studio lighting: various studio flash lighting approaches.
- Doing an edit and an introduction to working with Photoshop.
- Industry advice.
Materials
Please bring with you to the first session:
- A digital camera - DSLR or mirrorless, with full manual controls.
- It is recommended students bring a spare memory card, spare battery and the camera’s battery charger.
- A notepad.
- Comfortable shoes and warm weather clothes for courses taking place over cooler months (for learning about daylight portraiture).
- Students are welcome to bring analog cameras to sometimes use on the course, and to develop their film in their own time. However, it’s recommended they also have a DSLR or mirrorless camera with full manual controls. While analog photography techniques won’t be studied on the course, the tutor regularly uses analog cameras and can give advice on the topic.
IMPORTANT - Adobe ID Login for Short Course Students
Students will need to create an account with Adobe (unless you already have one) in order to access the Adobe suite at the college – instructions are included below. You will need to use a personal email address to create this. If you already have an account with Adobe, please make sure you bring your login details with you on the first day of the course.
Please note:
- The software will only be accessible when logged into a UAL networked computer
- The same account can be used outside of the University, but software will only be accessible through a personal paid subscription that students will need to set up independently
- You can still create an account on the day but doing this beforehand will save time and avoid delays to the start of the class.
- If you already have an Adobe ID/ subscription you can use this on your short course rather than setting up a new account.
- During this course you will be using Adobe Photoshop. If you do not already have Photoshop, you can sign up for a free 7 day trial of Adobe Creative Cloud. Please note a credit card is required to register for the free trial. The subscription must be cancelled on the date provided by Adobe if you do not wish to continue onto a paid account.
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