Learn how to harness the power of digital images and create flawless photographs — whether it’s for personal use or to start your own business — with our Introduction to Digital Photography

In short photography courses like ours, you will learn about photographic composition, computer specifications, and the factors impacting digital imaging. You will also learn about digital editing, scanners, digital photography software, and the types and file formats of digital files.

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking short photography courses include:

• Learning about the scope and nature of digital photography
• Exploring the digital revolution and the characteristics of digital
• Gaining an understanding of the differences between analogue and digital
• Studying pixels, bits and colour depth, colour and black and white and pixels and resolution
• Examining the two colour systems, the applications for digital photography, graphics and photo application software
• Understanding computer-aided design (CAD), multimedia and video games
• Attaining knowledge of social media, video and digital terminology
• Gaining insights into equipment, CCD’s and CMOS – the sensors, linear CCD’s and computer performance
• Learning about architecture, clock speed and memory
• Exploring the basic components of a computer, including the keyboard and power supply
• Gaining an understanding of data storage, the motherboards, cards and the USB
• Studying types of computers and features of a digital camera
• Examining digital technology, colour, sensors, camera memory and using a prism with three CCDs
• necessary
• Learning about image formation and lenses
• Exploring how to select a digital camera
• Gaining an understanding of instant cameras, camera phones and tablets, compact cameras, bridge cameras, DSLRs and video conferencing
• Studying purchasing your camera
• Examining camera stability and depth of focus
• Understanding taking photos, including composition, rule of thirds and time and natural lighting
• Attaining knowledge of the principles of photographic composition, including unity, balance and proportion
• Gaining insights into harmony, contrast and rhythm
• Learning about the qualities of the components and how to create effects
• Exploring scanning and the types of scanners, including hand, drum, film and printer scanners
• Gaining insights into transformation, retouching, sharpening images and cropping
• Learning how to use Adobe Photoshop
• Exploring file formats and saving images using different file types
• Gaining an understanding of image sizes and downloading and accessing digital photographs in Photoshop
• Studying compositing and filters, including image processing, basic filters, Bas relief, Chalk and Charcoal
• Examining Chrome, Conté crayon, Graphic pen, Note paper, Photocopy and Plaster
• Understanding reticulation, Torn edges, Water paper, filters used in Adobe Photoshop and Coloured pencil
• Attaining knowledge of Cut-out, Dry brush, Film grain and Fresco
• Gaining insights into Paint daubs, Palette knife and Plastic wrap
• Learning about Poster edges and Rough pastels
• Exploring special effects and advanced filters
• Attaining knowledge of Drop shadow, Blend mode, Opacity and Angle
• Gaining insights into Distance, Spread, Size, Bevel and Emboss
• Learning about outputs and applications
• Exploring the purpose of digital files and storing digital images
• Gaining an understanding of digital presentations, digital photography as art, digital photography for newsletters and invitations, portraiture/wedding photography, and commercial, fashion or advertising photography
• Studying printers, including dot matrix, inkjet and laser jet printers and dye sublimation printers
• Examining digital photo labs

And more!

Australian photography competitions

Photography events and competitions are a fantastic launching pad for amateur photographers, including those that have done short photography courses. Here are some recommended by the Centre for Creative Photography for those starting out (you can find out more here).

Australian Photographer of the Year 2022

Deadline: 13/11/22

Focuses on amateur photographers and includes six portfolio categories — Landscape, Animal & Nature, People, Aerial, Travel, and Black & White, and three single-image categories — Single Shot, Creative and Junior (for those under 18 years of age).

The best entries will be showcased in a special edition of Australian Photography magazine in 2023. With more than $22,000 in prizes up for grabs, there are plenty of reasons to get involved!

Annual Photography Awards 2022

Deadline: 11/12/22

Celebrates photographers of all levels, including amateur photographers who have done short photography courses. The awards offer trophies, acclaimed awards and generous cash prizes for participating winners.

Australian Photography Magazine

Deadline: Monthly at the end of the month, except for December, which is the 15/12/22.

A monthly competition … that’s FREE to enter! A different theme is announced in the first week of each month. Monthly prizes vary and include a 12-month subscription to Australian Photography or Capture magazine.

High School Student Photography Awards 2023

Deadline: 31/12/22 

Open to high school students Australia-wide, this is an open-themed competition where creativity and originality are encouraged!

Ramsay Art Prize

Deadline: 16/12/22

Held every two years, the Ramsay Art Prize invites submissions of new or recent work by Australian artists under forty working in any medium, including photography.

Updates to Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop started the digital image manipulation revolution more than 30 years ago, and it remains as one of the best photo editing software packages available. Short photography courses like ours will introduce you to many of its fantastic features, from layered image editing to a multitude of effects.

Adobe also continually updates its software, including adding new tools powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Some recent innovations include:

• Sky Replacement. Save time and let Photoshop do all the blending and masking for you! You can also add more drama to your photos by using slider adjustments that will blend foreground and background colours.
• Landscape Mixer Filter. This allows you to mix multiple landscape filters to make a new one! It works almost automatically and has lots of photo presets, so you can use them to make virtually any customisation.
• Neural Filters. These “non-destructive” filters allow you to make complex designs and edits in seconds, including recolouring and retouching scenes and removing objects. You can also zoom into parts of an image to change a person’s age, pose or expression.
• Super Resolution. This feature uses advanced machine learning to boost the resolution of an image while keeping essential details and clean edges.
• Enhanced Object Selection tool. This tool has been advanced to (among other things) make better hair selections in human portrait images. It recognises portraits and applies hair refinement to get a mask on par with what’s delivered by the Select Subject tool.
• Depth Blur Neural Filter. This allows you to create natural depth to portrait photos by adding haze, film grain and tweaking a background’s lighting, saturation and tonality.

History of digital photography

The history of digital photography as we know it today began in the 1950s with the first digital signals being saved to magnetic tape. In 1957, engineer Russell Kirsch produced the first digital image through a computer. It was an image of his son, Walden.

The first semiconductor image sensor was the CCD, invented by physicists George E. Smith and Willard S. Boyle. The CCD is a semiconductor circuit later used in the first digital video cameras for television broadcasting.

The first published colour digital photograph was produced in 1972 by Michael Francis Tompsett using CCD sensor technology. It was a picture of his wife and featured on the cover of Electronics Magazine.

The first self-contained (portable) digital camera was created in 1975 by Steven Sasson of Eastman Kodak. The camera weighed over three kilograms, recorded black and white images to a cassette tape, and it took 23 seconds to capture an image! And while the first consumer digital camera was not produced until 1981, the groundwork for digital photography had been laid.

The first digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera was the Nikon SVC prototype, followed by the Nikon QV-1000C, which was released in 1988. The first widely commercially available digital camera was the 1990 Dycam Model 1. It used a CCD image sensor, stored pictures digitally, and connected directly to a computer for downloading images. Originally offered to professional photographers (for a hefty price!), due to technology advancements, by the mid-to-late 1990s, digital cameras were available to the general public.

Cultural changes also eventuated — dark rooms were no longer required for image post-production. As you’ll learn in short photography courses like ours, images could be enhanced with a home computer. This allowed photographers to be more creative with their processing and editing techniques.

The camera phone also helped popularise digital photography, along with social media, the internet and the JPG image format. Sharp and Samsung produced the first phones with built-in digital cameras in the early 2000s. They have revolutionised the capturing of images — with the touch of a few mobile buttons!

Learn how to use image editing software to gain quality control and apply special effects to your photos with short photography courses like our Introduction to Digital Photography