Digital Photography course
Article by Layla Haidrani

This year was my first time doing a course at Camden Summer University. I signed up for digital photography as I am interested in learning about photography and using Photoshop. Our venue was based in South Camden’s Camden Learning Centre, where we planned to edit our photos using Photoshop for the week. There were at least 14 students, 2 peer motivators and a teacher.

1st day
We visited St Pancras station to take photos of the statues, everyday life and the St Pancras gardens. We were given a theme, for example, the sky before leaving the Camden Learning Centre and were instructed to take photos that represented our themes. I particularly enjoyed taking pictures of everyday life – such as people waiting for the trains, some eating in the restaurants and some shopping. On the way back to the CLC, we stopped at St Pancras gardens where we took photos of the open spaces, the building and the plants. When we travelled back to the CLC, we were instructed to choose five of our best photos, one of the statue we had taken and a couple we didn’t like. We then held a presentation of our best photos and discussed why we took them. Our advisor then gave us tips on how to improve photos by adjusting the mode, the flash and instructed us to look carefully at detail and the background of the photos. His tips were very useful and I made sure to listen carefully to use them in the future.

2nd day
Members of our course met in the British Museum in search for some fascinating and inspirational photos. The digital photography group were very fortunate to be given a special tour by a guide from the British Museum to places that the public were not permitted in. This was a rare opportunity and the digital photography group used it to their advantage to take photos of the underground of the British Museum. I liked this because it was dark and gloomy and an unusual setting for some dark photos.

After lunch, our advisor instructed us to separate as we had been together in the tour earlier this morning. We were told to visit many exhibitions around the museum and to take pictures of interesting and fascinating things. I enjoyed travelling around the exhibition and independently taking photos while being in a small group. I particularly liked the coloured pots, wall hangings and statues used in the Japanese and Korean exhibition as well as the Korean style wooden house which was quite a romantic spot for tourist couples!

3rd & 4th day
Our advisor demonstrated how to use Photoshop to the entire group. My new art skills included learning how to move a photograph onto a white background, how to edit its size, how to darken and lighten the photos, how to inject various colours into photos to make them look appealing as well as how to use the ‘history’ tool to undo stages of your work if you are not happy with it. I selected two photos I wanted to use for my final art product and during Wednesday and Thursday, I spent the days editing and changing the two photos.

5th day
After finishing editing my photos, I talked to my advisor about how I could share my new arts skills with a member of the digital photography course. I planned to demonstrate my new Photoshop skills on a computer which I learnt during the course.

It was a very enjoyable experience as I learnt many new Photoshop skills, gained communicational skills and I would definitely recommend coming along to the courses if you are interested in learning new skills or improving your interests! Thank you to Eamon and the peer motivators as well as to Camden Summer University for offering such a valuable experience and an insight into digital photography.