Teaching Tips

Teaching Tips
Teaching of Photography Beginners and Photography Intermediate classes recommences in February 2003 at Casuarina Senior College. Ask for the Night Classes Office. Telephone 08 8920 1200. DigiFilm also provides instruction in web software and Photoshop 7. (see DigiFilm section)

Common misunderstandings amongst students - and maybe a few professionals as well:-

Exposure: This is a most abused part of photography. With the increased use of digital capture, exposure is now critical. It is essential to place the important tones from the scene, within that part of the recording media's available tone scale, to allow accurate reproduction. It is a fact that the recording media, especially digital, can only capture a small part of the brightness range in the average Territory scene. You, or your photographer, must choose which part.

Resolution: Some practitioners STILL think that 'high resolution' (as in a scan, or image capture) means 'high quality'. Nonsense. Resolution simply dictates final printed image size. It can still be rotten quality - and often is - even at the highest of resolutions.

Compression: Don't use it at all if you want top quality, and only compress (JPEG etc) if you can't possible send, transfer etc, the full uncompressed file.

Hint for Clients
When seeking quotations, ensure you compare apples with apples; Hourly and daily rates can be very misleading. An experienced and expert landscape photographer with aviation knowledge will produce around 5 times more usable aerial photography per unit time than an everyday commercial studio photographer. This makes the job dramatically cheaper- even if the hourly rate is doubled!

Try to get a price for the job, not for time. Remember that you are not buying TIME. You are buying WORK.

Our average client rarely asks us to quote nowdays. We are simply asked to do the job. We would like to earn your trust as well.

WE DESIGN and WRITE as well as PHOTOGRAPH - in house. This means we don't need to outsource and you don't need to pay percentage markups. We have a vested interest in keeping your cost low and your design original. We all win. Then we do the prepress - again, in house. It's called controlling quality and giving service.

Copyright and moral rights
You want all the rights you need. Ask your photographer for them and pay for them. There is no need to buy additional rights you don't need right now. You can always buy them later if you ever do need them.

Terry Knight
Terry Knight and Associates 8985 4078
info@digifilm.com.au