Specialization in Urban Photography

Photographing: how, what, why

Module 2

Learn the fundamentals of street photography and train your eye to capture the hustle and bustle of everyday city life

10 lessons (1h 14m)

How do I find a topic? What story do I want to tell with my photos? Everyone who deals intensively with photography knows these questions. In this lesson you will learn how I found the topic for the project and how I would like to approach this topic with you.

Know your camera 1

Modern cameras offer a lot of technical possibilities - you will also need some settings for your project. In this lesson, I will explain important settings and give tips on how to use them.

Know your camera 2

It is well known that practice makes perfect. Practicing the key camera settings is important to developing confidence in the camera. But I also encourage you to use your camera in automatic mode.

Motif search

This lesson is about the active search for a motif, because just theoretical preparation of the picture is not enough. Therefore, I will explain to you what I pay particular attention to when choosing a motif.

Light and movement

Light is important for every photo. In order to be able to explain which lighting situation is favorable for our project, I will use various example photos to present lighting situations and their effects. Finally, I give you tips on how to use light in your project.

Composition

The different elements of an image can be combined in different ways. In this lesson, I'll focus on the golden ratio and how color contrast can be used to draw attention to specific image content.

Planning of the photoshoot and the photo series

For the planning of the series of photos, I present a system in which I relate different movements to the movement of the camera. This results in a matrix that suggests individual motifs in the photo series.

We go outside

In this lesson I'll take you on my photo tour in Berlin Mitte. Using the various motifs, I explain how I proceed when taking photographs.

Now I will show you how you can edit your photos with an image editing program, primarily to correct or adjust the sharpness and contrast. I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for this.

Editing

In this lesson I will show you how to present your photo, i.e. your story, on social media. Various properties of the image are taken into account, not only the format, but also the complexity of the motif.

Social Media

Module 3

Learn how to create visual narratives out of everyday life and make an urban photoshoot

12 lessons (1h 45m)

The construction of an essay

In this class, you will learn more about some of the essays I have done in different places from 2010 to today. I will show its thematic and formal characteristics and comment on how I arrived at these results.

Introduction to photographic language

Here, I will show examples of basic concepts of photographic language, such as framing, perspective, plans, angle, lines, balance, among others.

Light and shadows: the mood of an image

In this class, I will talk about light, shadows and silhouettes, elements that help determine the climate or atmosphere of an image.

Reflections in street photography

In this step, I will talk about reflections, another valuable element that can determine the climate or atmosphere of an image.

Lens types

In this class, I will talk about the characteristics of each type of lens and cell phone.

What I carry in my bag

In this class, you will get to know the equipment I use for street photography. I'll show you which lenses I usually wear and why I choose one or the other according to the situation.

How do I set up my camera

In this class, I will share with you some technical information, such as the memory cards I use, the settings of my camera and I will also give you other tips for you to go out and shoot.

Practice on the streets: light and movement

In this class, you will accompany me on a photo tour around the city. I will show how I choose places and situations to photograph, how I usually work a scene, how I position myself in relation to the subject and the light and how I relate to people.

What worked

In this class, I'm going to take a look at the material I produced during my week in São Paulo. In addition, I will take the opportunity to comment on how I organize my material after departures. And finally, analyzing my contact sheets, I will discuss what I think worked and what didn't work.

Here, you will see step by step how I usually treat my images, including light and contrast adjustments, colorization, noise and sharpness reduction and local adjustments. I will comment on which tools work best for each type of image and which ones I prefer to avoid.

Image treatment

15m

The ways of editing

Here, with the photos produced during the week, I will edit the essay in order to publish it on the web.

17m

Promoting your work: from social media to the printed book

In this class, you will learn a little about my social media publishing strategies. My focus will be Instagram, which is undoubtedly the biggest showcase for photographers these days. In addition, I will also briefly talk about the possibility of publishing a photobook.

Module 4

Boost your photography skills. Learn to create powerful, impactful images that grab attention,

12 lessons (2h 0m)

The different typologies of images

In this section, you will present the different types of images available in street photos.

The material and the basic rules

Avant toute chose, je vais vous montrer le matériel nécessaire pour la street photography, les réglages basiques à connaître also que mes tips personnels.

The composition

Je vous présenterai les différents types de cadrages, la gestion de la lumière ou encore la profondeur de champs au service d'un style d'image puissant.

The narration

Presently, I spoke to storytelling. Comment donner du character à ses images et les faire vivre ensemble.

The repérages and the preparation

Pour commencer, vous verrez comment sélectionner des lieux intéressants en lien avec le storytelling recherché puis je vous présenterai le matériel nécessaire pour la street photo.

Sur le terrain: quoi faire et comment?

You can read the comments and analyze the selected images to download the images and decrypt the attitude in question, the camera in main.

L'attitude à avoir

In this article, you are going to share some tips on the attitude towards street photos, where you can read the best images.

L'analyse des images prizes

Finally, you will learn the comments by clicking on the Lightroom images. so you can see the comment below to see a premiere selection of images.

Je vais vous enseigner comment selectionner les images interessantes et commencer les premiers tests liés au storytelling souhaité.

The selection of photos

Reinforcer the characters of images

In this section, enter the image editing, you will see the comment on the character and exporter.

18m

The spread on Instagram

Pour vous guider dans ce processus, je vous vous expliquer comment présenter les images, trouver le bon format, le bon rythme, afin de les diffuser de façon « remarquée ».

17m

Prepare a printed project

Finally, you will see a moment to present your creative and impactful work via the edition print of a journal of images.

Module 5

Learn to capture the soul of your city while it sleeps using different techniques and light sources, from the idea to post-production

12 lessons (1h 25m)

History of night street photography

In this class, you will get to know some classic and contemporary examples of photographers who dedicated themselves to photographing at night and produced outstanding work.

Photographic language

Here I will talk about some basic concepts of the photographic language, with examples of night photos of me and other photographers.

Night photography with available light

Now I will present and comment on some night photos of myself and other photographers taken in different situations, always using the light available in cities.

The flash in night street photography

Let's get to know some different ways to use the flash (or two flashes) in night photography, with examples of photos from me and other photographers, including the use of modifying accessories to change the quality of the light produced.

Equipment for night street photography

Here we will see some types of lenses and accessories recommended for street photography and talk about their advantages and disadvantages.

How do I configure my camera

In this class, I'll go through your camera menu in detail, showing you some specific adjustments I make to mine for a nighttime shoot.

Photo output with available light

Now you will accompany me on a night photo outing. Let's explore the photographic possibilities with the light available in cities, having as sources poles, bars, gas stations and neon signs, for example.

Photo output with flash: portraits at night

In this lesson, we will use flash in different ways to produce night portraits. We will go out on the streets of São Paulo in search of characters and discuss different ways of portraying them in order to express their personality and the mood of the night in the city.

What worked and what could be improved?

In this class, I will comment on some of the photos I produced during the course recording week, analyzing strengths and weaknesses and evaluating the reasons why the images work or not.

Workflow and image processing

Now let's move on to the post-production phase of the images in Lightroom. I'll talk about workflow to keep your files organized and see how we can improve a photo's light and shadow balance and color balance, as well as other adjustments.

In this class, with the photos produced in the course recording, we will discuss how to edit a series of up to ten night photos. I'm going to talk about how to sequence and work the narrative in a set of images.

Editing a night series

11m

Dissemination of work

Here I'll show you some strategies for getting your work out there, including posting on social media, creating a website, and publishing a zine or photobook on demand.

Module 6

Take urban photos with a personal touch for your Instagram feed using principles of composition and architectural design.

11 lessons (1h 20m)

Architecture and photography have a common language. There are many concepts in both disciplines that can help to compose an image or design a work. Then you will see what I mean.

Basic principles of photography

Now you will learn about the correct exposition and its meaning. Then, you will see what is the ISO, the aperture and the speed. You will learn how these variables also affect the moment of taking a photograph and you will understand that by managing these three variables you will not only be able to expose a photo well, but you will also be able to intention them.

Rules of photographic composition

In this lesson I will teach you the fundamental photographic composition "rules" with examples from my portfolio. You will learn to use the concepts and rules of composition to create powerful and balanced photographs.

How to take advantage of your cell phone camera

To take pictures, it is not essential to have a professional camera. For this reason, now I will tell you about the potential that mobile phone cameras have today. I will go into detail about the different default modes of the camera, more pro modes and I will also show you through examples different techniques to take mobile photography to another level.

Previous analysis of the place

I'm ready to go out to take photos, but first I'll prepare everything I need. Also, I will tell you about which places of interest can guide a tour as a reference. Then, I will analyze the different hours of the day and how they affect the result of the photograph. I will also talk to you about the importance of not setting so many limits and leaving space to change course and allow inspiration to guide you. You will see that this process is more to orient yourself and become familiar with the sector, not to go with all the photos resolved in your head.

Walking, learning to see and find singularities

In this lesson, I will give you some recommendations before going out. I will review the equipment with which I will take the photos and I will worry about taking what is necessary to be able to spend a good time taking pictures. Then, I will analyze different ways of observing to be able to identify the singularities. Remember that singularities are different for each person. The photos will be yours, not copies.

Shooting

Now is the time to go out and get down to work! I'll start my photography tour and show you how to put what you've learned in the previous units into practice.

Selection and organization of photographs

Today we accumulate a lot of information, especially photographs. In this lesson, I'll suggest an order so you never lose your original and edited files.

Edition 1

Now I will show you the photographs that I took in the field and the selected material. Then I'll move on to editing, where I'll handle some essential variables that can be found in virtually any editing application or program. Then I'll show you how these adjustments affect the image and how they can help you give it personality. Finally, I will analyze the photographs in relation to the decision making at the time of taking them and how they were composed.