Understanding camera types, lenses, and key parts

Introduction to exposure triangle: aperture, shutter, ISO

Choosing modes like Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority

Setting up your first shot: metering, focus modes, white balance

Navigating your camera menu, drive modes, and settings

Using camera histograms, live view, and exposure compensation

Working with different lens accessories and filters

Customizing settings for portrait, landscape, and motion

Rule of thirds, leading lines, symmetry and balance

Depth and perspective: foreground, midground, background

Using negative space and minimalism in composition

Creative framing: reflections, frames within frames, layering

Working with natural light: golden hour, harsh midday, blue hour

Using artificial light: flash, studio strobes, continuous lights

Controlling contrast, shadow detail, and metering in tricky light

White balance, color casts, and fine-tuning in camera

Importing and organizing photos in Lightroom or Capture One

Basic adjustments: exposure, contrast, color correction

Cropping, straightening, and fine tuning

Exporting formats and resolutions for web, print, portfolio

Long exposure, star trails, light painting

High Dynamic Range (HDR) and blending multiple exposures

Panorama stitches, focus stacking, tilt-shift effects

Creative projects: macro, motion blur, abstract photography

Selecting and curating your strongest images

Presenting your work: galleries, social media posts, print

Getting and giving peer critique, iteration

Final project: personal themed series + instructor feedback