Take Control of your Camera: Manual Mode

Paul Cooper

Course Description

Designed for photographers who are using their camera's 'automatic' settings and are ready to progress to full manual control. You may be just starting out, in which case it’s a great idea to learn all about manual skills straight away - or you may have been using your camera for a while and getting great results on automatic ninety percent of the time. This course will help you fix that elusive ten percent that’s not currently working out the way you want!

The lectures in this course are clear, concise, and short! They're designed to give you maximum information in the shortest possible time - for people who want to improve their photography in a short space of time.

You’re going to learn how to set shutter speed, aperture, ISO and white balance as well as how to choose the correct lens and settings to control sharpness.

You'll finish this course with a much greater understanding of exposure and the skills to override your camera's automatic settings to improve your images.

Main areas covered by this course:

  • Relationship between shutter/aperture/ISO
  • Light readings - Incident and reflected
  • 18% grey card readings
  • Depth of field and how to control it
  • Why the ‘auto’ settings on your camera sometimes fail
  • Lighting - Backlit subjects, reflectors, fill in flash.
  • When is auto best?
  • Colour temperature and White balance settings
  • Focus – manual or auto?
  • How to ‘get it right’ in camera rather than photoshop.


The Expert

Since founding his own photography business Paul has gained many awards - including the top accolades of UK Photographer of the Year from the Master Photographer's Association AND from the British Institute of Professional Photography. Paul has served as the Commercial Sector Chairman of the MPA/BIPP's qualification team and has previously received a Presidential Award from the MPA for his services to the Photographic Industry. As a result his work is marketed worldwide and he is in regular demand as a photographic speaker and judge both in the UK and internationally.

Paul shoots commercial images for advertising and packaging, press and PR images for the newspaper and magazine industry, and lots of 'people' shots: Fashion shoots, corporate portraits, and family groups are all undertaken with the same flair and creativity that stems from Paul's passion for photography. In 2011/2012, Paul was elected National President for the Master Photographer's Association - a title that he was honoured to receive.

Currently, Paul is the MPA's Director of Qualifications for Associate and Fellowship submissions. In 2013, Paul was invited to be Chair of Judges for the BIPP's 'Open' competition, and in 2014 he was instrumental in creating a new worldwide judging system for the MPA. Paul has travelled to the Far East on several occasions to train the overseas judging teams, and to oversee the quality standards put in place by the MPA. In 2014 Paul received the highest accolade possible from the Master Photographer's Association - an Honorary Fellowship, in recognition of his work and dedication to professional standards.


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