Michael Freeman

Perfect Exposure

  • Recommended

    $200

    Includes personal feedback and tuition. More

  • $75

    Learn in an online classroom with no more than 20 classmates. More

Course Description

Award-winning photographer Michael Freeman teaches you how to choose the right exposure for your photograph on this online photography course.

Michael will teach you step-by-step how to get the right amount of light in every photo, and how to use exposure creatively in your photographs.

Choosing the exposure for a photograph is both alarmingly simple and infinitely complex. Michael will look at how to use metering on your camera, and how to understand the methods to adjust light meters. He'll take you through the "exposure triangle" - the 3 camera settings you need to use to control brightness.

He'll explain the 12 key exposure situations, and how to evaluate which exposure techniques to use and when.

You'll be taking photos and experimenting with exposure as you learn with Michael.

Choose Expert option for personal feedback on your photographs from Michael Freeman.

You'll learn:

  • finding the right exposure for you and your photography
  • how to use aperture, shutter and ISO sensitivity
  • using exposure for your audience
  • how exposure works
  • handling different lighting conditions
  • basic metering

This Perfect Exposure Course will equip you with the skills and confidence to be able to handle any lighting condition, however unusual, both technically and stylistically.

You'll need:

This course is suitable for photographers wanting to learn more about using their camera and taking photographs, through to professionals who want to hone their photographic exposure skills with Michael Freeman.

Your tutor:

Michael Freeman is an award-winning photographer and author. He's shot photos for many of the world's leading brands and also teaches Learning with Experts' Photography Foundation course.

Time to complete this exposure in photography course:

Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 9 hours 15 minutes to complete including:

  • Video lessons: 1 hour 15 minutes in total
  • Course notes: 30 minutes per lesson
  • Assignment: at least 1 hour per lesson
  • Interactive classroom time: 15 minutes per lesson
  • tutor feedback review (Expert level): 15 minutes per lesson

    • The course includes:

    • On-demand video lessons - presented by Michael Freeman
    • lifetime access to the video, notes and interactive class
    • flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
    • downloadable lesson notes
    • practical (optional) photography assignments
    • access on your mobile, PC, Mac or laptop
    • small interactive online classroom chat online to students from around the world

    Ready to get started?

    Just add the course to your basket above - choose the 'Expert' option for personal feedback from Michael on your photos.

    Any questions? Contact us by clicking on the orange speech symbol - we'd love to hear from you.

    CPD Accreditation

    Course activity has been accredited by the CPD Standards Office (CPDSO). The course equates to 9 hours, 15 minutes of CPD learning.
    The CPD Standards Office. CPD Provider: 50276.

    Course outline

    • How to Measure and Set Exposure

      Cameras offer an increasingly sophisticated range of methods for getting the exposure in some way ‘correct’, but though the result is a wonderful choice, there’s also a chaotic array of methods and jargon.

      My job here is to cut through this nonsense, and my model is, as always, the way professionals like myself think and work.

      You'll learn what average brightness means, camera metering, aperture and shutter priority and exposure compensation.

    • The Exposure Triangle

      There are three camera settings that each control the brightness of the image you capture—aperture, shutter speed and ISO—and this lets you choose a combination to get any particular exposure, hence the expression exposure triangle.

      Using it efficiently means knowing clearly what your priorities are for any shot. Apart from controlling the light, the aperture and shutter speed each do another job for the image.

      Aperture affects depth of field while shutter speed affects motion blur, and you may want less or more of either in any specific shooting situation.

      ISO raises the sensitivity when you need it, but the result is noise, which has no redeeming qualities, so this just increases the compromises you need to make when light levels are low.

    • The Twelve Exposure Situations

      Regardless of subject, there are just 12 basic lighting situations in photography, and each one needs a particular set of techniques. Become familiar with them and you will quickly be able to assign any scene in front of you to one of these—and know what technique to apply.

      In this lesson we'll look at range, low and high contrast.

    • Exposure and Style

      In this lesson we'll take everything you've already learned and temper it with judgment and creativity. In exposure, there is no wrong and there is no right.

      If you embrace this, you can start to experiment with different styles of imagery that go beyond the obvious and average. Like any artist, you then have to rely on your judgment. Style in exposure depends heavily on deciding what the most important tones are in the picture—and then choosing how you want them to appear.

    Choose how you want to learn

    • The Expert option

      Recommended

      Develop your learning further with marked assignments and personal tuition from Michael Freeman

      • Start course whenever you like
      • 4 weeks tutor access for personalised assignment feedback & coaching
      • 4 assignments marked by Michael Freeman
      • Certificate of completion and CPD hours
      • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
      • 4 lessons with expert videos & notes
      • Group chat & direct message with tutor & classmates
      • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom
      Learn more
      $200

    • The Peer option

      Discover the benefits of group learning in an online interactive classroom of no more than 20 people. Get the most from shared knowledge and community study

      • Start course whenever you like
      • Practise what you learn with your peers
      • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
      • 4 lessons with expert videos & notes
      • 4 course assignments
      • Group chat & direct message classmates
      • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom
      Learn more
      $75

    New
    Buy this course for a business or group

    You can now buy this course through your business or organisation for individuals and groups up to 20

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    Photography classroom - how it works

    • Start anytime

      Watch video tutorials led by expert tutors

      Watch video tutorials led by expert tutors

    • Test yourself

      Practice what you learn with inspiring assignments

      Practice what you learn with inspiring assignments

    • Personal tuition

      Get assignment feedback from expert tutors

      Get assignment feedback from expert tutors

    • Share ideas

      Collaborate and chat directly to classmates

      Collaborate and chat directly to classmates

    Meet Michael Freeman

    Michael Freeman - Photography

    Michael Freeman, is one of the world's most respected and prolific photography writers and teachers.

    Amateur Photographer Magazine
    Michael Freeman is the world's top author of photography books, drawing on a long career as a widely published international editorial photographer. He has published to date 133 books, of which 66 are on the practice of photography, with 4 million copies sold, published in 27 languages. He has an MA in Geography from Oxford University, and in a career spanning 40 years has worked for most of the world's leading publishers, including Time-Life, GEO, the Sunday Times Magazine and the Smithsonian Magazine, with which he has had a 30-year, 40-story relationship.

    Much of his work has focused on Asia, beginning in the early days with Thailand, expanding outwards through other countries in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, with several books published on Angkor and other Khmer sites. This was followed by several years photographing in Japan, and more recently, China. His most recent book of documentary reportage is Tea Horse Road, tracing the ancient trade route that began in the 7th century between southwest China and Tibet. Before that was the 2005 Sudan: Land and People, still the only full visual record of the (now two) countries.

    On the craft of photography, Freeman's best-selling volume is The Photographer's Eye, which has sold more than 800,000 copies to date. He conducts photography workshops in locations as varied as the Gulf states, Indonesia, Singapore and China, and speaks regularly on photography, at venues varying from the the Royal Geographical Society, to the Smithsonian in Washington and the Asia Society in New York.

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    Awards & Accreditations

    • Good Web Guide
    • Red Herring Winner
    • Education Investor Awards 2021 - Finalist
    • CPD Accredited (provider 50276)