Lights, camera, action!

The basic photography course that started on May 23 at the Osmania University (OU) campus, attracted as good as around 63 students to learn the tactics of using a camera. Some for their hobby, some to enhance their skills for professional reasons, and others, just to learn something during the summer — all the students seemed to have their reasons set for to learn the art of clicking a good photograph. “This is the second batch of our first-of-its-kind workshop. Because of the success of the first batch, we thought of continuing the same,” explains G V Satyavathi, assistant professor, department of communication and journal, OU. She further continues, “The idea is to teach basic photography — so this is for people who don’t even know how to use a camera.”The ten-day course has attracted people from all walks of life — the youngest student being a 13-year-old school going student, while the oldest is a retired 70-year-old, who has immense interest in making documentary films. “I have retired, and now I have involved myself in making documentary films. And, photography has been a hobby, so I decided to join this course to get the technical aspects. Also, now-a-days, the the technology has progressed so much that pictures can be directly edited on a camera and I wanted to learn all of it,” says V K Sharma, one of the students of this workshop. Apart from them, the class is filled with employees from the IT sector and engineering students. “Clicking pictures was always a hobby, but I was not very familiar with the technical aspects. This is why I joined this workshop. I did learn a lot — the camera angles, the lighting, editing pictures in Photoshop,” exclaims Divya Gagula, an engineering student, adding, “After learning something new everyday, I made it a point to try it at home with my family or neighbours.”The course aims at not only enhancing the artistic skills of a photographer, but also the technical aspects like photo editing. Students got to learn about camera angles, lighting and other improvisation techniques to get a perfect click. They also learned about clicking pictures in different modes — landscape, portrait, among others. Apart from the practical aspects, the course is aimed at teaching students about the various editing options in Photoshop. This is not all. The students also spent a day at the Press Club on Tuesday and learned to work on model photo shoots as well. Various models were decked up in different trendy outfits and the students were given an opportunity to click portfolio pictures with the perfect lights.   After teaching the city’s denizens on mastering the basic skills of photography for three hours everyday for ten days, the course ends on June 2. The students will receive a certificate as well.