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Learn with Michael Freeman

Perfect Exposure

Learn how to get the perfect exposure by taking the Perfect Exposure course on Learning With Experts.

Course overview

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.

Meet Michael Freeman

Michael Freeman is the world's top author of photography books, drawing on a long career as a widely published international editorial photographer. To date, he has published 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 Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia, with several books published on Angkor and other Khmer sites. This was followed by several years of 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.

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.