Several weeks ago I was asked to take part in a continuing education course offered by UCLA Extension. The cool thing was this course was on “Advanced Digital Photography with Photoshop [CS4]”. Even cooler was that this was one of several Extension courses offered online so I could participate 2000 miles away in Atlanta.

“This course provides advanced study in digital photography and digital imaging with Adobe Photoshop CS4. Explore professional shooting techniques, digital SLR camera operation, studio lighting, Camera Raw workflow and image editing, color management, and sophisticated image manipulation. Instruction emphasizes creative exploration and technical development.” – course summary.

Through the 12 weeks of the course, instructor Kenneth Wischmeyer takes you through the basics of using your DSLR and its various modes as well as the processing of your photos using Photoshop’s more advanced methods. Each week brings a general lesson with accompanying online videos and downloadable “handouts” that teach a given photographic or editing concept. This concept is then put into practice via a weekly assignment that requires you to go out and take photos on a given theme. Throughout the course, students will refer to Scott Kelby’s work “The Digital Photography Book Volume 2”, the “textbook” of the class.


The class size was kept small (under 20 or so) which allowed the students to learn from each other by observing their work and receiving (and giving) critique on each assignment. The assignment images are posted in a weekly folder as either individual images or in a PDF file. Each student is then free to view the work of others and offer praise or constructive criticism on the efforts. All of this is conducted via a simple to use online web/forum interface.

I enjoyed this course precisely for the interaction with fellow students, the feedback received from Wischmeyer and the exposure (pun intended) to new techniques and points of view. If you’ve just upgraded to the Digital SLR world and want to improve your output both from the camera and from post-production in Photoshop, then photographyvoice.com HIGHLY RECOMMENDS the online course “Advanced Digital Photography with Photoshop CS4” by UCLA Extension.