Harvard University Photography Course

Exposing Digital Photography Course

Harvard University has posted videos of their digital photography course. Exposing Digital Photography is available online free of charge as OpenCourseWare (or OCW). Open CourseWare is web-based publication of course lessons created at various universities and published for free via the Internet.

Course Content

This photography course from Harvard University focuses on the technical aspects and terms of digital cameras and digital photography instead of traditional artistic instruction. There are 12 videos covering topics such as; Software Tools & Light, Exposure, Optics, The Histogram, Digital Cameras, Color, and Video. Each lecture runs approximately 2 hours, so you get 24 hours of instruction from one of the top private Ivy League institutions in the country, for FREE!

In addition to video instruction, you can download course sides and access links to sites referenced throughout the course. You can also access assignments given to the students and follow along without actually enrolling in the course.

Dan Armendariz (Instructor)

The course is taught by Dan Armendariz, a former preceptor in Computer Science at Harvard University. Dan is currently working as a Software Development Engineer for Amazon Web Services at the Amazon Development Center in Amsterdam. After watching his course videos, we found Mr. Armendariz is an excellent instructor. He explains the technical aspects of cameras and digital photography in a manner that is easy to understand.

Digital Photography Course Lecture Videos

Lecture 1: Welcome!

Lecture 2: Software Tools & Light

Lecture 3 – Exposure

Lecture 4 – Exposure (Continued)

Lecture 5 – Optics

Lecture 6 – Histrogram

Lecture 7 – Software Tools

Lecture 8 – Digital Cameras

Lecture 9 – Digital Cameras (continued)

Lecture 10 – Color and Artifacts

Lecture 11 – From Stills to Video

Lecture 12: Expanding Your Photography