Digital Photography Certificate NYC: Photography & Studio Lighting Classes

This class is not currently available. Our Photo Retouching Certificate covers photo retouching, editing, and management with Photoshop and Lightroom.

Learn to Use a Camera for Professional Studio Photography, Manage Photos, & High-End Retouching

Learn the skills to develop images that are compelling, consistent, and modern as well as the ability to enhance, correct, edit, and adjust photos, and create special effects. The certificate consists of the following components:

Digital Studio Photography: Learn to use digital cameras in manual mode (shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc). You’ll learn how to achieve a correct exposure in various lighting situations.
Studio Lighting: Work with a variety of studio lighting scenarios. Practice with 1, 2, and 3-light setups using professional studio equipment and real-world photo shoot situations.
Photo Management with Adobe Lightroom: Learn to import, manage, develop, add adjustments, effects, and manage image history/snapshots as you work. You’ll also export photos and save presets so you can work faster.
Retouch images with Adobe Photoshop: Learn professional workflows with Photoshop. Retouch images for fashion (work with skin, hair, etc.), create special effects, make a photomontage, and more.

Equipment:

If you have an interchangeable lens camera (Mirrorless or DSLR) bring it to class so you can learn how to use it. If you don’t own a camera, we’ll have one camera to share between students.
In class we’ll have lights, strobes/flash, and a color calibration system for you to learn with.

This course is a great fit for all photography enthusiasts, from beginners to those with knowledge in working with cameras.

Highly Reviewed by Our Alumni

From our hands-on training style to world-class instructors and custom-crafted curriculum, we deliver results our alumni are proud of.

Schedule & Enrollment: Digital Photography Certificate

60 Hours
$2,495

Policies

NYC or Live Online
Free retake
Setup assistance
Expert instructors
Small classes

Dates & times are listed in

Not currently scheduled.

Email hello@nobledesktop.com to request this course, or see related courses with upcoming availability

See related courses

Tuition

As one of our smaller courses, tuition for this course is due in full before the start date. The best way to save on this course is to take it as part of a certificate program.

Full Tuition

$2,495
Due before the class starts

What’s Included

60 hours of hands-on instruction
Live, project-based training from experts
Retake for free within 1 year
Verified digital certificate of completion

What’s included with my tuition?

A hands-on learning experience working on projects and exercises, which is proven to boost comprehension, retention, and engagement
Expert instructors who are industry professionals and experienced educators that are driven to help you succeed
Top-notch curricula that have been tried and tested over many cohorts and are consistently improved for an optimal learning experience
Supplemental materials to assist both during and after the course - please refer to specific course pages to see what supplemental materials are offered
A 1-year free retake policy which allows students to retake any part of the course or program for free to refresh the materials and gain additional practice
A certificate of completion to verify your accomplishment

Are there any additional fees or expenses?

There are no extra fees or taxes for our courses. The price you see on this page is the maximum you’ll pay us.

However, if you plan to take the course live online, you may need to obtain required software. We’ll help you get set up with a free trial of paid software prior to the class. Most of our coding classes utilize freely-available open-source software. For most of our design and motion graphics courses, we will help you get set up with a free trial of Adobe Creative Cloud. If you attend the course in-person, we will have a computer already set up for you with all of the required software for no additional cost.

Do you offer any discounts for this course?

We don’t currently offer discounts as we do our best to affordably prices our courses.

Take this course as part of a certificate program and save:

Digital Photography Certificate

Price: $1,995 | Hours: 90 Hours

Learn the Skills Guarantee™

Learn the concepts and skills covered in this course or your tuition is on us. See details and terms & conditions.

Hands-on training

Work on projects proven to boost retention

Several students, sitting at computers, looking at the front of the classroom

Time-tested curriculum

Refined over many cohorts for an optimal learning experience

The teaching method at Noble Desktop is perfect and the classes provide you with infinite knowledge that makes you eager to take everything they offer. I love Noble!
—Ivonne Ackerman

Learn from experts

Experienced educators who are driven to help you succeed

Retake for free

Refresh the materials for free within one year

Interactive Training

Learn in Real-Time with Small Class Sizes

Attend this course in-person in NYC or Live Online via Zoom. Engage with expert instructors, ask questions, and get feedback on your exercises and projects. Switch between live-online and in-person as needed, even after the course has started.

Unlike other providers, these are not mass open-enrollment classes. At Noble Desktop, you’ll learn in small groups (typically 8-15 students) and receive personalized attention.

On Campus in NYC 185 Madison Ave, NYC

Get face-to-face interaction with an instructor and other students when you learn at our NYC campus. Courses are hands-on with a computer and software provided.

Live, interactive class
Experienced instructor in the room with you
Computer and software provided

More about our campus

Live Online Remote, from anywhere

Get the same interactivity and access to the instructor as in-person students. There are no extra fees and we’ll work with you to ensure your remote setup is perfect.

Live, interactive class
Experienced instructor teaching over Zoom
Remote setup assistance provided

More about live online training

photo of instructor leading a class in person

student taking a class live online, seated on their living room floor, leaning against a couch

Expert Instructors

Our instructors are verterans of their field and experienced educators, driven to help you succeed.

Eugenio Solis de Ovando

Senior Instructor

Dan Rodney

School Director, Instructor, & Senior Course Developer

Justine Sanborn

Social Media Director & Instructor

Earn a Certificate of Completion

Upon completion of this course, you’ll receive an official certificate testifying to your mastery of the curriculum. We’ll send you a link where you can download your certificate, share it online with your friends, post it to your professional network on LinkedIn, and view all your earned certificates. Congratulations on your achievement!

Shareable on

Sample credential for completion of Digital Photography Certificate

Free Retake & Class Recordings

Missed a session or need a refresher? We have you covered!

Free Retake

We offer a single free retake of the the class within a year.

Class Recordings

You can also access recordings of each session in your student portal within one business day of the session’s end. Recordings are available for one month after the session.

See terms and conditions.

Digital Photography Certificate Curriculum

What You’ll Learn at a Glance

Learn about different camera types to select the camera that's best for you
Control the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO using manual settings
Control light with exposure compensation, light balance, flash, and professional lighting equipment
Maximize your studio workflow for photo shoots and post-shoot production
Learn to organize, edit, and share your digital photos with Adobe Lightroom
Learn to retouch photos with Adobe Photoshop
Improve your images using color correction, masking techniques, contrast, and more
Develop your photos for print, slideshows, webpages, and more

Project Examples

Learn practical skills by working on real projects with instructor guidance and lectures to strengthen and improve your skill.

photography studio set up with strobe lighting and backdrop

a photomonage with the original images that were used to create it

multiple images put together into one cohesive final graphic

original photo and final retouched image with new elements added

final composite of model showing original photos that were put together using Photoshop

Learn studio lighting techniques & how to use strobes.

Learn to use a flash for street portraits & more.

Learn to build a home photo studio.

Combine images to build a complex photomontage.

Class Project: Combine multiple photos into this imaginative composite.

Class Project: After learning to take photos in a studio environment, develop photos, and turn them into a final graphic.

Class Project: Make this futuristic composite using Adobe Photoshop.

Course Syllabus

Download Syllabus PDF

Digital Photography Essentials

Get the most out of you camera on manual mode
Exposure, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, depth of field, file formats, and a other topics

Studio Lighting

Professional Photography work-flows
Studio lighting concepts and terminology
Qualities of light
Modifiers for taking control
Portrait lighting
High and low key
Beauty lighting
Dramatic light
Difference between high speed flash, continuous light source, and strobes equipment

Studio Practice 1

Hands-on, practical experience of working with studio lighting equipment, backdrops and use and control the subjects.

Camera & Monitor Calibration

Color Management System from the camera to the printer
Working with color profiles
Monitor, Printer and Camera Calibration
Color Settings
Color conversion
Proof Setup
Printing with color profiles
Working with a calibrated and profiled monitor is essential for professional photographers and designers. This class offers the tools you need to attain high-end, accurate, on-screen color, whether in your own studio or in a collaborative production environment
In Photoshop you can make best use of your custom color profiles by allowing Photoshop to handle color management. You can also choose to let your printer manage color.

Photo Management with Adobe Lightroom

Importing pictures from a camera
Tethered Capture
Lightroom Workflow
The catalog
DNG, Camera Raw and other formats
Metadata
Keywords
Lightroom interface
Best practices
Lightroom Classic vs. Others

Lightroom’s Develop Module

Learn to develop images, adjust image color and tone, work in grayscale, adjust crop and rotation, retouch photos, apply local adjustments, sharpening, noise reduction, and process version, correct lens distortion and adjust perspective, vignette and grain effects, apply develop adjustments to other photos and manage image history and snapshots
Preferences
Develop Module
Working with the Histogram
White Balance
Light Adjustments
Color Adjustments
Sharpening and Noise Reduction
Lens Corrections

Studio Practice 2

Hands-on, practical experience of working with studio lighting equipment, backdrops and use and control the subjects.

Photoshop Essentials

Professional workflow in Photoshop
Preferences
Bit Depth
Resolution
Color Mode
Tools and Adjustments
Color Correction
Retouching
Photomontage
Image analysis
Layers and Mask

Photoshop Advanced

Professional workflow in Photoshop
Advanced channels and compositing
How to work with advanced layers in Photoshop
Work with filters and advanced blending modes
Create actions and batch processing to shorten workflow processes
Export for web
Professional workflow for printing
Tips and tricks

Skin Retouching in Photoshop

Apply advanced skin retouching techniques for advertising and fashion-related industries.
There are many ways to retouch skin in Photoshop, some more advanced than others. Each technique will give us different results. It’s important to know where the image will be published and which retouching style should be used. For example, if we retouch skin for a food ad, perhaps the client wants something natural with minimal retouching. If we retouch skin for the cosmetic industry, it is likely to require different techniques to create an appearance of porcelain like skin while keeping the texture as well.
Professional workflow for skin in Photoshop
Color Correction
Retouching imperfections
Smooth skin
Dodge and Burn
Texturing
Frequency separation
Skin styles for fashion and advertising
Best practices
Tips and Tricks

Styles for Fashion & Ads

Learn the different styles that can be applied to an image.
You will learn various blend modes, effects and processes to give us different styles and art direction on a project.
Depending on the product or the end use of the image, you can apply different styles to a photo. If you retouch a model for the fashion industry, the retouching style may be very different from one project to another as referenced above.

Hair Retouching in Photoshop

When you extract an object, Photoshop erases its background to transparency. Pixels on the edge of the object lose the color components derived from the background, so they can blend with a new background without producing a color halo. In this class you will learn how to make difficult selections and extract object from the background.
Working with selection with tools and channels
Refine edge
Extract hair from the background
Glowing effects
Creating hair
Color correction
Hair brushes and library
Tips and Tricks
Working with tools for selections
Modify, transform and save selections
Extract an object from its background
Refine selection edges
Use anti-aliasing and feathering to soften the edges of selections
How to make difficult selections
Work with Channels for selections
Color adjustments to improve selections
Plugins and other options for selections

Photo Montage 1

In this course students will learn to apply advanced techniques in photo-montage for the advertising industry. When creating a photo montage, there are many factors to take into consideration. Many details are involved to consider and blend clients’ requirements to help create professional looking projects.
Advanced Photomontage workflow
Working with light and shadows
Light creation, shadow coherence
Retouching and modeling
Light effects and textures
Ad creation workflow
Styles and concepts

Photo Montage 2

In the advertising industry, factors we must first consider are the communication and creative objectives of the company requesting the photo montage. Later come the requirements necessary to create and complete the project.
Review the advanced techniques to create better composition.
Look at one of the major defects in photo montage, the coherence of composition verses the style to be obtained.
Learn techniques to avoid or minimize it by improving skills in lighting and shadows, sizes, proportions and perspectives, color correction and styles.

Special Effects

Learn to design and apply effects on images to add creativity and different styles to create fantastic photo montages
Photoshop filters and effects for photomontages
Add liquid effects, rain, water, fire, smoke and many other special effects of illumination and lightning to create unique and interesting photo montages.
Add drama to images
Create illustrations
Create High Dynamic Range (HDR) effects
Special effects of illumination and lighting to create unique and interesting photo montages
Fantastic scenes
Plugins
Tips and Tricks

3D Integration

Learn how to integrate 3D renders into Photoshop
Photoshop and 3D
Importing 3D models
Workflow and formats
Working with shapes
Editing views
Working with Light sources
Materials
3D integration in photomontage
Post production
Photoshop 3D interface
Working with OBJ format
Working with models
Working with lights
Working with textures
Render options

Project 1

Students work on their own projects using knowledge and techniques acquired in the classroom to create high-end photomontages.

Project 2

Students work on their own projects using knowledge and techniques acquired in the classroom to create high-end photomontages.

Project 3

Students work on their own projects using knowledge and techniques acquired in the classroom to create high-end photomontages.

Presentation of Projects

Projects presentation day

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to bring anything to class, such as camera?

Bring an interchangeable lens camera (Mirrorless or DSLR) if you have one.
If you don’t own a camera, we’ll have one camera to share between students.

What equipment will you have for students to use during class?

We’ll have lights, strobes/flash, and a color calibration system.
If you don’t own a camera, we’ll have one camera to share between students. (So bring your own camera if you have one.)
We have Macs and PCs with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom to use when learning the software.

Does this course require any prior knowledge or experience?

Students must be comfortable using a computer. No other prior knowledge is required.

Do you offer payment plans or student financing for this course?

This course does not qualify for payments plans or student financing. See our Payment Plan FAQ to find related programs that qualify.

Can I take this course online (remote learning)?

You may attend this training virtually (online) at the scheduled time the course is offered (New York, Eastern Time).

How does attending “live online” work?

Students can attend this training remotely through screen sharing software (we use Zoom).
Participants can hear the instruction, ask questions, and even share their screen with the instructor.
For audio you can use your computer’s microphone/speakers or call a phone number that we’ll provide.
Classes are activity-based and taught by a live instructor, so we strongly encourage students who are local to the area to attend in person!
You will need your own computer and copy of any required software. If you don’t have the software, you can usually do a free trial or purchase your own license. If you need assistance, contact us at hello@nobledesktop.com

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$2,495.00	Total You Pay