The Olympus School of Digital Photography
Olympus Cameras
1-800-622-6372 ext. 6161
email the school with questions
The teacher, Bob DiNatale's web site
$99

Review by Gary Coyne

In this class on digital photography, the teacher brings forth the axiom "Acquired knowledge is NOT obsolete ..." "...when applied to new technologies."

The operative word here is applied because trying to use a digital camera like a film camera can potentially lead to various levels of frustration and even wasted moneys. It's because of this potential frustration that Olympus created this day long seminar. Realistically, people will continue to use a computer like a typewriter, and this is not likely to affect the sale of word processing programs. But the (potential) problems with digital cameras may dissuade purchases and the subsequent purchases of cameras.

The class, which is done about every three weeks around the country, is taught by Bob DiNatale, a professional photographer. Bob has been teaching courses in photography for many years and is not an employee of Olympus. (During the class Bob cites numerous hardware and software products that are not Olympus products.) Bob had just completed a two week "shoot" in Tuscany Italy, and showed many of his digital photographs during the class--all taken with digital cameras of various qualities.

The class is held in a hotel conference room and was booked from 9 am to 5 pm. Bob did a very good job of time management and managed to finish about 5:10. Considering the amount of material covered, this was excellent. The morning schedule included "Digital Basics," "Resolution," "File Formats," and "Digital Cameras." The schedule after lunch included "Digital Image Workflow," "Photo Elements," "Digital Darkroom," and "Digital Printing."

The class was very mixed with both Mac and PC users (Bob teaches to both platforms), beginner through professional photographers, and those with point-and-shoot digital cameras to those costing thousands of dollars. Also, people who have used digital cameras, but haven't purchased one yet. This aspect of the class is also valuable as it can refine what one is looking for in a digital camera.

Bob leads the class with a Macromedia Director presentation, and a 21 page handout of the screen slides is handed out both to follow his slides and take notes. The class is run off his laptop (not a Mac) and one of his cameras. During the class he constantly switches from the Macromedia Director presentation to the computer's view to the camera's view (so one can see what is seen in the menu-display of the camera), and the presentation is lively and never boring. He also has a small collection of extra "stuff" like a USB reader for for his SmartMedia cards that allows them to be read on his computer like an external drive.

Bob starts off by defining that getting any photograph into a computer (either by scanning or by a digital camera) can be considered a digital image because regardless of how you get the image into the computer, you need to be aware of scan resolution, film size, dpi, sample size, screen resolution, color resolution, pixel resolution, etc. Once these terms were clarified and defined, he focused on digital photography for the rest of the course. Bob also discussed the various formats for saving images and the advantages and disadvantages to lossy versus lossless file formats. All this may sound complicated, and when it gets right down to it, digital photography can be a complex subject. However, it is because digital photography can be complex that this class is valuable, and by the time Bob finishes explaining these issues, it all makes sense.

It is very tempting to go into great detail about what was taught in this class but here are a few tidbits:

• The demand of optical quality for digital photography is greater than for film photography.
• When looking for a digital camera, it's not just about the pixels. Rather, one must consider the processor in the camera, features, quality of zoom, etc.
• You are better off getting several SmartMedia/CompactFlash cards and taking all your photos at high resolution and no compression.
• Never throw away an iteration of one of your digital pictures, ESPECIALLY YOUR ORIGINAL.

As mentioned, Bob is not an employee of Olympus Camera. In fact, he does some type of class for Nikon cameras as well. However, during this class when it got to the subject of Digital Image Workflow, he sounded more like a salesperson for two different software programs than a teacher of the subject he was explaining. The subject is important because without a comprehensive workflow, one can soon be drowned in a sea of thousands of pictures of varying quality and no way to find the ones you are looking for. In addition, one may have multiple copies of photos, but the originals were lost by being "saved over" during Photoshop (or some other) processing. Fortunately, after leaving that subject, Bob regained his focus on the class and returned to his full educational self.

Bob also included a section on taking better photographs, or rather stating "You don't take photographs, you make photographs." By showing examples of composition and perspective (especially using a zoom lens), Bob showed some excellent guides and suggestions.

There were multiple breaks during the class and outside the room was a table with various Olympus cameras and printers. The people at the table were knowledgeable on the equipment. Although nothing was for sale, this was an obvious opportunity to make the students interested in Olympus cameras and equipment. However, in the context of what was being taught in class, it was nice to have the opportunity to examine cameras with the features discussed that allowed the class to put the information into full perspective. I'm easily offended by these types of situations, and I was not offended.

In short, the class is wonderful. I was lucky in having to drive only 25 miles to the class site in Santa Monica. Some of the people had traveled in from Northern California and even Mexico, but they also felt they got their money's worth. Check out the web site and see if a class will be held near you. You'll be glad you went.

[Photo of the class used above is with permission of both Bob DiNatale and Olympus.]