about the course

The Digital Photography DeCal is a student-led course that has been taught at UC Berkeley every semester since Fall 2007 (except for Spring 2011). The course was first instructed by Nathan Yan, a now-graduated EECS student, and by Sean Goebel and Kellen Freeman since Fall 2010.

The aim of the course is to approach digital photography from a technical, rather than aesthetic, point of view. The Digital Photography DeCal is intended for students with any level of experience in photography; many people who do not consider themselves beginners are presented with an often-overlooked side of digital photography. The course is composed of two components: a lecture section and a discussion section. In the lecture section, we go in-depth into the science of modern digital photography. Lectures cover topics such as metering, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, blur, noise, and lenses. Lectures also cover depth of field, dynamic range, and color balance.

Unlike many other photography courses at the University, this course is not an aesthetics course. We traditionally cover some of the rules of thumb, but do not consider it the primary (or secondary) focus.

The discussion section will go more in-depth on the topics covered in lecture. The discussion will take concepts covered in the lecture and apply them to real-life situations. Discussions will include how-to lessons on topics such as landscape, portrait, night, and sports photography. Students must also put what they learn to use, putting emphasis on what has been learned up to that point. In the discussion, students are encouraged to critique others work, not aesthetically but based instead on how well they used their knowledge of the topic to complete the assignment.

Traditionally, the discussion section also takes one class trip around the Bay Area as an opportunity to work with the instructors directly. Previous trips have included night photography lessons in the Berkeley Hills and landscape photography in Marin County.