I have taken courses in photography before. I periodically attempt to brush up on my knowledge. A lot has changed with digital photography as a new medium. Everything is clearly explained and the professor is articulate. This course would be excellent for someone who is just beginning photography and/or it may be beneficial for someone who would like to review photography concepts. The peer review process could be improved, but also it is beneficial to review other peoples work. I still think its helpful to have a professional look at your work when possible. An extra credit assignment might be to join a camera club or talk to a professional in your community and possibly even show them your pictures as your progress through the course. The main thing is don't be too hard on yourself, or others too. We are all beginners here.

I loved this course. As a beginner in photography, I know almost nothing about things like ISO, Aperture and Focal length etc but this course delivers just the right amount of content to get you started. Apart from discussing cameras and lens, the professors also discuss picture composition and taking more control of your camera. I have gotten a very good idea of a number of visual elements from this course. I will try to complete all courses in the specialization.

I loved getting feedback about my photograph from other users. I also felt great to review the work of other people. The peer assignments are a great feature of this course.

The only thing that seems to be not designed well are the quizzes. Many questions are just repetition on what the professor has said in the lecture and they don't make you think a lot. They seem useless many a times.

I thoroughly enjoyed the classes with Professor Glendinning. They were full of valuable information and easy to follow. I was glad there were limited classes with Professor Sullivan. His videos were hard to follow the way they were edited. It felt like one long, run-on sentence. There were no pauses between thoughts and it felt as if he jumped quickly from one topic to another. Often I found myself shaking my head and thinking, "wait, what just happened?" and having to rewind the videos. I frequently had to pause the videos because his graphics flashed on and off the screen too quickly. It would also be helpful if the video on cellular cameras were updated. I have a newer phone and this video was too outdated for the options on my phone.

Course was good and full of useful information. However lecture about smart phones could be updated, as since iphone 6 was issued 6 years are over and there are iphone 12 available with incredibly featured photo camera. Might be I haven' t seen option for reports about copyrights violations, but since I have meet already 2 cases of possible copy rights violation (within 2 programs), in this course it was 1 time between participants, when student was submitted pictures downloaded form google with copyrights sign, I didn't know where to report. I informed about my suspicions during the evaluation, however I am not sure was it noticed by somebody else without participant.

The instructors have structured this course rather well, focusing on fundamental principles to enable you to take good photographs (even without a sophisticated camera). What is 'good'? Well, this course is geared to make one dwell on that, steering you to give some thought about how you can photograph even everyday subjects interestingly; and the peer review process serves well in learning how to view your own work, and that of others, objectively. By the end of this course, you may be eager to invest in a better camera, or to sign up for the next module in the series. :) Thank you, Prof. Peter Glendinning and Prof. Mark Sullivan.

While I understand the limitations of online learning, I found the inability to ask for additional information a little frustrating. To give an example, there where quizzes where there was more than one correct answer. Unless you went to the forums and by chance found out that others were having similar issues with the quizzes, you could not solve the issue and flunk the test. The questions on the peer review assignments were also lacking in clarity. Again, there was no way to get more specific information on what was required. I don't think I will enroll in the rest of the related courses.

The quizzes where applicable, focuses on submitting a score in each of the categories. While a great deal of the categories allowed for the reviewing person to submit a score of zero, other categories do not. We are drawn or more like forces to give a rating when it is not deserving or gained. If the photos have not meant the rubric standards then add the zero score mark in each category. I was not able to submit my rating because the scoring platform forces me to mark each category which gives a scoring of 15. No other selection. Consider adding the rating scale with zero.

The course was very useful to me. I'm completely new to photography. The Professors were obviously world class individuals. Having said that, i must say that i'm not very fond of the peer review assignments.

I made it a point to give everybody the maximum grade because as far as i'm concerned at the level of this course (beginner) we are all giving our best. I am not a professional in this field and i am not qualified to make a judgement about someone's work. I find it quite sad seeing that some people cannot quite get the grasp of the meaning of Peer Review.

Overall a good course. The lecturer is passionate & does a good job of progressing through basic topics without feeling too fast or too slow. A couple of lectures feel like watching QVC and a few others feel like vacation photo slideshows. My biggest issue was with the peer review assignments. I understand there value, but the grading rubrics were often interpreted between different people which resulted in people losing points. Mandatory comments in peer review (both received and given) could be asinine opinions occasionally in lieu of constructive help.

This is a good basic course on Learning Photography. Refreshed my knowledge a great deal. I do have to mention that the lessons on smartphones are extremely outdated. They are still on iPhone 6, when what we already have now is iPhone 12. I hope Michigan State University will consider updating the course. Otherwise, this is a great course for those who are looking into learning the ropes about photography. I have to mention that Prof. Peter Glendinning is a good teacher. His gesticulation, and the way he gets his message across, are effective. Props!

It is a very interesting course where I have learned a lot. I gave 4 stars because there were many videos with audio issues that made them difficult to hear and I had to rely on closed caption cc. Google created this courses and they are very technological. They should revise this videos before publishing them. In addition, there were subjects that were very outdated. For instance, the course teaches how to set up the camera app of an iPhone 6s. At the time of this review, that iPhone is obsolete. We are on iPhone 15.

I would like to congratulate the teachers who organized this course. The theoretical basis on the basic functions of the cameras, principles of the exposure of the appropriate and composition of the photograph, especially the framings, was very satisfactory. However, I missed classes with more examples of using the machine. As for peer review, the proposal is good. But since, I believe, everyone is a beginner, it would be important to have feedback from at least one tutor teacher. Congratulations!

I really enjoyed the course, it starts with the basics and introduces the concepts. I just think it's unnecessary to show how the camera of the specific cell phone works. Today there is a huge range of devices, the focal point only in two models restricts access, but that's not the bad point. With the speed at which the devices are launched, the content lags very quickly and ages poorly. Just to cite the example, the content is commented on the iPhone 6, this year the iPhone 14 will be released.

The course content itself is great, it is a great intro, and helped me to be able to understand the basic landscape of digital photography. However the peer-reviewed assignments are disappointing. The tasks are interesting, and I had joy doing them. Nevertheless, there are a lot of submissions which have nothing to do with the assignments or are incomplete. Similarly many students do not put any effort in reviewing. These were the comments on my last assignment: "great job", "no", "good work".

A fantastic introduction to photography, it is a well organized course with clear examples and a very easy to follow pace.

If you're new to photography and would like to start building your knowledge about this toipic, this is the course to go. On the other hand, if you're an experienced photographer or have notions of photography, this will be a really easy course for you, but you will certainly gain a good insight into the topics you already know.

As a beginning course for photography, it teaches you quite a lot.

The academic in me feels like there's not enough serious assignments though. To pass this class, a lot of what you'll be passing will be fairly easy multiple choice tests, with only two assignments that specifically require you to go out in field and take some pictures.

I have high hopes for the rest of the specialization though, as this was only the very first of five courses.

I had a good experience completing this course I learnt a lot about Photography , camera , exposure etc...

And the quiz is my most favourite thing in this course which made the course interesting and helpful to gain knowledge and confidence

Michigan University as an outstanding faculties! Mentors, trainers etc... Who thaught me the concepts in a easy and simple way

Thank you so much ❤️ for this new beginning in me !

Good:

very wide and also deep in transferring knowedge

assignments are clear and challenging because they require a story to which the shots ghave to follow

Not so good:

sometimes the shown examples are show too shortly, and the videos toggle between professor and motiv to fast. Show both at the same time woiuld help

the (iOs) app is a bit limited (e.g. assessments can not be edited).

The actual video lectures were great. However, a majority of the peer review is garbage. Most of the assignments I was asked to review were stock photos copied from the internet with no actual work being submitted. Several of the people who would review mine only would write one word or even worse, just a period. There needs to be more monitoring of the peer review process.

It’s a great resource to learn photography. However, I think peer-graded-system can be troublesome because I had a difficulty to find peers in week4. I was the only person who submitted the final project, so nobody gave me feedbacks. I was supposed to wait until new peers reached the final. If you had a trouble to find peers, I recommend you to ask the learning help center.

It is a very good intro course for people that has never taken a photography class, as it covers a lot of basic concept, and goes over points for purchasing one's very first serious camera. The goal of the course is to get you into the door of photography. I'd say it is very successful, and I am taking the rest of the series to get my certificate now!

This course is great. You learn a lot. The teachers are amazing. BUT, hardly nobody is reviewing the assignments. It's very frustrating to do your assignment and have to wait many days for getting a grade or even a certificate because not enough people are reviewing the assignments. Many students had the same concern. Otherwise, the course is great.

nice learning I learn a lot about photography how to set up the camera and how to work with it but there are some errors are there plz change it as there are two correct option in few question so add on more option as more then one option is correct but otherwise all the assignment are quite interesting to do and ty for making nice and clear audio

Very well organized class. The subject matter is delivered in a very clear and understandable format through the lectures and additional information. I look forward to the next 4 courses in this training. The only negative is the lack of peer reviews and the need to pretty much beg for the peers to review the photos.

There have been some problems and glitches, especially with the peer review but it's understandable since it's the course's first run. I learned a lot with this course, just starting to learn how to use the various settings in the camera. I also saw the instructor respond to some forum posts so that's a plus for me.