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Photo I

This class explores the basics of traditional black and white photographic printing as well as digital photographic processes using Adobe Photoshop. We will examine both the aesthetic and technical aspects of the photographic process through several method based assignments. The uses of metering, lighting, composition, and technical aspects of the camera will be reviewed during class to give students a basic understanding of the art of photography.

Photo i Course expectations

Symmetry & Asymmetry

12/7/2020

One of the most common compositional elements that all artists use is symmetry and asymmetry. Symmetry is when all of the compositional elements are equally pleasing on either side of the frame, and asymmetry is the lack of symmetrical elements or when the framing tends to favor one side over the other. The other piece to think about with symmetry/asymmetry is the use of negative space and balance—allowing the negative space to actually become a compositional element to balance out your photograph.

Assignment:

You must photograph 50 digital frames focusing on symmetrical and asymmetrical elements. You can photograph architecture, people, still life, or anything you see that is either balanced or not. Think about shapes and arranging objects in a pleasing manner if you cannot locate naturally occurring symmetry.

Steps:

Our living spaces are filled with symmetry and asymmetry, take a look around the room
Think about using the rule of thirds and allowing negative space to be an important element in your composition
Take both symmetrical and asymmetrical images in your images, I'd like to see both.

*Check out the Pinterest symmetry/asymmetry board for more inspiration

The Still-Life

12/1/2020

Irving Penn

The still life has been around for centuries, used by artists in order to practice painting techniques. In photography however, we can manipulate many factors in a still life to create a pleasing composition using the elements and principles. Using lighting in the studio, we are going to make interesting compositions of very simple objects. The idea of this project is to get you used to artificial lighting and learn how to compose an interesting image.

Resource: Still life pinterest board, 5 lighting tips for beginners, 50 still life images

Assignment:
Your assignment is to photograph 50 frames of a still life. You will pass in 3 high quality images to google classroom from the shoot and print your most successful still life. You will manipulate lighting. You will also learn about ISO and shooting with a tripod. One final 8x10 print must be mounted on the front of black paper.

Steps:

Analyze your still life
Manipulate the artificial lighting
Set up a tripod for your camera
Shoot a 50 digital frames (*Make sure your ISO is set at 400 for half the images, then play with ISO 800 and ISO 1600)
You must have multiple angles and views of the still life and focus on one area, not the whole mess of a still-life
You will cull down to your best 10 images and edit ALL 10 and make a contact sheet
Then choose your best 3 images with Ms. Djordjevic

PASS IN:

contact sheet of 10 edited images
3 top still life images as single files
PRINT your best image

Objective: Use the camera to capture still life, both in studio and outside of the studio. Use lighting to enhance the image and shallow depth of field to focus on specific pieces of a composition.

Resources: Still Life pinterest board

Photo I

Symmetry & Asymmetry

The Still-Life

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