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Spring 2018 PREVIEW
This course comprehensively studies several foundation digital photography workflow skills and proficiencies, inclusive of single lens reflex [SLR] camera operations that create accurate exposures, compositional strategies, image cataloging, editing and processing, and various output presentation methods. Assignments are designed to incrementally investigate hardware and software that drives mechanical aspects of the camera, and with these intentions students form a wide range of technical abilities that can unleash their creativity. Adobe Lightroom software is utilized throughout the semester to organize, edit, process, and prepare images for various kinds of output methods. Students can learn to develop their personal workflows from the prescribed methods in class for each stage of a photograph's existence, offering rock solid prerequisite skills to enroll in the subsequent course work found in the WCC Photo Program.
The course content is based on the idea that students do not have a command of basic photographic image capture and processing skills. However, students are strongly advised to have a command of basic computer literacy skills to enable their successful navigation of the Macintosh operating system, Adobe Lightroom, and other applications found in the Digital Media Arts Department Labs.
We live in an unprecedented era of image making. In the mid-twentieth century, professional photographers used to say, "if photography was easy, then everybody would be doing it." Well, look where we are. Historically and culturally speaking, making photographs in the twenty-first century immerses us in advanced technology that appears to make it so. But is it really that easy? To generate just a glimmer of appreciation for what photography is today, let's look at Nicephore Niépce, a French scientist and inventor, who was one of a few people who worked for years with the idea of making images with light and permanently fixing them to a surface area. In the mid- to late-1820's, Niepce originally conceptualized photography as images being made with light and then fixed to paper with ink — www.nicephore-niepce.com. Although early iterations of this invention [heliographie] enabled crude ink-to-paper transfer prints made from etchings on glass, stone, or metal [photoengravings], today 190 years later, students quickly discover in class [the Photo Lab] that their images created with light are conveniently realized and viewed as Epson inkjet prints. Let's see how easy this is.
Course Objectives
By the end of the semester you will...
• Identify the major physical components of a digital single lens reflex camera
• Demonstrate accurate control
of basic camera settings such as ISO, light metering and exposure, and focus
• Use depth of field and motion with intention to achieve a desired visual interpretation
• Identify the visual effects of
wide-angle, normal, and telephoto focal length lenses
• Use compositional techniques such as framing, repetition, isolation, and perspective to create visual flow
• Identify the technical characteristics of accurate exposure using in-camera and post-production software
• Edit images with specific technical and aesthetic criteria
• Process images with defined technical standards
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Use image adjustments to density, contrast, and color to make professional quality prints
• Create black-and-white and color images
• Present portfolios of images by utilizing professional presentation materials, tools, and techniques
• Constructively evaluate and critique photographs
• Obtain a basic command of the color theory of light as it applies to photography
• Obtain a basic working knowledge of Adobe Lightroom
ORIGINALITY and COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
All photographs must be originally produced during this semester by each student to complete assignments and earn credit in critiques or portfolios in this class. Work created during another class or previous experience is not accepted for assignment, critique, or portfolio evaluation. Students in this class are prohibited from using images produced by another person, or "borrowed" from any other source, to earn credit. This practice, known as copyright infringement, is a violation of college academic intergrity policies and potentially, even federal copyright laws. Images discovered during the grading of student work as being produced prior to the first day of this class, submitted in a concurrently enrolled accredited class at WCC or elsewhere, or obtained from another source, earns zero credit in this class.
Students are required to use a Digital Single Lens Reflex [DSLR], or Micro Four Thirds [MFT] camera system to produce images for this class. Cameras that don't support the use of interchangeable lenses are prohibited. Students are prohibited from producing photography assignments with Smart Phones, Phablets, Tablets, or via Internet, social media, stock photo, clip art, or royalty free sources. In any WCC photography class, students are expected to take the ownership of their art seriously by producing it ethically, and displaying it with integrity.
Course Requirements / Grading Criteria
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ATTENDANCE
CRITIQUES & PARTICIPATION
PINTEREST INSPIRATION BOARDS
HANDS-ON QUIZZES
PHOTOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENTS
WEEK-TEN REVIEW [EXAM]
FINAL EXAM
FINAL PORTFOLIO REVIEW
Don Werthmann
professional faculty — photo
washtenaw community college