PHOTO
1A Fall
2009
Beginning
Photograph Syllabus - HOME
This class will explore both film and digital photography. If you don't have a digital camera you will still be able to participate in digital by scanning your negatives. You will learn to scan negatives and prints.
Critique Dates:
Teachers
open the door, but you must enter by yourself. Chinese Proverb
Create
like a God, Command like a King, and Work like a slave... Brancusi
This class
meets for 5 hours on Tuesday or Weds.
8:00 am until 1:00
pmfor the morning section
11:00 am until 4:00
pm for the afternoon section
DO NOT OPEN
PHOTOGRAPHIC ENLARGING MATERIAL IN LIGHT!
John M.
Grzywacz-Gray
Photo Lab
Phone 805.378.1442
John's office
805.378.1400 x1875
Fax:
805.378.1499
E-mail johngrzz@gmail.com please put
"student" in header
My web Site:
http://www.oocities.org/grzz4856 click on
Links for useful class sites
Department web page:
http://www.moorpark.cc.ca.us/~mcphoto/
Text book web
site: http://www.prenhall.com/london/
Office Hours:
Monday: 5 pm until 6:00 pm
Tuesday: 4 pm to 5:00 pm
Wednesday: 4 pm until 6:00 pm
Thursday: 4 pm until 5 pm
Other Hours are available by appointment.
Do not wear good clothes
in the Wet Lab. You may stain them.
Warning!!!
A wide variety of chemicals are used in
black and white photographic processing. Film developing is usually done in
closed canisters. Print processing
uses a processor machine unless it breaks down.
Precautions
ACCESS
Information:
"If you
have a learning, attention, or physical disability that may require
classroom or
test accommodations, please let me know as soon as possible.
If you have not
already done so, please register with ACCESS. ACCESS is
just to the
right of the Campus Center Building or you can call them at
378-1461. Verification from ACCESS Is required
before any classroom ortesting accommodation can be made."
Òthe more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.Ó Stephen Weinberg.
Course
objectives:
A. You will demonstrate the ability to compose photographs, process
film and make prints.
B. You will demonstrate
an understanding of the camera controls and use them for making correct
exposure.
C. Relate
Camera/Film operations to digital photography.
D. Evaluate and
respect the craft of photography.
E. Develop an
appreciation and some knowledge of the history of photography.
F. Develop an
awareness of visual design and concept.
G. Develop the
beginning of a personal aesthetic.
H. Relate and
define how photography affects the culture.
About This Class
This class is
designed to give you foundation technical and aesthetic skills as they apply to
commercial, documentary and fine art photography. The semester will be spent
with black and white photography. We will also look at the implications of
photography as they apply to the society as a whole, at the history of the
medium and at significant artists from the beginning to the present.
"The
production of photographs is, in and of itself, an unsatisfying goal.
Photography becomes yet another subject to learn, another three units, another
class another possession; the final pieces of paper, the prints can become just
another contribution to the visual pollution problem.
Photography has
no intrinsic value
The value is
inherent in the photographer." Bill Jay
We provide a nourishing
environment to facilitate your learning. There will be days when you may be
confused by the material. Please talk to me.
Photographers
choose to be artists.
That presumes
that they have moments of intensity that transcends the banal ordinariness of
life.
Ozenfant the
Art Historian says "I call art everything that takes us out of real life
and tends to ...elevate us. The one aim an artist should confess to should
be that of producing great art."
This class is
NOT about the instructor - it is about you - your interests, your passions,
your desires to make photographs. Many of us have been telling students for
years what we learned from Joseph Campbell. "I say, follow your bliss
and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going
to be. " If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you
ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are, if you are
following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within
you, all the time."
The Photography
program is designed to meet the following goals best stated by J. Krishnamurti
"We must
create immediately an atmosphere of freedom so that you can live and find out
for yourself what is true, so that you become intelligent, so that you are able
to face the world and understand it, not just conform to it, so that inwardly,
deeply, psychologically you are in constant revolt; because it is only those
who are in constant revolt that discover what is true, not the man or woman who
conforms, who follows some tradition.
It is only when
you are constantly inquiring, constantly observing, constantly learning, that
you find truth, God, or love; and you cannot inquire, observe, learn, you
cannot be deeply aware, if you are afraid. So the function of education, surely
is to eradicate, inwardly as well as outwardly, this fear that destroys human
thought, human relationship and love."
What are the
qualities of a good photograph?
You are to make
this determination not as a consumer of photography but as a producer of
photographs.
A photograph is
good if it serves its intended purpose.
Often the best
work done by any artists is done for self-satisfaction, in personal dialogue
with the chosen materials and without concern for the opinions or criticisms of
others. Often the photographer has to be helped, coached to see their best
work.
Catering to
public taste can lead to mediocrity.
Consider
reactions to your work carefully; don't accept negative or positive responses
without questioning
Avoid wishful
seeing.
Physical and
chemical laws govern photography.
"Creativity"
in photography is a result of the selection and organization of subject matter before
the shutter is snapped (pre-visualization), and adjustment or manipulation of
the image after it's formed (post-visualization). Pre-visualization can focus
on how and where subject matters is displayed in the frame, on the choice of
equipment (lenses, camera format, etc.) as well as how you expose the film
(zone system). Post-visualization is a function of both traditional darkroom
techniques and experimental methods. Today that includes the use of the
computer for image making.
One of your
first challenges as a photographer will be to understand the differences
between how the camera records a scene and how your brain sees. You have to
become accustomed to a few fundamental differences between human vision and the
camera vision. An example is your eyes assemble fragments of images into a
whole. The camera records an entire scene.
The camera does
not record what your brain records (that may be a good thing). Some snapshot
photographs do little more than confirm that you were present at the subject area
when the picture was taken. They may not emphasize the points that interested
you, they may not suppress the areas that bored you or they may illustrate a
very small area of the total subject space described by your peripheral vision,
and display the whole interpretation in smaller-than-life scale, confined
within artificially described boundaries, in two dimensions, and in black and
white. There may be hints of the extra visual perceptions that you experienced
and that contributed to your total impression.
Thoughts on
Composition
If you want to
clearly communicate your own or your client's impressions to others (as in
commercial photography), you must supply them with complete, coherent pictures.
In very simple terms of straight photography, this means that your print must
display clearly, sharply, and without confusion of background details, all
those areas of the subject that your eye examined with pertinent interest. In
addition, your print must conceal or subdue those areas of the subject that your
brain classified as irrelevant or uninteresting. Every visible feature of the
print will affect viewers in some way, and if you supply them with the wrong
elements, or present them with visual confusion, they will not get your
message. On the other hand as a fine artist you may be interested in completely
different goals.
However you may
not know what it is that you are trying to communicate. You may find
photography to be a method for discovering the visual world and all its
implications. In that case you will learn to live with a great deal of
uncertainty.
2) Required Text
Book
Photography London
& Upton- 9th edition preferred but 7 or 8 is fine. You
are required to do all the fill-in-the-blank questions for all 17 chapters
on the textbook web site: http://www.prenhall.com/london/ You may do additional
questions for extra credit.
3) Optional Text
Book and Readings
Susan Sontag, On
Photography, (Dell Publishing), 1973. Required reading for anyone who wants to
understand what the substantive issues are when making images. We will do a
seminar on the 1st chapter of the Susan Sontag book.
Desert
Solitaire, Edward Abbey ... nothing to do with photography at all but a fine
book about wildness and our responsibilities to that wildness. Abbey has been
hailed as the Thoreau of the American West. Walden Pond should be read as well.
Amusing
Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, 1985 ... a book that document how our
culture has been subverted into passive mediocrity by the entertainment world.
Essential reading if you are concerned about the future.
4) Time required
for class:
5) Assignments
are due two weeks after they have
been assigned unless otherwise indicated.
Each assignment
will generally consist of more than one requirement. For a C grade: You are
asked to turn in one printed photograph of what you consider to be your best
image and a proof sheet of all the other images made. If you expect a higher
grade you need to turn in 2 to three prints per assignment. On the proof sheet
you must indicate which frames satisfy the other components of the assignment.
If you have a serious problem with an assignment it is probably wise to redo
it.
You must include
a short written self-evaluation with each assignment. It must be in
narrative form. Number the photographs and use the number when referring to each
photograph in your narration.
Some Questions
you might answer:
1. What I understand least about this assignment is .....
2. If I were to make this photograph again I would
.....
3. This photograph tells
a story about ....
4. This photograph asks me to think about ........
5. This photograph makes me feel ....
6) Gallery
Requirement:
You must attend
at least one photographic exhibition and turn in a brief statement that
describes your response to the photographs. I am interested in an intellectual and emotional response.
Additional attendance at exhibitions will earn you extra credit. The Sunday Los
Angeles Times Calendar section list art and photography exhibition
8) Camera - I
prefer that you have a camera that you can focus manually, and if it is an
automatic camera .... it should have a manual override. It is important that your principal
lens a 50mm or thereabouts has a depth of field scale. Lenses - Whatever you
have is fine. We will address the issues of lenses during the course of the
Semester. A Tripod may come in handy.
9) Materials -
do not open photographic material in room light
Paper: 8 x10
Ilford Multigrade IV RC, Pearl Surface. Write your name boldly on the box. You will use about 100 sheets of paper during the semester.
There are special deals in camera
stores where you get 25 sheets of paper and 2 rolls of Kodak or ilford film for
about 13.00 ƒ four of those packages will be a good start. Only buy this deal
with asa 400 black and white film ƒ any other choice is not recommended.
Film ... TRI-X
or T Max 400 or Ilford Delta 400
You will need about 12 rolls of 36-exposure 35mm Kodak Tri-X film for the Semester. You may choose to save money by buying Bulk Film. If you choose bulk film we have a bulk film loader and we will show you how to use it. If you choose bulk film you will need at least 5 empty cassettes that can sometimes be obtained free of charge from one-hour photo labs. Do NOT Buy Chromagic film Ð They say develop in C41 chemistry on the box.
Manila Folders. You
will need about 13 Manila folders for turning in Assignments or you can recycle 4 or 5 of them. You will need to
tape the edges shut so that the folder is a pocket.
Negative
Holders. You will need negative holders to store your negatives safely. There
are several different kinds available from your local camera store. Pick the
one that is best for you.
You should have
a clean Towel for every lab period.
Locks for
Lockers .... This is voluntary. We will let you know when Lockers are available.
10) Grades:
Effort is important. Listen to yourself. I want you to
succeed on your own terms. Follow your vision, follow your passions.
Your grade is
based on:
Attendance is
measured by the question about photography that you turn in at the end of each
lecture session. I will also circulate a roll sheet during the lecture section
of the course.
Assignments: When you turn in assignments they must be in a folder, please write your name, course 01a and am or pm on the folder tab and on the back of your prints. Always print at least two copies of a print, the one you turn in to me may be written on.
Final project
and Critique
A portfolio of at least five mounted prints for the final.
11)Hints for
success in College
Visit the
learning center to sharpen your skills in areas like note taking and reading
strategies and preparing for exams.
Find out your
preferred learning style. Do you remember things better if you see them, hear them
or write them down? Then find ways to incorporate that style into your
studying.
Make sure you
understand all of the assignments and my expectations.
Use my office
hours to get feedback on your papers, exams, and work. Faculty are more likely
to be sympathetic with your final grade if you act interested in their classes
and take time to introduce yourself and seek help.
Go to class.
Skipping lectures makes completing work and exams more difficult.
Stay on top of
the reading. If you've read the material beforehand, lectures are more
meaningful and interesting.
Start
assignments early and get feedback from professors, friends, etc. Have someone
proofread. Don't be afraid to redo the assignment until you've refined it as
much as your current skills will allow.
If you're having
trouble in a class, get help from a tutor or a friend who is good at the
subject. Camp out in the professor's office until it finally makes sense to
you.
Study in the
library, not your home. At home you'll be distracted by ringing telephones,
TVs, chatty family, friends and roommates.
12. Behavior in
Class
a) Please make
it a habit to arrive on time for class. Sit near the center and front for the
best view of the slides used in class. It is very difficult to see the slides
properly from the sides of the classroom.
b) If you have
any problems with purchasing the materials for the class speak to me as soon as
possible.
c) If you must
leave the classroom for some reason during the class ... please do so
discreetly.
d) If you are
carrying on a separate conversation during the class you make it impossible for
me to concentrate, so please donÕt. No matter how quiet you try to be you will
distract others.
e) Please raise
your hand if you have a question at any time. I will acknowledge your question.
f) Please do not
eat or drink during class. I can't tell you how insane I get when I hear people
trying to quietly open containers. If you must eat or drink- open packages,
cans, etc. in advance.
g) If you are going
to miss a class please advise me.
"One's
philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one
makes in the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process
never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our
responsibility" „Eleanor Roosevelt
Class schedule
(this is a guide not a literal schedule)
Week 1
Review Syllabus
Make it as
visually interesting as you can. Include a photograph of yourself ... the photo
will not be returned.
I am interested
in the following: Your Past Achievements, College Major, Goals,
Music, literary,
film, activity and artistic preferences.
What are you
most passionate about?
What do you
expect to learn from this class?
Assignment
Reading: ÒphotographyÓ by London
& Upton
Chapter 1
Getting Started
Chapter 2 Camera
-
Chapter 9 page
298 to 299 Special Printing Techniques ... A Photogram : A camera less picture.
Pinhole camera 269-297
Week 2
Camera overview
for Instructor
only (FIO): PowerPoint 01
for Instructor
only (FIO): PowerPoint 02
for instructor
only (FIO): expose piece of paper to light only
Pinhole Camera
--- expose paper without developing why an exposure meter is necessary
Slides Meter
Overview, #36 reflected, incident, spot, color,
Intro to the Lab
Assignment:
Photograms - objects, magazine and
a reversal print.
Slides:
Photograms #58
Assignment
Readings
Chapter 3 Lens
Chapter 4 Light
and Film
Chapter 5
Exposure
Week 3
LECTURE:
Reciprocal exposure
FIO: PowerPoint
03a
FIO: Powerpoint
03
The Light Meter
- what's it good for?
Palm of the hand ... 18% gray. card - Caucasian flesh tone
Expose for the shadows?
Expose for the highlights?
Zone System
The process is:
Meter, use appropriate technique
Determine depth of field needs and motion
interpretation
Calculate exposure
Extra Credit
possibility: Make a Pinhole camera
Assignment: 1st
roll of film. Between now and the next class take 36 exposures on a roll of
film. It doen't matter what you photograph. Pick subjects that you really
are interested in.
Try to keep an
open for texture
Texture Factors: Sharpness, Contrast, Direction of light
Each object should also be as carefully composed as you can.
Assignment
Readings
Chapter 6
Developing Negative
Chapter 7
Printing the Positive
Week 4
Lab ...
Photograms continue and film processing and contact sheets will be made in the
lab.
Metal tank users
make sure you hold the top when you invert the tank. Otherwise it might come
off and ruin your film.
Plastic and
metal tank users make sure that you dry the reel after use, It is very
difficult to load film into a wet plastic real.
Slides: Ernst Haas
Lab - Enlarging
The
test Print
1. Pick an area that includes
highlight values and shadow values if possible
2. Expose the print for
the highlight values - exposure
times should be between 20 and 30 seconds . Exposure controls the highlight
values Ð always stop the lens down 2 to 3 f stops.
a. If the whites are too
bright you need to give the print more exposure
3. Change the filter for
the appropriate contrast - The intensity of the black is adjusted by changing
the contrast.
a. If the blacks in a print
are not rich enough - increase
the contrast
b. If the blacks are too
black decrease the contrast.
The use of filters
- Always start with a #2 filter ... No exposure adjustment is required
for filters 1 to 4. For anything above filter #4 you should do a new test
print.
Dodging / Burning
Dodging means
to lighten a value by putting a shape between the enlarger and the printing
paper during the basic exposure time
Burning means to darken the tone by giving it more exposure after the basic exposure has been completed.
Assignment
Readings
Chapter 11 - Lighting
Chapter 15 - Seeing Photographs
Week 5
FIO: Slides:
Depth of Field
Assignment:
Depth of Field Be careful about exposure on this assignment.
1. foreground in
focus and background out of focus
2. foreground
out of focus and the background in focus
3. foreground
out of focus ... middle in focus ... background out of focus
4. everything
from 5 foot to infinity in focus
Extra Credit - Foreground
in focus - middle out of focus - background in focus
Week 6
Film
Characteristics
Wratten 90
Viewing filter
The hole in the
card trick.
Cropping Ls
ISO Speed. Sharpness.
Contrast. Grain. Color sensitivity. Infrared.
Assignment
Motion and Point of view studies for Lab (You must be careful about exposure on
this assignment)
1. Stop action Ð requires fast shutter speeds
2. Pan action Ð requires shutter speeds slower than 1/60th.
3. blurred action -
requires slow shutter speeds
4. 30 second time exposure or longer Ð You cannot make a 30 second
exposure under normal daylight conditions. You need special condition to make
long time exposures.
Assignment Point
of view studies a. Birds Eye
b. Worms Eye
c. Worms Eye Eye Level
Assignment
Readings
Chapter 16 - History of Photography
Slides: Motion
Studies Slides: Niel Liefer
Week 7
Video: Harold Edgerton
Slides: Henri
Cartier Bresson note on Bresson 35 Lieca, 50mm, no crop --- ÒPhotography is an instantaneous
operation, both sensory and intellectual Ð an expression of the world in
visual terms, and also a perpetual quest and interrogation. It is at one and
the same time the recognition of a fact in a fraction of a second and the
rigorous arrangement of the forms visually perceived which give to that fact
expression and significance.Ó
Assignment
Readings
Chapter 9 - Complete Chapter
Chapter 13a
Week 8
Light:
Slides: Shedding
Light on Light - direction of light, contrast of light, color of light, time of
day
bring camera to
next class.
Assignment
Portraits (will be made in the studio next week)
Portraits will
be made in the classroom studio - Next weekÕs lab. the purpose of this
assignment is to explore traditional lighting patterns and to explore exposure
and how to manipulate images with fill light.
Portraits:
Concepts: Main (key), Fill, short,
broad lighting, Zone System -
side light no fill
side light with fill to 1:2 ratio
45 degree with no fill
45 degree with fill
frontal
silhouette
Assignment
Natural Light Studies - these should be done in daylight ... they need not be
portraits, they can be any outdoor image and can include any subject.
Backlight
side light
silhouette
pen shade
most unusual
light you can find
one beam of
light
Assignment
Readings
Chapter 14
Zone System
Week 9 - Portrait
photographs in the classroom.
Assignment: Strangers
this is the last of the required assignments and it is possible to
turn the Strangers assignment into a project.
Slides: Eliot
Porter / compositionƒ Why photograph nature?
Zone System,
exposure, development, density
Week 10
SLIDES: Clarence
John Laughlin
Assignment: Unity
in Variety (unless you have an approved project)
Filters on
Camera
Discovery
Preconceptions
Non-preconception
is the precondition to discovery, because it's a state of mind. When you do not preconceive, then you
go about finding out. there is
nothing else you can do. You begin
to explore.
All art, said documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty, is a kind of
exploring. To discover and reveal
is the way every artists sets about his business.
Flaherty didn't begin with a script or point of view, but let the camera
see everything, avid as a child, filled with childlike wonder. He did more: he called out forms that
the camera found hidden there, for it requires a creative human act before the
world explored becomes a world revealed.
All truths lie waiting in all things, wrote Whitman.
They unfold
themselves more fragrant than ... roses from living buds, whenever you fetch
the spring sunshine moistened with summer rain. But it must be in
yourself. It shall come from your
soul. It shall be love.
Assignment
Readings
Chapter
10 Color
Week 11
Assignment Reflections
(unless you have an approved project)
1
print where the reflection and the material doing the reflection are in focus
1
print where the reflection distorts the subject
1 print from a surprising surface
"Children shudder
at the smell of newness as a dog does when it scents a hare ..." Isaac Babel
"The
Gardner in England," writes Margaret Mead, "lives upon newness and
difference. One flower or a border
blooms earlier or later, and another is not there at all. The light catches on a new clump of
larkspur, and the garden is made.
And in New Guinea the dusty old woven basketry masks are hauled out of
the attic of the menÍs houses, and made new again with fresh feathers and
bright flowers arranged in new combinations, with small, graceful, painted
birds made of cord like wood and poised lightly on swaying reed stems."
The magician's
paraphernalia are always freshly painted.
He creates: what he pulls
from a hat is new just now called into being."
SLIDES: Gene Smith
Week 12
Assignment:
close up (unless you have an approved project)
Video: Lineart
Nielsen
Digital
Processes
Discovery:
Experience is
now useless. It's no good at high speed.
With the speed up of information, practical men become obsolete. Experience isn't enough. Only knowledge avails. "Experience
is the schoolmaster of fools."
"Experience
is a poor guide to man, and is seldom followed. A man really learns little by it, for it is narrowly limited
in range. What does a faithful
husband know of women, or a faithful wife of men. The generalizations of such people are always
inaccurate. What really teaches
man is not experience, but observation.
It is observation that enables him to make use of the vastly greater
experience of other men, of men taken in the mass. He learns by noting what happens to them. Confined to what happened to himself,
he labors eternally under an insufficiency of data." H. L. Mencken
Week 13
* Video: David
Hockney
Assignment
Multiple Exposures (unless you have an approved project)
Gerry Useleman
Assignment
Readings - Chapter 12 & Chapter 8
Dry Mounting and
Print spotting
Week 14
Assignment:
Evidence of Human presence (unless you have an approved project)
Electronic Flash
Sandbank, Studio
Lighting
Duane Michaels
Slides: Picture
Magazine Photographs
Week 15
Criteria for
evaluating photographs
1