Digital Photography

Class Schedule: 

Location:

Office Hours:

Instructor:  John Sappington - john@basearts.com

Overview
Schedule
Resources

Course Syllabus

Online Syllabus (this page):

http://www.basearts.com/curriculum/courseblanks/DigitalPhoto.htm
Outline: http://www.basearts.com/curriculum/DigPhotoOutline.htm

DESCRIPTION:

This course is an introduction to approaches and techniques of digital imaging with a focus on the use of the digital camera and Adobe Photoshop or a comparible graphics applications. The course will cover the technical and practical aspects of the digital camera, and the use of image editing software (Adobe Photoshop, GIMP), covering traditional darkroom concerns and exploring the technical particulars and aesthetic potential of digital photography.

This course will present an overview of digital imaging techniques as applied to the art of photography. Traditional and new electronic photographic methods are studied as a vehicle to understand the implication of this medium as an art form. Emphasis is placed on the creative process while exploring electronic image making as a means of communication used by contemporary artists.

Outcomes and Objectives:

Explore digital photography.
Understanding and applicable use of the tools of digital and electronic photography.
Employ creative thinking skills in assessing visual images
Develop skills in manipulating photo images with new tools
Examing past work for aesthetic and technical mastery.
Practice aesthetic criticism

Topics and Scope:

Synthesize digital tool manipulation with photographic images.
Produce work using a variety of digital equipment.
Investigate how digital tools change photographic images.
Analyze the work of current artists and designers using these tools.

Assignments:

1. Scanning Techniques
2. Digital Camera Operations *manual
3. File Management Practices
4. Printing Procedures
5. Text and Image, Alternative approaches to graphic use of photographic materials
6. Presentation Methods *Web/Internet

Reading List:

Photography: A Critical Introduction, Edited by Liz Wells, 1997, Routledge
Photography in Print, Edited by Vicki Goldberg, 1981, University of New Mexico Press
Criticizing Photographs, An Introduction to Understanding Images, Terry Barrett, 2006, McGraw-Hill
Crisis of the Real, Writings on Photography since 1974, Andy Grundberg, Aperture, 1999
River of Shadows, Eadweard Mybridge and the Technological Wild West, Rebecca Solnit, Penguin Group, 2003
Painting, Photography, Film, Moholy-Nagy, 1987, MIT Press
The Ongoing Moment, Geoff Dryer, 2005, Vintage Books

By Michael Lesy:
Visible Light, Four Creative Biographies, Michael Lesy, Times Books, 1985
Wisconsin Death Trip, Michael Lesy, ?,?

By Susan Sontag
On Photography, 1973, Picador.

By John Berger
Another Way of Telling, 1982, Vintage Books
The Sense of Sight, 1985, Vintage Books
Ways of Seeing, 1972. BBC & Penguin Books

By James Elkins
The Object Stares Back: on the nature of seeing, 1996, Simon and Schuster
Visual Studies, A Skeptical Introduction, 2003, Routledge

By Roland Barthes
Camera Lucida, 1981, Hill and Wang
Image, Music, Text, 1977, Noonday Press

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Recommended Technical Texts:

Photoshop CS3 for Windows and Macintosh, Elaine Weinmann, Peter Lourekas, Peachpit Press 2005, www.peachpit.com

The Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers, Scott Kelby, New Riders Publishing, 2005, www.scottkelbybooks.com

Alternate Technical Texts:

Photography, Barbara London, John Upton, Ken Kobre, Betsy Brill, Prentice Hall

Photography, Revised Edition, Henry Horenstein, Russell Hart Prentice Hall

Required Supplies / Equipment:

A 5 Megapixel (or greater) digital camera is required.

Students are required to obtain backup media to store class example files and work in progress.

Optional media types are:

- 100MB/250 Mb Zip disks

- CD ROM/DVD-R, Write-once or Re Writable: Approx. capacity 700+MB

- Flash cards, memory sticks, removable harddrives, etc...  

Students are also required to have an e-mail account.  This can be accessed through the lab and may be a free account like those available from Hotmail, Yahoo, Freemail, Excite, etc.  The instructor will assist students in obtaining an e-mail account if necessary.  Students will be expected to check this e-mail account at least twice a week.  General class announcements will be reported via e-mail.

EVALUATION:

20% of student grades will be based on class participation. Students must attend class in order to effectively participate.

70% of student grades will be based on the completion of assignments. These assignments will not be graded for skill or content, but will be evaluated for technical completion.

10% of the student grade will be determined by the final portfolio presentation.

Students are expected to attend all of every class meeting unless they have received prior permission from the instructor. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class meeting. Anyone absent when attendance is taken will be assumed absent from the class.   If you are late to class it is your responsibility to make sure your attendance is acknowledged by talking to the instructor. 

If you are intending to drop the class, please notify the instructor.  You should not assume that the instructor will automatically drop you because of absences.  If you stop attending classes and you do not drop the class, and the instructor has not dropped you from the class; the instructor may be required to give you a grade of F for the class.

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Attendance Requirements

It shall be the policy of the Sonoma County Junior College District to maintain an attendance policy and procedures consistent with State and local requirements.

1.0 Attendance

1.1 Students are expected to attend all sessions

of the course in which they are enrolled.

1.2 Any student with excessive absences may be

dropped from the class.

2.0 Excessive Absence Defined

2.1 A student may be dropped from any class when that student’s absences exceed ten percent (10%) of the total hours of class time.

2.2 Instructors shall state in each course syllabus what constitutes excessive absence for that course.

3.0 Excused vs. Unexcused absences

3.1 Unless state or federal law requires that the absence be deemed excused, no instructor shall be required to make a distinction between excused and unexcused absences.

3.2 If individual Instructors wish to distinguish between excused and unexcused absences the instructor shall state in each course syllabus all criteria for any excused absences in addition to those required by state or federal law.

4.0 Nonattendance

4.1 Students who fail to attend the first two class meetings of a full semester course may be dropped by the instructor.

4.2  Faculty are required to drop all No-Show students by the Census Date of each census course.  A No-Show is an enrolled student who has not attended any class meeting of the course at any time, or who has not contacted the instructor to make arrangements to remain enrolled in the course.

 Policy 8.15, Revised July 10, 2007

Syllabus Overview Expectations, Requirements, Objectives, Best Practices.

Assignment:

• Bring Camera to second class meeting with cables (usb/firewire), or card reader.
• Locate and begin reading Camera Manual - Cover to Cover.
• Set Camera to highest resolution / lowest compression.
• TURN OFF THE FLASH! Until further notice.
  
  
• Make 5-10 Digital Camera images between the first and the second class meeting
  - Bring these to share on the 2nd class meeting. - (1)
  
  
• Begin JOURNAL of questionable functions, settings, usage, portfolio ideas, reading notes etc...
  
• Email john@basearts.com with your current email address
  - include SRJC Digital Photo and your section number in the subject line.

Lomographic Society
http://www.lomographics.com

Camera Reviews

http://dpreview.com
http://www.keh.com

Lecture:

Digital Technology

Camera / Scanner
Scanning Procedures - Flat Art

Transferring images from camera/media to system.

Begin fundamentals of camera technology/exposure.

Lab:

Establish Home Directories
Work with camera connection / file transfer

Assignment:

Objects for Scanning - 3 Dimensional Objects as well as prints or flat art that you may want to digitize. - (2)

Review Historical Photograms/Montage works:

Photograms and Montage Samples
Niko Robinson - Student Scanner work
more scanner work - various

Reading:

Moholy-Nagy - From Pigment to Light - 1936

Artists:

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy
Man Ray
David Hockney

Olivia Parker
http://oliviaparker.com/newindex.php

Bruce Conner
David Hockney



LOCAL GALLERIES:

A Street Gallery
312 South A St., Santa Rosa

Arts Council of Sonoma County
529 Fifth St, Santa Rosa
www.sonomaarts.com

Sonoma County Museum
425 7th Street, Santa Rosa
www.sonomacountymuseum.org

Santa Rosa Junior College Art Gallery
Bussman Hall, Santa Rosa

Sebastopol Center for the Arts
6780 Depot Street Sebastopol
www.sebarts.org

SF Camerawork
http://www.sfcamerawork.org

Robert Koch Gallery
http://www.kochgallery.com/

Fraenkel Gallery
http://www.fraenkelgallery.com
49 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
Map

Hours:
Tuesday - Friday: 10:30 - 5:30
Saturday: 11 - 5

(415) 981-2661 p.
(415) 981-4014 f.
mail@fraenkelgallery.com

Haines Gallery
http://www.hainesgallery.com
49 Geary Street, Suite 540
San Francisco, CA 94108

Tel: 415-397-8114
Fax: 415-397-8115
info@hainesgallery.com

Urban Digital Color / Gallery 16
http://www.urbandigitalcolor.com/gallery16/galleryframe.html

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Camera Configuration

- Highest Resolution
- Lowest Compression
- No Flash
- Shooting Modes - (*P), Av, Tv, M
- ISO - (*Auto, 50, 80, 100, 200, 400), 800, 1600, 3200
- White Balance - Auto

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Experiments with :

- Half Step Shutter Lock
Auto Exposure
Auto Focus
- Auto Bracketing
- White Balance Bracketing
- Exposure and Focus Modes - Multizone/Pattern, Center-weighted, Spot
- Exposure Compensation

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Best Practices Camera

- Formatting media card after every major upload
(erase all, delete all, format)

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Work Flow

Adobe Bridge - preview and editing

Lecture:

• Camera Operation

  Exposure basics
  
  
  
• Photoshop Introduction
  File Browser - Bridge
  File Types, Format

Lab

First File Transfers

Assignment:

Bracketing Exposures

3 Subjects - 3-5 exposures for each with alternate exposure. - (3)

1st exposure according to meter reading.
2nd + .5 half step greater aperture/shutter selection or more exposure (over)
3rd + 1 whole step (full stop) greater aperture/shutter selection (over)
4th .5 half step smaller aperture/shutter selection or less exposure (under)
5th - 1 whole step smaller aperture/shutter selection or less exposure (under)

------------------------

Experiment with White Balance Bracketing.

Reading:

Digital Camera Review - Technical Glossary
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Camera_System/


Artists:

Paul Strand
Eugene Atget
Eadweard Muybridge

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Sites:

Lecture:

Exposure Continues ...

• Layers Palette Introduction
• Adjustment Layers
• Levels Adjustment Layers

Photoshop User Guide - 42.6Mb PDF

Lecture:

• Adjustment Layers
• Levels Adjustment Layers
• Histogram
  
• Size / Resize / Resolution

PS Best Practice #1 - Duplicate the pixel based background layer as first step on opening a .jpeg.

PS Best Practice #2 - All adjustments to adjustment layers - no pixel damage.

Lab:

Assignment:

Shooting in Low Light without a flash. - (7)

Feel free to experiment, try to find the lowest level of light possible to render a readable image.

Depending on what you may or may not know regarding ISO, experiment with this setting in your camera as well.

Reading:

Henri Cartier-Bresson - .PDF - 234KB


Artists:

Henry Wessel
http://www.renabranstengallery.com/wessel.html

Stephen Shore
http://www.masters-of-fine-art-photography.com/02/artphotogallery/photographers/stephen_shore_13.html

Todd Hido
Larry Sultan


Sites:

Lecture:

• Curves - Adjustment Layers
• Channel Mixer- Adjustment Layers
  
• Size/Resize/Resolution
  
• Shadows and Hightlights
• Working with layers as masks
  

Lab:


Critiques - 5 pnts.

5 Images - should represent beginnings of portfolio subjects either content or technique.

Assignment:

Subject explorations / Framing exercise. - (8)

Shoot a minimum of 20 images of a single subject from every angle and a variety of compositional arrangements.

explore position/ balance/ background/ etc...

Mid-Term Interviews - 5 pnts

The midterm interview is mandatory and = to a shooting assignment.

Prepare a selection of ideas for you your final portfolio. Write up a brief description of each and submit during the interview. Reference specific images within your home directory if you have images related to the subjects chosen for the final portfolio.

You are only required to show up for the time of your interview.

If you haven't signed up email me for a time.

Evaluation Form <--click here
(Please Complete and Submit from your home system)

Artists:

Diane Arbus
Lorna Simpson
Bernd and Hilla Becher
Gregory Crewdson

Reading:

Robert Adams - Truth
Robert Adams - Beauty

Sites:

Assignment:

Printing
5 prints - 5 pnts. - 8x10 minimum - (9)

Lab:

Printing continues through to the end...

Additional Printing Resources:

http://www.basearts.com/curriculum/PDF/ - see contents for various PDFs

Epson R1800 Printing Guide

• Lens Selection
  
  Lens Selection:
  Link to external sites of interest regarding lens selection.
  
  DPReview Lens Reviews
  http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/
  
  Angle of View:
  Fig 1
  
  
• Lighting
  - Utilizing Ambient Light
  - Flash

Lab:

Critique - Current progress on portfolios - (5 pnts)
------------

Assignment:

3-5 images of light - (10)

- Pre-Visualization
- sensitivity toward the lighting conditions(less focus on subject)

Artists:

Harold Edgerton
Richard Avedon
Irving Penn

Reading:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-lenses.htm

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/hyperfocal-distance.htm

Lecture:

Composition

-tone
-balance
-line
-framing

Lab

Camera RAW

Lab

Artists:

Reading:

Camera Raw:

dcraw is an open source computer program which is able to read numerous raw image formats, typically produced by high-end digital cameras. dcraw converts these images into the standard PPM and TIFF image formats. This conversion is sometimes referred to as developing a raw image (by analogy with the process of film development) since it renders raw image sensor data (a "digital negative") into a viewable form.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dcraw

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The Unidentified Flying Raw (UFRaw) is a utility to read and manipulate raw images from digital cameras. It can be used on its own or as a Gimp plug-in. It reads raw images using Dave Coffin's raw conversion utility - DCRaw. UFRaw supports color management workflow based on Little CMS, allowing the user to apply ICC color profiles. For Nikon users UFRaw has the advantage that it can read the camera's tone curves. Even if you don't own a Nikon, you can still apply a Nikon curve to your images.

Gimp plugin to decode RAW
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFRaw

GUI Ports:
Windows
http://www.wizards.de/rawdrop/

MacOSX
http://www.frostyplace.com/dcraw/

Handouts
http://www.basearts.com/curriculum/PDF/CameraRaw/

Wikipedia entry regarding model release/liability waivers for subjects in a photograph.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_release

Example Model Release Forms - my boilerplate examples
http://www.basearts.com/curriculum/legal/photo release examples.txt

Dan Heller's very wording primer regarding the release. (who is Dan Heller? http://www.danheller.com/)
http://www.danheller.com/model-release-primer

Photo District News Online Business/Legal Section
http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/businesslegal/index.jsp

Lecture

Automation / Scripting

Internet Presence / Websites

• Batch and Automation
• Image Ready
• Optimization

Text - Typography

• Text tools
• Vector graphics

Photo Sharing

http://www.webshots.com/
http://www.dpchallenge.com
http://www.flickr.com/
http://www.slide.com
http://www.kodakgallery.com/
http://www.snapfish.com/
http://www.shutterbook.com/home/
http://www.deviantart.com/
http://www.zoto.com/
www.smugmug.com


Commercial Photographers - Online presence (sampling)

http://www.svenwiederholt.com/
http://www.peterkoval.com/
http://www.nadavkander.com
http://www.jockmcdonald.com/
http://www.milesaldridge.com/
http://www.marcleclef.com/


Artists :

Lynn Hershman Leeson
http://www.lynnhershman.com

George LeGrady
http://www.georgelegrady.com

John Maeda

http://www.maedastudio.com/
http://dbn.media.mit.edu/
http://www.maedastudio.com/indexold.html
http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/maeda/

Ted Nelson

http://www.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0155.html
http://xanadu.com/
http://ted.hyperland.com/

Lev Manovich

http://www.manovich.net/bio_00.htm
http://www.manovich.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Manovich

Victoria Vesna

http://www.bodiesinc.ucla.edu/

Timothy Druckrey

http://users.rcn.com/druckrey/
http://users.rcn.com/druckrey/texts.html

Lecture:

Legal / Copyright Issues

Protecting your images
Respecting the work of others

Photography - Model Release Examples

Photographers Rights

Lab

Critiques contine...

Reading:

Electronic Frontier Foundation
http://www.eff.org

Intellectual Property Online: Patent, Trademark, Copyright
http://www.eff.org/IP/

U.S. Copyright Office
http://www.copyright.gov

Digimarc
www.digimarc.com
http://www.digimarc.com/mypicturemarc/

The Free Expression Policy Project
http://www.fepproject.org/fepp/fairuseintro.html

Artists:

Zhang Huan

Additional Readings:

Orphan Works

An orphan work is a copyrighted work where it is difficult or impossible to contact the copyright holder. This situation can arise for many reasons. The author could have never been publicly known because the work was published anonymously or the work may have never been traditionally published at all. The identity of the author could have been once known but the information lost over time. Even if the author is known, it may not be possible to determine who inherited the copyright and presently owns it. Nearly any work where a reasonable effort to locate the current copyright owner fails can be considered orphaned. However the designation is often used loosely and in some jurisdictions there is no legal definition at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_works
http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/
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