november 12 ~ 'home' assignment

Home: The final production assignment asks students to produce a portfolio of 15-20 photographs on the subject of ‘home’. The subject can be interpreted broadly to involve a study of your own home environment, and/or of the objects or people you feel make your house a home; a photo essay on places or things that remind you of a faraway home; a ‘documentary-style’ investigation of different people’s homes; an architectural study of domestic space; an editorial on domestic, cultural or community relations; or a personal / poetic reflection addressing what it means to be ‘at home’, and so on.

The final images should be culled from a much broader selection of images: the equivalent of three to four rolls of film; it is expected that students will develop their project over the course of two or three weeks.

As with the landscape project, \depth of field, framing and perspective will be important features of the iamge. Overall, the content and form (lighting, angle) should be thematically and stylistically cohesive, while remaining fresh from image to image.

Students will deliver the work, using Google Page Creator or an equivalent on-line web framework as an exhibition site. Due: November 27

october 30 ~ the photographic book

William Gedney

october 30 ~ ethics + documentary practice 2

In pairs, preview works by photographers linked to the following sites, with a view to presenting the work to the class:

Documenting America
Includes portfolios by the following photo journalists working for the Farm Security Administration:
Ben Shahn
Dorthea Lange
Walker Evans
Arthur Rothstein
Gordon Parks

FYI: Farm Security Administration

Life Magazine Photographs

Alfredo Jaar

Susan Meiselas

James Nachtwey

Photo Journalism Web Sites

List of Photojournalists

october 23 ~ ethics and documentary practices

an excerpt from on photography, susan sontag



regarding the torture of others, by susan sontag


The Abu Ghraib Pictures

october 16 ~ activities + homework

Critique of Portrait Assignment
1 Preparation In groups of two or three look at each other’s projects, discussing intentions and approaches taken to the topic. Each student must participate, asking questions and offering constructive feedback on the work. If you like the work, consider and discuss why? What works for you? The choice of subject, the lighting, framing, composition? If you don’t think the pictures are successful, discuss why, in similar terms as delineated above.
2 Group Critique: Each student will present a selection of the best photos from their portrait project, discussing the approach taken and the results. Students in the class must be prepared to ask questions and offer constructive criticism.


Homework: Please read an excerpt from susan sontag: on photography and be prepared to discuss the issues addessed.

october 9 ~ activities

1 Report on Le Mois de la Photo Exhibitions: In groups of two or three grouped by common exhibition experiences, discuss the works viewed. With reference to one or more photographs, consider the success or failure of the work in relation to the intentions of the artist, the rationale for the larger exhibition program (narrative in contemporary photography), the physical characteristics of the works (format, approach, colour/b+ w, etc.).

2 Research on Landscape Photography (Natural/Urban/Social): In groups of two conduct Internet research on the assigned artist. Look at the work, read an article or description of the work and be prepared to discuss the work with reference to an illustration.

Ed Burtynsky


Joel Meyerowitz


Nicolas Baier


Howard Ursuliak


Stephane Couturier


Michel Campeau


Holly King


Alain Paiement


Richard Billingham


Emmet Gowin or
Gowin ~ Wikipedia



William Eggleston

Portrait Assignment due October 9

Your portrait assignment is due this week. Please submit the work on disk at the beginning of the class.

Field Trip - October 2 ~ CANCELLED See Below

Parisian Laundry is not open on Tuesdays. Because I fear we won't be able to regroup in time to visit another show together this coming Tuesday, I've decided to cancel field trip and the class and ask instead that each of you see one of the shows listed below before our next class, October 7.

This said, I will be in the lab this Tuesday (October 2), until 3:30 if you want to consult with me about any of the assignments, after which I will tour the exhibitions listed below on Ste. Catherine O. (under spaces identified as being open Tuesday to Saturday, 12 – 6). If anybody wants to join me, please feel free to tag along. These galleries are all within a block of each other so worth the trouble to tour as many of them as possible, on the same trip.

I have noted the names of the artists showing in each space so you can do preliminary research.

There are also exhibitions of artists participating in Le Mois de la Photo at the Musee d’art Contemporain, the Musee des Beaux Arts, the Leonard + Bina Ellen Gallery at Concordia University, Galerie d’UQUAM and many, if not all, of the Maisons de la Culture in Mtl. (including NDG, CDN, Plateau Mt. Royal, Frontenac). Download the program from the Le Mois… website for more information on these spaces.

Exhibition Spaces open Wednesday – Sunday 12 – 5

Parisian Laundry 3550 rue St-Antoine O. (514-989-1056)
Carlos + Jason Sanchez
Trine Sondergaard + Nicolai Howalt
Eve Sussman + the Rufus Corporation

Espaces Video 3520 St. Jacques O. (514-390-0383)
Mike Hoolboom
Jesper Just
Althea Thauberger
Sala Tykka
Teresa Hubard/Alex Birchler

Hotel des Encrans 870 du Couvent (514-344-4081)
Josee Pedneault



Exhibition Spaces open Tuesday - Saturday 12 – 6

Vox, Centre d’e L’Image Contemporaine, 1211 St. Laurent (514-390-0382)
Candice Breitz

Occurrence Espace d’Art Contemporain 460 Ste. Catherine O. #307 (514-397-0236)
Valerie Mrejen

Galerie B312 372 Ste. Catherine O. #403 )514-874-9423)
Gustavo Artigas

Optica, 372 Ste. Catheine O. #508 (514-874-1666)
Emmanuelle Leonard

Skol, Centre des arts actuels, 372 Ste. Catherine O. #314 (514-398-9322)
Karin Kihlberg + Reuben Henry

Re: Portrait Assignment ~ Some Interesting Artists

Rineke Dijkstra

Marisa Portolese

Nicholas Nixon

Cindy Sherman

Nan Goldin

lighting + portraits

some on-line resources for stuido lighting set-ups

Lighting
http://www.fodors.com/focus/focselect.cfm?catid=7


A Photographer’s Sketchbook
http://www.filmlessphotos.ca/

Studio Lighting
http://www.studiolighting.net/

light: balanced, low key, high key

robert frank - london/wales (1951-53)
roy decarava - man in window (1982)
imogen cunningham - two sisters (1928)

how a photograph is made:

∑ exposing the image: the meter of the camera measures the light reflecting off the objects in the scene and suggests an exposure setting (shutter speed and aperture setting/f stop that will balance the highlights in the scene with the shadow detail. The exposure setting gives you an accurate rendering of the ‘middle gray’ areas of a scene that is composed of equal parts highlight and shadow information. The recommended exposure is determined by the light sensitivity of the film (the speed at which it responds to light measured by ISO) and the available light.

∑ the light reflecting off the subject is focused through the lenses onto the light sensitive surface of the film. the light sensitive emulsion is chemically altered by exposure to light and will create a latent image corresponding to that which has been focused through the lens.

∑ light areas in the scene will reflect more light causing a greater chemical change and a greater density in the negative. The darker areas in the scene will not cause the same reaction and so will be less dense, more transparent.

∑ in development, the unexposed light sensitive material is washed away leaving only areas exposed to the sun. the highlights in the scene will appear darker on the negative than the shadow areas, which will be clearer, relative to the exposure. Once printed, these values will be reversed and the scene will look like it did when you composed it in the viewfinder.

∑ If the scene has more highlight areas in it, the recommended exposure will likely be too low to record the highlight accurately because your camera “thinks” all photographs are made up of equal parts highlight and shadow and the recommended setting will always provide you with an exact rendering of the middle gray values in a scene. Similarly, if the scene has few or no highlight areas, the recommended setting will give you an overexposed negative.

∑ If your original scene has more highlights than shadows or vice versa, more shadow than highlight areas, you will need to alter your exposure setting accordingly—increasing or decreasing the recommended exposure by f stops corresponding to zones 0 – 10 of density (middle gray is zone 5, white with no detail is zone 10, black with no detail is 0).

digital print workflow

1 plan your picture: Begin your project with an idea about the size and orientation of the final print. Decide also on the quality (resolution) and mode (black and white, RGB or CMYK colour). Also decide on the basic corrections you want to make to the image—cropping, colour and contrast correction, lightening or darkening parts of the photograph—and, if making a composite photograph, decide which parts of the image you plan to select. It is a good idea to make a drawing or ‘maquette’ of the final image. It helps you plan and follow the steps in your image production.

2 file organization: Open a Folder on the Scratch Disk of your computer with your name on it. Inside this folder open three others: one called image bank, another called projects and a final folder called final versions.

3 acquisition: At this stage you will be scanning images or collecting them from storage material or the Internet and saving them in your image bank folder. When scanning always scan at the highest optical resolution possible. Title the images using obvious and memorable titles and save these images in your image bank folder.

4 open, title and size a new project: Open a new project in Photoshop (File>New). Choose your mode (bitmap, grayscale, RGB, CMYK, lab colour), image size (preset or width, height, resolution) and contents (white, background colour, transparent).

5 selection/transformation/adjustment/combine: Return to your image bank and open the acquired and saved image files. Using the appropriate tools from the tool menu individually select, transform and adjust the material you want to include in the final image. This stage will take up most of your time as it involves the most time-consuming aspects of digital image production. After making the appropriate adjustments, resize the images proportionally, keeping the final picture in mind, and copy and paste the materials into different layers of your project file.

6 prepare and print the image: Once the basic elements are combined in the project file, place each layer according to your ‘maquette’ and make final adjustments to the image. Save two versions in your final versions folder: in .psd and TIFF formats (File>Save As). If you haven’t already flattened and/or sized your image for printing, do so now. Select and load your paper. Select your printer settings and profiles. Make a test print. Adjust as necessary. Make a final print.

the basics

digital photography

digital basics

exposure

exposure wheel

glossary