Category: Course Activities (Page 11 of 11)

Lab: Week 2 – Angle of View

September 7, 2021 / rmichals / 0 Comments

2 pts. Find a subject. It could be a bridge, a dog or a person, a tree, a flower or something else altogether. (Try to stay away from street furniture.) Take a series of photos of that subject from different angles and with different cropping until you get two photos of the same subject that really look different.

The goal is to take two photographs of the same subject that are different in composition and mood. Make your subject look big in one and small in another, symmetrical and asymmetrical, cute and fierce, pretty and ugly, strong and delicate just with the crop and angle of view that you use.

Repeat for a minimum of 10 subjects. Select a range of subjects from huge such as a bridge to small such as a bee.

Once back in the classroom, download your photos and create an album in Flcikr with your final 10 pairs of photos.

Select the two photos of your most radically transformed subject and upload medium versions of them to a post on OpenLab with a description of the angles and other compositional devices you used to transform the subject.

Category: Lab: Week 2- Angle of View

Lab: Week 3 – Shallow Depth of Field

September 3, 2021 / rmichals / 0 Comments

Photograph the beautiful plants and flowers in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to show off their amazing shapes and forms. Take a minimum of 30 pictures of at least 15 subjects.

To make your photographs visually engaging, use:

the rule of thirds
figure to ground
fill the frame
pattern

To isolate the subject from the background, use shallow depth of field.

Put your 30 photos in an album on Flickr. Send your single best photo to the class group.

When photographing with a camera for shallow depth of field:

Use Aperture Priority or Av and set the camera to the widest aperture (lowest number.)
Use the telephoto end of your lens (zoom in.)
Get close to the subject
Allow some distance between the subject and the background. There must be space between the foreground and background of your composition.

Flower Close up with shallow depth of field — Remember the focus does not have to be on the subject in the front of the photo!

When photographing with a camera phone:

Because of its very small sensor size, it can be very difficult to get shallow depth of field with a cameraphone. However, the same general approach will work:

Zoom in
Get close to the subject
Allow some distance between the subject and the background. There must be actual space between the foreground and background of your composition.

HW 1 – Composition

August 30, 2021 / rmichals / 0 Comments

4pts. Due Sept 14, 2:30pm. Post to OpenLab.
Review the Steve McCurry video:
http://petapixel.com/2015/03/16/9-photo-composition-tips-as-seen-in-photographs-by-steve-mccurry/

Look at the work of the photographers listed below. Then select one photograph by one of these photographers that really speaks to you and that you think is visually engaging. Once you have selected a photograph, write a 300-word post on OpenLab about the photograph.

Category: Student posts>HW1-Composition

1. Identify the photograph with the name of the photographer and the name of the photograph. Write a short description of the subject matter and location. Then, identify the intention of the photographer. What is the purpose of the image? What is the mood or feeling of the photograph?
2. Select three of the formal elements from the Steve McCurry video that are most important in the photo that you selected. Write a second paragraph describing the photographer’s use of those three compositional principles.

1. Rule of Thirds
2. Leading Lines
3. Diagonals
4. Frame within a frame
5. Figure to Ground
6. Fill the Frame
7. Dominant Eye
8. Patterns and Repetition
9. Symmetry

How do these elements help create the mood or feeling of the photograph?
Please include a link to the photograph so I can easily find it or describe it very clearly.

1. Suzanne Stein
https://www.suzannesteinphoto.com
Pick from either New York Street One or Two

2. Dawoud Bey
http://www.dawoudbey.net/
Harlem Stories

3. Thomas Holton
http://www.thomasholton.com/
The Lams of Ludlow Street

4. Michael Kenna-
http://www.michaelkenna.net/gallery.php?id=14
New York

Welcome, Students!

August 29, 2021 / rmichals / 0 Comments

I look forward to working with all of you this semester to make some interesting and meaningful pictures. I hope that we will all have fun and learn to be better photographers.

Class meetings will be in-person in V111.

Please review the protocols for coming onto campus:

https://citytech.cuny.edu/virtual/comingtocampus.aspx

We will use these digital tools:

OpenLab-Course information, course content, and assignments will be on OpenLab. You will use Openlab to submit lab exercises, quizzes, and comments on your classmates work. Please join this course. Instructions below.
Flickr-Photo homework will be submitted via Flickr. You will need a Flickr account. Please join the class group. You should have received an invitation to join. If not search for COMD 1340 Photography 1 OL89 Fall 2020 and request to join.
For each homework assignment, upload your work to Flickr and organize it in an album. Send your best work to the class group to participate in the class critiques.
Blackboard-Your grades will be here. You are responsible for checking your grades during the semester and bringing any mistakes to my attention.

Join this Course

If you’re new to the OpenLab, follow these instructions to create an account and then join the course.

Remember that your username and display name can be pseudonyms, rather than your real name. Your avatar does not need to be a picture of your face–just something that identifies you on the OpenLab.

Questions

If you have any questions, please reach out via email or in Office Hours.

If you need help using the OpenLab, you can consult OpenLab Help or contact the OpenLab Community Team.

Week 1 – Photographic Composition

July 26, 2020 / rmichals / 0 Comments

Rule of Thirds – Instead of placing the main subject in the center of the frame, divide the frame into thirds horizontally and vertically and place the main subject at one of these intersections.

2. Leading Lines – lines in the photograph that lead the eye to the main subject

PHILIPPINES. Quezon. Manilla. 1986. American cemetery.
Photographer: Steve McCurry

3. Diagonals – Sloping lines

THAILAND. Bangkok. 2005.
Photographer: Steve McCurry

4. Frame within a frame

5. Figure to Ground – Figure to Ground -the relationship between the subject and the background sometimes described as negative and positive space.

Calla Lily. Photographer: Robert Mapplethorpe. 1988.

6. Fill the Frame – get closer. Never plan to crop later.

7. Patterns – repeated elements. Break the pattern for visual interest

*Manufacturing #11, Youngor Textiles, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. 2005.*
Photographer Edward Burtynsky

8. Symmetry – If you fold the image in half the two haves are very similar and have equal visual weight. Or make it asymmetrical to add tension to the composition.

Morocco. 1988. Portrait of a chicken vendor. Whole chickens hang from the top of his stand.
Photographer: Steve McCurry

Resource

In-class lab Exercise

Composition

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HW1 – Composition

Category: Course Activities (Page 11 of 11)

Lab: Week 2 – Angle of View

Lab: Week 3 – Shallow Depth of Field

HW 1 – Composition

Welcome, Students!

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Week 1 – Photographic Composition

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The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

Support

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