an account on Flickr and membership in the class group
Composition Review
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.
Photographer: Michael Wu.
Diagonal Lines – lines that reach towards opposite corners of the photo
Leading Lines – lines in the photograph that lead the eye to the main subject
Photographer: Michael Kenna
Patterns – repeated elements. Break the pattern for visual interest.
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.
Gordon Parks. 1952. Elijah Muhammad’s daughter, Ethel Shariffin in Chicago.
Figure to Ground -the relationship between the subject and the background sometimes described as negative and positive space.
Calla Lily. 1988. Photographer: Robert Mapplethorpe.
Contrast of Light and Dark – The darks are close to black and the lights are close to white with few mid-tones.
I look forward to working with all of you this semester to make visually engaging, meaningful pictures. I hope that we will all have fun and learn to be better photographers.
This is a hybrid class. We will have an online synchronous class on:
Aug 31, Oct 19, Oct 26, Dec 7, Dec 14
We will meet in-person in Voorhees Hall, 186 Jay Street, V111 on:
Sept 14, Sept 21, Sept 28, Oct 5, Oct 12, Nov 2, Nov 9, Nov 16, Nov 23, Nov 30
In order to keep everyone safe, it is important to comply with CUNY’s policies on vaccination, masking and testing. Please make sure to read and understand the procedures before coming to campus. check your City Tech email for the latest information from the Chancellor.
We will use the following tools to share and communicate about our photos.
Zoom-Online class meetings will use Zoom. A meeting link was sent to your City Tech email. You can also find the link on Blackboard.
OpenLab-Course information, course content, and assignments will be on OpenLab. You will use Openlab to submit lab exercises and written homework. 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 3330 Photography II HE 10 Fall 2021 and request to join. For each homework assignment, upload your work to Flickr and organize it in an album. Note that the metadata must be visible or the assignment will not be accepted.
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
Login to your OpenLab account to join this course. Follow these instructions if you need help joining this 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.
Take 30 photos in which there is something in the foreground and something in the background, something near the camera and something far from the camera. Use perspective to create a strong sense of dept.
Put the 30 photos on an album in Flickr. Send your best two to the class group.
Due: September 28, 2:30 pm
Camera
Use shallow depth of field to make either the foreground or the background out of focus. Sometimes focus on the object closest to the camera and sometimes to the object farthest from the camera.
To achieve shallow depth of field, use the Av shooting mode and set the aperture to the widest- lowest number – setting. Zoom in and get close to the subject in the foreground.
Cameraphones
You can either create a series of closeups that have shallow depth of field or use software such as Focos to simulate shallow depth of field.
Camera Phones and Depth of Field
Camera phones have a fixed aperture. For example, the aperture of the iPhone 7 is f1.8. This is one of the things that makes cameraphones so good in low light. You might think this wide open aperture would make it easy to get shallow depth of field with a cameraphone. However, the other factors involved make it quite challenging to achieve shallow depth of field with a cameraphone.
When you look at a phone, you can see the challenge for focal length. Focal length is the distance between where the light converges in the lens and the sensor and there just isn’t that much space. Even for cameraphones, we use the size of 35 mm film as the standard when discussing focal length. So the iPhone 11 has three lenses that are the 35 mm equivalent of 13mm, 26mm and 52mm. Earlier phones with one camera have one focal length. If working with a camera phone with more than one lenses, use the telephoto choice to create shallow depth of field.
Camera to subject distance is the factor that gives you the most control of depth of field when working with a camera phone. To create shallow depth of field bring the camera as close as possible to the subject. Allow for some actual space behind the subject
It is the small size of the sensor that makes cameraphones so good at achieving extensive depth of field. It is also the main reason it is so hard to get your cameraphone to achieve shallow depth of field.
Depth of field created by software
To solve this problem, cameraphones use software. You may have Portrait Mode on your phone or you can download any number of Apps including Focos which I used for this example. I think this is pretty typical. Overall, the software did a good job of softening the background but it could not tell that the ear on the left should be sharp.
and the resource given below for that photo. Write down on paper the three main points from the biography and three main points from the resource. Take a photo of your notes and attach it to your final post. You may use other sources as well as long as you credit those sources.
Write two paragraphs in response to the photograph:
Paragraph 1: Describe the photo.
What is the subject matter of the photograph?
What are the main characteristics of the composition? Use at least two terms from the Week 1: Composition Review page.
Paragraph 2: What is the meaning of the photo?
Put the photo into context. When and where was the photo taken? Take this beyond the year and the location. What were the important events of the time that we need to know about to understand the photograph? Who are the people in the photo and what is their significance? What was Parks’ intention when he took that photo? What ideas and/or feelings does the photo convey?
Photo 1 – Diana Florissant, Darius Freeman, Lorena Gonzalez
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