Fri 30 March 2012

Don't forget that today is the day to have all 6 of your Aaron Siskand-ish images up on your blog!

Wed 28 March 2012

Tonight is the formal critique on the 6 printed Aaron Siskand images.  Of the 6, you should have 2 matted.

Be prepared at the beginning of class to do a critique of your own work.  Then we will shift and critique your classmate's work.  You can follow the Feldman Method of Critique used for the written critique on Monday or the How to Critque a Photograph method that was used for the mid-term.

After critique, please post your 6 images on your blog.

Take a deep breath and enjoy your weekend.  You have worked hard and well and it shows!

Mon 26 March 2012

Tonight we will be working on printing 6 of your Aaron Siskand-ish images and matting two of the six prints.  Wednesday is critique.

On Wednesday, please be ready to first critique your own work orally.  The first item of business in tonight's class will be writing a critique of one of your classmate's work.


How to Critique and Write about Photography as a work of Art

The following steps—description, analysis, interpretation and evaluation— are the steps in a formal critique. It is called the Feldman method.

Describe
This stage is like taking inventory. You want to come up with a list of everything you see in the work. Stick to the facts. Imagine that you are describing the artwork to someone over the telephone.

LIST
Name of artist, title of work, and gallery or location of artwork.
If this is an in-class critique of your own or another student’s work, simply list your own or their name. For example, “This is a critique of my self-portrait” or “This is a critique of Art See’s self-portrait.”

NOTE FIRST IMPRESSION
Make a note of your first spontaneous reaction to the photograph. By the end of the process you may understand your first impression better or you may even change you mind. There are no wrong answers.

Analyze
Try to figure out what the photographer has done to achieve certain effects. You should refer to your first impressions and try to explain how the photograph achieves that reaction.
Q. Use the vocabulary you learned in class. For example, talk about the compositional element used in the image.
Q.  How are the elements of art and photography (color, shape, line, texture, space, form, value) and the principles of design (balance, contrast, emphasis, movement/rhythm, unity, variety) used in this artwork?
Q. What do you notice about the photographer's choice of subject matter, quality of printing, quality of matting?
Q. What grabs your attention in the work? Refer to your first impression.
Q. Do you see any relationship to the things you listed during the description stage?

Interpret
Try to figure out what the photograph is about. Your own perspectives, associations and experiences meet with "the evidence" found in the image. All art works are about something. Some art works are about color, their subject matter, and social or cultural issues. Some art works are very accessible — that is, relatively easy for the viewer to understand what the artist was doing. Other works are highly intellectual, and might not be as easy for us to readily know what the artist was thinking about.
Q. What is the theme or subject of the work? What mood or emotions does the photograph communicate?
Q. What is the work about; what so you think it means?
Q. Why do you think the photographer created this work?
Q. What do you think the photographer's view of the world is?

Evaluate
This is a culminating and reflecting activity. You need to come to some conclusions about the photographic work based on all the information you have gathered and on your interpretations.
Q. Have your thoughts or feelings about the photograph changed since your first impression? If so, how? What made you change your mind?
Q. If not, can you now explain your first reaction to the work?
Q. What suggestions do you have to perhaps improve the work?
Q. What have you seen or learned from this work that you might apply to your own art work or your own thinking?

Summarize your overall  critique.

You might want to print this method of critiquing so that you use it tonight and on Wednesday for the oral and written critiques.  I can not wait to see what images you have for this assignment!

21 Mar 2012 Wed

Bring your cameras and a tripod to class.  We will be learning one more tool for making great photographs.  Before class, take a look at your camera and make sure you know how to manage the Aperture Priority setting and how to do different exposure settings.  If you are getting one from check out see if they can show you where to find these settings on the camera you are checking out.  We will be learning how to take images for HDR and then make adjustments using Bridge and Photoshop.

Secondly, we will be learning how to cut mats for presentation of your photographs. For the Aaron Siskand assignment, you will print six really strong images. For the critique, two of the six must be matted! Images must be printed no smaller than 8 X 8 inches and window matted in mats no smaller than 16 X 20.

If we have time, I will show a module on how to use Photoshop.  You can also use the remainder of class to do some printing if you have some images ready to go.

It will be a fun and informative class tonight!

In Class Assignment 19 March 2012

For those of you who were absent tonight:
Assignment to be put on your Pho 111 blog before the end of class: 

Write:

1.  One paragraph about the significance of Aaron Siskand’s contributions to photography.

2.  One paragraph about abstract expressionism.

3.  One paragraph outlining your plan to incorporate the influence of Aaron Siskand (or other abstract photographers) and abstract expressionism into the next photo assignment.   

19 March 2012

Your next shooting assignment is to make images like Aaron Siskind!  You have until March 28th to make six really strong images. For the critique, you'll need two of the six matted! We will have a matting demonstration on Wednesday, March 21st.

Please make sure you have your blogs up-to-date with your panaramic and David Hockney images displayed.

Mid-term Critique

Mid-term critique over the panoramic and David Hockney assignments are Wednesday, March 7th at 6 pm in Journalism, room #110. Two 20" (on the longest side) prints are due. One print should be a panoramic and one print should be a David Hockney-ish composition.

Your mid-term grade will reflect how well you complete each of the two assignments.  A portion of your grade for this assignment is your participation in the critique.  Please come prepared to talk about your own work and that of your fellow students.

Here is a good website about how to critique photographs:  http://www.pixiq.com/article/doing-a-photo-critique.  You might want to research other sites that describe how to give strong comments in a photography critique.  Trust me, it will be easy to tell if you have read this article or not!

After critique,post the two final images on your blog.  You can re-size the images to 6" at 72 dpi for the web.  Don't forget to copyright your image.  I hope you are directing your friends and family to your blog so they can see what outstanding work you are producing this semester.

Hope everyone has a safe and fun Spring Break!

Monday 5 March 2012

On Monday, March 5th, we will spend time in the Mac lab getting your images ready to print and then in the print lab printing and cutting.  Please make sure you have images ready to work on in Photoshop and Lightroom and to print on Monday.

Prints are $2 a square foot.  The print lab only accepts the Lion card so come with funds on your card.

Your mid-term grade will reflect how well you complete each of the two assignments.

The panoramic assignment is: 
Make a series of single images; then using PhotoShop’s merge engine make a seamless panoramic image. Think ahead. Shoot more variations than you may need. It works best with no less than four vertical images and try to keep the horizon line level.  One print due with paper size no smaller than 20 X 24 inches.

The David Hockney assignment is: 

Make a series of single images that at first glance gives us a false impression that the viewer is looking at one place but upon closer inspection the viewer notices that the space has been expanded or condensed. With this option the photographer will need to study the place to be photographed closely and think about what it is that needs to be expressed in the photographs by changing the point of view, angles and /or varying the subject to camera distance to help alter how the subject is perceived. This series of images can be printed either vertical or horizontal; whichever best conveys the space in question.  One print due with paper size no smaller than 20 X 24 inches.

Mid-term critique over the panoramic and David Hockney assignments are Wednesday, March 7th at 6 pm in Journalism, room #110. Two 20" (on the longest side) prints on 24" paper are due. One print should be a panoramic and one print should be a David Hockney.

After critique, please post your two images on your blog.  Then you will need to begin commenting on the blogs of your fellow class mates.