Assignment #3 - Portraits

From Wikipedia (yeah, a terrible source, but I liked the definition...)

Portrait:

"A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer."



Three rules to this assignment...no, wait...SEVEN rules to this assignment.

Rule #1: NO MYSPACE PHOTOS - I think you all know what this means. You've seen 'em, you've taken 'em, I don't want 'em. If you need a reminder about what I'm talkin' 'bout, watch this video.

Rule #2: You need to shoot at least three different people.

Rule #3: No pets.

Rule #4: One of the people you photograph must be someone you do NOT know.

Rule #5: One of those three people MUST be yourself...but, you can't BE yourself...

Rule #6 No groups.

Rule #7 Present them in color (black and white portraits will be next)

Here is Cindy Sherman doing her version of Lucille Ball.



Here is a link to the National Portrait Gallery. You will get a lot of good ideas here from paintings, sculpture and photography.

National Portrait Gallery

Here is one of my favorite portrait photographers...Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon Portrait Gallery

Hiroshi Watanabe's gallery has a few sections of portraits that are interesting.

August Sander was a German photographer who made portraits of farmers and working class people near Cologne prior to World War II. After the Nazi's gained power, Sander continued to shoot the people in his city, many of them shown in Nazi military uniforms. Sander's portraits provide possibly the widest cross-section of Germans during that time.

Here is a self-portrait of me as Abraham Lincoln.



Due - Tuesday, June 3rd.

One of each portrait due. I want you to turn in one of each.

Here is our friend Steve McCurry talking about what you should do BEFORE YOU START PHOTOGRAPHING SOMEONE'S PORTRAIT.

A Pretty Cool Project

Check this out. Occasionally I will post links to stories designed to make you start thinking about what you might do for your final project. Start looking and thinking now. Start finding your inspiration about what you are going to do now. Week 3 coming up.

LINK HERE

Thursday Field Trip - Lindon Marina

Hey gang, we're going to meet at the Lindon Marina tomorrow at 8am (or whenever you can show up...). There are great directions on how to get there at their official website.

LINK HERE.

Tomorrows objectives? Playing with aperture and shutter speed. I'll give you some instructions tomorrow.

If you need to find us and can't, here's my cell #: 801-803-4818

This will be pretty fun! You will pass the Sasquatch Deli on your way in. I plan to stop on the way out and check the place out. I've never been. I figure it's about time I did.

Assignment #2 - High Key / Low Key

This assignment is basically two assignments in one. Treat it as such and it will be easier to break down.

Have I taught you the bracketing procedure yet? No? Ok, don't freak out and see if you can figure out what I'm asking here. If you can't figure it out, don't freak out and plan on learning a LOT this week in class.

You will shoot high-key and low-key images. What is high-key? The majority of the image (95%+) will be tones of light gray to white. It will help you to think of shooting white objects placed on a white background. So, then the opposite of high-key is low-key right? Think of low key as dark gray-ish to black objects. Shoot your dark objects placed on a dark background. You might need a tripod/beanbag for these shots.

For both of your shots you will want to pay close attention to the background. Don't let stray light/objects ruin your clean shot. Also it helps to isolate the objects by getting close. Take a look at the examples below.

You will want to shoot both of your high-key and low-key shots using the bracketing technique that we learned. Go from very very VERY underexposed all the way to very very VERY overexposed for each of the shots...both high-key *and* low-key.

Using the extreme bracketing you will find that buried somewhere in those images is a nearly perfect exposure. That will be your starting point. We will take those good exposures into post-production in the studio.

Here are some examples:















Yes, this is an assignment that I even give to my basic black and white high school film class. Here's the proof...



Things you will definitely want to be paying attention to:

Focus - make 'em sharp!

Light - will make or break the entire assignment. Move the light around the objects if you are shooting indoors...move the objects around into different light if you are shooting outdoors.

We will lecture and show examples of this in class. This WILL BE an assignment you will want to go back and re-shoot a few times. Don't consider doing it wrong the first time a failure...consider it good practice.

Requirements:

Shoot in RAW
Shoot in Color
Shoot using Manual Mode
Bracket the living heck out of these shots
Shoot using Manual Focus
Shoot images that are interesting to look at

Blog: One post containing two high-key and two low-key images, also put some examples of the exposures that your camera told you were 'correct'.

Write a little about what you learned.

Due Date: Wednesday, May 28th.

Enjoy your weekend!

Export Test

Hey there Mona Lisa...what's up with you?

This is a pretty cool article about what makes the Mona Lisa so special.

LINK HERE

Assignment #1 - Numbers

Assignment number one. Kick some tail.

Here are the requirements:

You will make 100 images. No more...no less.
You will make your first frame contain the number zero (0).
Your second frame will contain the number one (1).
Your third frame will contain the number two (2).
Can you guess what your fourth frame will contain? Yep, a number three (3).

Rinse and repeat.

You will end up with 100 images, starting with number 0, ending with 99.

THESE MUST BE SHOT SEQUENTIALLY...NO CHEATING!

Remember, no deleting, no re-shooting numbers, if you make a mistake on the exposure, go on to your next number. Fix your exposure for the next number before shooting (duh).

I want you to start setting your white balance correctly in the camera. You have not been taught this yet but we will go over it in class. Also this assignment must...repeat...MUST be shot on Manual (M). We will have several lectures about exposure to teach you just what and how your camera is doing what it needs to do.

DO NOT TAKE THIS ASSIGNMENT LITERALLY. Be creative in how you represent the numbers you will shoot. Bonus points if you photograph them in braille. Extra bonus points if you can photograph 99 Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) for the final exposure. DO NOT drive you all over town. DO NOT go walking up and down the street looking for addresses that work. You can shoot this assignment within the comfort of your own home. There are easily 100 sequential numbers in your house.

Please post your favorite 5 images to the blog by the beginning of class on Tuesday...

Due on your blog on Tuesday, May 20th.

Quote for the day:

"Photoshop is a crutch for those who are too lazy to get it right in the camera."
I said this, it is my quote. If you quote me, attribute me. If you don't quote me I will be sad.

Good luck!

Some examples...