Long Exposure Photography in Photo II

Long exposure is a great lesson when you want your students to really understand your shutter speed. This is the first time we work entirely is Manual with manual focus. We have used Aperture, and some students have done some self-initiated manual setting work but this is the first time they were all forced to control every element of the camera process. 

Here is a great video that was made by a photographer, that does a great job of showing some interesting techniques. 

 

Here are my standard settings I have my students set for their cameras. 

On another thing that I would recommend, is setting your focus to Manual, because the camera is not smart enough to focus in the dark so you will have to do it manually in order to get it to focus on what you want it to. 

Their assignment:

7 images total

1. Light drawing2. Portrait3. Delete the background 4-7. the rest can be whatever you want 

Here are some great examples of student work from this assignment. 

Digital Drawing: Landscapes

So last year I did this lesson and things I learned from that lesson: (link)

1. Don't use this lesson to teach grey scaling. (We will still learn Greyscaling but in a different setting.)
2. Get kids to make more original content
3. Get students to create content that has meaning that they can communicate about in a written statement or in a critique.

For this lesson I wanted my students to add the 3 main elements of Landscape (foreground middle ground and background). I wanted them to use Value and texture, and I wanted them to think of the landscape as a small piece of a larger story, encouraging them to find meaning in their art, and help them communicate a little visual storytelling.

- Our unit started with a pre-assessment, where they all tried to draw different landscape pieces to the best of their abilities. This way, I could see what they needed the most help with.

- Then we did a few of those elements as a group, where I showed them the basic landscape elements and how to draw them more easily in the picture.

- After that, we worked on self-education. How do you find something on your own, especially when you are making something very specific?

- Last we had a final assignment. Where they had to create an original landscape on their own. 

These students did a great Job on this lesson, then worked really hard and even though this is only the second thing they have ever drawn using the Digital sketchpads, they really nailed it out of the park.

Black + White Photography and a lot of Snow Days

Holy Snow Storm Batman!! 

When I was a new teacher we had a pretty big snow year, and there was a teacher who had been working at the school for 35 years, and she used to always say, " I have NEVER in all my years of teaching, seen WEATHER like THIS!" I feel like in my seven years of teaching I have seen literally every form of weather so I won't be the person shocked at the weather change in 20 years, but mumbling through my dentures about the weather I survived. 

What does this have to do with Black and white photography... Well, that was the unit that was interrupted by 6 snow days, and oh boy did it show. 

Philosophical question for the Post: How do you keep student interest and focus when their instruction is very interrupted. 

The improvements I know I will have to do is have more examples, and clear reminders of what the expectation are for every day they get back. If there were a few work days in a row, instead of assuming they remember what they need to do, go into a tiny lesson about composition and seeing in black and white. Or start the photo exploration day by going out with them and demonstrating how to change your perspective while photographing in black white. The mistake I made was assuming they could remember all the facts that needed to know after a couple of days sitting at home. 

My biggest take away for students is when planning out black and white pictures you have to realize that you have taken away one of the elements of art(color), so you need to make the other elements(Line, texture, value, shape, and form) work over time in order to compensate. 

The main Artist we looked at was Fan Ho who pretty much mastered the double exposure technique, and his work is stunning for its control of shadow and perspective. 

Their prompts for the assignment. 

Student must turn in 7 images. 

1. 1 picture-- Black and white image of a person or animal, with a blacked out background

2. 1 picture-- Landscape/City/architecture 3. 1 picture -- with selective color4. 1 Picture -- Double exposure5. 3 images-- all you own. No requirements other than black and white

Here are a few of the examples of student work.