General Assignment List for Photography I
To earn a passing grade for this half-year class you must earn a passing grade average in each of the following three categories: 

1. Photo assignments and projects
2. Other assignments and projects (textbook assignments/projects, critiques, reading / writing assignments, etc.)
3. Quizzes and Tests

Extra Credit may be earned by completing special photo projects and/or writing assignments. (Click here for examples.)

1. Photo Projects:  Aside from the general class assignments there are five major Photo Projects for this mini-course.  Two will be completed entirely during class time and the others will require students to do some work work (take photos and/or complete project work) independently after school hours as "homework."   There will also be several other mini photo-related projects during class time that are designed for students to learn how to take and print special types of photos with teacher supervision and help.  Approximately 1/2 to 3/4 of all class time is set aside for developing & scanning film, maximizing photo image quality and making prints.

1.  Photo Project #1 - Build a Camera Obscura

• Instructions for one method of constructing a camera obscura from a standard shoe-box are in the textbook students will use for this class.  Students will study the instructions and then will bring shoe boxes to class and construct their projects in class.

2.  Photo Project #2 - Portrait Unit - Introduction to 35mm camera settings & use

• To make this project more fun, assorted costumes and props from the 1800s will be provided.
• The teacher will demonstrate how to load film into a 35mm camera, how to set up studio lights for correctly proportioned lighting effects and offer posing suggestions for more interesting compositions.
• Students will take turns playing the roles of "model," lighting technician and photographer.
• Each student will take a set of photos that includes the following types of portrait:  head to shoulder, head to waist or 3/4, full body, group and "expressive/creative."
• Students will keep records of camera exposure information (lighting type, shutter speed, aperture, lens focal length, etc.)
• When all students have had turns taking their photos, students will remove the film from their cameras, use a changing bag to load it into a light safe developing tank and develop and dry the film according to instructions given in class.
• Once the negatives are dry, students will receive instructions for scanning / digitizing their negatives and for using Adobe Photoshop as a "digital darkroom" to optimize image quality in preparation for printing.
• For the final part of this unit, students will receive instructions to make the actual prints.
• At the conclusion of the unit each student will submit his/her exposure data log, negatives, and best print in each category (5 prints.)

3.  Photo Project #3 - Composition Unit

1. Photograph several different types of subject matter in such a way that you create a set of photos through which you CLEARLY demonstrate each of the photo composition design principles listed below*. (Use your creativity & imagination to produce aesthetically pleasing and original compositions.)

• Remove your film from your camera, use a changing bag to load it into a light safe developing tank and develop and dry the film according to instructions given in class.
• Cut your negatives in sets of 5 frames, insert the negative strips into an archival storage page, label the page (with your name, class period number, and assignment title) and put it into your photography notebook.
• Scan all of your negatives.  (Use a scanner that is designed for scanning negatives.  You may use the scanners in the photography classroom or, if you have a scanner at home that is capable of scanning negatives and transparencies, you may do your scanning at home and save the files onto a CD rom disk.)
• click here to go to Scanning Negatives - Instructions / Log Sheet 
• Save each image file using a resolution of 300 d.p.i. and a print size of 4 x 6 inches.

2. Create a digital contact sheet using Adobe Photo Shop and the instructions given in class.
3. Select your five best images (the ones that most clearly demonstrate particular composition guidelines).

• Use Adobe PhotoShop's "levels" settings and the instructions given in class to adjust the contrast and tonal range so that you have a wide range of shades of gray (try to get at least 10 distinct shades ranging from pure black to pure white).
• Use Adobe PhotoShop's rectangular selection tool and the instructions given in class to crop away any extra background space in your photo so that your main subject will have the strongest possible impact.
• Use Adobe PhotoShop's cloning tool and the instructions given in class to clean up any spots or scratches.
• Make any final adjustments so that you will have the correct print size.
• Use the photo quality printers to create high quality prints from your image files.
• Submit:  Your camera settings log notes sheet, your negatives (or CD rom disk or media card that contains your original digital files), your digital contact sheet, and 5 high quality prints (approximately 4 x 6" in size) printed from your five best negatives.

4. SELECT THE BEST OF YOUR COMPOSITION IMAGES AND CREATE A SET OF GREETING CARDS

  (Click here to see instructions that tell you how to create a set of greeting cards.)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Photo Composition Design Principles for photo project # 2:

1.        S-CURVE:  Take a photo with an S-curve that is a strong leading line that draws the eye of the viewer along an s-shaped path through the foreground, middle ground and background picture areas to bring attention to various key points of interest within your composition.

2.        VANISHING POINT:  A set of parallel lines (for example, the sides of a road, railroad tracks, sides of a stream, etc.) appears to converge at the horizon line, forming an upside-down V-shape.  The point of the ‘V’ is called the ‘vanishing point.’  Take a photo with a vanishing point.

3.  CONTRAST TWO DIFFERENT TEXTURES:  Texture is the way something feels.  Visual texture is the way something looks like it would feel.  Take a picture in which objects that have very different textures are placed either side-by-side or overlapping, so that the textures are clearly shown and contrasted.  Note:  texture shows more clearly when light is coming from the side of the objects.

4. TYPES OF SHAPE: Take a photo in which the shapes are …

a.       EITHER.......... ALL GEOMETRIC SHAPES

Geometric shapes are shapes like squares, triangles, rectangles, circles, etc.

b.      OR ................. ALL ORGANIC SHAPES

Organic shapes are irregular, ‘amoeba-like’ shapes such as the petals of a flower.

5.  BIRD’S EYE VIEW:  A bird in flight sees things from an overhead point of view.  Take a photo that shows an object or scene from above -  the way a bird in flight might see it.

6.  WORM’S EYE VIEW:  A worm looks up at the world from a ground level point of view.  Take a photo that shows an object / scene from ground level looking upward - the way a worm might see it.

7.   FOREGROUND FRAME:  Use things in the foreground area of a picture (the area closest to you), like the branches of a tree or an interesting railing or fence, to create a kind of ‘frame’ around a more distant object or scene in the background area of a picture. (Be sure that you have enough light so that you can use a high f/stop (aperture) number like f/11 or f/16, so that you will have a large enough Depth of Field to be sure that your foreground & background are all in sharp focus!)

8.    UNITY VARIETY SET:  For this photo, gather a set of objects of the same category (for example, a set of shells, or a baseball card collection, or even a set of interesting looking boxes or tins).  The unity comes from the fact that all the objects are of the same category.  The variety comes from the fact that each individual object is different in some way form all the others.

9.    PATTERN / RHYTHM / REPETITION:  Look carefully at the world around you to find interesting patterns created when composition elements such as lines, shapes, etc. are repeated.     Now, think of a drumbeat – a drumbeat can be either very steady or very rhythmic.  A steady beat creates a regular pattern, but it is a little monotonous because there is no change to interest us.  When there are slight variations in the pattern that repeat at set intervals we can perceive a rhythm in the pattern. 

A photo of a picket fence would be one example of a very regular ‘beat’ or pattern because there is no change from one picket to the next.  The marks that waves make in the sand on a beach would be one example of a pattern with a rhythm because, although the lines marked in the sand are similar to each other, there are slight differences in the length & depth of each line and the spaces between the lines.

10.  OPEN FORM SHAPE

An open form photo is one that does not include the whole outline of an object.  For example, you might like the design of a fender or tail fin of an old-fashioned car.  If you take a picture of just that part of the car you have an open form shape, since what the rest of the car looks like is left open to the viewer’s imagination.

11.  LIGHT & DARK VALUES: Take a photo in which the subject is so dark that you see only a dark shape set against a lighter background.  Do this by taking a photo of …

a.       EITHER.......... A SILHOUETTE

A silhouette is created when the light behind your subject is much, much stronger than any light falling on the front of your subject  (In fact, the best silhouettes are pictures that have all the light behind the subject and no light in front of the subject.)

One way to create a silhouette is to place a subject in front of a sunny window and have all the room lights turned off and shades or blinds closed to make the rest of the room as dark as possible.  Point your camera toward the window so that the camera’s meter sets the exposure for the bright light outside and then focus on your subject and take the photo.

b.      OR ................. AN INTERESTING SHADOW

Photograph ONLY the shadow – not the object that is creating the shadow.

12.  RADIAL - BALANCE

Radial balance is created when there is a center area or focal point in your photo and all of the objects / elements ‘radiate’ outward from that point like the petals on a flower or the spokes on a wheel.

For this photo you could arrange a set of objects such as toy cars, etc. so that they clearly show radial balance.

13.  RULE OF THIRDS BALANCE

Imagine lines dividing your composition into thirds vertically & horizontally.  Place your center of interest on one of the lines or on or near the point where two lines intersect.

14.  PROPORTION / SCALE:  In order to show the scale (proportional size) of one object in your photo, you need to place another object of known size near that first object.  For example, you might place a person next to a dog to show how large that dog is. Since we know the size of a person we can clearly perceive how large the dog must be.  Similarly, you might place a tiny object next to a mug or teacup to show just how tiny that object is by comparison.

15.    CLOSE-UP VIEW:  Take a photo that concentrates on one particular feature of your subject (such as the face and shoulder area of a favorite pet).  To do this, move as close to your subject as you possibly can while still keeping the subject in very sharp focus – usually about 3 ½ -4 ft. from the subject.

16.    VERY HIGH CONTRAST:  Select 2 or more objects that are only black and white (or navy blue & white – since we are using black & white film it is only the contrast that matters).  To make your photo more visually interesting, each object should have a different pattern from the others.  For instance, you might use a black &white striped sheet as a background and put polka-dot socks on top of the sheet. Use your imagination in selecting objects to create the strongest optical effects.

17.    MASS:  In photographic composition terms ‘mass’ means making something look more 3-dimensional.  You can do this by photographing your subject in such a way that you can clearly see two sides of the subject (or a top plus one side, etc.) in the photo.  When you can see two sides of an object instead of just one side, the object appears much more 3-dimensional.

18.    PICTORIAL SPACE:  Take a photo of a scene that has one or more objects in the foreground (the area closest to you- about 5-7 ft. away), plus one or more objects in the middle distance (about 10-15 ft. away), plus one or more objects in the background (about 20 or more ft. away).

4.  Photo Project #4 - Academic Life (*Click here for examples of categories of academic life.)

• Photograph several different types of subject matter related to student life, events, or other activities at Middletown High School North. (See the list below for specific categories of this type of photograph.)  Excellent photographs completed for this assignment could be selected for inclusion in the yearbook or other school publications. 

• (Please note:  If you plan to use a photograph of a recognizable individual for publication it may be necessary to obtain written permission from that person in advance of publication for such usage.  It is good practice to write in your log book the name of anyone you photograph and an address or other place where that person may be contacted if a model release should be required at a later date.)  

• Use your creativity and imagination to produce aesthetically pleasing and original compositions.

• You may elect to use either a film camera or a digital camera to complete this assignment.

• If you are using a digital camera, when you have finished taking all 24 photos, submit the CD rom disk or media card that has your original image files to the teacher so that she can transfer them to your HS North computer folder.  (All media cards and/or CD rom disks will be returned to the student immediately after the files have been transferred.)

• If you are using a film type camera, when you have finished taking all 24 of your pictures, remove the film from your camera, use a changing bag to load it into a light safe developing tank and develop and dry the film according to instructions given in class.

  • Cut your negatives in sets of 5 frames, insert the negative strips into an archival storage page, label the page (with your name, class period number, and assignment title) and put it into your photography notebook.
  • Scan all of your negatives.  (Use a scanner that is designed for scanning negatives.  You may use the scanners in the photography classroom or, if you have a scanner at home that is capable of scanning negatives and transparencies, you may do your scanning at home and save the files onto a CD rom disk.)
  • click here to go to Scanning Negatives - Instructions / Log Sheet 
  • Save each image file using a resolution of 300 d.p.i. and a print size of 5x7 inches.

• Create a digital contact sheet using Adobe Photo Shop and the instructions given in class.
• Select your four best images (the ones that most clearly demonstrate a decisive moment).
• Use Adobe PhotoShop's "levels" settings and the instructions given in class to adjust the contrast and tonal range so that you have a wide range of shades of gray (try to get at least 10 distinct shades ranging from pure black to pure white).
• Use Adobe PhotoShop's rectangular selection tool and the instructions given in class to crop away any extra background space in your photo so that your main subject will have the strongest possible impact.
• Use Adobe PhotoShop's cloning tool and the instructions given in class to clean up any spots or scratches.
• Make any final adjustments so that you will have the correct print size.
• Use the photo quality printers to create high quality prints from your image files.
• Submit:  Your camera settings log notes sheet, your negatives (or CD rom disk or media card that contains your original digital files), your digital contact sheet, and 4 high quality prints (approximately 5x7" in size).
  ---------------------------

*Academic Life Photos fall into several general categories.
     You must document at least 4 of the following categories:

1.  Classroom activities

• lectures
• demonstrations
• hands-on practice
• reading activities
• writing activities
• computer related activities

2.  Club / Organization activities

• meetings
• community service events
• fund raising (bagel sales, school store, etc.)

3.  Athletics / Team / Cheerleading activities

• try outs
• practices
• competitions

4.  Special Events (during school, after school, evenings, week-ends)

• rehearsals
• performances
• community service
• fund raising events

5.  Group / Team Photos

• large groups (teams, whole class groups, whole clubs / organizations)
• small groups (2-7 students working on a project together)

6.  School Building

• hallways
• lockers

7.  School Bus

• Please take school bus photos only on school property - do NOT take any photos while the bus is moving or any photos on private property.

8.  Other - There may be other categories of Academic Life that you would like to photograph.