Listed assignments submitted after 5-11-12 will not be considered for a grade.
- NOTE: For all of the assignments that follow, please size all files that you submit to a screen resolution of 1024 pixels (width or height which ever is greatest). Please save them as high quality JPEG files and either send them to me as email attachments or post them in the forum and notify me. Include in your email a note about what was attached. When you save the files name them so that I can identify them, for example: joe_asgn_01_a.jpg, joe_asgn_01_b.jpg. When I say edit your photos what I'm expecting is that you take the originals from the camera and, using image editing software (Photoshop/GIMP), make any necessary adjustments for tone/color response, distortion and sharpness. You're going to begin taking photos before you know how to edit them. As the semester progresses I may ask you to go back to some earlier images and correct them once you've learned how.
- NOTE: The assignments I have selected are designed to give you a broad introduction to using your camera with natural light. I am open to the option that you already have a strong interest in a subject or type of photography and if you wish to concentrate more on your interest, I am willing to consider some substitutions. Talk to me first and get my OK.
- Bonus assignment: Find out how to turn off the built-in flash on your camera and turn it off. Email me that you have turned off the flash on your camera. Keep it off and you'll get an extra 10 points at the end of the semester. Send me a photo taken with the flash that I haven't pre-approved and you'll forfeit these bonus points. Good chance you'll also lose points for that assignment.
Assignment 1: Turn your attention first to the natural landscape. It's winter in the midwest: Winter landscapes can be stark but surprisingly colorful with reds and yellows and intense blue skies. Get out in the park or better yet get out in the country and take some general landscape photos. Edit your photos and pick the best 5 to 6. Size them to a maximun width/height of 1024 pixels and submit them. (50 points)
- The old photo question: It is fair to assume that in a college class the work you do to complete assignments should be done during the semester in response to the assignments. How many high school comp. essays die only to rise yet again? Even impalement on a sharpened wooden pencil won't kill them. I'd love to see your vacation photos from the Rockies or the Bahamas -- especially if you have questions about them, but they're not appropriate to complete class assignments.
Assignment 2: More natural landscapes, however this time keep the horizon line in either the top or bottom 1/5 of the frame. Better yet take some landscapes with no horizon line. Look for some images where you can do this in a vertical frame. And don't just take closeup photos of something. NOTE: In the example at right I tilted the camera down -- you can also tilt it up. Edit your photos and pick the best 5 to 6. Size them to a maximun width/height of 1024 pixels and submit them. (50 points)
- Assignment 3: Into the city now. Turn your attention to cityscapes. Photograph buildings, infastructure, city skylines, your neighborhood, city sculpture, important landmarks (no Arch! and no giant eyeball!). Pay attention to the lighting! Backlighting on buildings doesn't work! Read through the Class Critique page now and pay attention to the notes about lighting. A cityscape with dark shaded buildings and a burned out white sky is a bad photo. Edit your photos and pick the best 5 to 6. Size them to a maximun width/height of 1024 pixels and submit them. (50 points)
Assignment 4: Back to the city -- this time use the raw material of buildings, walls, rails, beams, utility apparatus. Try and make photographs more about the shapes, forms and lines than about the things. Try to take photos in which the subject is hard to identify. In the ideal photograph the viewer should respond to the design first and subject second. You want a viewer reaction like this: "Woah! Is that a _______? That's cool." Edit your photos and pick the best 5 to 6. Size them to a maximun width/height of 1024 pixels and submit them. (50 points)
Assignment 5: Photograph color. I want photos in which, even though the referant is identifiable, the color is the subject. The photos should be more about the color than the thing. No sunsets/sunrises and no flowers! Edit your photos and pick the best 5 to 6. Size them to a maximun width/height of 1024 pixels and submit them. (50 points)
Assignment 6: Time to turn your camera on people. The next assignment is portraits. Enlist a cooperative friend or family member and take their photograph. Find a location outdoors in open shade without sunshine on the subject or background. Take a head and shoulders or head to waist portrait. Experiment with a variety of poses and facial expression. Edit your photos and pick the best 5 to 6. Size them to a maximun width/height of 1024 pixels and submit them. NOTE: If you don't first read lesson 5, chapter 3 carefully, odds are I'll be making you do this one over. (50 points)
- Assignment 7: Another portrait. This time place your subject in a setting or dressed and accessorized in a manner that tells the viewer about who the subject is or what they do. Again experiment with a variety of poses and facial expression. Edit your photos and pick the best 5 to 6. Size them to a maximun width/height of 1024 pixels and email them to me. (50 points)
- EXAM: Here it is. It's due at the end of the semester so take your time: EXAM Remove the wrong answers and email it back to me. NOTE: Use what resources you wish but be careful; if you ask for help from someone who "knows photography" you may get some wrong answers. Because of photography's popular appeal there are quite a few incorrect assumptions out there about how photography works. For example, many "photographers" will tell you that changing lens focal length changes perspective. The answers are in the lessons. (100 points)
Assignment 8:
Find some action to photograph. I recommend an outdoor group sporting event -- some kind of ball game. Take a lot of photos with the goal of capturing the action. Get closer, but don't get in the way. Try and freeze the action by using a fast shutter speed or if necessary the "action" mode of your camera. Pay attention to your ISO setting. Use the lowest ISO possible that allows you a fast shutter speed like 1/750 sec. Pay attention to your shutter speed and pay attention to the lighting. Pick a location to shoot from that's not looking into the sun. Edit your photos and pick the best 5 to 6. Size them to a maximun width/height of 1024 pixels and submit them. (60 points)
- Assignment 9: Go through the photos in the history section of Lessons 3 & 4 and find one you really like or find on the internet another photo from one of the artists listed there. Take a photo that is similar in homage to a master. Edit your photo and size it to a maximun width/height of 1024 pixels and submit it along with a note about the photo that inspired you. (40 points)
Assignment 10: Take a dozen or more color photographs and convert them to B&W using Photoshop's Channel Mixer. Pick your favorite 5 to 6. Size them to a maximun width/height of 1024 pixels and submit them along with sized copies of the color originals. (40 points)
Assignment 11: Download the file washtubs.tif. The green garden hose is distracting. Change it's color to something dark and less saturated. There's too much pink in the flowers. Make the petunias blue but leave the red flowers alone. And get rid of that turned over license plate on the floor lower right. Size your finished work to a width of 1024 pixels, and submit it. (30 points) NOTE: If you don't want to waste long hours trying this the hard way, click on the photo for help.
- Assignment 12: Here's an easy one to start winding down. Download the file apples.tif. Use the history brush and blending modes to make the apples "pop" (Lesson 11, Chapter 1). Make the colors more vivid and punch the contrast. Here's my version: link. I used the Overlay blending mode and the Multiply blending mode selectively. Size your finished work to a width of 1024 pixels, and submit it. (25 points)
GIMP users: GIMP can accomplish the same final result, but the process is different. Click the gimp for instructions.
- Assignment 13: Download the file ambrose.tif from Lesson 9 Chapter 2. Correct the image for distortion caused by tilting the camera. Size your finished work to a width of 1024 pixels, and submit it. Or as an alternative, take your own photo of a building in which you're forced to tilt the camera up and correct your photo. (30 points)
- Assignment 14: The final three assignments are your choice with one caveat: If you've been waiting to try something unusual or very "special effects" here's your chance, but not all three of these assignments -- just one. Take photos of your favorite subject, pick 4 or 5 good ones and submit them (sized to width/height of 1024 pixels). (25 points)
- Assignment 15: The final three assignments are your choice with one caveat: If you've been waiting to try something unusual or very "special effects" here's your chance, but not all three of these assignments -- just one. Take photos of your favorite subject, pick 4 or 5 good ones and submit them (sized to width/height of 1024 pixels). (25 points)
- Assignment 16: The final three assignments are your choice with one caveat: If you've been waiting to try something unusual or very "special effects" here's your chance, but not all three of these assignments -- just one. Take photos of your favorite subject, pick 4 or 5 good ones and submit them (sized to width/height of 1024 pixels). (25 points)
- That's all folks!
