Photo I

Dry mounting photographs — using adhesive tissue to make a permanent bond between a photograph and a piece of mat board — is our usual method of getting a print ready to display. A piece of adhesive dry mounting tissue is attached with a tacking iron to one spot in the middle of the back of the print; the print is then trimmed down right along with the tissue, so that both are exactly the same size and are precisely aligned with each other. Then, the print is centered on a piece of mat board of the size indicated (usually about 7 x 9 inches for a 5 x 7 inch print, and about 11 x 14 for an 8 x 10 print). With the print thus centered, the tissue is tacked down to the mat board in two spots, each a bit in from each of two diagonally opposite corners of the print. (This is to prevent the print sliding around on the board when carrying it to and placing it into the dry mounting press.) Finally, the print, on the board, is placed under a protective sheet, print side up, in the press, and the press is closed. One minute at 200 degrees is the time and temperature for matting.

Dry mounting is not difficult, but it involves quite a few steps, and most require some precision. Please be sure to review the step-by-step guide.

Click on the following link, just below, to open a step-by-step guide to dry mounting photographs:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r_yKD9b1u5fEU-I5U9wiBCFyUFNtq9Gf/view

The two files just below provide information, directions, requirements, and examples (including all student examples in the second file) for our photogram project.

You should begin working on this project IF:

you are done with both prints for our "Five Goals" (first try with 35mm camera) project, including having dry-mounted (matted) one of your two 5 x 7 prints

you have finished both warm-ups for the "Tell a Story" project (analysis of strategies; creative writing) but, for whatever reason, are not yet ready to photograph for that project

Apart from those conditions, for many of you, this will be a project to begin AFTER you finish the "Tell a Story" project.

Please note that two excellent first steps to take to be successful with the photogram project are:

• to determine the minimum exposure time needed at a certain height (I strongly suggest using height 17, as for contact prints) and a certain enlarger (the one you use!) and a certain f-stop (your choice, but you might start off using f5.6 on enlargers 1 through 10, and f8 or f11 on enlargers 11 through 16) to create the darkest black our photo paper can produce

• to experiment, once you know that minimum time, with ways of creating white, black, AND shades of gray using a variety of objects

In my absence, please do the following (note that there are four files you'll need just below this text box)

1. Open and read (and save) the document "Five First Photographs With 35mm Camera. Note any questions that you have as you read through the document and look at the visual (photographic) examples. Feel free to email me questions: I'll respond as soon as I can, and will also review and respond to any questions when we have our next class.

2. Because this first 35mm camera assignment makes reference to some elements and principles of design, such as texture, shape, movement, and balance, I am including two documents in this box that will help you to get a clear idea of what these, and other, elements and principles of design are all about. Please open and read/examine (and save) the two documents that are basically "posters" presenting elements of design (one file) and principles of design (another file).

3. Because I would like you to APPLY some of what you see in and learn from the two elements/principles files, I'm asking you to do the following:

• Find six black and white photographs, each of which you think is a strong example of a different element or principle of design. (Please ignore the element of design "color." This makes sense to ignore because your own work in this class will be in black and white, aka grayscale. But please DO open the file that happens to begin with "Color"!) To look for such photographs, please do internet searches uses the names of some of the photographers on the list that is also in this box. (The title of the file will clue you in!) On that list, I've included only photographers most of whose work is/was done in black and white. A good way to search would be to type in the name of the photographer and add the word "photographs" or "photography" after the name. Also be sure that you're doing "Image" searches. You should be able either to save images or to take screen shots of them on you iPad

• Make a Google Slide Show in which you place each of the six photos you've chosen on a different slide. Label each slide with the element or principle you think the photo exemplifies. Also include the name of the photographer. Finally, please write a very brief statement explaining why/how you think the chosen photo exemplifies the element or principle you've chosen. You'll see that you have a Google Classroom assignment that is exactly what I've just described here: post your work to that assignment in Google Classroom.

NOTE: Please turn in your slide show by the end of the school day, whether or not you've completed it. If you've only made partial progress, you'll be able to upload a more finished slide show later, but I want to see what progress you HAVE made during class today.

The two files below are about pinhole photography. One includes technical information and the actual assignment; the other gives some visual background and examples of different applications of the pinhole concept.

The document attached just below is a collection of quotations from a variety of photographers. You'll be looking at and working with these quotations at the start of the year, and we'll continue to refer back to this document throughout the year. Please save into Notability. (Create a folder for your Photo class and make this the first addition.) I've uploaded both a pdf and a .doc version of this document. The contents of each are identical: feel free to see which one works better for you on your iPad.

Click on the following link to get an illustrated guide to the Nikon FM-10, a 35mm film SLR (single lens reflex camera) that is our main school camera for your use in the photography class: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7ItKfOkEsihdEx1MmY2Sm1SSDQ

Click the following link (see just below) to get to a file with student tell a story photos and pieces of student creative writing done to accompany those student photos. I strongly urge you to look through this collection: you'll get a sense of how wide the variety of writing can be, and you'll also see lots of examples of good student photography. I'd like you especially to note that MANY of the photos were taken beyond the confines of the high school: consider borrowing a school camera to do your photographing somewhere else, as doing so can really give you many more opportunities and options for being creative with this project. As you look through this collection, you'll see that several photos appear more than once. Students were free to write about any other student photo they liked. (This was the SECOND creative writing assignment they had: the follow-up that they did AFTER everyone finished the photos themselves. As you will be/are doing, they started off by doing creative writing in response to NON-student photos.) Some student photos were more chosen than others, which was fine.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_aQ-KIlv_SjXHwGg6G_Z-s04LBY80v-e

Elements and Principles of Design

Here is a link for an illustrated guide to elements of design: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16EXEZQXgSBL7O4s1qgoCWu7ajONPNSGd/view

Here is a link for an illustrated guide to principles of design: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vHyQLA-OifOrel930huOiZde11u5fg0q/view

3/12/19

Once you have completed the two different warm-ups for the Tell a Story project, I encourage you to borrow a camera and start photographing for the project. However, until you've taken those photos, you can work on a non-camera (!) photo project. This is the "photogram" project, and it involves making an image on photo paper without any use of a camera. As you know, light makes photo paper dark. Therefore, as you might imagine, blocking out light in some sort of organized way when exposing a piece of photo paper to light might allow you to generate imagery. By placing objects in the path of the light hitting the photo paper, for example, you can get silhouettes or partial silhouettes of those objects. A photogram is an image created by partially and selectively blocking out some of the light you cast onto photo paper; you could also think of it as an image you make by casting shadows. Please read and review the two files just below to get a more complete sense of what this project involves. One file provides a few examples, along with a complete description of the project and its requirements. The other file shares a large number of examples: photograms created by past Bedford High School students. While the basic idea behind photograms is simple, it's a technique with many possibilities, so it's helpful to see a wide range of some of these many potential directions.

Just below, on the right, is a file with the directions for your first five shots with the 35mm camera. It includes the table, so you may wish to download and save this to your iPad so that you can record your data, at least initially, right on that device while you are out photographing.

Here (see just below) is an electronic copy of the Portrait Response sheet, along with a pdf file containing about ninety-one portraits. These are shots chosen by past Photo I students. Feel free to choose from these to work on your Portrait Response sheet.

10/31/18: Photo I students:

First, please save this website to your iPad's homescreen, if you are able to do so. This shortcut will come in handy over the course of the year.

Next, make a folder in Notability (on your iPad) for this course: Photo I. Download and save into that folder the three files I refer to immediately below.

Please read and look at the file below, on the left, with our first 35mm camera assignment ("Photo I - First camera assignment (in-class) using a 35mm SLR camera"). There are visual examples relating to five goals for the first five photos you'll be taking. NOTE as of 11/27/18: An updated version of the first camera assignment, with improved page layout/flow and an added checklist for photographing, has replaced the previous version.

For further related visual examples, please take a look at the file on elements and principle of design below, on the right ("Elements and Principles of Design: Some Photographic Examples"). This file gets into the visual vocabulary of elements and principles of design, which relate to many of the visual goals in your first 35mm camera assignment. With the time available, begin some web image-searching to find and save photographs that you feel are strong examples of some of the elements and principles of design, based on your understandings from looking at the examples I've provided in the file below. (If other methods fail, you should be able to save images you find by taking screenshots.) You'll soon be using such examples as part of a warm-up slide show you'll make in preparation for our shooting, so try to collect as many good examples for as many different elements and principles as you can.

The following file provides instructions about our Elements and Principles - emphasis on Emphasis - project:

Here is a short video going through the steps of making prints, including enlargements: click on the link just below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u0tIMibgS74qy2oOJ6WF4EtshmQUlTSB/view

Photo I is a darkroom-based photography course in which students generally photograph using black and white film in 35mm cameras. Students will learn how to translate and apply a tremendous amount of what they learn in this context to the world of digital photography, both in terms of general art and aesthetic concepts (e.g., composition, working with elements and principles of design, becoming increasingly aware of how the 3-D world translates into 2-D artworks) and in terms of technical concepts such as depth of field and exposure. Using iPad cameras at selected times, we'll be exploring some of the overlap and differences between traditional silver-based and newer pixel/sensor based photography.

Just below, you'll find a useful glossary of some basic photographic terms and concepts, with a few illustrations.

Just below, left, you'll find a very helpful illustrated guide to a film camera which you will be using often in class, the Nikon FM-10.

Just below, right, you'll find a list of the parts of the camera with definitions, along with diagrams of two different cameras that are available for our use.

Just below, you'll find two pdf files, each with visual examples of various elements and principles of design. One includes examples from a wide variety of media, and has text describing and defining the various elements and principles. The other file includes only photographic examples, and has only labels, associating one or more element or principle of design with each photograph. Please review both files carefully in preparation for and also, later, as you work on a brief assignment involving labeling and analyzing photos with reference to elements and principles of design.

Just below is a much-expanded (not in terms of text, but in terms of visual examples!) and updated version of the file describing and defining elements and principles of design.

Just below, at the request of at least one student and for everyone's potential use, are two REALLY trimmed-down versions of the Elements and Principles file. The one at left still has the definitions, but provides no visual examples. The one at right doesn't even have the definitions: it just has the overview paragraph describing what elements and principles of design generally are, followed by a list of elements of design and a list of principles of design.