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Hello Students,

This class has moved online, to join our remote studies email your instructor for the class code...

“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” 

― Pablo Picasso

Know Your Rights: Photography and the Law

Hello Students,

In our modern era, photographers and their rights are constantly being challenged, abused and misled. It is important to know your rights and what means are available to protect you, your intellectual property, equipment and ownership of the images you create and to protect your individual rights under the law.

What are your rights as a photographer?

These are general guidelines regarding the right to make photos and should not be interpreted as legal advice. If you need legal help, please contact a lawyer.

1. You can make a photograph of anything and anyone on any public property, except where a specific law prohibits it. e.g. streets, sidewalks, town squares, parks, government buildings open to the public, and public libraries. 
2. You may shoot on private property if it is open to the public, but you are obligated to stop if the owner requests it. e.g. malls, retail stores, restaurants, banks, and office building lobbies. 
3. Private property owners can prevent photography ON their property, but not photography OF their property from a public location. 
4. Anyone can be photographed without consent when they are in a public place unless there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. e.g. private homes, restrooms, dressing rooms, medical facilities, and phone booths. Despite common misconceptions, the following subjects are almost always permissible: accidents, fire scenes, criminal activities, children, celebrities, law enforcement officers, bridges, infrastructure, transportation facilities, residential, commercial, and industrial buildings 
5. Security is rarely an acceptable reason for restricting photography. Photographing from a public place cannot infringe on trade secrets, nor is it terrorist activity. 
6. Private parties cannot detain you against your will unless a serious crime was committed in their presence. Those that do so may be subject to criminal and civil charges. 
7. It is a crime for someone to threaten injury, detention, confiscation, or arrest because you are making photographs. 
8. You are not obligated to provide your identity or reason for photographing unless questioned by a law enforcement officer and state law requires it. 
9. Private parties have no right to confiscate your equipment without a court order. Even law enforcement officers must obtain one unless making an arrest. No one can force you to delete photos you have made. 

Case Study: Obama Image Copyright Case

Mannie Garcia, Associated Press, Shephard Fairy

Mannie Garcia is a photographer that worked for Associated Press (AP) and took this iconic photo of President Barack Obama, which was then converted into a digital artwork by the artist Shephard Fairy. AP claims that Shephard Fairy violated their copyright of the image. Mr. Fairy claims that by altering the photograph he had created an original artwork. Mannie Garcia even joined in claiming that he owned the original rights to the photograph and it became a 3-way legal battle. All parties eventually conceded and came to an out of court settlement and agreement, with no parties admitting to copyright having been infringed. What do you think? Did Mr.Fairy violate the copy rights of the original photo? Who owns the rights in the first place? AP or Mr. Garcia?

Case Study: Colorado University Independent vs Photographer Andy Duann

Photo by: Andy Duann

When student photographer Andy Duann heard there was a bear stuck in tree on the CU campus he did what any crack photographer would do, he got to the scene just in time to take this photo. The image quickly went viral and was used in print by the universities student paper, the Colorado University  Independent newspaper. CUI then sold the image to major newspapers. When the photographer argued that he owned the original image the case seemed ready to be argued in court. Fortunately CUI recanted, AP pulled the image from its publications and Andy Duann's rights to the image were restored. This was a relatively quick copyright skirmish, but garnered national attention because of the viral nature to the image. What do you think? Was Andy Duann working as a photographer for CUI? Who do you think owns the rights?

Photography and the Law - Assignment Details:

• Use the internet to research issues pertaining to photographers rights and/or copyright infringement issues and cases
• Find one issue or case to write about that you find interesting
• Write a 1 page paper outlining the issues in question, evidence, arguements, examples, images and outcomes. Was the issue/case settled? If so, how? Do you agree or disagree with the outcome? Why?
• Post to your blog when complete, be prepared to present your issue, information and arguements to the class. Please provide examples of the photographs in question if possible.

Have fun!

  - Mr.W

New Assignment : "Andy Warhol-ize" A Portrait

Andy Warhol was a painter, printer and filmaker and one of the originators of the pop-art movement. His images were often of mundane subjects such as a campbells soup can, and had deep levels of contrast.

Your next assignment is to process one of your photographs into the Andy Warhol signature style. Follow my tutorial below. Use a portrait you shot in one of our previous assignment for this project. Make sure you have similar levels of color/detail/variation as the examples on this page.

After you complete the tutorial post your results to your blog...

The Andy Warhol Process in Photoshop CS5:

Open up one of your favorite pictures that you have taken during this class in Photoshop.

Create a copy of the background layer

Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation

Pull down the Saturation slider until your  image is black and white

Next, go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast

And adjust the brightness and contrast until your image looks "high contrast"

Then go to Image  > Threshold

And adjust the Threshold slider until your image looks satisfactory

Next, create a new blank layer

And grab the Polygonal Lasso Tool, and draw an outline around the elements in your image

Next pick a color from your swatch palette or color picker and fill the selection with your color (Option-Delete, or go to Edit > Fill)

Now change the Blend Mode of your color layer to Darken, this is located on your Layer Palette

And now your image will show through the color

Continue this process until all of your image is filled with color, create a new layer for each color, this is important as you will go back and edit each layer later on.

For an added effect, airbrush the edges of your image with a large brush and black fill color

Then change the Blend Mode to Dissolve

Next, Shift-Select all your layers and go to Layer Palette Sub Menu > Create New Group From Layers. Now you can create copies of those layers and edit the colors of each group like I have below...

Have fun!

- Mr.W

RAW Images and Editing with Lightroom

Hello Students,
For this assignment we will be using a feature on our cameras that let us capture RAW image files and editing them with Lightroom, a professional image editing program. Lightroom is the tool of choice for many modern photographers who only want to edit the qualities of their images but not engage in heavy image manipulation.

What is a RAW file?
"A camera raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, or motion picture film scanner, or other image scanner. Raw files are named so because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor."

Raw files come in different formats, such as CR2 and DNG, which stands for "Digital Negative" and is the closest we can get to the analog/chemical photo processes with a digital camera and computer.

RAW File Advantages:

• Higher level of quality...
• Greater levels of light/dark...
• Recover overblown or underexposed shots...
• Adjust white balance in post...
• Reduce noise...
• Utilize non-destructive editing workflow...
• Flexible Color Space...
• Greater editing control without exposing flaws in JPG compression...

RAW File Challenges:

• Each photo requires editing before being shared...
• High file size requires storage capacity increase... (less shots can be stored on each memory card)
• # of shots before SD Card buffer overload decrease... (less shots on rapid fire)

RAW/LIGHTROOM ASSIGNMENT:

For this assignment you must capture 3 images in the RAW format using our DSLR cameras, then edit the images to improve color, quality, detail, sharpness, exposure. Then you will show the before and after images to demonstrate your skill in using Lightroom. Final style is your choice (black and white, color, vivid, sepia tone, etc).

Part 1: Lightroom Tutorials

 1 - Follow this link to see tutorials: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/tutorials.html

 2 - Complete the 5 modules in the get started tutorials

 3 - Complete 2 of the beginner projects (your choice)

 4 - Complete the following unit "Edit your first photos"  with your own images you shoot in part 2...

Part 2: RAW Photo Shoot

After you have completed the tutorials, grab a camera and set it to shoot in RAW. Walk the campus and take 3 of your best shots of these subjects. You may work in teams of 3 and share images with each other for the assignment. Images must be well composed, exposed and in focus:

1 - Capture a portrait of the SCHS campus e.g. the main building, sciences, math, music, library, gym, etc... (as always be quiet, polite, ask permission, do not disrupt classes in session).

2 - A Portrait (Bonus: Create a portrait of the "classical student" of SCHS suitable for Yearbook submission).

3 - A Group Photo of Students e.g. 3 or more (Bonus: Choose a school club, team or organization and capture a well balanced group portrait).

Part 3: Lightroom Edit

Backup your photos and place them in a folder called "Lightroom Project 1". Import your images into Lightroom and edit them. When complete show the original and the edited version side by side to show how you have improved the photos to demonstrate your understanding of Lightroom. Follow the Lightroom tutorials to guide you if you need a refresher course...

Before editing, RAW image straight out of the camera.

After editing in Lightroom, details and exposure recovered.

Due Monday, have fun!

 - Mr.W

3 Flavors of Post Processing

Hello Students,

For this assignment you will take your favorite portraits from your recent portrait projects and create 3 different post-processed versions of each of the images. The 3 techniques are cross-processing, tilt-shift and the Dragan effect, named for Andrzej Dragan.

Portrait Post Processing Assignment:

Take your favorite images from your recent portrait/landscape assignments and create different versions of each image by working through the online tutorials posted below. Post your 3 post-processed images to your blog when complete along with the originals:

Choose 1 or 2 of your portraits and process them using the Cross-Process and Dragan Process. Post to your blog with before and after images.
Choose a landscape or other appropriate image and "miniturize" it with the Tilt-Shift effect (we are faking a real tilt-shift look). Post to your blog with before and after images.
Have all images under one blog post titled "Post Processing Exercise"

Check out the links below to get started!

Cross-Processing:

Cross processing is an effect where the film is developed with the wrong mix of chemicals. Work through the tutorial to recreate this effect and make your photo look like it's source was film and not digital. The border around the film is called the "film rebate". Search for one on google images to use on yours.

Tilt-Shift:

Tilt shift photography is a technique where the lens angle is changed to create a focused center area. This tricks the brain into thinking it is seeing something very small. This is the effect we see when we squint our eyes at a small object.


Dragan Effect:

The Dragan Process works with B&W imagery as well....

Andrzej Dragan's photography is known for having an intensity in detail and tonal depth. Try to mimic his technique with photoshop by working through the video tutorial.
Prefer a plain tutorial? Check out this link: Dragan Effect in 5 steps



Have fun!
 - Mr.W

Principles and Elements of Art through Photography

Art and design elements are the basic units or building blocks of a visual image. The principles of art and design govern the relationships of the elements used and also organize the composition of a visual image as a whole. All imagery, art, design and photography alike, are comprised of elements that can be broken down and analyzed.  Look over these posters, the first addresses the principles, the second addresses the elements and provide visual representations for examples of these concepts. Continue scrolling down for written explanations in more detail. Your second key assignment utilizing this knowledge is listed below...

The Elements of Art

Space: Space refers to the distances or areas around, between or withing components of an image. It can exist in two or three dimensions. Space can refer to positive space(a shape, such as an apple) or negative space (the absence of an apple shape). It can also refer to elements in the foreground, mid or background of an image.

Line: Line is the basic element and refers to the continuous movement of a point along a surface, such as a pencil or brush. Line can also be created by the edges of other shapes. Lines can vary in length, thickness and direction. Line can create style, texture and varying levels of definition or emphasis.

Balance: In the sense of "visual weight" Balance can either be symmetrical or asymmetrical. The balance of an image can affect the focal point of an image. The location of objects, their sizes and colors, textures and shapes all affect the perception of balance in an image. Think of shapes. colors, textures and type as having a "visual weight" and use that sense to "feel" out your design.

Color: Color and particularly, contrasting color is used to draw the eyes attention to certain areas. It can invoke mood and emotion. Color is created in many different ways... but in all color spectrums, there are primary colors, which all other colors are derived from, and secondary and tertiary colors. Certain formula’s exist for choosing colors that are pleasing to the eye, one way is using Complimentary Colors, which appear opposite each other on a color wheel. Colors can be perceived as “Warm” such as reds, yellows and oranges, other colors are “Cool” such as purples, greens and blues.

Shape: Shapes are what give objects their definition. Think of the silhuoette. Shapes can be organic (curved, soft, random) or geometric (angular, sharp, organized, complex).

Texture: Texture is perceived surface quality. In art two types of texture exist, tactile and implied. Tactile texture is the way a surface actually feels, such as sandpaper or tree bark. Implied texture is the way the surface of an object “looks” like it feels. This is created with different pencil and brush techniques. In the modern digital realm, texture is a strong ally in design.

Value: Value is an element that refers to the relationship between light and dark. It can also be referred to as tone or shading. The value of an object helps give it form and depth. 

The Principles of Art

Unity: Unity refers to a sense that everything in a piece of work belongs. It can be referred to in the literal sense of course, or just by the way balance, repetition and other elements acheive a design harmony.

Variety: The use of dissimilar elements. Differences in shape, texture, color, line etc.

Repetition: This refers to the recurrence of elements within a piece. Color, lines, shapes and other elements can be echoed, often with some subtle variation to maintain interest. Repetition can be random or organized, or express rhythm and patterns.

Harmony: Harmony is acheived through the sensitive balance of variety and unity. Harmony in color can be acheived by using complementary or analagous colors. Harmony in design is reflected in consistency in style, similarity of components. Harmony can also extend to the use of texture, color, scale etc.

Contrast: Contrast is the occurrence of differeng elements, such as color, value, scale etc. It creates interest and helps direct the focal point. Contrast helps define depth and space as well. Objects that are closer to use appear lighter, and objects that are farther away often appear darker.

Proximity: This refers to the physical placement of objects or elements in a piece. Proximity is used to communicate ideas like relation, importance or hierarchy.

Proportion: Proportion involves the relationship between objects. It is relative to size and scale. Proper proportion is important in implying realism, and skewing proportion can force the viewers perspective to change. One classical expression of proportion is the “Golden Ratio” in mathematics and the arts. Throughout history, the ratio for length to width of rectangles of 1.6 (roughly) has been considered the most pleasing to the eye. 

This image is at least 6 different principles and elements of art, can you define which ones?

Photo credit: Seth Wilson 2015 "Faire Apples" 

Key Assignment 2 - Explore the Principles and Elements of Art and Design Through the Lens of Photography:

For this assignment you will capture images that demonstrate and emphasis the principles and elements of art and design. You will also present them as a 2 separate photo grids with a short essay describing how each element or principle is being demonstrated.

These student images show repetition, variety, contrast, unity, harmony, proximity

Assignment Part A: Capture and Composite Images that Demonstrate Elements of Art

• Capture 7 different photos that demonstrate the following elements of art and design:
• Line
• Shape
• Form
• Space
• Color
• Value
• Texture
• Arrange the photos into a grid using photo editing software such as photoshop or lightroom. If you don't have access to that software you can download and install Gimp for free, an open source image editing program, or utilize a simple browser based photo editing website such as Fotor.
• Write at least one sentence that explains each element and how they are demonstrated or utilized in their corresponding images.

Assignment Part B: Capture and Composite Images that Demonstrate Principles of Art

• Capture 9 different photos that demonstrate the following principles of art and design:
• Balance
• Harmony
• Rhythm
• Movement
• Emphasis
• Contrast
• Variety
• Unity
• Proportion
• Arrange the photos into a grid using photo editing software such as photoshop or lightroom. If you don't have access to that software you can download and install Gimp for free, an open source image editing program, or utilize a simple browser based photo editing website such as Fotor.
• Write at least one sentence that explains each principle and how they are demonstrated or utilized in their corresponding images.

Link 1: New York Film Academy -  5 types of balance in photography
Link 2: Photography Life - Balance in photography

Student Work Examples:

Rule Of Thirds Composition Project

Rule Of Thirds Project Details:

Your next assignment is to compose 3 different images that demonstrate the rule of thirds. Your images must be properly lit, have the right levels of exposure and must be in focus. You must apply the Rule Of Thirds to each images composition. Try to compose your image in camera, and only crop your image if needed. These must be new images, not previous work examples.

You can shoot any subject you like, such as landscape, portraiture, still life. 

You should shoot many images and choose the best... on average you should shoot about 15-20 shots and choose the single best example from each set.

Assignment Deliverables:

• Three images that demonstrate the use of the Rule of Thirds in their composition. Each image must be a different subject matter, the subjects could be landscape imagery, portrait, still life etc.
• Show a duplicate of each image with a rule of thirds grid applied, create the grid lines with photoshop. Make sure your final blog post contains a version with and without the grid lines to demonstrate how you applied the rule of thirds.
• Written Synopsis of the Rule of Thirds as you interpret it. Write a short description of this principle and how you used it in your images. Tell me what/where the focus point in each image is... where is the eye drawn to?

Grading:

• Your work will be evaluated on its ability to demonstrate this principal in a creative and informative fashion and to meet all deliverables on time.
• Image enhancement (color, B&W, color tweaking) is allowed as long as it enhances and does not detract from clearly demonstrating the principal. 
• These images must not be over or underexposed and must be in focus. Use a tripod to ensure a jitter/blur free image.
• Your images must demonstrate proper exposure techniques

Deadline:

This assignment is due at end of class Monday.

Links:

Tutorial: How to Crop an Image in Photoshop with the Rule of Thirds

Reading: Cambridge in Colour - Rule of Thirds