The Photographer Emulation Assignment

This week you are going to go out and take photos that emulate the style of the photographer who you chose at the beginning for the week.
Was your photographer a landscape, portrait, studio, documentary, or abstract style?
You will turn in 6 great examples of photos that utilize the same style that your chosen photographer used in their photos. Try and take more than 6, just so you have 6 SOLID examples that represent your photographer's style.
TRY to capture this same style in your photos by using the same subject matter, along with color, black and white, or Photoshop'd imagery.
Use the same rules of composition that your photographer used in any of the 6 photos that you chose from the previous assignment.

When you've finished taking photos that emulate your photographer, you will be writing another half a page essay that will discuss the experience you had copying the photographer's work.

Include the following in your essay:
1. How hard was it to recreate these photographs?
2. Where did you take your photos?
3. What were the biggest challenges you faced in the recreation process?
4. What style or styles were you emulating? Landscape? Portrait? Studio? Abstract? Sports? Other?
5. What rules of composition applied in all of your photos?
6. How close did you come to successfully recreating the photographer's work?
7. What did you learn about your photographer in this assignment?

Once you've finished this essay, you will create another 8x11 Photoshop document with a Resolution of 300, RGB color, and a Background of White. This will be just like your previous Photoshop assignment, except with your recreation photos.

You will design this document much like you designed your first Photographer's document.
You will create a title at the top of the document that will read "(Your name) Recreating (Your photographer's name)"
Add your 6 best photos that you took, onto this document and arrange them with the text from your essay.
Create a background color or color gradient to your document that is sampled from one of your photos.
When complete, you will Flatten the Image and save it as a JPEG.
Your naming convention is "_recreation".
Make sure to save this assignment as a JPEG (.jpg)
This assignment in due at the end of class on Wednesday.

Photographer Research Project

Today you will be doing some research online.
You are to search the web for 'photographers'.
I want you to find a photographer on the internet who's work you find appealing to your visual senses and write a half page essay on your photographer and their photos.
In this essay you must include what rules of composition are being used in the photographer's work and what type of moods or emotions their work evokes in you. Are they a Landscape, Portrait, Documentary, Studio, Sports,or Abstract Photographer? Describe what you see in this Photographer's work. Are there any similarities or consistencies in this Photographer's work? What are they? Why is this photography appealing to you?
You will then save at least 6 samples of this photographer's work in a folder called 'Photographer' that you will create on your desktop.
You must save at least 6 examples of their work in this folder that you will later integrate into a Photoshop document with the your essay.
Make sure you take the time to find a photographer who's work you admire and are interested in.
Good luck!

The Self Image Assignment

This assignment will require you to go take 20 separate photos that include your image in each photo. It can be a part of your person, your shadow, your reflection or your whole person. If I were you I would take many more than 20 photos for this assignment so you can have plenty to choose from.

You can use any rule of composition you like for this assignment but at least ONE rule of composition MUST apply in each of the 20 photos. I am looking for SOLID examples that will be graded much more meticulously.

You will create a contact contact sheet that is 8x11 inches, 4 Columns/5 Rows, and you will name this contact sheet using the naming convention, plus "_selfimage". Finally, you MUST convert the contact sheet into a "JPEG" under the "Format" option when you save the project.

This assignment is due at the beginning of class on Wednesday.

Andy Goldsworthy Emulation Assignment

You've seen the documentary about Andy Goldsworthy and have hopefully been inspired by his work.
Go out into nature and rearrange or manipulate it in the style of Andy Goldsworthy. Take multiple photos from different angles. You'll be turning in your best photo of each nature scene that you've manipulated.
For this assignment you'll need to manipulate 10 different scenes in nature. You'll be turning in your 1 best photo for each scene you've made.
These 10 photos are due next Wednesday, October 14th.

Here are some examples done by Heather Ellis from 1st period Digital Photography.

Still Out, Here's What To Do Today, 10/5

My apologies to you all for my consistent absences over the past week. I have been suffering from a severe pinched nerve in my lower back that has ended up being quite debilitating. My hope is that an acupuncture appointment today will alleviate the pain enough for me to come in the following days.
So, after talking to your fine substitute, it appears as though most of you finished the 'Chapter 2 Skills Review' assignment from last week. Good Job!
This is when I regret to inform you, however, that when I told you that last week's tutorial would be your last, it was, indeed, a lie. I accept full responsibility for your aggravation regarding this matter. My bad. Again, I didn't think I would be out this long, so this is what I have to resort to while I'm out.
On-the-other-hand, your Photoshop skills will only improve in my absence, and that can't be such a bad thing.
Here's what you'll be doing today:
1. Do everything that you did last Friday, accept this time you'll be doing it for Chapter 3, regarding 'Selections', which is an excellent skill to acquire and master for Photoshop.
2. This means that you'll have to go to my Staff Folder and download the Chapter 3 folder from my 'Public' folder. This will have the files that you need for doing the orange columns in Chapter 3 and the 'Skills Review' on page 3-25.
Both the Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 'Skills Reviews' will be what I'm grading next Monday. We do not have class on Friday. Wednesday I'm going to get you guys out to shoot because you will have earned it by then, so work hard today and play later.
I hope to see all of you fine Photography students very soon!
Good luck!

Still Out, Here's What To Do Today, 10/2

While I'm out today, you'll be working with Photoshop using the "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Revealed" tutorial book, located on the top shelf behind my desk.
Each of you will use this book today.
You will be going through 'Chapter 2' today. Start at the beginning of the Chapter and read through it, following along on your computer with the instructions in the Orange Columns on the left and the right of the pages for practicing the methods discussed in the book.
When you get to the end of Chapter 2, go to Page 2-23 and follow the instructions under "Skills Review".
THIS IS THE ONLY TUTORIAL YOU WILL DO ALL SEMESTER, I PROMISE!
You will need to grab the files that go along with the instructions in Chapter 2. To do this, follow these instructions:

1. Go to 'Go' at the top of your Desktop and 'Connect to Server'
2. Type in 'staff'
3. Click on as 'Guest'
4. Go to 'Marty Ballew' folder
5. Go to my 'Public' folder
6. Drag the 'Revealed-Chapter 02' folder to your Desktop
7. Use the files in this folder when asked to in Chapter 2

The Skills Review will be due at the beginning of class on Wednesday.
We will be working of fun assignments that will get you photographing again when I return.
Good luck!