Calibrating your monitor...

Here's a pretty good article. If you care about accuracy, you should read it.

Class Schedule from here to the END

3//27 and 4/3 are optional classes, show up if you want personal critique. (PLEASE SHOW UP WITH MEXICAN COKES AND PEANUT M&M'S)


March 8 - Critique color portraits due

March 15 - Critique black and white portraits due

March 22 - Critique - Diptych/Concept due (lecture to be forthcoming)

April 10 - FINAL CRITIQUE

Chernobyl - photo essay

Check this out.

My new camera...

I shot six portraits yesterday with my new camera. It's from 1900 and the lens is from 1907. Truly old-school. I'll process the film this week. Here's the camera. It's pretty sweet, but the shutter was being totally finicky.

Assignment #5 - Portraits (color)

From Wikipedia (yeah, a terrible source, but I liked the definition...)

Portrait:

"A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer."



Three rules to this assignment...no, wait...SEVEN rules to this assignment.

Rule #1: NO MYSPACE PHOTOS - I think you all know what this means. You've seen 'em, you've taken 'em, I don't want 'em. If you need a reminder about what I'm talkin' 'bout, watch this video.



Rule #2: You need to shoot at least three different people.

Rule #3: No pets.

Rule #4: One of the people you photograph must be someone you do NOT know.

Rule #5: One of those three people MUST be yourself...but, you can't BE yourself...

Rule #6 No groups.

Rule #7 Present them in color (black and white portraits will be next)

Here is Cindy Sherman doing her version of Lucille Ball.



Here is a link to the National Portrait Gallery. You will get a lot of good ideas here from paintings, sculpture and photography.

National Portrait Gallery

Here is one of my favorite portrait photographers...Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon Portrait Gallery

Hiroshi Watanabe's gallery has a few sections of portraits that are interesting.

August Sander was a German photographer who made portraits of farmers and working class people near Cologne prior to World War II. After the Nazi's gained power, Sander continued to shoot the people in his city, many of them shown in Nazi military uniforms. Sander's portraits provide possibly the widest cross-section of Germans during that time.

Here is a self-portrait of me as Abraham Lincoln.



B and Y due: Nov. 9th - one of each portrait posted to blog.

U due: Nov. 10th - one of each portrait posted to blog.

Here is our friend Steve McCurry talking about what you should do BEFORE YOU START PHOTOGRAPHING SOMEONE'S PORTRAIT.

Things you need to memorize...

Final Projects

Here's a pretty neat idea for a final project. Too bad it's been done now...

Start thinking guys!

One less item for my 'do not shoot' list...

They removed the last train car that headed out to SaltAir on Saturday. It's sad to see it go, but it was an attractive nuisance and it was only a matter of time before someone got hurt on it.

How to make your Canon lenses better...

READ THIS.

30 frames per second

Here's a cool page showing home run hitter Barry Bonds hitting his 756th home run.

CLICK HERE



I'll show a video in class that will demonstrate how it was made. Remember, this is pretty old-school, so it took some creative thinking and problem-solving.

Washed Out - also on being creative

The Creative Process

Watch this. It might help you figure some stuff out this term.

Assignment #4 - Color Theory

We will be jumping into Color Theory a lot for this assignment. Ready? Here we go!

Here's the color wheel. Study it. You will need to learn how the color wheel works and how you can apply that knowledge to these assignments. It's easier than you think.



For this assignment you will concentrate on two different theories of color. That of complementary color and that of analogous (or monochromatic) color.

Let's start with complimentary color. It is the easiest. Here is a chart. If I were you I'd print this out and take it home with you so that you have it to use as a reference.



Click on the image to make it larger and easier to read. Right click on this and save it to your folder and you can print it out later.

One of my students has figured out that if you think of sports teams, i.e. the Denver Broncos, the L.A. Lakers, etc...you will have a very good idea of what complimentary colors are.



Frankly I think if you remember the colors of Christmas you will be well on your way. What are the colors of Christmas? Red and green.



I want you to find OR CREATE a scene which you have two complimentary colors. I want you to take your time and find some good light, make an interesting composition, check and set your white balance (this is getting crucial right?!?!), and most importantly I want you to make a bunch of different exposures. BRACKET! Change your composition with the camera, change your composition of the objects. Get an interesting photograph! I want you to do at least one of these complimentary colors, do two if you are feeling ambitious. If you only do one you'd better work it and make sure that you have good exposures, good focus and good composition. Shoot a LOT of frames on this assignment.

Now let's talk about ANALOGOUS color. What's analogous color? Analogous color is similar to monochromatic color, but it gets to be quite a bit richer. Analogous colors are those colors that are adjacent on the color wheel. Let's look at this diagram:



Click on the image to make it larger and easier to read. Right click on this and save it to your folder and you can print it out later.

Monochromatic color got it's richness by the variations of light striking the object. Darker areas became a slightly different shade of that color, lighter areas where more light hit the object became a lighter shade of that one color.

Analogous color is *kind of* similar, except that I want you to find various colored objects that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Remember, to KEEP IT SIMPLE and you get to decide just how hard you make it on yourself. Don't try to choose too many colors. Stick with three...four at the most. This is something that you may want to create on your own. Men, ask your wives if they can help you find analogous color. They will love to show you how it works.

Here's a quick chart:



Here are some examples:









This seems like a big assignment. It kind of is. I want you to repeat for analogous color what you did for complimentary color. Shoot a LOT.

It'll be fun. Trust me!

Here's an analogous color shot I made several years ago near Escalante, Utah.



Zebra Canyon, Near Escalante, Utah, 2002

It's due on Thursday, February 23rd.

6 images on the blog and a few words about what you did. Post at least one example of complimentary and one example of analogous/monochromatic for this assignment. The others can be either complimentary or analogous/monochromatic.

Ansel Adams - Documentary

This is quite long, but you will learn a lot by watching it. Listen to the philosophy behind his image making.