Fictional Reality

Due Dates:

• White Screen production shoot: Monday 3/30 and Wednesday 4/1
• Preliminary critique Monday 4/13
• Final critique Wednesday 4/22

©Loretta Lux

©Kelli Connell

Create something that is both possible and impossible, at the same time. Explore the line between fantasy and reality. Create a character and place them in an environment or situation. Something might be weird, strange or surreal. How is the line between fantasy—reality blurred? Consider myths, fairy tales, other stories. Or make something up. Move beyond the simple and silly to something that works on many levels. What questions are raised? Beyond that, anything goes. There is plenty of room for creative interpretation. 

Think big for this one... props? costumes? styling?

Integrate the subject with the unlikely background/situation. Unify lighting direction, scale, point of view, shooting angle, etc., so that it truly appears that the subject is occupying the unlikely place.

There are just a few technical ground rules for this project.

1. At least one of the main subjects should be shot with white screen techniques
2. The white screen subject should be masked and appropriately integrated into the new background, with scale, perspective, point of view, light quality and direction convincingly matched.
3. The finished image should "read" realistically and convincingly as a single, genuine photo
4. At least 16" x 20" @300 dpi. All component pieces should be at adequate resolution

Gregory Crewdson
Grace Weston

Kahn and Selesnick

Bill Finger

Patrick Nagatani

Sarah Anne Johnson

Loretta Lux

Wendy McMurdo

Kelli Connell

Cornelia Hediger

Gillian Wearing

Student Work:

Photo Extended, Part 1

Please read chapter 7 by Wednesday 3/4
Prelim critique: Wednesday 3/4
Final Critique:Wednesday 3/25 PRINTS and Jpegs

As photographers, the frame is perhaps our most important tool. With the camera, we "frame" our subjects, including what we feel is important for the picture, and excluding what isn't. Essentially, we are editing from the visual world with our frame. A common goal in photography is to try and get it all in one frame—to create a singular image that conveys our full expression, sharp, clear, with a single point of view. 

Further, we capture single points in time,  often orphaned from the longer story. They float, untethered without revealing what came before or after, or for that matter, what else was going on at that time. 

There's value in all this—but it can also be limiting!

Cartier Bresson "The Decisive Moment"

How can we extend the story of a photograph? What happened before our  decisive moment? What happened after? What did the other person see? What about the fly on the wall? Sometimes we need multiple images, multiple frames to convey the breadth and richness of our visual story.

For this phase of the course, we will explore the following modes.

Narrative Sequence
Typology/Series/Multiples
Joiner/Cluster/Panorama
Digital Collage

1. Narrative Sequence

The first assignment is to explore the use of narrative sequence, or visual narrative, to tell some kind of story through time. Think about change and movement...what changes? What moves? What stays the same? How does this change tell a story?

Duane Michals used extended sequences of images to convey complex and (often amusing) narratives. Some of these visual story lines went in a straight lines, sometimes they made bizarre circles and spirals.

Grandpa Goes to Heaven, Duane Michals

Chance Meeting, Duane Michals

Countless photographers have borrowed his approach to make narratives of their own.

E.Sariozkan

elodie fougère

The Personal Telling of Story

Jennifer Shaw

New Orleans photographer Jennifer Shaw illustrates the trials her family faced during and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The images are told through the use of toys and figurines.

http://jennifershaw.net/hurricane-story/

Metaphoric narrative

The photographer Masaru Goto created a compelling narrative documenting the difficult subject of his mother's sickness, decline and eventual death. He draws a comparison between the life-cycle of cherry trees passing through the four seasons from the blossom stage through the shedding of leaves as extended metaphor for the phases of a human life, from full glory to eventual decline. The result is sad, but poetic and contemplative.

Ideas to get started:

• Create a character and story...depict this visually, telling the story through a sequence of images. Shoot in a way that links the images together in a coherent way.
• Choose or stage a sequence of actions and consequences that are related...show us the before, during and after in a compelling way. Even better, throw in a twist or surprise.
• Illustrate a recent (or current) news event using a fictional or illustrative approach. Instead of photographing the actual events, recreate the event in a compelling or believable way through a sequence of images
• Take a photo every hour for a day...document what you are doing or seeing. Or what someone else is seeing or doing. What stays the same in every photo? What changes?
• Same place different time...photograph the same place, the same way, but at a different time...vary by minute, hour, day, week...decide one method and keep it constant
• Same person different time...photograph the same person, the same way, but at a different time...vary by minute, hour, day, week...decide one method and keep it constant.

Prelim critique: Wednesday 3/4

Assignment 5: Expressing Motion

In each of the examples above, how are the images affected by shutter speed? How can creative use of shutter and/or camera movement create different impressions of time and movement?

Use shutter priority. This is "Tv" with Canon, "S" with Nikon. This is an automatic mode where the camera chooses an f-stop based on the shutter speed that you specify, based on available light. 

ISO can also factor in to this exercise. Some guidelines: To freeze a fast moving subject, shoot with ISO 400 or 800 (depending on light available). For long exposures (drag shutter) and panning shots, shoot with the lowest number ISO available, and perhaps shaded light.

Create interesting examples of the following:

• Create the impression of blurred moving object passing across a stationary background with a slower shutter speed (drag shutter). Try 1/30. Make sure camera is as stable as possible, using lens stabilization, if you have it.
• Freeze a fast moving object with a fast shutter speed, 1/500 second or faster
• Track a moving subject across a background, with 1/2 to 1 second exposure, creating a PAN shot. For this shot, use a very low ISO, high f-stop, and shoot in deep shade.

Suggestions: For all of the above...have all motion occur across the frame rather than coming directly toward or way from the camera. Also, get in close to the subject so that the sense of motion fills the frame.

How creative can you be with these examples? Originality will be rewarded!

Project 1

(Student: Duke)

Based on discussions about your assignment 3 images (meaningful subject matter), develop a group of images around a concise theme or idea. It can be within person/places/things (choose 1), but developed further into a more ambitious and sophisticated project. It will be helpful to be as specific as possible about your subject or idea. A collection of haphazard images does not make for a strong project. Intention is important, as well as follow-through.

Work will be evaluated on:

• Clarity of idea/main subject/theme/concept
• Strength of images (framing, composition, etc.)
• Technical camera skills (sharp focus, solid exposures)
• Photoshop /image editing skills
• Whether project is adequately realized (follow-through)

Due Dates:

Prelim critique: 2/9 (Monday)

Final critique: 2/16 (Monday)

Assignment 4

Deep depth of field. Achieve with small aperture and/or wider angle lens.

Shallow depth of field. Achieve with wide aperture and/or longer (telephoto) lens.

In class:

Explore depth-of-field using Aperture Priority Mode. 

Nikon: use "A" mode

Canon: use "Av" mode

The photographer chooses the aperture and the camera automatically adjusts shutter speed for optimal exposure.

Shoot in fairly bright conditions to ensure adequate exposure, or use higher ISO. Create a photograph where there is a distinct foreground object and the background is fairly far away.  Focus on the foreground object, and maintain this focal placement. Shoot the image three times, varying the apertures. Create at least 3 3-image sets.

• f4 or wider (f2.8, f1.4 okay)
• f8
• f16 or smaller (f22 okay)

Shooting (for Monday 2/2)

Chose specific subjects and shoot them with widely varied depths of field, while maintaining the same composition/framing. This means 2-3 variations of the same "shot" but created with a range of apertures to vary the depth of field. Again, shoot on aperture priority

In the examples below, we see the same subject and the same framing, but with different depths of field. How does this affect the image? Which do you prefer? Why?

f4.0

f18

Assignment 3: in search of meaning

(Student: Craft)

Merely capturing a subject does not automatically convey meaning or content.

For example, a photographer who says "I like to photograph people," is saying very little about what they are really trying to communicate. Yes they may show the presence of someone, but what do they want to say about that person... who they are, what they represent or what they stand for?

Look at the image above. The subject(s) are clear enough... half of a woman's face, a blurry green background. But what else is going on?

• Why are we seeing just half the face...that's kind of mysterious.
• What expressions are being expressed through that single, penetrating, eye?
• Why do I keep looking back and forth between the green eye and the green background?
• Why does this picture make me feel a tad...uneasy, nervous?
• Who is this person anyway? 
• What the heck is going on?
• What is the photographer trying to communicate?

Very quickly, this picture leads to interesting questions. The best art is about interesting questions.

For this assignment, I invite you to ponder questions about the subject you choose. So, if you "like photographing people" please ask yourself the following questions before/during/after you shoot. Be as specific as you can.

• What people?
• Who are these people?
• What are they doing?
• Where are they?
• Why?
• What difference does it make–how are they important?
• What story do they/I have to share about them? 
• What emotion or or idea do I want to express about them?
• How can this be shown/created/expressed?

Assignment:

1. Select a subject that you are commonly drawn to. Person, place, thing. Choose one. No animals or pets, for now. 
2. Apply the above questions, adjusting them to person, place or thing.
3. Answer the questions with pictures, not words
4. Be prepared to discuss your driving questions in class and share the images that resulted

For Monday, 1/26. 

Reading and Class Discussion

Wednesday 1/21

Read Chapters 1 and 3 in the textbook, Light and Lens.

Prepare discussion points for the following. Everyone will have a chance to speak and share what they have learned.

Chapter 1: From the history of photography described by the author, please choose a historic "movement" or approach to the medium that personally resonates with you. Be able to explain how this is pertinent to you as a photographer. Where might you go with this inspiration?

Chapter 1: Read pages 18-30. Pick at least 2 question/answer combinations that you resonate with the most (in a positive way). Then pick 1-2 that you agree less with. Be prepared to discuss your reasoning in class.

Chapter 3: Generate 1-2 points about camera technology from the reading that you found intriguing, or have a question about. Be prepared to discuss.