Assignment #2: Bad Photos

Today’s essential question: 

What are some common photography mistakes that should be avoided in order to achieve professional quality photos? Today we will complete a 1 Day Assignment: Bad Photos. You will upload one photo in each of the following topics to your blog, along with a brief write up as to why each photo is objectively terrible. (Every photo should be one you have personally taken with your own device. NO GOOGLE PHOTOS!)

Blurry Photo

Images come out blurry for a few reasons when there is not enough light reaching the sensor or when the subject is moving too quickly. Solutions include adding adequate light, stabilizing the camera, or asking your subject to hold still for a moment.

Crooked Photo

Beginner photographers often think that slanting the camera will make their photograph appear “artsy.” It will not. It will just make it look like you were falling sideways while you took the photo.

Poorly Exposed Photo

We can lighten or darken a photo in Photoshop, but if the image has too much contrast to begin with (usually caused by shooting directly into the light source, instead of having the light source at your back), there is no way to fix the photo.

Photo Without Clear Subject Matter

It is important to have a clear subject in your photo, as no amount of editing can turn a bad photo into a good one. A photo subject is anything that stands out in the photo, that makes it interesting and that the human eye will see first. Your subject could be a person, a building, a tree or a mountain, but you have to have something that stands out, that the eye will see first. If nothing stands out, the photo is empty, and there is no point in taking it. It’s a common rookie mistake to take a photo of a sunset that has just the sky and the sea. Even if the sunset is really amazing, that photo won’t look good unless there’s a good subject in it.

Photo with Poor Composition

In the photo on the left, the subject is too centered and makes the image feel boring. There is too much space at the top of the photo, and not enough space below. Notice how much more interesting the photo on the right is by changing up the composition. The eyes of the subjects in the photo on the right follow the rule of thirds.

Cliché Photo

A cliché photo is one that contains an overused concept and reflects a lack of original thought. Cliché photos are all over Instagram and SnapChat.

Awkward Objects in Background

Pay attention to how the different elements in your photo interact with one another. For example, if the tree in the background looks like it is growing out of your subject’s head, you can walk around the subject slightly so the tree is no longer directly behind them.

Today we will look at objectively terrible photos so that we may learn how to avoid these bad habits in the future. 

Create a new blog post with the following: 

One example of each of the following bad photo categories:

- blurry photo
- crooked photo
- poorly exposed photo
- photo without clear subject matter
- photo with poor composition
- cliché photo
- photo with awkward objects in the background 
- write about why each of your photos is objectively bad 

Remember, no blog post = 0 participation for the day.

Daily Photo #4

"Ford Strikers Riot" 1941 Milton Brooks

Pulitzer prize-winning photo #1

In April of 1941, a worker was fired from the Ford Motor plant in Detroit, MI. A few days later, tensions had built among the employees, and picketers walked the street encouraging other workers to leave and inciting the first strike in the history of Ford Motors. One plant employee attempted to push past the picketers and into the building (against the advice of the State Police and Ford Service men), and his confrontation with the picketers became heated. Within a matter of minutes, the “time man” and the picketers were fighting, the man attempting to cover his head and face with his coat. The man was injured, dazed, and taken to the plant hospital for treatment.

Unbeknownst to most, press photographer Milton E. Brooks with the Detroit News was in the crowd. Known as “One Shot Milton,” he worked with a difficult type of camera that took one photo every six or seven seconds, and the timing of his shots was known to be impeccable. While other photographers were focused on other areas of the picket line, Brooks waited to see how the altercation would go between the picketers and the man trying to enter. When the scene became physical, Brooks pulled the camera from his jacket, snapped the photo, quickly hid the camera again, and moved away into the crowd. He was afraid someone would damage or steal his camera to prevent the photo from being published. After its publication, the photo “Ford Strikers Riot” won Milton Brooks the first Pulitzer Prize in photography in 1942.  (http://gohighbrow.com/ford-strikers-riot/)

Students do a daily "Bell Work" activity analyzing a significant or historical photo. They must make written comments about the composition, contrast, focus, balance, framing and statements each photo is making. This is our daily warm up exercise.
We also watched several a video on YouTube about the Pulitzer Prize for Photography and those photographers who took the most iconic photos of their time. As a "stretch it" exercise we looked at a painting by Franz Kline that has visual correlations in contrast and shape composition.

Franz Kline American painter

Daily Photo #3

“Migrant Mother,” 1936, California

In 1936, photographer Dorothea Lange shot this image of a destitute woman, 32-year-old Florence Owens, with an infant and two other of her seven children at a pea-pickers camp in Nipomo, California. Lange took the photo, which came to be called “Migrant Mother,” for a project commissioned by the New Deal’s Federal Resettlement Administration (later part of the Farm Security Administration) to document the plight of migrant agricultural workers. Her image of Owens soon was published in newspapers, prompting the government to deliver food aid to the Nipomo camp, where several thousand people were hungry and living in squalid conditions; however, by that point Owens and her family had moved on. Lange’s photo became a defining image of the Great Depression, but the migrant mother’s identity remained a mystery to the public for decades because Lange hadn’t asked her name. In the late 1970s, a reporter tracked down Owens (whose last name was then Thompson), at her Modesto, California, home. Thompson was critical of Lange, who died in 1965, stating she felt exploited by the photo and wished it hadn’t been taken and also expressing regret she hadn’t made any money from it. Thompson died at age 80 in 1983. In 1998, a print of the image, signed by Lange, sold for $244,500 at auction. By Elizabeth Nix

Dorothea Lange (May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange's photographs humanized the consequences of the Great Depression and influenced the development of documentary photography.

Video #1

Students do a daily "Bell Work" activity analyzing a significant or historical photo. They must make written comments about the composition, contrast, focus, balance, framing and statements each photo is making. This is our daily warm up exercise.

We also watched several videos on YouTube about the photographer who took this iconic photo in order to put it into the context of the time.

Assignment #1: Symmetrical vs. Asymmetrical

Assignment #1: Symmetrical vs Asymmetrical

Take a single photo with your cell phone that intentionally shows Symmetry or Asymmetry. Use the Rule of Thirds to help you with your overall composition and determining symmetry. 

You will be submitting your photos via uploading to your Blog.

If you have questions at any time please email me: 

2010959@rcsd121.org

One photo should be the raw unmanipulated image from your camera. The second image must be manipulated using your phone's photo editing software.

You must post to your blog to get credit and a grade for this assignment!

Daily Photo #2

Eddie Adams - 'General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon'

Eddie Adams won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and a World Press Photo award for the photograph (captioned 'General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon'), but would later lament its notoriety.[6] Writer and critic David D. Perlmutter points out that 'no film footage did as much damage as AP photographer Eddie Adams's 35mm shot taken on a Saigon street ... When people talk or write about [the Tet Offensive] at least a sentence is devoted (often with an illustration) to the Eddie Adams picture'.[7]

^Video

Students do a daily "Bell Work" activity analyzing a significant or historical photo. They must make written comments about the composition, contrast, focus, balance, framing and statements each photo is making. This is our daily warm up exercise.
We also watched a video interview on YouTube by the photographer who took this iconic photo in order to put it into the context of the time.

Daily Photo #1

'Tank Man'  by Jeff Widener

Tank Man (also known as the Unknown Protester or Unknown Rebel) is the nickname of an unidentified man who stood in front of a column of tanks on June 4, 1989, the morning after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tienanmen Square protests of 1989 by force.

Students do a daily "Bell Work" activity analyzing a significant or historical photo. They must make written comments about the composition, contrast, focus, balance, framing and statements each photo is making. This is our daily warm up exercise.

We also watched a video interview on YouTube by the photographer who took this iconic photo in order to put it into the political context of the time.

Video #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SACHK-W4o1E

Setting up your Edison Tech Photography Blog!!!

This post will help you set up your Google Drives and blogs. Because of the amount of storage we use in this class, everyone should set up a new Blogger account and new blog under that account for this school year.This will provide us all with a fresh start and prevent us from running out of space mid-year.

Part 1: Setting up a Blogger account 

Click here to set up a Blogger account. (This will be your Photo class blog.) You may choose any free template you like, but keep in mind that you will need to post both text and images, so you should pick a template that supports both of these requirements well. Use your real email address (preferably your district Gmail) – you will have to verify your email in order to publish blog posts. 
Log into your email account, open the email from Blogger, and click on the link to verify your email address. You will not be able to publish any posts until you have completed this step. 

Part 2: Logging into your district Gmail account 

Click here to log into your district Gmail account. Your username will be your student ID # @rcsd121.org.) Ex. 8123456@rcsd121.org, and your password is your district computer password. (Your district gmail account has unlimited storage space and will give you access to DropBox, which is a great free way to back up your files.) 
Email Mr. Kroll (2010959@rcsd121.org) from your district Gmail account. You will not receive credit if you email me from another email client. Your email should include: 
Your first and last name plus your class and day (ex. 5AC) 
A link to your Blogger blog. For example, “Edison Tech Photo – Our blog is URL http://edisontechphoto.blogspot.com/.” 
Part 3: Publishing your first blog post

Publish your first post by clicking on the "Publish" button at the top right of your Blogger screen

Include the following:

  
Post an image that represents you or your interests by following these steps:

  
Go to images.google.com 
type in what you are looking for (ex. “funktastic kicks”) 
click on the image you want to download 
control +click -> save images as 
save the image to your desktop 
Click on the “picture frame icon” button at the top 
Click on “upload” 
Click on “choose files” 
Select the image you want to insert 

Write a paragraph with the answers to the following questions:

1. What do you hope to accomplish, learn, or create in Photo this year?
2. Whose is responsible if the computer crashes and your project disappears? What will happen?
3. How will you back up your work?
4. Is food allowed in the Classroom?
5. List the circumstance under which I may not be able to offer you extra help:
6. List some easy ways you feel you could gain participation points:
7. List some easy ways you feel you could lose participation points:
8. Do you have access to a digital camera (this includes a cell phone camera)? Do you feel comfortable using this camera for class projects?
9. If you have been in my class before, list some advice for people who have never had me as a teacher:
10. If you have never been in my class, list some ways I can help you succeed in this class: 
Click “publish” at the top of the screen to publish your post. 

If you have time, set up the “About” page on your blog.
Need help? Please follow the following process: 
Check the blog 
Ask two classmates 
Still stuck? Raise your hand and Mr. Kroll or email him. He will help you as soon as he is available. 

Homework: Set up your Blog!!!