March 28

NEW SHOOT: CAMERA ANGLES at the SKATEPARK

• 15 shots edited

Medium Shot

The medium shot may be similar to many of your typical photographs. A subject is captured from around the knees or waist to the top of the head. We can’t see their entire body, but we are close enough to establish a primary connection with the person. We can view aspects of the background that have been permitted to appear in the frame. Medium shots are the baseline of where we will begin. Not always the most interesting, but medium shots are fundamental.

Close Up

More intimate and ‘in your face’, the closeup aims at creating a stronger connection to the subject. Suddenly we can clearly see a person’s emotions and can easily connect with their humanity. If our subject is older, we may be able to see wrinkles of time, which tell a story within themselves. Close-ups are great when you want an intimate documentary style shot where the world disappears, and your subject is the clear focus.

Long Shot

Excellent for telling stories, long shots allow us to see not only our subject but also their environment. Depending on how a long shot is setup, we may find a person surrounded by their workspace, and thus we learn a bit more about their lives. Other times, a subject can be surrounded by seemingly endless isolated. Long shots help us to take photographs that establish a person’s position within the world.

Dutch Angle

Becoming increasingly criticized for its modern overuse in still photography, Dutch angles can help to tell us something about the photograph or its subject is not entirely right. Typically used to depict the world on its side, Dutch angles can be artfully utilized to tell us that something is wrong. Maybe the subject is in danger, or their state of mind isn’t properly grounded.

Low Angle

Taking a photograph from a low angle, also know as a ‘worm’s-eye view’, makes subjects appear larger than normal. The lens sees the scene from a point of humility while the subject towers over the world. A photograph taken from a low angle to help establish dominance or power.

High Angle

Looking at the exact opposite situation, the high angle can be used to make a subject appear small or vulnerable. Commonly known as the ‘bird’s-eye view’, shots like these may be used to signal that a subject is in danger or has lost dominance in their environment. Add a dutch angle and something bad is almost certainly about to happen.

The Extreme Close-Up

The most intimate of all shots, the extreme close-up, goes beyond the standard close-up by focusing on a single feature. We may see a drop of sweat drip down a subject’s check or the fear in a pair of eyes. Close-ups may be shot with macro lenses due to how close they are to a subject. However they are shot, extreme close-ups allow us to get emotionally under the skin of our subjects.

The Over the Shoulder

An over the shoulder shot can be used to show a relationship between another persona and our subject. We take a position next to the main subject getting close-up in their space and viewing the world as if we were standing with them. We may connect our model with a physical item or another individual within their space. The over the shoulder position places us within the world of the documented subject.

ONLY 6 classes until the end of term 3. 

The following is due for term 3.

WRITING:

• Bio
• Setting
• Bucket List
• Dialogue

PHOTO:

• Headshots -5
• Snow/Choice -5
• Step Down -5
• Hunt 1- 5
• Reflection -5
• Candy -10

PHOTOSHOP:

• Headswap 1-
• Play - 1

 Complete in order of priority:

• finish up any writing and hand in ( setting/dialogue)
• Take and/or edit candy or reflection shots
• make sure all of your folders are labeled properly, have the right number of photos in them and any photos that are random are put into a separate folder called other or to be edited, I will be marking over the break.
• Create two new folders on your M drive: one called Skatepark and one called Slideshow
• NEW   Choose any photo you have taken and using Photoshop and especially playing with the filter functions or bringing in another photo from the internet to go over top of your original photo, create an interesting edit. CALL it PLAY and save as a jpeg in your M drive folder.

Wed/Thurs March 12 and 13

 Complete in order of priority:

• finish up any writing that needs to be handed in ( setting/dialogue)
• Take and/or edit candy or reflection shots
• ( Shoot candy photos inside please!)
• make sure all of your folders are labeled properly, have the right number of photos in them and any photos that are random are put into a separate folder called other or to be edited, I will be marking over the break.
• Create two new folders on your Mdrive: one called Skatepark and one called Slideshow
• NEW   Choose any photo you have taken and using Photoshop and especially playing with the filter functions or bringing in another photo from the internet to go over top of your original photo, create an interesting edit. CALL it PLAY and save as a jpeg in your Mdrive folder.

March 10

Dialogue Assignment #4

 Dialogue: Here is the info you need to do the assignment properly. Dialogue is a conversation between two people. In writing a story or novel, good dialogue will do one of two things; move plot or develop character. Your task is to create a dialogue between two characters that does one or the other or both. It might help to create a conflict between the two characters.

The minimum lines of dialogue are 8 lines per character.   Marks:10 

( Rough copy due before the break)

Here are 10 tips for how to write dialogue:

• Say the dialogue out loud.
• Cut small talk when writing dialogue.
• Keep your dialogue brief and impactful.
• Give each character a unique voice/character.
• Add world-appropriate slang.
• Be consistent with the characters' voices.

More Tips....

Rewriting the 7 Rules of Dialogue

• “Dialogue should stay on topic.” ...
• “Use dialogue as you would actual speech.” ...
• “Avoid long speeches.” ...
• “Show what the characters are doing while they're talking.” ...
• “Keep characters' speech consistent.”

LINK TO: How to write good dialogue
Tips for writing good dialogue

Mon Mar 3

 Understanding Composition in Photography

 Understanding the Importance of Backgrounds and lighting when shooting up close.

Each person composes and takes their own photos!

• DO NOT SHOOT ON THE BARE TABLES
• choose a variety of interesting backgrounds, make sure you make the background work with the colours of your candy
• edit on your phone
• use lighting to enhance the photos 
• set up the shot using elements of composition
• upload photos
• edit photos using IMAGE ADJUSTMENTS brightness/Contrast and Crop
• KEEP YOUR COMPOSITIONS SIMPLE

ASSIGNMENT: 10 well executed shots

Think COLOUR, PATTERN, SYMMETRY, SIMPLICITY, RULE OF THIRDS, RULE OF ODDS,

CONTRASTING COLOURS

week of Feb 24-28

Some cool things people are doing with Photography

Flickr Moments: Teen Photographer uses mirror to create an Illusion
Flickr Moments: Photographer Lands Job at Coca Cola

Assignments to date

Writing:

• Bio
• Bucket List
• Fav Place/Setting

Photo: 

• headshots-5
• Mon: snow/rain-5 Tues: Choice
• stepdown-5
• Hunt #1 with digital slr camera -5 labeled
• Head Swap
• NEW  5 reflection shots

HEADSWAP INSRUCTIONS

1. Find a photo of a person on the internet. When using google to find the image, get the largest size photo possible. ( ie superman, famous model or celebrity) no animals or cartoons. Right click COPY, open Photoshop, File NEW, edit PASTE

2. Bring in the Headshot of Yourself or a friend. Go to file OPEN and open from your file on the MDRIVE. It should automatically open in Photoshop.

3. Bring in both photos to Photoshop. Go to IMAGE, IMAGE SIZE and change the photos to both be close to the same size. Height 11 INCHES. If one is way bigger than the other it will be difficult to do the assignment.

4. While under ADJUSTMENTS, you can also change both photos to BLACK and WHITE.

5. The photos should be open in different tabs.

6. Next go to the SELECTION TOOL,(4th tool down on the left, right click) and using the tool, move the tool around the head of one of your photos, then click on EDIT CUT and go to your next photo.

Note: It is probably more interesting to put the student head on the celebrity body, but it does not matter which head goes where. Also if you do not have a head shot that works for the swap, simply go out and take a shot of someone in a similar pose and distance away from the camera.

7. When on the next photo, click on EDIT, PASTE. This will put the head on the page. Then to resize the head, click EDIT, TRANSFORM, SCALE. This will put a box around the photo and allow you to change the size of the head, you can also slightly rotate the head if you go to ROTATE under TRANSFORM tool.

8.. Then you want to tweak the image by moving into place with the pick/move tool, or use the eraser tool to clean up the edges.

Note: SAVING the file: If you need to continue working on the head swap, save as a COPY Photoshop file so you can come back and work on the image. It is always a good idea, to save your edited photos as Photoshop files as a backup in case you need to go back and make changes. However, if you think you are done you can save as a JPEG ( which is save as copy). 

Friday Feb 14

 Review Photo Composition

• Leading lines
• rule of odds
• fill the frame
• centered composition
• Simplicity

Continue to work on Setting and Step Down

Take 5 Step Down Phone Photos: you are to take 5 different photos using this technique. 10 marks. Put in folder called STEP DOWN

Photo by Meredith Holser

The best part about this picture-taking tip is you can execute it by yourself. For the best outfit pics, use the .5 wide angle option on the iPhone’s back camera. Place your phone down low (can touch the ground), making sure you’re in-frame with some test shots. You will need to put the timer on, try 3-5 sec. Once you've found the best perspective, pose by kicking a leg out towards the camera, reach your hand toward it, or lean down to look at the camera lens. Capturing with the wide angle setting adds a level of distortion to your pics for added personality. 

 New Writing Assignment: Setting

• You are going to write about a favourite place using the 5 senses. As you describe the place, I want to you to use words that create visuals, sounds, tastes, and a sense of touch. The idea here is to write to create an atmosphere or feeling. Make the reader be able to visualize your scene in their mind.

• You may need to build a fictional story around this place or simply begin describing it. In this assignment students are to focus on the elements of setting ( time, place, description)  using the senses and the concept of show not tell.  (10)

What is SHOW not TELL?

Show, don't tell is a writing technique in which story and characters are related through sensory details and actions rather than exposition. It fosters a style of writing that's more immersive for the reader, allowing them to “be in the room/connect with” with the characters.

Link for further info on this technique.

Show don't Tell

CRITERIA

• 1 paragraph or slightly longer, typed, edited, and then good copy handed in
• show not tell
• be specific in your writing
• use the senses when you write
• make the reader feel they can be right there with you in the setting

Example:

from "The Old House at Home" (1940)

by Joseph Mitchell (1908-1996)

McSorley's bar is short, accommodating approximately ten elbows, and is shored up with iron pipes. It is to the right as you enter. To the left is a row of armchairs with their stiff backs against the wainscoting. The chairs are rickety; when a fat man is sitting in one, it squeaks like new shoes every time he takes a breath. The customers believe in sitting down; if there are vacant chairs, no one ever stands at the bar. Down the middle of the room is a row of battered tables. Their tops are always sticky with spilled ale. 

Another Example: What makes Tolkien’s Mordor so real in his Lord of the Rings cycle is its gloomy, dark detail:

‘The gasping pools were choked with ash and crawling muds, sickly white and grey, as if the mountains had vomitted the filth of their entrails upon the lands about. High mounds of crushed and powdered rock, great cones of earth fire-blasted and poison-stained, stood like an obscene graveyard in endless rows, slowly revealed in the reluctant light.’

In this passage from The Two Towers, Tolkien creates a visceral sense of Mordor as a place. Tolkien shows us Mordor using sound (the ‘gasping’ pools), colour (‘sickly white’, ‘poison-stained’) and motion (‘crawling muds’). The atmosphere of death and decay permeates everything, even in how the rock structures resemble a graveyard.

This showing makes Mordor a visceral place of foreboding and ominous danger. The actions associated with the surrounds are violent and negative, from the mountains ‘vomitting’ their entrails onto the lands to the light’s ‘reluctance’.

This passage wouldn’t be nearly as effective merely told. Tolkien could have written:

‘Frodo was horrified by the landscape – every rock formation reminded him of gravestones and there were foul smells and eerie sights at every turn.’

In this case, we lose the specificity, the detail and the power of Tolkien’s clearly visualized setting. The description is too general and vague. To show settings clearly, like Tolkien:

• Use the senses – sound, smell, sight. How do the senses combine to give a setting its atmosphere?
• Use comparison and metaphor: Tolkien personifies the light as reluctant and unwilling. This is an effective example of showing using metaphorical language