Black and White Photography

A simple photograph can change drastically with different compositional strategies, and my students will learn how to use these strategies to their advantage in any art form.  Photography is different from painting or drawing in that the image is captured instead of created, this will allow the students to observe how different techniques can enhance or convey something about the image after the image has already been created.  They will complete a set of 5 photographs, each using a different genre.

These 5 photographs will be:

1. Portraiture - they must take a photograph of a single person, the face must be visible and the student will try to convey a specific emotion.  This can be through the person's facial expression or through the surroundings and lighting.

Irving Penn


Dorothea Lange

2. Texture - the students must find a single texture or multiple textures in one image and use contrast and lighting techniques to enhance the subject.
     
Lucy Shires


    Adrienne Adams

3. Landscape - the subject can be natural or constructed.  Techniques learned from the texture photography should be used to enhance the image.

Chris Clor

 
 Ansel Adams

4. Motion/Movement - the student must find a single subject to convey while the subject is in motion.  Cars, trains, animals, people, etc.  Exposure lengths will be stressed in this lesson.  Either the subject or it's surroundings must be in motion.

Massimiliano Sarno

5. Abstract - this will be the final lesson where the students will take everything that they have learned and put as much of it into a single photograph.  This can be anything from a constructed subject or of a subject close-up focusing on a single element.

Byron Jorjorian

Learning objectives:  

• How to effectively use composition, lighting and contrast to enhance or convey something about the image.
• How to plan your image
• How to use these techniques in different art forms

Questions:

• How can you change the emotion of something or someone through lighting and contrast?
• How can you abstract a natural subject?

Enduring Ideas:

• Capturing Emotion
• Life and Nature
• Abstraction