DSLR Camera Workshop
First, everyone will check out a camera for the semester. You will use this for the photo essay assignment and then again toward the end of the semester for your video assignment. There are enough for each person to keep one out for the whole semester. Please make sure to take good care of it! Any lost or broken pieces will need to be replaced by you.
We’ll take about ten minutes to play with the settings and get the hang of where all the controls on the camera are located.
In-Class Practice Assignment: Photo Scavenger Hunt
Go out and take 8-10 thoughtfully-composed images that capture some of the following elements of composition. Some of these will inevitably contain multiple elements, and that’s fine. Remember that you want to end up with a final edit of 8-10 images, which means you will need to take more photos than that and then decide which are your strongest.
Contrasting colors
Monochromatic colors
Symmetry
Pattern
Rule of thirds
Close-up detail shot
Shallow depth of field
Portrait
Dramatic/beautiful/interesting use of light
Slow shutter speed
Internal framing
Movement
Decisive moment
Layers telling a story
Dramatic perspective (shooting from high up or from low to the ground)
You don’t need to send these to me yet: you will use these in a practice editing exercise after we return from our week off next week. Just hold onto them and await further instructions.
Photo Essays: An Introduction
A photo essay is a thoroughly reported story, told in well-composed and curated images and captions. Ideally, there should be a mix of images so that the eye is always looking at something new as the viewer clicks or scrolls through: close-up shots, wide shots, portraits, colorful shots, bright shots, dark shots, action shots, etc. Intimacy is a powerful tool in these sorts of projects.
https://time.com/3809851/dancehall-queens-of-brooklyn/
https://reemadoleh.exposure.co/gentrification-in-brooklyn
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/multimediareportingfall2020/?author=39159
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/multimediareportingfall2020/?author=37122
Upcoming Deadlines:
Remember that your photo essay pitches are to be posted on the blog by class time next Monday, 9/13. Our Zoom class that day will be a pitch workshop.
We will look at your photos from the scavenger hunt together on Wednesday, 9/15, but please don’t send them to me yet! Just hang onto them for now. (And feel free to keep shooting more images between now and then if you like.)