bdavis

Barbara Davis, high school art teacher (photography and sculpture).

snowbear

Welcome aboard, Barbara.

photophly Loc: Old Bridge NJ

Hi, Barb.......Welcome

fotogk Loc: Tuftonboro, NH

Hello Barbara,
I just retire from teaching HS Photography for 30 years, now just a photographer

bdavis

Wow, 30 years! You taught a long time. This is my 10th year of teaching at the high school level but I was 42 when I started this job. I'd taught photo at FSU as an adjunct for 5 years and I'd taught agriculture in the Peace Corps back in the 80's, so although I wasn't really "new" to teaching, I had to do the alternative certification route to meet the requirements. I'd never worked digitally when started here in 2002 so I had a steep learning curve. I'm still learning new things all the time, which makes the teaching fun. I have a drawer full of old SLRs including my first, a Minolta SRT 101 I got in 7th grade! My kids shoot and process B+W and print a little in the darkroom (plus pinhole!) but most of my curriculum switches to digital eventually. Did you teach AP? Sometime if you want to share any ideas of your fav prompts or assignments I'd love to learn from you. Gotta go unload the kiln and check for powerpoint requirements to see who made the Friday deadline...critique tomorrow!

fotogk Loc: Tuftonboro, NH

I did not teach AP since it was not an Art course, I also taught graphic design. Did the whole realm b&w film, color film, slides darkroom. Had a 20 station darkroom. I drilled them on aperture and shutter and light. I can give you my assignment lists if you want. I am now running my own business teaching adults how to use their camera and photoshop. Also shooting work. Looking to adjunct at the local community colleges

michael104

I'm an artist and site admin for a forum of decorative artists. Using photography to record our work is absolutely essential. We all have web sites and Facebook pages for promotion and any tips on taking better photos is most appreciated. I hope no one minds that I might share some tips with my members. I want to do everything I can to make their lives more productive and their work more attractive to potential customers. Any tips you give will be fully credited and perhaps we can reciprocate by telling you about creating art. Please let me know if this is an acceptable arrangement.

bdavis

My first semester is devoted to aperture and shutter and ISO as well as quality and direction of light and composition. I find the pinhole camera a great way to try to get the kids aware of the change in light around them and to "estimate" the light by looking at shadows or lack thereof. I really emphasize getting the exposure and composition right in the camera rather than thinking it can all be fixed later. As for AP there are 3 art courses: AP 3D, AP 2D (which includes photo) and AP drawing. I have students submit for college credit in 3D and 2D each year. I would be very happy to see your assignment list. I keep certain basic assignments but I update and add all the time. I find that when I use new ideas I tweak them and revise and build the rubric to meet the objectives. I ususally refine an assignment for about 3 years in a row based on results before it's really great, but of course I also retire some assignments to bring others into the rotation.

bdavis

A few key things:
*A good lens. For small items a macro lens is important.
*A tripod for slower shutter speeds when necessary.
*An uncluttered background, try cloth or large paper. Various colors for background depending on the object being photographed.
*Light, light, light. Lighting is the key. A flash on the camera tends to flatten things out. Two studio lights can be set up on either side (try 45 degree angle to start). With film you had to balance the color film to the light source (film type or filters) but now with digital you can set the white balance in camera (or adjust in editing software if needed.) Some items need even illumination so the two lights are equidistant. Some itmes look good with stronger oblique lighting (from one side) and subtler lighting from the other. The stronger light from the side helps show depth and texture. For items that have a glossy surface (glossy glazed ceramics or oil paintings) you can cross-polarize (polarize the two light sources and then polarize the lens on your camera). That is a more involved in terms of expense and may not be warranted for the items you are photographing. There are so many good books and web sites that can show you basic set-ups for studio lighting and if you study them you'll find a set up that's right for what you want.

fotogk Loc: Tuftonboro, NH

I found I very rarely retired assignments just added and pushed them more especially with digital since they did not have to print all the assignments. I had each one get a flickr account and submit their work in a private group only other students in the class could see what they where submitting. I also made them submit slide shows of their images before post processing. Assignments given beginning of semester so they could shoot head. Slide shows for tha weeks assignments due in class wednesday (showed the slide show on wednesday) assignments due on friday. Students could work on editing at home since most had pirated copies of ps.

michael104

Barbara - with your dual skills in photography & art you could be very helpful to my members. Since many of the finishes we do are textured and therefore have a 3D element to them is there a particular piece of advice you could give for getting the best photographic results? One question that continually pops up is how to properly take photos of metallic finishes.

I'm sorry if I've gone off topic here but having just discovered this forum the questions are spilling out of my noggin. Let me get more familiar with the forum so I can post in the correct topic next time.

bdavis

The polarized light sources is a great way to go, but if members are photographing individually on their own it is too cost prohibitive. If you are setting it up in one place and photographing for all the members then it might (might!) be worth the investment in equipment.

If you are using a point-and-shoot without manual controls over aperture and shutter then my lighting advice won't be as useful. With a point and shoot you can try to use the exposure compensation in camera (+1, +2, or -1, -2) but in that case I'd try a simple light set up. Google search "studio lighting" and "Photographing jewelry" and you will find a wealth of info and photographs of the lighting set ups. For example, if you build a little box out of white cloth and shine the lights through the sides (and even the top) you can get great results. You want to avoid having the metallic objects reflecting the ceiling and everything else around. I've even used a white matte board with a hole cut out for the lens so that the object doesn't reflect you (the photographer!) in the image.
That's really as much as I can do to help you in a text reply. Please research the sites and you'll find photos of simple set-ups for what you want to do. Then you could try a few and post the results on Ugly Hedgehog and get a lot of good feedback from members. I've been a silent observer for two weeks looking at photo submissions and the discussions that followed before actually joining tonight. People will help you but it's best if you post a photo or two to get people to chime in based on seeing the actual objects you are trying to photograph and what your current imagery looks like. And be prepared to share the canera and lens you're using.

bdavis

The way you gave assignments ahead and had specified due dates is how I run my Photo II/AP classes. My photo I classes are structured in a much more "lock-step" fashion as a) the classes are large and b) some kids haven't a clue. Yet, it seems that perhaps I could try that system out next year for the beginners and see how it goes. Most of my kids don't have PS at home. Some have Gimp or Picassa and some don't have anything. Likewise I have kids with DSLRs and others with only the camera on their phone which range from iPhones to pretty poor quality cameras. I also have 9th through 12th grades mixed in together. I have 26 in one class, 24 in another, but only 8 computers, 5 point and shoot digital cameras and my old collection of SLR film cameras. Anyway, your post gives me food for thought. Thanks.

fotogk Loc: Tuftonboro, NH

I had a 20 mac workstations, then two Imacs set up to epson printers, had 20 digital camera d40, d3000. class size was not bigger then 20. Juniors and seniors only plus film camera

michael104

Thank you. Unfortunately my members are literally all over the world. Practically every state and throughout Europe. I was surprised to find that many had decent cameras with lighting set-ups. Most of the work involves photographing whole rooms at the high end and sample boards approx. 18"x24" at the small end. The light box could work for them and some have discussed it. But I know from my own experience that some finishes are very difficult to accurately portray. The metallic finishes for instance can be subtle because glazes allow the base coat to come through, of course, so getting an accurate representation is difficult without resorting to a reflection which in turn takes away from the subtlety of the finish. I'll try to post a couple of my better results and see what kind of response I get.

Now that I know you all are here I have a resource that I'm sure will be most helpful. Thank you so much.