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[table of contents]

Introduction....................................................................................................10 mission and what we do.......................................10 no experience neccessary.................................10 why focused is important.....................................13 how to use this guide................................................14Materials List................................................................................................16 material wishlist.................................................................17Donations and fundraising..........................................................19Camera Basics.............................................................................................21Darkrooms.......................................................................................................24Special Events............................................................................................26Expected Student Outcomes...................................................28 beginner outcomes.....................................................31 intermediate outcomes..........................................32 advanced outcomes.................................................34Glossary............................................................................................................36

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[introduction]

Focused is a photography program that

allows high school kids to learn and pick up

on photography. You will be able to use this

guide book if your program has a 35 mm,

digital, disposable, or Polaroid cameras. We

will provide you with 5 dslr cameras.

You do not need any expertise or experience with photography to conduct the Focused program. If you are experienced with photography please disregard this note. This guide is intended to direct you on how to run the Focused program and includes ideas on what to teach students. Everything you need to know will be right here in this guide.

No Experience Necessary

The mission of Focused is to allow low income teens the chance to learn and pick up on photography and experience the world in new ways, to explore, and to make positive choices for their lives.

Focused believes that by allowing low income teens to learn photography this will enrich the lives of the teens as a means for self-expression and an opportunity for personal growth. Most of the at-risk teens come from homes where they are not exposed to photography as a means of self expression.

Everybody wants to know that their own story is meaningful and valuable. Focused uses the story telling power of photography to help young people develop skills and attitudes to overcome barriers they face and support them on their journey to a positive adulthood. The goal is to not merely train our students as photographers; we want to help them create successful lives. We do this by teaching them transferable skills and engaging them with a network of caring adults.

Our Mission and what we do

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“untitled” by: Elena Gloria

Anaheim, California16 years old

“wonder” by: Rufus ScrimgeourVan Wert, Ohio14 years old

[why is Focused important?]

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focus is fully devoted in empowering urban

youth through photography. Our mission is important

because these at-risk students need a place to go

after school, these hours are the most crucial. We

will provide them a fun and safe environment.

Focused will provide them the necessary tools to make

positive choices in their lives. We accomplish

this mission by building a strong community of

support around high school aged youth and providing

these students with sequential series of photography

classes-in both film and digital media. These classes

are specifically designed to build a sense of self-

worth, social skills, artistic

sensibility, and self expression.

ed

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This guide is split up between three levels of experience the basic, intermediate, and advanced. The goal of each level is to teach the use of photography as art and vocation. Each level should include 8-10 sessions and may be expanded with additional activities that you can also invent.

You should place students in the basic, intermediate, or advanced levels as appropriate depending on the students experience with photography. Each level can stand on it’s own or members can graduate from one level to the next.

There are two major activities for each session:

• an introductory activity to get students engaged

• A main activity to challenge students

All of the lessons will be discussed between all of the board members: president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, event coordinator, communications, educators and membership officers. It is up to your board directors to come up with lessons to teach the students based on the Focused program outcomes.

Feel free to create a schedule and work at a pace appropriate to your own students. You can meet weekly, or twice a week or once every two weeks.

Things to remember:

•Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Looking at the exact same photograph, students may describe the mood as peaceful, another may see it as hectic, and a third may find it boring, disturbing, or funny. None of these answers is more right or wrong than the others. You should, however, always try to get members to explain their reactions in terms of specific details they see in the picture. Instead of having a students saying a picture is funny, try to help them determine what it is about the picture that creates this feeling. Is it the colors? The look on the subject’s face? The contrast of the print? A personal experience of the student? Go deeper.

•Photography can become a fascinating, rewarding career. Today’s hobby can become tomorrow’s job. When you are looking at pictures together–in a magazine, for example–remind students that these pictures didn’t appear magically. Someone was hired to take these pictures. That person had to make a lot of decisions about what to photograph and how to create that image. The photographer, of course, was paid to do this. Try to get students to recognize that there is at least one person behind every picture.

•Photography is a whole new way of seeing the world. As you get further into the lessons, ask students

[how to use this guide]

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Teaching photography in four different ways:

from time to time if they are starting to notice anything different about how they see things–even when a camera is not in their hands. Are they paying more attention to colors? To patterns of light and dark? To the way that a collection of objects might make a good photograph? One important objective of the program is to get members to spend more time simply looking at people and things, and thinking about what it is they see.

Photography…as a way of seeing

Photography…as a way of expressing

Photography…as a way of documenting

Photography…as a way of storytelling

Whether your intention is to create art, document a special occasion, or create family snapshots, these four concepts will help provide a framework for students learning photography.

Photography is a way of seeing. By turning our eyes to the viewfinder of a camera, we gain a new window into the world around us, and we learn to see things in a new light. Photography can be a way to teach students to take notice of their world–to let their eyes roam and take in details that are so often ignored.

Photography is a way of expressing. Whether you are trying to share an experience, an emotion, or even trying to sell benefits of a new product to consumers, a photograph can be an elegant and power means of expression. What expresses the idea of a marathon runner crossing the finish line better: a newspaper article or a single photograph?

The look of exhaustion, triumph and profound satisfaction on a runner’s face as she crosses the finish line usually says more about that unique moment that any story could hope to say. A picture is worth more than a thousand words. By connecting our thoughts to visual images and representations, photography offers us a valuable tool of communication.

Photography is a way of documenting. Many of use have seen the painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware. But is that what the trip was really like? The painter couldn’t have been rowing along in a nearby boat, sketching and painting throughout that crossing. Instead, the painting is more a product of the artist’s imagination than an actual window into our nation’s history.

Photographs, however, faithfully preserve images of what really happened. Wildlife photographers document species of animals in every corner of the globe. Wedding photographers capture the details of a special and memorable event. Newspaper photographers travel to where news is happening to let you see what is really going on. Thanks to documentary photographs, we know what landscapes, people and cultures are like in faraway places, and we can appreciate and learn from what happened a long time ago.

Photography is a way of storytelling. A movie is really just thousands of photographs shown one right after another to tell a story. But even a single photograph can let us experience a story. By studying a photograph we can see who people are, where they come from, where they can go and what happens to them. The only limit to the stories you can tell with a photograph, or a series of photographs, is your own imagination.

beauty is in the eye of the beholder

“

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Disposable Cameras

35 mm cameras

SLR Cameras/Point and shoot cameras

Digital cameras

Polaroid cameras

Ample amounts of black and white and color film

Negative sleeves

Computer and monitor

Scanner

Digital editing software (like Adobe Photoshop)

Color printer

Towels and smocks

Rubber gloves

Print paper (5x7 inch or 8x10 inch)

Photo albums

Photo corners

Plenty of magazines and newspapers

Scissors

[materials list]minimum Requirements

Ideal Program Materials

Digital Photography Equipment

Darkroom Equipment

Additional Equipment

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[program’s wishlist] director name__________________________________program number ____________ city/state_____________________________

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please send to : Focused Headquarters999 Congress StreetPortland, Maine 04101

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Donations/Fundraising

Focused is coming to a classroom near you! Focused is an after school program that will enrich the lives of urban youth through photography. The students will get a chance to learn and pick up on photography and experience the world in new ways. These classes are specifically designed to build a sense of self-worth, social skills, artistic sensibility, and self expression. But without cameras, these students will not get the chance to experience any of this. Help out Focused by donating old cameras, new cameras, any camera that you may have we will take. Help out the local kids get excited about photography! We also are looking for volunteers in helping out with photography! If you are interested in volunteering or would like to make a donation please visit our website at www.focused.org!

[example]

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The donors are the most important target audience for Focused because they garner the necessary

dollars and support to accomplish the mission of Focused. Donations of money and camera equipment

are key to the success of Focused. Every contribution is used to help provide students with the necessary

equipment to get started in photography.

When writing towards the community for donations for either money or new cameras, the appeal should

be that these donations will enrich the lives of at-risk teens where they will be able to try photography

after school rather than being on the streets. The donators should know that this will be a good cause

because children are the future, and by having photography incorporated into the teen’s lives could give

them positive outlooks. They should know that the classes were specifically design to build a sense of

self-worth, social skills, artistic sensibility, and self expression for these students. It is important to use

language that is thoughtful and appeals to educated and successful people. When writing to donators also

add that Focused is always looking for volunteers and mentors.

[camera basics]

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Even the most experienced photographer had to start with the basics. In fact, even someone who

has been taking photographs for years could benefit from a review of the basics.

Cameras come in all different styles, ranging from completely manual to fully automatic. But they

are all designed do to the same thing – to capture an image. All cameras record the light coming

into them. To do this, some have light detectors connected to computer chips inside, while others

are simply cardboard boxes with a pinhole stuck in one side.

In a traditional camera, film is exposed to light for a period of time. The film becomes a

record of the light that reaches it. Light can come directly from a particular source – like the

sun or a streetlamp – or it can bounce off an object and into the camera. At its most basic level,

photography is the art of controlling the light that reaches the film.

Cameras meet the needs of photographers by providing specific, controllable ways to regulate

when, where and how light comes into the camera and exposes the film.

Film: Cameras totally and completely enclose film. It is pitch-black inside a camera. If you are standing outdoors and open up a camera while there is film inside, huge amounts of light will spill into the camera and cover every bit of the film. You would have a record of the light – but the record would be one of total light. Cameras protect film and keep it in the dark until it’s time to take the picture.

Film Sidebar: When you expose film to the light bouncing off of an object, the film makes a chemical record of the pattern of light. It does this because it has a coating of microscopic, light-sensitive grains that are spread out in a kind of paste (called emulsion) on a strip of plastic. A second chemical reaction takes place in the darkroom when the film is developed. Developing chemicals reveal the amount of light to which each grain was exposed. With black-and-white film you end up with a negative – the dark areas appear light and the light areas appear dark. With color film, there are actually three layers of light-sensitive grains: one responds just to red, one to green, and one to blue. In the darkroom these three layers of color-light information are

overlapped, and you get a color negative.

Shutter: Cameras have a shutter, which is a small gate that opens to allow light in to expose the film. Manual cameras allow you to control the speed that the shutter opens and closes. The faster the shutter speed (or the shorter the exposure time), the less light that reaches the film. The slower the shutter speed (or the longer the exposure time), the more light that comes inside.

Shutter Sidebar: If your camera allows you to set the shutter speed, it will have a ring with numbers printed on it. These numbers are fractions of a second. Although you will generally only see the bottom part of the fraction on the dial, the numbers look something like these: 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 and 1/1000. Each setting is almost exactly twice as fast as the one before it. A faster shutter speed means less light gets in – about half as much light for each click. That means a shutter speed of 1/60 will let in about half as much light as a speed of 1/30.

Film Speed: Film speed is another factor that determines how light is treated in your camera. Film speed is not the same as shutter speed. Remember that film is made of light-sensitive grains

in an emulsion on a strip of plastic. The size of those grains determines the film speed. Larger grains will absorb more light than smaller grains. Larger grains are found in “faster” film. A film with a speed of 100 ISO is a slow film with small grains, used for photographing in broad daylight. A film with a speed of 1600 ISO is a very fast film with very large grains, used in very low light levels.

Lens: In order to see clearly, some people wear glasses. A camera needs glasses, too. A camera has a lens to help focus the light on the film inside. Most cameras allow a photographer to look through the lens without exposing the film. Once the image is in focus, the film is ready to be exposed.

Lens Sidebar: Light bounces off things and is given off by other things (like candles) in a divergent pattern. A lens makes light beams converge in a coherent pattern. A camera lens is actually made up of many lenses. Different lens sizes and shapes affect distances, depth of field, focusing and colors differently.

Aperture: An aperture is an opening. The aperture is the only place light should enter a camera and expose film. It isn’t a simple, round hole, but is made

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by a series of overlapping plates – called an iris diaphragm – which together form a round opening. The wider you open the aperture, the more light comes in. The smaller the opening, the less light is captured.

Aperture Sidebar: If your camera allows you to set the aperture size, it will have a ring with f/stop numbers printed on it. These numbers will typically run something like: 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16 and 22. They may be slightly different on your camera. The larger the number, the smaller the aperture. Every time you click up one f/stop number (e.g., from 2.8 to 4) you are setting the aperture to let in half as much light. That means that an f/stop of 8 will let in one-fourth as much light as 4 because it is two clicks up (one-half of one-half ).

Shutter Speed vs. Aperture (F/Stop) Setting: Increasing shutter speed by one click lets about half as much light in, because it exposes the film to light for a shorter amount of time. Increasing the f/stop by one click also lets about half as much light in, because it lets the light in through a smaller hole. So, if you increase your f/stop one step, and decrease your shutter speed one step, these two steps more or less cancel each other out.

For example, if you want to take a picture inside – say at a dimly lit Halloween party – do you:

a) use a high-speed film (to let more light in)?

b) use a small f/stop (to let more light in)?

c) use a slow shutter speed (to let more light in)?

d) some combination of the above?

The answer is (d). But what combination? That’s the fun of photography – there’s no one right answer! In some instances, you’ll want to adjust aperture, in others shutter speed. At other times, you’ll want to use different film. Your best bet is just to experiment, experiment

and experiment some more. Keep a careful record of what you do. Try the same picture with a larger aperture in one exposure, and a slower shutter speed in another.

Focal Length: You may have noticed that if you try to take an extreme close up of something, the photo comes out fuzzy. Or if you try to take a picture of something very far away, you end up with a picture that shows almost nothing at all. The reason is focal length. Every lens has a different one, and the focal length will determine how close you can get to a subject, and how far away you can be. Professional photographers use cameras that allow for lenses to be switched all the time – that way the photographer can switch to a lens with an appropriate focal length if she wants to shoot something a certain distance away. A higher focal length number indicates a greater image magnification. A lens with a very long focal length is called a telephoto lens, and it’s great for focusing in on details on objects that are very far away. On the other hand, a wide-angle lens has a very small focal length, and it’s ideal for close-ups. Right in the middle is a standard 50mm lens – the focal length of lenses on most standard camera lenses. It’s great for things that are a medium distance away, but it won’t be very effective with subjects that are a long way off or too close to the photographer.

SLR vs. Point-and-Shoot Cameras: The two most common automatic cameras in stores today are point-and-shoot cameras and Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras. The biggest difference is what you see when you look through the viewfinder. An SLR camera uses a mirror to let you see the exact same thing that the camera sees. With a point-and-shoot camera, you’re looking through a hole in the camera body near the lens, and you are seeing roughly, but not exactly, what the camera sees. In close-ups, you will notice that what you thought was centered when you took the picture is now shifted a little to the side and down. This

doesn’t happen with an SLR.

Digital vs. Traditional Camera:

The word “digital” means that information has been reduced to a series of 0s and 1s. You may find it impossible to describe your best friend using only 0s and 1s, but this is exactly what a digital camera does when you take a picture of him. Light-sensitive microchips record the amount and intensity of light and determine its color, or wavelength. The chips break up the visual field into a series of squares like those on a checkerboard. The computer chips inside determine what color and how bright each of these squares are. This information is then saved on a disk or in another microchip. When you hook your camera up to your computer, the camera will relay all of this stored information, and the computer can then display the image by “coloring in” a checkerboard with the recorded values. A traditional camera really isn’t so different, when you think of the light-sensitive grains on the film being spread all about, kind of like the checkerboard pattern in a digital camera. Both kinds of cameras are instruments for recording a fleeting pattern of light.

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[front view of dslr camera]

[film camera]

[point and shoot camera]

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WHY WOULD I WANT TO GO IN A DARKROOM?

When you press the shutter release on your camera, the process of making a photograph has only just begun. Even after you’ve taken the picture, there are many ways of altering it during the development process. If you are used to dropping off film at the local photo lab or drug store, it might seem that it’s a simple matter with no variables.

But if you have your own darkroom, you can experiment with chemicals, paper, time of exposure, size of your print and more. You will learn how the “magic” of photography works and control the quality of your prints. As you work in the darkroom, you may discover new techniques that can alter your images dramatically. The photographer Ansel Adams, for instance, is famous not only for his breathtaking landscape photographs of the western United States, but also for the meticulous manipulation of his images in the darkroom. If you look closely at some of his photographs, you will begin to notice that the areas of light and dark could not possibly have occurred that way in nature. Adams achieved his dramatic results with a process called dodging and burning, which allowed him to control the exposure time of different areas of his negatives.

[darkrooms]

WHAT’S IN A DARKROOM?

The Room

A darkroom must be a dark room. Photographs are printed on light-sensitive paper. If even a little light leaks through a window or door frame, your pictures will be ruined and come out all black. There are many ways to seal darkroom leaks. Weather stripping, available at home building stores, works well for doors and windows. You can use canned foam to fill baseboard leaks and cracks. Black tape, duct tape or foam rubber may also be helpful. If the darkroom has windows, try covering them with blackout cloth or black cardboard. Blackout cloth is available at some camera-supply stores and is totally light-proof. Once you start working, no one can enter or leave the darkroom unless you take special precautions. You can make a short, darkened hallway between the outer door and the inner darkroom, with black drapes on both ends. That way people can come and go without letting light in – and without ruining your negatives and/or prints.

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Flooring

The best choice for a darkroom floor is bare concrete. You can control dust in your darkroom by painting the floor with an epoxy paint, but bear in mind that epoxy paint is slick and may create a slip hazard. If you choose to paint your floor, you should also plan on using rubber mats to minimize the chance of slipping. Avoid carpet. It creates a dust problem, and it’s very hard to clean if you spill chemicals on it.

Ventilation

Good ventilation can make a darkroom an inviting work environment. Some chemicals you will be using have very unpleasant odors. A good exhaust fan will pull the fumes away.

Safelight

If darkrooms are so dark, why aren’t photographers covered in Band-Aids from bumping into walls? Because darkrooms have special colored lights called safelights, which have a wavelength that won’t expose the sensitive paper. It may take some getting used to, but with this safelight on, you’ll be able to see what you are doing. Safelights will illuminate your darkroom more evenly if you paint the room a light color. At a hardware store, look for a small red light bulb, 15 watts or less, with a standard lamp base. Make sure that the red part of the bulb goes all the way to the metal screw base. If it does not, cover the bottom with some black tape or paint. A safelight is not truly safe if it is too bright or too close to photographic materials. Safelights should always be at least four feet away from photographic materials.

Enlarger

The enlarger is the second-most critical piece of equipment, after the camera, or making good photographs. This machine is like a slide projector. You put a negative inside of it, and then shine a light through the negative to make an image on the easel underneath it. An enlarger can cost as little as $100 or as much as a few thousand dollars. The basic differences between the price ranges are build quality, lens quality and flexibility. There is no harm in getting a very cheap enlarger – it is important, however, to invest in a good-quality lens.

Paper

Photographic paper is covered in light-sensitive grains. You must keep it wrapped tightly in dark plastic in a dark box or it will be ruined. There are several types of paper you can use. As a starting point, we recommend that you use resin-coated photo paper. This paper will wash and dry faster and flatter than the fiber-based type. Kodak or Ilford both offer these two types of paper.

Solutions

When you shine the image onto the photographic paper with the enlarger, nothing seems to happen. The paper still looks blank. The image is there, but it is

latent at this point. You’ll need to bathe it in a series of chemicals called solutions to reveal the latent image:

Developer

First comes developer, which contains silver halide, a chemical that turns the exposed parts of the image black or shades of gray. Note: Developer stains clothing.

Stop Bath

This second step will “stop” the developer from adding any further silver to the prints. With some solutions of developer you can use plain water as your stop bath.

Fixer

This step “locks” the image onto the paper. Without it, the image would turn dark when it was exposed to air. Fixer also prolongs the life of the print and gives the final product a fine sheen.

Water

The last liquid step is washing the prints with water. You want to get rid of all the chemical residue. Leaving even a small amount of chemicals on your prints will make them age poorly and grow spotty over time. Ideally, you will have a sink with running water in your darkroom. If not, you’ll need a large basin filled with fresh water. You should change this water every time you work on a new set of prints.

Timer

You will need a good timer to let you know how long the paper is exposed to light while it sits on the easel of the enlarger. Some timers are directly connected to the enlarger; the light automatically switches off when time is up. If your timer doesn’t do this, you can just watch the timer’s second hand and then turn the enlarger’s light off yourself. You’ll also need the timer to keep track of how long the prints sit in each of the solutions.

Trays

You will need trays to hold developer, stop bath and fixer. These are simple plastic trays, often with little grooves on the base to let solutions circulate around the underside of the prints. These grooves also make it easier to pick up your prints.

Tongs

You’ll need oversized plastic tongs with rubber ends. They allow you to manipulate the paper in the various solutions without damaging the picture or getting the solutions, which can irritate and/or burn skin, on your hands.

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Holding a photography exhibition is a fantastic way to instill pride in members. Sharing their new creations with others is a perfect way to reinforce the beauty and meaningfulness of their vision. Sharing a photograph is like inviting someone to see through your eyes – it is an intimate and powerful means of communication.

You can hold your own photography exhibition at the program site or off site.

AN EXHIBITION AT THE PROGRAM SITE

First you’ll need to pick a large room or a series of rooms that will allow visitors to pass from picture to picture. Plan to leave enough space between images so that viewers are not bumping into one another as they study the photos. Next, you’ll need to pick a date and time. Have members make invitations. Send a press release to your local newspaper announcing the event and inviting the community. If possible, have members arrange for some refreshments for their guests.

Clothesline, Heater and Squeegee

Remember: recently developed pictures are still light-sensitive. You can’t go rushing out of the darkroom to share them with your friends...yet. Just like wet clothing, your wet pictures need to be hung out to dry. A clothesline and clothespins work great for this. The photos may curl up a little, but you can flatten them out later. Some photographers use a heater to speed up the drying process. Other photographers favor the use of a squeegee – like the kind used to clean windows –to get the excess water off the prints.

An Important Note about the Law

Many states have special laws prohibiting you from dumping strong chemicals down the drain. The owner of your building or your city government should be able to help you determine what type of septic/sewer system you have, and whether or not you can pour photographic chemicals down the drain. If dumping your photographic solutions is not permitted, you should ask local photography labs and suppliers for information. They may very well have a special collection facility for hazardous materials. You can bring your used supplies to this facility, and they be disposed of properly, safely and legally.

Where Do I Find Enlargers, Photo Paper and Chemicals?

Most major cities have plenty of good suppliers. Just look in your local Yellow

Now you’ll have to work with members to select which pictures they will show, and in what order. You might want to group them by age of the photographer or by subject matter. You could have a collection of portraits in one room, landscapes in another, etc.

If possible, provide a description of the Focused assignment that led to the photo on display. This allows viewers to see what the members were asked to do, and how they envisioned and met the challenge.

The last issue is the question of mounting and hanging the prints. Purchasing traditional frames with glass for each picture would be extremely expensive –although it is possible that a local frame shop might either donate frames or lend them for the show. But there are many inexpensive ways to share photographs.

One idea is to create a “darkroom” environment by stringing up clothesline around the walls and hanging the prints from

[special events]

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clothespins. You could even add some red light bulbs to the room to give the feel of darkroom safelights. This is a very simple and fun way to create an exciting atmosphere. Members could also tape picture hooks on the backs of their prints and then hang them from string or wire. An advantage of this is that you will not need to pound any hardware into the walls of your site. Placing pictures in a mat is also easy, and you can use mats to create some interesting color effects. Members can choose any kind of colored cardstock, and glue their photos to it. Then they can take another piece of cardstock, cut a window frame (rectangular, oval, star or heart-shaped), and glue it to the first piece of cardstock. The photograph will show through the frame.

You can also improvise by making frames with sticks or twigs. You can use wood glue to hold them together, or you could even tie the corners with twine to give a more rustic look to the frames.

Once members have chosen their photographs, decide how you will group, mount and hang them. Then you and the members should type up small wall labels for each photograph – complete with the photographer’s name and age.

If you like, you can also add titles for pictures. Titles can be straightforward (e.g., “Man Eating Tacos”), or more subjective (e.g., “A Lazy Afternoon,”“Friendship”).

HOLDING AN EXHIBITION OFF SITE

If you hold your exhibition off site, you will still need to pick a date and time; select the photographs; and decide how to group, mount, frame and hang them. You will also have the added job of finding a good place to hold the exhibition.

Local libraries, galleries and museums are great places to start. Libraries and museums often have extra rooms where conferences, lectures and visiting exhibitions are held. If you can book such a room in advance, it will deepen your members’ sense of excitement about showing their work. Art galleries sometimes have downtime between shows, and might be very receptive to hosting your Exhibition for an evening as a fund-raiser for your site.

student exhibition Boston, MA 2008

[expected student outcomes]

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Beginner OutcomesIn Beginner, members will learn how to:• Hold a camera steady• Photograph in direct sunlight• Use a flash• Get in close for more detail• Work with people as subjects• Take black-and-white pictures• Mount photos safely and creatively

Photography is presented as a way of:

Seeing, with these activities:• Viewing the world through a frame• Making collages• Turning color pictures into black-and-white images• Taking black-and-white pictures of body parts

Expressing, with these activities:• Looking at the emotions in pictures• Depicting happiness with a photo• Considering the images advertisers use• Making a promotional poster

Documenting, with these activities:• Creating a variety of self-portraits• Looking at old family albums

Storytelling, with these activities:• Telling before-and-after stories with photographs• Photographing friends at play• Asking questions about the stories pictures tell

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Intermediate OutcomesIn Intermediate, members will learn how to:

• Hold a camera steady• Take black-and-white pictures• Work with people as subjects• Use lighting to enhance depth• Prevent “red eye”• Use a flash in various situations• Make an attractive page layout with text and images• Take close-up pictures• Frame and compose photographs• Develop photography from a hobby into a profession

Photography is presented as a way of:

Seeing, with these activities:• Depicting familiar objects from a variety of angles and framings• Viewing the world through a frame

Expressing, with these activities:• Creating greeting cards with unique photographic images• Analyzing photographic portraits• Taking portraits of a family activity

Documenting, with these activities:• Asking questions about the information in photographs• Making a people-less family portrait• Visiting with a professional photographer

Storytelling, with these activities:• Looking at the way comic strips tell stories with pictures• Understanding a newspaper’s use of photographs• Creating a newsletter• Telling personal stories with photographs

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Advanced OutcomesIn Advanced members will learn how to:

• Hold the camera steady• Use a tripod• Shoot in direct sunlight• Take black-and-white pictures• Frame and compose shots• Work with people as subjects• Use multiple lighting sources for depth• Eliminate “red eye” from flashphotography• Use a flash in various circumstances• Safely preserve photographs• Use colored gels and filters• Develop an interest in photography into acareer

Photography is presented as a way of:

Seeing, with these activities:• Considering the framing of variousphotographs• Creating a portfolio of contrastingcompositions• Making pinhole cameras• Taking black-and-white abstractphotographs

Expressing, with these activities:• Analyzing famous photographic portraits• Taking a portrait of a friend• Creating photographs to accompanymusic

Documenting, with these activities:• Documenting a subject in need of change• Documenting an event with photographs

Storytelling, with these activities:• Telling stories with series of photographs• Visiting with a professional photographer• Understanding how a newspaper usesphotographs

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Auxiliary Lens: An add-on optical device that alters the focal length of the prime lens for close-up, telephoto or other special-effects photography. Close up devices, for example, usually come in +1, +2 and +3 powers – the higher the number, the greater the magnification.

Background: The portion of a scene that sits behind the main, foreground subject. The background can be made sharp or blurred through the use of selective focusing techniques and depth-of-field manipulation.

Backlighting: Light that comes from behind the subject. Usually, a backlit main subject will be underexposed, unless the photographer compensates in some way (e.g., by using a light meter to determine proper settings ). A photographer can exploit extreme backlighting to create silhouettes.

Blur: Lack of sharpness because of the movement of the camera or subject during exposure. Blur can be used for many creative effects. In computer imaging, use Blur controls to selectively soften parts of the image.

Bounce Lighting: In flash photography, directing the burst of light from the flash so it literally bounces off a ceiling, wall or other surface before it illuminates the subject. This method of flash is often preferred because it softens the overall light and eliminates the harsh, frontal effect of an on camera, straightforward flash.

Burning-In: In darkroom work, giving additional exposure to a portion of a print made from a negative to add density and tonal information. Often used to balance tones in high-contrast scenes. The same term is used in digital darkroom programs.

Burnt-Out: Refers to loss of details in the highlighted portion of a scene due to overexposure. With slide film, it might mean that no image detail has been recorded, or that highlights show no texture or tonal information. A highly burnt-out slide may show clear film base in overexposed areas.

Close-Up: Any photograph made from a distance that is generally closer than normal viewing distance. Close-up pictures are often startling in the detail they reveal.

Composition: The arrangement of subject matter, graphic elements, tones and light in a scene. Can be harmonious or discordant, depending on the photographer, his or her mood, and the subject at hand. There are no set rules, just suggestions. Successful compositions are ones that best express particular feelings about the subject or scene.

Contact Print: A print made the same size as the negative.

Contrast: The relationship between the lightest and darkest areas in a photograph. A small difference means low contrast; a great difference, high contrast. High-contrast scenes usually cause the most exposure problems; however, their difficulty can mean they hold the potential for more expression. Though contrast is often linked with scene brightness, there can be low contrast in a bright scene and high contrast in dim light. Contrast can also describe attributes of color, composition and inherent qualities of film.

Correct Exposure: The combination of aperture and shutter speed that yields a full-toned negative or slide with the best possible tonal representation of the scene. The constants in an exposure calculation are the speed of the film and the brightness of the scene; the variables are the aperture and shutter speed.

Crop: To select a portion of the full-frame image as the final picture. Cropping is done in the darkroom or computer environment.

Darkroom: The workspace for developing and printing photographic film.

Developing: A series of chemical and physical actions that converts lightstruck film to an image one can view directly or print. Also includes making prints from negatives.

Enlargement: A print made from a negative or slide; generally larger than standard size, such as an 8-inch by 10-inch or bigger “blow-up.”

Exposure: The amount of light that enters the lens and strikes the film or sensor. Exposures are broken down into aperture, which is the diameter of the opening of the lens, and shutter speed, which is the amount of time the light strikes the film. Thus, exposure is a combination of the intensity and duration of light.

[glossary of basic photo terms]

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Filters: Any transparent accessory added to the light path that alters the character of the passing light. On film, filters can alter contrast, color rendition or the character of the light itself (diffusion, diffraction, etc.). In printing, variable-contrast filters are used to evoke different contrast grades from variable-contrast black-and-white paper. In computer imaging software, a set of instructions that shape or alter the image information.

Fixer: The third step in black-and-white film and print processing. Fixer removes unexposed silver halides.

Focus: Causing light to form a point, or sharp image on the image sensor or film.

Manual: An exposure mode where the photographer, rather than the camera itself, selects the aperture and shutter speeds.

Maximum Aperture: The widest opening, or f/stop, a lens allows. An f/1.4 lens is referred to as “fast” because it has a relatively wide maximum aperture; an f/4.5 lens is “slow” because of its relatively narrow maximum aperture. Fast lenses come in handy for hand-held, low-light photography. Minimum Aperture: The smallest opening, or f/stop, a lens allows. Generally, wide angle lenses have a minimum aperture of f/22; normal lenses of f/16; and telephoto lenses of f/32.

Negative: An image where the tones (recorded brightness values) or colors (for color film) are the reverse of those in the scene. When printed, the negative becomes “positive.”

Overexposure: When too much lighting strikes the film for a proper rendition of the scene. Minor overexposure may cause a loss of details or texture in the scene highlights. Severe overexposure will cause a serious deterioration of picture quality in both color and black-and-white print film, and a complete loss of picture information with slide films.

Shadow: Details or image information contained in the darker areas of a scene.

Sharpness: The perception that a picture, or parts of a picture, are in focus. Also, the rendition of edges or tonal borders.

Speed: With a shutter, the duration of time in which light strikes the film. Speed also refers to film’s sensitivity to light and to the maximum aperture of a lens. All can be described as either fast-, medium-, or slow-speed.

Stop: A relative measure of light that can be used to describe an aperture or shutter speed, although it is more commonly used with aperture settings. A difference of one stop indicates half or double the amount of light. To stop down means to narrow the aperture; to open up means to expand the aperture.

Underexposure: Insufficient light has struck the film or sensor to faithfully render the color and brightness values. Underexposed pictures are dark; the more the underexposure, the darker they become. Color also suffers when film is underexposed, although a photographer can use a slight amount of underexposure to increase color saturation in certain color slide films.

Zoom Lens: A lens on which the focal length can be varied, as opposed to a fixed focal-length lens. Zooms come in various focal-length ranges, such as 35 to 105mm. The photographer can use all focal lengths within this range.

32 Bit Color: A digital image format that incorporates 256 shades.

Adobe Acrobat: Adobe’s software application for creation of Portable Document Format (.pdf) files that can display a document as it was originally designed. The reader does not have to have the particular software or fonts used to create the file.

Bitmap: A graphic image in computer memory consisting of rows and columns of dots.

Brush: In many image-editing programs, the term describing a special-effects filter that performs a specific function, such as smoothing selective edges.

Calibration: A process of setting digital imaging components to standardized settings that will produce accurate and predictable results in the output.

Capture: Acquire information, such as an image, with a scanner or digital camera device.

Color Proof: A color sample that attempts to represent the final printed image.

Compression: The process of reducing the size of a data file, usually accomplished through software processing. Compression is used to reduce the required storage space or cut transmission times.

Cropping: The process of cutting away unwanted portions of an image.

Digital Printer: Any printing device that is capable of translating digital data into hard copy.

Filters: Software that is used to modify digital images by altering the values or arrangement of selected image pixels.

Import: To bring a data file into an application program.

Merging: Putting two or more data files together. Typically used to describe the merging of two channels of a bitmap image.

Multimedia: A term that is commonly used to mean a computer presentation that incorporates a combination of graphics, audio and video.

Page Layout: The process and software that prepares photography into a page form that can be printed.

Pixel: Individual tiny dots of light that is the basic unit from which the images on a computer are made.

Scan: The process of translating a picture from artwork or transparency into digital information.

Scanner: A device that makes digital image files from original artwork, prints, slides or negatives. Includes drum, flatbed and slide scanners.

Thumbnail: A small, low-resolution version of an image.

Zoom: Making the image, or part of an image, become larger (zooming in) or smaller (zooming out).

[glossary of digital photo terms]

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Photo credit: page 14 & 39 Thomson Nguyen

page 23 camera photos google imagespage 24 Nathan Barrow

All other photos by Sarah Prak

999 Congress StreetPortland, Maine 04101p. 207.123.4567f. 207.765.4321info@focused.org