Black and White Photography

B&W photography will introduce you to the Art of Black and White seeing. You will begin to look at your world differently. You will explore light, texture, tonality and space new ways.

You will learn how to convert from color to full tonal ranged black and white prints. You will learn to matt, cut over-matt, frame and present your work. Each student will produce a 12 image Portfolio and corresponding slide show which will be presented in class. You will learn how to upload your work to a web site.

In this course, you will become more familiar with image resolution, proper exposure, lens selection, ISO ramifications, shooting RAW format and the conversion from color to Black and White.

This is not merely a technical course. Each class session will be divided into two segments:

1. Learning the technical mechanics of photography and the nuances of PhotoShop.

2. The development of your expressive potential in Photography through shooting, group image critique, reading lists, slide presentations, guest artist and weekly assignments

The most important part in Art Education is that you move towards a heightened sense of who you are, what your preferences are, who you might be as an artist. You will learn to recognize your own “Aesthetic Point of View”.

You will exolore the poetic capacity of photography through the use of Design, Symbolism, Narrative, Metaphor and Repetitive Themes as you develop “Your Personal Vision”.

You will experience the self satisfaction in the making of images for personal expression and communication, which often can go beyond that of spoken language.

You will learn to interpret and create images, that are interesting and powerful in their own right, rather than simply defining and documenting objects.

Lastly all of this will take place in a classroom environment where images, opinion and effort are free to be experimental. Where no statement or photograph can be wrong. Creativity has to grow from experimentation if one knew the outcome at the outset where would the creation take place.

The Traditional Approach

This approach to photography was first championed in America by Edward Weston and Ansel Adams and the Group f64 in the 1930's. This approach affirms the legitimacy of "straight" photographic seeing and shooting. This method encourages us to discover the most important things about a subject, to then visualize them as simply and directly as possible, then to present them in a photograph as forcefully as possible. Rather than mimic other arts such as drawing and painting, the classic approach emphasizes un-manipulated printing, clear shooting using maximum sharpness, the use of available light, whose images are rich in continuous tone and have great detail.

1) Selection
Our world is fairly chaotic and the light isn't always right, so the first job is to carefully look at the environment you are photographing. Where is the light? Is the contrast too low or too high? Or does the light transform the ordinary into something beautiful and expressive?

2) Framing the Subject
As the saying goes, we see in terms of our education. We look at the world and see what we have learned to believe is there. […] And indeed it is socially useful that we agree on the function of objects.

But, as photographers, we must learn to relax our beliefs. Move on objects with your eye straight on, to the left, around on the right. Watch them grow large as you approach, group and regroup themselves as you shift your position. Relationships gradually emerge, and sometimes assert themselves with finality. And that's your picture.

- Aaron Siskind The Drama of Objects [1]
3) Light and Form
The shape of the object(s) in the frame usually is the photograph's major organizing element. We isolate the form from its surroundings by closing in and by seeing the light. Light shapes the appearance of objects. Light and its absence (shadow) can separate those objects from its surroundings. Light can be a magnet, drawing the viewer into the picture. Often we make the area of light the focal point of the picture, leaving the edge of the frame a bit darker.

Return