download a copy from the HAND OUT folder or ask me for a printout if you need one

The word Photography comes from the Greek roots of “light” and “writing.” Photography is basically the practice of capturing light onto some displayable medium, whether it’s printed out or on a screen of some kind.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Today, you need to take some specific photos in some specific light situations. Please TURN OFF YOUR FLASH. If you can, or if you want to work with a partner, take the same photos on your camera and on your phone.

These are the photos I want to see:

• A photo in the darkened classroom (no flash)
• A photo of someone or something standing in front of a window (inside, looking out)
• A photo outside
• A photo where the camera is in the shade and your subject is in the sunlight (front steps work great)
• A photo where the camera is in the sunlight and your subject is in the shade (front steps work great)
• A photo in a part of the school where there’s no natural sunlight (if possible – basement, cave,)
• A photo of something really close to your camera (play around, how close can you get and still take a photo)
• A photo of something really far away (zoom)
• A photo of something moving (another person, a car on the road)

Bring those back and import them onto your computer by copying them into OneDrive or importing them with Lightroom or Lightroom Classic. DO NOT EDIT THEM YET.

Photoshop – Creative tool, allows advanced editing, combining photos, adding layers, etc. Many uses beyond just improving photos. Infinite creative options. We’ll use this when we want to get really creative with our photos and work some real magic.

As for organizing and quickly making changes to photos, there are a few main options! You really need to organize yourself as you start to take more photos, and there are three main options. There’s no right or wrong answer for which one you should use, so we’ll take a look at all 3 as we go along.

Bridge – connects everything. Easy to sort, organize, and find. Can quickly open photos in other Adobe apps. You don’t actually import photos into Bridge, it just views them where they are. You can move them and rename them and all kinds of things, but there aren’t actually any photos within Bridge.

Bridge overview:

Lightroom – Cloud based. Easier to understand and figure out, sync with other computers & devices, edit on the go, full access to full quality files at all times, and doesn’t use up hard drive space, but cloud storage is expensive. In the past, I’ve used this one to very quickly import a photo, make basic changes, and quickly export. Throughout the year, we’ll take a LOT of photos, and I kind of need access to them all at some point. If I tried to upload EVERYTHING from throughout the year, I’d run out of cloud storage space in no time. Paying for cloud storage space is kind of ridiculous, so this one doesn’t really work great for me.

Lightroom Classic – looks a little more intimidating, has more features, files are stored locally (uses up hard drive space and hard drives fail/get lost/get stolen), tethering (connect directly to a camera in a studio), great if you only use one computer and don’t need to edit on your phone. I’ve always used Classic for most of my organization and important editing, because it’s so versatile, but I’ve had some issues. I work on the yearbook at home and at school. With this version of the program, I have to have my files accessible on both. I can store my files in OneDrive, but Lightroom Classic has a “catalog” file that contains all of the information about the photos, and I’ve found it extremely difficult to use one catalog in both places. Just recently, Lightroom Classic updated and I seem to have lost my entire catalog. Luckily, I still have all of the photos, but the albums that I’ve created and the presets that I’ve come up with and more seem to be totally gone. So frustrating!

They say a photograph is worth 1000 words. I want 5000 words about you!

A photograph should tell a story. If I see photographs of important people, places, and events in your life, they should give me a lot of information about you. I should be able to learn a lot about you by seeing some important photos about your life.

Here’s my example

In class, I had students guess what the story is in each picture by looking at the people and objects in the photos, where it looks like they are, what’s around, what expressions people have on their faces, and anything else you can notice.

You have two choices. Either show these to me and/or the class directly so that we can talk about them and ask questions OR show me the picture, then on a separate page/slide, explain the photo. I want to guess and figure it out, then see your explanation to see how close I am.

You can put this together however you like. PowerPoint or InDesign make sense to me, but you could use Word or make a video with the photos and your explanations or just come in at lunch and show me your photos. Hand your project into your hand in folder that you created and shared with me.

Looking at the photos you took as part of the Light Scavenger Hunt, I want you to try to notice what the light did to the subject of your photographs in each of the different situations I asked you to capture.

You should notice some obvious differences. I want you to do some comparisons, and do some thinking and reflecting. Answer the following questions, with examples, in a PowerPoint or InDesign document or however you choose.

Looking at photos taken on your DSLR camera:

1. Which is your best photo? (when looking at light and colour and detail). Why? Describe what’s good about it.
2. Which is your worst photo? (when looking at light and colour and detail). Why? Describe what’s wrong with it.
3. Take two other photos and compare them. Perhaps look at one inside and one outside, or another one that turned out good and another one that didn’t. What are the major differences between the two photos? (light, colour, detail)

Next, take at least two photos that need some help (whichever source you want) and put them into Lightroom. Adjust the sliders to see what helps the photo look better? Which ones did you have to move up or down to improve the results?

Put those observations into a document/presentation/video and hand it in!