Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This course provides hands-on experience that approaches intermediate aspectsof advanced digital photography from an artistic, historic, and craft-orientedperspective. All aspects of digital photography will be considered, from exposureof images in the camera, to the presentation the finished image. Special attentionwill be paid to self-expression, based on an understanding of aesthetic principlesand graphic design. Historical approaches and contemporary issues concerningthe art of photography will be discussed. Students’ abilities will be developedthrough regular photographic assignments and critical evaluations.

Students will be able to:

• Continue to understand, interpret and enjoy photography from past to present within a local as well as global context.
• Ask sophisticated, meaningful questions, identify ideas and issues, and develop increasingly articulate language to use when participating in critical dialogue about photography with others.
• Find and develop creative ways to solve artistic and conceptual problems with an increased understanding of the medium using a variety of photographic strategies.
• Create personal photographic artwork, which demonstrate an intermediate level of understanding of the advanced photographic ideas, processes, materials, and techniques associated with making digital photographs.
• Navigate challenges & opportunities of working in a community photographic studio.
• Integrate the understanding that any photographic image is created and interpreted through the lens of both the artist and the viewer’s own personal, social and cultural filters at an advanced level.

1. Understand advanced digital capture formats and strategies and investigatethe use of alternative methods of digital and traditional photographicimaging.2. Build upon current skill set with the intent of working towards technicalproficiency.3. Utilize medium and large format printing, archival printing methodologiesand materials4. Generate ideas/concepts with an advanced awareness of the intendedcontent of the work produced.5. Hone research and critical inquiry skills applied to photography locally andglobally6. Begin to develop personal work with an awareness of historical and contemporary artists working in photography.7. Practice and improve skills of assessment and knowledge base of materialsand methods.8. Assess and self-critique personal work to strategize creative solutions.9. Further expand and utilize the necessary vocabulary specific to digital photography when participating in class critiques and discussions.

Students are expected to:• Complete and present the individual work within a professional studio critique.• Use and further develop a sophisticated use of photography-related vocabulary and concepts necessary to engage within a studio environment• Demonstrate appropriate techniques in an intermediate advanced photographic practice as well as studio habits beyond the classroom studio• Demonstrate ability to meet deadlines with proper time management and craftsmanship.• Prepare portfolios for professional presentation.

1. Visual awareness and ability to see.2. Methodologies for designing and creating a print that may include, thirdpartyprinting, in-house color calibration and self-printing, projection, virtualor web presentation of their images3. Challenges to visualization inherent in photography.4. Language of photography and the qualities that distinguish it from othergraphic and/or digital media.5. Photography in history, its ethical, social, political and cultural contexts.6. Options and possibilities for original work.7. Evaluating prints and images.8. Safety.9. Environmental concerns related to materials, consumption, production andoutput strategies and proper disposal of waste produced.10. Non-traditional media and combined techniques (e.g., zines, artist &/orkinetic books, collage, mixed media and collaboration with otherdisciplines).SKILLS AND METHODOLOGIESAdvanced knowledge of the camera: image storage systems, light-meteringand exposure controls (manual and automatic).Digital capture: understanding of the variety of methods of digital capture astechnologies are developed and explored, as from camera to scanner, film topinholeDigital darkroom: Advanced knowledge of the use, manipulation, advantagesand limitations of digital image software. Advanced level of digital imageprocessing and editing across multiple file formats (such as jpg, tiff and RAW),evaluating digital image exposures for lighting, contrast and color balance;further image manipulation such as dodging, burning and cropping.Finishing the digital photograph: rendering for web or print; retouching the final image; dry mounting and over-matting; other options, including books, zines,and mixed media may be discussed. Competence in the variety of methods foroutputting the image physically or virtually.? medium and large-format printing? use of professional printers? publish/exhibit work online? employ knowledge of archival issues and after-print methods ofoptimizing,? presenting, and maintaining the print itself.Aesthetic issues: use of graphic techniques, through control of contrast anddensity; effective use of focus, depth-of-field, and stopping/blurring motion; useof the rectangle, the edge, and cropping; line, form, shape, texture, rhythm, andspace.Attributes of digital and chemical photographic history and practitioners:presentation, through slides, lectures, and videos, of periods, artists, andtechnology, issues in the history of photography. In particular, photographicgenres, including landscape and nature, documentary, reportage, abstraction,portrait, self-portrait, and candid photography, will be discussed. Emphasis willbe on how historical concerns effect, and led to, contemporary issues, artists,and techniques.Self-Expression: the digital image as an interpretive medium and the ability toreflect on one’s own work through methods that may include discussion,journaling peer and self-critique.Presentation: understand contemporary exhibition and presentationoptions and techniques and standards as well as development of apersonal portfolio. Community: collaborative projects, Service Learning, or individual projectsincorporating social and community practices and engagement.Understand how to select the most effective presentation for a particularimage.Demonstrate familiarity with historical styles by comparing prints to thoseof other periods.