Advanced Photography Students will refine their photographic skills. They will study photography in terms of composition, camera work, advanced lighting and darkroom processes, computer techniques, and career options. Students will employ the use of technology in a variety of ways. They will manipulate images and create multimedia slide presentations of their work. They will add to their personal portfolios. As an opportunity for further study in the area of photography and technology students may use this class as a steppingstone for an internship or as a means of becoming a teacher's assistant in the Photography as Art class. Work could also be used for the Advanced Placement Program in connection with the Senior Studio class. A materials fee is required.

Students review the history & fundamentals of photography and begin the term by doing pinhole photography.

Students choose subjects based on personal preference. Many choose to do a series of landscapes in either black & white or color.

Friends or family are often used as subject in very creative and expressive ways.

Contrast, lighting, depth of field, and angle of view all contribute to the overall effectiveness of an image.

Creating special effects with manual cameras gives the students a working knowledge of what a more sophisticated camera can do.

Students effectively practice the technique of extreme cropping through the camera lens creating images with strong visual interest.

Using the multiple exposure setting on a camera allows for very creative responses.

Students are encouraged to create unusual images Students are encouraged to create unusual images. They may chose to do this in a number of ways. The photo on the left was done by propping the subject in an interesting way and taking a straight shot of it. The image on the right was created through the use of PhotoShop.

Independent Study Projects are done to allow students the opportunity to experiment in very specific & unusual ways. These images were created through the careful propping of the subject and then enhanced through the use of PhotoShop. They were a part of a larger series of images.

Timing can be everything in capturing a memorable moment in time. For this very reason students often carry their cameras with them.

Traditional black and white work may be sepia toned after it is printed or students may chose to tone their work as digital images. In either case the toning creates a lovely old world feel for the image.

Hand coloring photos is done to enhance traditional black and white or sepia toned images.

Students use their original photos to begin work in the computer lab with Adobe PhotoShop. The first few assignments have students apply the program’s filter effects to enhance their images and create interest..

Students then go onto create photo montages in PhotoShop by combining several of their photographs into a single image.

The concept of photo montage is the focus of several additional assignments. The students do portraits or self portraits as the basis of some of this work. Often times the work is very illustrative or expressive.

Later assignments continue to challenge the students to be expressive with their work. They may choose to work in either a very commercial or a more fine art way. In these images photos are combined and enhanced. For this work students often add text to communicate a message more clearly.