I am excited to announce that I will add digital photography lessons TODAY! I will periodically release a new unit or lesson. By the semester’s end, 18 weeks worth of photography lessons will be available.
Also, next week I will begin adding weekly blog posts covering a photo-taking assignment or topic that you will be able to use in your classroom.
This week, I thought I would share an outline of what is to come:
- Week 1: This week is meant for an introduction to photography. I introduce the history of photography, specifically the camera obscura or pinhole camera. Then we build our own camera obscura in a room (it’s mind-blowing!). I also introduce the semester “Famous Photographer Presentation” project (something that they can do…when there’s nothing else to do :).
- Week 2: Now that they have a foundation for photography, it’s time to introduce how a camera works and how to take pictures. I teach students how to use a DSLR camera and how the camera works (Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO).
- Week 3: Knowing how to use a camera is one thing, but knowing how to take pictures is another thing entirely. This unit is about learning the Rules of Composition: Balance, Simplicity, Rule of Thirds, Framing, and Avoiding Mergers. I should mention that the rules of composition may be used with ANY camera, not just a DSLR.
- Week 4: PHOTOSHOP! This week is all about learning the ins and outs of Photoshop.
- Week 5: Color in Photoshop. Students will use Photoshop to manipulate color in photos.
- Week 6: In the last lesson, they learned how to manipulate photos using my photos; now, they will learn how to restore and colorize their damaged photo.
- Week 7: COB. No, I’m not talking about corn. COB stands for “Cut Out Background.” This week students will learn how to cut themselves out of one image and place themselves into another.
- Week 8: After last week, this lesson will be easy peasy. Students will now do a “time-lapse.” Using an image of themselves, they will place themselves in various positions in the picture. For example, one may choose to hurtle over a stack of bricks. Their image would show their time-lapse’s start, middle, and end.
- Week 9 and 10: Still Life Photography. Students will learn to take and edit still-life images.
- Week 11: Portrait Photography. Using their classmates, students will learn how to take pictures of people effectively.
- Week 12: Magazine Cover. Students will create a magazine cover. They may choose any magazine they want to recreate, using their still life and portrait skills.
- Week 13-14: They have the magazine cover; now, they need to create a photo advertisement for their magazine. Again, it could be a product they want to represent.
- Week 15: Photography should be more than snapping a pretty picture. Great photography tells a story; this is what students will learn in week 15.
- Week 16: Famous Photographer Presentations. Having studied them all semester, students would now be ready to tell the class about their famous photographer. After they’re finished, students will use images from these photographers to “place themselves in history.”
- Week 17-18: An ultimate adventure. For the last project of the year, students will create a multiple-image story about a trip they took (Europe, outer space, ancient Egypt) wherever they want to go!
And there you have it! Eighteen weeks of digital photography in a nutshell. That is what is coming! Week by week, I’ll add more and more lessons AND blog posts to help you teach students to take quality pictures!
Some lessons are available! Take a look! https://www.digitalartteacher.com/product/digital-photography-1-final/