Digital Photography Syllabus

This course is an introduction to the exciting world of digital imaging. Students will be provided with a start-to-finish understanding of successful image-making by offering hands-on projects, demonstrations and discussions aimed at boosting creative expression and productivity in a challenging, yet fun, environment. Students will learn how to use their digital camera as an effective tool for visual communication as well as how to work efficiently in Photoshop, how to combine images and add text and finally, how to optimize their creations for final output. Students will produce at least three portfolio pieces. Lab fee required.

Additional Class Information: Hybrid campus/online course with reduced on-campus time. Computer & Internet access required. Log in to Canvas as soon as the term begins to access your course: https://online.seminolestate.edu

Jennifer Copp, M.F.A.
Email: coppj@seminolestate.edu

• Dean of Arts & Communications: Prof. Paul Luby (407-708-2039)
• Professor of Photograpphy: Jennifer B. Copp (M.F.A.)
• Building: Photo Lab: G-129
• coppj@seminolestate.edu
• 407-708-2039 (Main Number: Dept. of Arts & Communications)
• *Phone messages can be taken.

www.JenniferCopp.com

MFA - School of Visual Arts 2004 Photography and Related Media (Video Concentration)

BFA - Savannah College of Art and Design 1995 Photography (Art History Minor)

Hybrid course. A reduced number of campus meetings are combined with online delivery (not to exceed 75%). Computer and internet utilized.

Additional Class Information: Hybrid campus/online course with reduced on-campus time. Computer & Internet access required. Log in to Canvas as soon as the term begins to access your course: https://online.seminolestate.edu

Required Textbook

Short Course In Photography:digital

Author:

 London

ISBN:

 9780205998258

Publisher:

 Pearson

Edition:

 3RD 15 OE

Buy:

 $82.80 New

 $62.10 Used

E-book:

 $49.99

E-book rental:

 $16.99

Measurable Course Objectives are outcomes students are expected to achieve by the end of the course.

• Convert RAW files and improve image structure using Adobe Camera RAW.
• Efficiently transfer, archive, edit and optimize images for output.
• Explain what factors, other than resolution, have an effect on image quality.
• Identify properties of light, (color temperature, direction, luminosity, etc.) and use both natural and artifical light creatively.
• Interpret and effectively use an image map (histogram)
• Recognize how the camera sees and modifies lighting/exposure to maximize image detail.
• Use the camera's creative controls more fully.

The Collegewide Student Learning Outcomes assessed and reinforced in this course include the following:

• Communication
• Critical Thinking

The College recognizes the correlation between attendance and both student retention and achievement. Per College Policy 3.060 Students are expected to attend all classes, actively participate and complete all assigned course work for all courses for which they are registered. 

For Face-to-Face classes attendance is required starting the first scheduled class. Students who are absent during this period are subject to be withdrawn for non-attendance. If you are unable to attend the first week, please reach out to your instructor to discuss assignments or activities required to maintain your enrollment in the course. 

For online classes, attendance is determined by consistently logging in and accessing the course content and completing courses in accordance with the syllabus. Simply logging in to an online class does NOT count as attendance. Students must engage in an academically-related activity.

The skills you will learn in this class are refinforced by your attendance and participation in demonstrations. Please let the instructor know beforehand if an absence is going to occur. If prior notice of an absence is not possible either e-mail your instructor, or leave a message with the front office (the number is listed above). Upon your return to class please make an effort to see your instructor before the class is excused for the day. Gross amounts of absences (more than 5) may subject the student to a failing grade in the class.

As members of the Seminole State College of Florida community, students are expected to be honest in all of their academic coursework and activities. Academic dishonesty, such as cheating of any kind on examinations, course assignments or projects, plagiarism, misrepresentation and the unauthorized possession of examinations or other course-related materials, is prohibited.

Plagiarism is unacceptable to the college community. Academic work that is submitted by students is assumed to be the result of their own thought, research or self-expression. When students borrow ideas, wording or organization from another source, they are expected to acknowledge that fact in an appropriate manner. Plagiarism is the deliberate use and appropriation of another's work without identifying the source and trying to pass-off such work as the student's own. Any student who fails to give full credit for ideas or materials taken from another has plagiarized.

Students who share their work for the purpose of cheating on class assignments or tests are subject to the same penalties as the student who commits the act of cheating.

When cheating or plagiarism has occurred, instructors may take academic action that ranges from denial of credit for the assignment or a grade of "F" on a specific assignment, examination or project, to the assignment of a grade of "F" for the course. Students may also be subject to further sanctions imposed by the judicial officer, such as disciplinary probation, suspension or dismissal from the College.

A student desiring to withdraw from a course after the add/drop period should initiate withdrawal procedures with a student success specialist. Withdrawals are not official until the withdrawal form is completed and given to the Office of Enrollment Services and Registrar. Withdrawal deadlines are published in the official College Catalog Academic Calendar. 

*PLEASE NOTE all withdrawal dates and specifications, this is very imortant for each student to individually take a look at.

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Campus locations and phone numbers for DSS are:

• Sanford/Lake Mary Campus, Room SC-130, 407.708.2109
• Altamonte Campus, Room ALT 107, 407.404.6005
• Heathrow Campus, Room HEA 115, 407.708.4440
• Oviedo Campus, Room OVF 102-D, 407.971.5114

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A Tobacco-Free College

To promote the health and wellness of the Seminole State College community, the use if tobacco of any kind and in any form is prohibited on all College-owned and/or operated facilities.  This includes tobacco use in personal vehicles while on College property.  The College Tobacco-Free Policy can be found at online.

Users viewing a printed version of this syllabus can access the links in the document via the following addresses.

Online version:
https://www.seminolestate.edu/ssap/oasis/syllabusView/view/2171/1884/PGY2801C

PDF version:
https://www.seminolestate.edu/ssap/oasis/syllabusView/pdf/2171/1884/PGY2801C

Digital Photography One

Spring Term 2015

Professor Jennifer B. Copp

Digital Photography One Course Structure:

Assignments = 100 pts. Each (7) = 700 pts.

Students will receive handouts for each assignment containing detailed instructions for completion. Due- dates; Assignments turned in past the due are subject to forfeiture of one letter grade. Assignments that are turned in more than one week late will not be accepted. The instructor reserves the right to make changes to these assignments as deemed necessary. Students will be notified any changes on the handout, and they will be posted in the classroom.

1) Find Hidden Faces (getting started project) = 100 points

2) Isolate an Object (using extreme shallow depth of field) = 100 points

3)  The Decisive Moment (B&W/ Histograms) = 100 points

4) Night/Low light (Long exposures, light painting) = 100 points

5) Replace a Color (Photoshop/Lightroom and color selection) = 100 points

6) Make a Lighting Small Set/Diorama (3 different lighting situations) = 100 points

7)  Levitation Concept Shoot (Photoshop/Lightroom) = 100 points

In Class Assignments = 100 pts.

10 projects (missed class time will forfeit the assignment for that day).

*Please print out and hand in some documentation of what you worked on in class, or verify that the instructor has given you credit for you class work. These in class assignments might be modified during the semester based on what we are currently learning in class and time permitting.

Research three photographers whose work you admire

Put your head on a celebrity body

Isolate a color in a photograph

Scavenger Hunt

Light Painting

Light Painting

Document something happening on campus at the moment

Use the light discs and bounce light

Work on “Light Box”

Watch movie (give a critique)

Modeling day

Levitate your photo in class

Quizzes = 100 pts.

Create one to two paragraphs, which will summarize the notes and research that you have gathered related to each topic. Please type and print out each quiz question and turn in to the instructor when due.

1) F-Stops and Shutter Speeds:

       Write out by memory the most common F-Stops and Shutter Speeds. Explain what each does and how they work together with ISO. Please do not cut and paste a graphic from online.

2) File Formats:

What is RAW?

What file formats do you use and why?

3) Histograms:

What are Histograms, and what numerical range do they cover?

4) Lighting:

What kinds of light sources could you use on location with little set-up?

What types of light arrangements will make a simple and basic light set-up for a portrait?

5) Night Photo/Low Light:

How might you handle a low light situation in which you do not have a tripod?

How would you handle a low light situation when you need to stop motion in the photograph?

How would you create a light-painting affect and still have great depth of field?

The Future of Imaging Presentation & Essay = 50 pts.

What new technology in photography intrigues you the most and why?

Explain what the technology is, what it does and how do you feel it will change the way things are done in photography today? Include images to go along with a 5-minute class presentation

Two Printed and Matted Prints (8.5 x 11 or larger) = 50 pts.

Work must be matted using white matt board and shrink wrapped with your name and contact information on the back. Your images will be submitted to the student show in the spring and can be picked up from the gallery then.

Final Project/Critique = 100 pts.

***Final Critique & portfolio:

Put together 20-30 of your best images into an electronic portfolio. Attendance for the final critique is mandatory for full final grade. If you have extraordinary circumstances that prevent you from attending please make plans with your instructor before the absence to meet and go over your final. If you have an emergency and cannot attend the final critique please contact your instructor as soon as possible and explain your circumstances.

(You must attend the final critique or make early arrangements with an instructor for a one on one critique, or your grade will be considered an “F”).

Total Points Possible: 1100

NOTE:

Lab time is considered class-time; it is not appropriate to leave immediately following lecture time. Please use lab time to your advantage and come to class prepared with materials to work on.

*Calender to be published.

Available in Lab:

Photoshop

Lightroom

Camera (Digital Single Lens Reflex camera (DSLR), or FULLY MANUAL digital camera) for the digital students)

Digital: Flash Drive or portable hard drive.

Recommended - tripod, digital photographic paper, mat board.

http://www.freestylephoto.biz

http://www.harmonphoto.com

http://www.colonialphotohobby.com

http://www.keh.com

*Laptops may be used in class AFTER the lecture has ended.

Please use all electronic devices in the hall or outside of the classroom, unless presenting using these tools. I am more than happy to let you excuse yourself briefly to respond to urgent messages as long as it does not disrupt other students.

This syllabus can be amended at any time. The best effort of the instructor will be made to the students to announce and make aware of any changes to the syllabus.

About Ms. Copp:

Ms. Jennifer Copp has received two Aaron Siskind grants as a graduate student at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. In 2007 and again in 2011 she received a United Arts of Central Florida Individual Artist creative assistance grant. Her career includes time spent in Los Angeles as a set decorator and as a film set photographer. Jennifer is currently exhibiting her work both in solo and group shows. Jennifer has recently returned to Florida after a two year Artist in Residence faculty position at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi (2008 - 2010). Ms. Copp is currently a Professor of Photography at Seminole State College in Sanford, Florida and a proud Mother of one.

Words from the Artist:

Most of my work deals with a sense of place, and how a particular location can help shape one’s state of mind. The second theme in my work involves an attempt to figure out how one fits into the world, the idea of one’s placement in society. There was a prevalent feeling for me that I wanted to save moments, more than I wanted them to happen briefly and then vanish and be gone. By recording moments in time I could go back and look at them again and again.

One of my projects, Alone in New York (B&W photography, 2004 – ongoing) is a series of images of a New York that is uncharacteristically quiet. Where people are held in solitary moments in the midst of the movement and energy of a huge city. Where did these people come from, and where are they going? My images talk about the architecture and visual uniqueness of a city caught at rest. Sometimes we feel alone and sometimes we feel content, and at certain moments there is time to think. I have been photographing in New York for several years now.

I am captivated with the light and the small moments in time that occur with every neighborhood that I find. For me it is important to bring the ideas of land use, public space and how we use that space into the public vocabulary. Of equal importance is to bring to light the ideas of the fractured identity through adoption, divorce, family and the public view of what is family. I am intrigued with the power that the arts have to enact change.

I use photography as a mirror and spotlight. I hope to encourage people to see their common world in a new way, which might instigate internal and external change in their lives. Theatre production has never left my creative impulses, as I continue to use still photography. I continue to use several different mediums in addition to photography to convey ideas that are of interest to me, such as installation, video and collage. My hope is to continue to bring my projects, both still photography and multi-media to galleries as well as untraditional locations. I want to bring the idea of questioning identity and our place in our contemporary world into the public consciousness through my ongoing projects.

As a Visiting Professor of Photography in the Fine Arts Department at Jackson State University I became acutely aware of the need to provide both technical and aesthetic sensibilities to my students. I am also aware of combining the unique diversities and demographics of my students from wherever I am teaching into my approach in the classroom. Jackson State is part of the HBCU network (historically black colleges and universities). JSU’s designation as an HBCU provided me as an educator a unique opportunity to creatively capitalize on the long history of the campus as an intellectual center for African American education, and to use that in my approach to photography. I seek to both encourage my students to photographically describe their surroundings as well as their experiences while on campus. I share with them aspects of photography and culture from outside of Jackson, Mississippi as well as photographers who have come from the same region, thus opening a very unique creative dialogue. 

Statement of Teaching Philosophy:

I began to understand the role of an artist when I went to art school as an undergraduate and studied with a professor who emphasized the need to be both technically in control of my craft, and as intellectually informed as possible. Later in graduate school Charlie Traub, my department chair at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan liked to say, “Photography is the great democratic medium.”  Mr. Traub was also adamant that the students in his department have a sense of social responsibility and have something to say as an artist. 

My fine art academic history was initiated with the knowledge that art combines a sense of history, current events, a carefully thought out personal opinion, and technical skills. It is the mind as much as the technique that sparks young artists.

As a student the skills that I gained making well-crafted prints gave me self-confidence and control. The belief was that the mechanics of craft were as essential and necessary as the mind behind the tool.  The emphasis in graduate school was not technique, your technical ability was assumed, and the main focus was the dialogue that the artist presented to the department and beyond. Both my undergraduate and graduate experiences reiterated to me that technique and intellect are both necessary in an art education and I agree with that philosophy; these are the ideas that I bring to the classroom as an educator.

Today I incorporate newer computer based techniques in my photography/video work and in the classroom. As a student I learned with the discipline and structure inherent in the careful weighing of grams and micrograms, the slow application of graphite, charcoal and paint. I gained the belief that the skill of an artist is important and must be an essential element imparted to students. I believe that the current tools of the trade are just as important as the traditional skills. My students go through an immediate 6 weeks of instruction regarding technique and procedures in photography. They are taught the cause and effects of why they need to learn the correct way to make in camera exposures and prints. After my students have gained a sense of competence in their skills I then work with each student to explore what they can say visually. By creating a visual dialogue, each student then has the ability to speak and express themselves mechanically and with their own ideas. This philosophy of craft and self-expression is followed through from my intro classes and into my advanced classes. Through critiques, books and articles, art history and discussions of the world around us, I feel strongly that no creative mind can think in a vacuum.  It is only through dialogue and sharing that any idea is fully realized.

I first became interested in photography at a time when photographers were still fighting to justify their work as fine art, even though many photographers and video artists had been showing work in professional galleries and museums for decades.  I also began photography when my professors were promising that I would be part of a brave new digital world. I have been lucky to have been taught both in a digital and non-digital world, which I feel gives me a particularly creative perspective. 

Now that images, both still and moving, are even more plentiful than ever, images can be made quickly and easily well crafted, I believe that it is even more necessary to introduce to students the essential elements of design, craft and especially how images and their ideas fits into the world around us.  In an ever-increasing time of international travel and communication the visual image is becoming a global tool for communication, which will be the world our future artists will inhabit. With an education that is both pedagogically sound and with a solid aesthetic and design background, young artists studying today can become competent and expressive artists with a strong voice of their own time.

To succeed in an online course, you need to be:

• motivated
• self-directed
• willing to work on your own

Online courses are not for everyone. They are neither easier nor more difficult than on-campus courses, but they do require more dedication and self-discipline from the student.  If you like to interact face-to-face with a professor and classmates, or if you have difficulty managing your time, this might not be the best course delivery mode for you.  However, if you can read and understand technical information, follow instructions as given, and solve computer problems on your own without asking for much help, online instruction should work well for you. Good time management skills, self-discipline, and motivation are required to successfully complete an online course.

Students are expected to participate in class activities, failure to attend 5 or more classes could result in an overall failing grade for the class.

TBD

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Unacceptable use of College technology may result in the revocation of access to College information technology, and may subject the user to criminal and civil penalties. Unacceptable use includes students who attempt to abuse computers or software, introduce viruses, send misappropriate messages or interfere with normal network operations.

Read the college's technology policy

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• Academic Success Center (ASC) offers all Seminole State students free tutoring in math, writing and the sciences, as well as an open computer lab.
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• Seminole State Library offers beneficial and rewarding services to all college students. The library is an excellent place to break from classes, meet fellow students, and reflect independently and collaboratively. It is also an environment for discovery that encourages students to seek information, engage in listening and viewing activities, and think creatively.
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Adjunct Professor:

The professor for this course is an Adjunct Professor and does not have formal office hours on campus. The professor is happy to meet with any student who needs additional help outside of class with advanced notice and arrangements can be made to meet in an appropriate space on campus.

Adjunct Professor Definitions:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Definition-of-an-Adjunct-Professor&id=2915542

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-an-adjunct-professor.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professors_in_the_United_States

The College academic calendar can be accessed via the online catalog.

Please contact the Help Desk, 407-708-2000.

An online class at Seminole State may require students to be in a proctored environment for tests. At the discretion of the instructor, students may be asked to be proctored via:

1. a Seminole State College Assessment/Testing Center;
2. a Seminole State College virtual proctor application; or
3. an alternate proctoring site approved by the instructor.

Identity Verification

Students should have their Seminole State or valid picture ID on hand for verification of identity by the proctor.

Seminole State College Assessment/Test Center

General information about Seminole State’s Assessment/Testing Center hours, policies and procedures can be found at the testing center website. Note: Proctored tests to be taken at Seminole State College’s Assessment/Testing Center require all students to make an appointment via the TeCO app.

Virtual Proctoring

Students required to use a virtual proctor will be monitored by a live proctor via webcam while those required to use a virtual proctor will be monitored using automated processes such as video recording via webcam and screen capture. Selection of virtual proctoring services is at the discretion of the instructor who will provide students guidance on which application must be used in his/her class. 

Computer and Environmental Requirements

Students using a virtual proctor are required to be in a well-lit, clean and quiet location connected to a stable internet connection. The computer used to take an assessment must use a Chrome web browser, a webcam, speakers/headphones and a microphone.

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