Artist Talk: Duane Michals

 

Widely known for his work with series, multiple exposures, and the essential use of text in his images, Duane Michals is one of the great photographic innovators of the last century. Michals will lead a candid discussion touching on topics such as metaphysics, personal identity, the nature of memory, photography, and filmmaking. The artist will be in conversation with the Princeton Art Museum Director James Steward on Thursday January 7 at 5:30pm on Zoom. Registration is free but must be completed in advance.

Photography: Using the Tiltshift Technique

In Photography we are continuing our work on Alternative Processes this week with creating tiltshift images. Tilt-shift effects are done either optically, via a special (and expensive) lens, or more usually, in Photoshop. For this first experiment we will use the tiltshift maker link to create 3 tiltshift versions of your photographs. We'll be using the technique and pairing it with others in the future so spend some time seeing what works and getting acquainted. Here are a few tips on what makes for a good tiltshift image:

• The photo must be taken from above, but not directly overhead. This only reflects what someone taking a photo of a miniature scene would likely do; it’s unlikely they would (or even could) be level to the subject. If you have a direct over shot, you won’t be able to get a decent depth of field that is required.
• A simple scene is usually better than a complicated one. This is because miniature scenes are usually very simple; you wouldn’t find a dense city block, for example, in a model railroad scene. 
• Photo sharpness is a must, as well as good lighting. There will be enough blur in the photo as it is; your focal point must be sharp.
• If people are in the scene, they need to be fairly obscure and small. Again, reflecting what you’d see in a real miniature scene. People are very small, and not well detailed in miniature scenery. 
• Generally, avoid wide shots, and make sure the scene is interesting – for instance, an aerial photo of a cathedral with spires and flying buttresses is interesting, while an aerial photo of a flat-topped shopping mall would not be.

End of Semester 1

Today is the End of Semester 1 so for some classes it's the end of last day of class and the final exam.  Here's a short parting video to support you continuing your journey in creating and exploring art!

Digital Media students you can study for todays midterm exam on our Midterm Quizlet

Photography students you can study for todays final exam on our Final Quizlet

Photography Artist Research Project

In Photography we are going to be working on our Artist Research Project this week. I introduced you to the work of photographers in class:

• Robert Frank
• Sebastiao Salgado
• Marilyn Minter
• Steve McCurry
• Annie Leibovitz

We will learn about them more formally and now you will choose and research a photographer and share their work with class. Each student should create a slideshow with the following:

• 1 coverpage including photographer image and name
• 10 bulleted biographical notes of interest
• 20 images of artwork appropriate for class

Below are the photographers that you chose to research, we will have an assessment on all of them are we learn about them and share their work next week:

1. Nicole- Richard Avedon
2. Juliana- Joel Meyerowitz
3. Anthony- Walter Iooss
4. Alana- Ansel Adams
5. Alessandra- Dorothea Lange
6. Daniel- Tim Hetherington
7. Andrew- Robert Capa
8. Christina- Herb Ritts
9. Layne- Lauren Greenfield
10. Chloe- Annie Leibovitz
11. Kelly- Jerry Uelsmann
12. Isaiah- David LaChapelle
13. Ashley- Diane Arbus
14. Emily- Irving Penn
15. Alyssa- Edward Burtynsky
16. Julia- Henri Cartier-Bresson
17. Grace- William Eggleston

AP Art Senior Shows: Troy

Troy's AP Art Senior Show opened yesterday and his unique approach and creative, crisp black and white portraits have drawn a number of visitors to admire his hard work.  Be sure to stop down and see the images which have been hung from twine draped from the ceiling and collages on the walls before it over on Friday!

AP Studio Art: The AP test

 In AP Studio Art we will reflect on the AP studio art test that we took on Friday and write a reflection on it.  Here's some of the great photography and design work from the class we'll look at some of the consistent themes that ran through the class that you may not have picked up on while you were working.

Studio Art: Drawing Portraits

In studio art class we are having advanced photo students photograph the class in order to create our next self portrait grid image.  This week all the students will be photographed in our classroom and the images will be printed and we'll use them as reference for a drawing.  Below are two examples from period 4 and the photograph below shows what the process looks like.

Photography and Media Arts: Final Exams

Now that I'm back from Paris we are starting our final week of Photography and Media classes so I wanted to do a review for our final exams on Thursday.  I created a comprehensive quizlet to help you review here: Photography Review & Media Art Review so take advantage of them!  Remember there is some material we haven't dealt with since the beginning of the year so spend a little time looking over your class notes as well and best of luck!

Photography: Alternative methods, the final portfolio, and the final exam

We are finishing up the semester in Photography with some more alternative processes such as Tilt Shift and the Lens Baby.  After using the tilt shift maker online we are going to look at what an actual tilt shift lens looks like and what can be done with it including uses for video with our White House Film Festival project.  Here are 50 great tiltshift examples to take a look at along with the awesome tiltshift video above from Sam O'Hare. 

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENTS SHOULD BE COMPLETED AND TURNED IN THIS WEEK- next week we will work on editing and printing our best images and our final exam which is in class on Thursday 1/23.

Photography: Tiltshift

Today we will review the tiltshift photos we created last week in class.  Above is a terrific example from Alix that was taken in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum on the Media Art Honor Society's Fall field trip.  Today our double exposures are due and tomorrow we will begin working on a group assignment.

Photography: Alternative Process II

In Photography we are continuing our work on Alternative Processes this week with creating double exposures and tiltshift images (look at the awesome example above by Keith Loutit).  Below are a few techniques and the final 2 images are due on Monday:

 Double Exposures: There are a variety of ways to create double exposures the most controlled being to take two images and merge the as layers on Photoshop.  You can also use cameras which allow for two exposures such as the Holga and Diana or apps on your smartphone.  My favorite app is Hipstamatic but not that they are charging here's a link to a few free apps which allow you to create double exposures.

Tiltshift: We are not actually doing tradional tiltshift which use a special lens (which tilts and shifts) but rather mimicing the effect.  The three basic methods are hand blurring the images in Photoshop, using a website such as www.tilitshiftmaker.com, of creating them on the smart phone with apps such as Instagram (using the little teardrop icon) and here's a link to a few other free apps which allow you to create tiltshift images.

Photography: Critiquing our Light Paintings

Last week we worked on learning how to paint with light and all of the final edited photographs are due today so we will critique them along with the grunge filter portraits in class.  The photo above was done in class with Irene, Sophia, and I using lightbomber and edited on the iphone using grunge textures.

Photography: Experimental techniques I

This week in class we will be learning two experimental photography techniques light painting and creating a grunge filter.  Both assignments will be due a week from today on Tuesday next week. (I'm assigning 2 at the same time due to equipment and space constraints so that everyone can be working on one or the other)

Grunge
Today I will first demonstrate how to use images of wrecked type, scratches. grime, grit, and coffee spills along with some advanced Photoshop tools to create a unique grunge filter. There are also so tutorials in the link above that you might want to try just be sure it is an original image that you are working with and not someone else's.  It is also important to make sure you work with an image that would look good weathered so you might want to take one later today for use tomorrow (there are examples from students in previous classes above).

Light Painting
Today I'll demonstrate the basic techniques involved with light painting and then you can create your own either using our DSLR camera or one of the long exposure apps for the smart phones such as light bomber which also hosts regular contests and require that the image is nor Photoshoped making it crucial that you get the exposure and contrast right for the shot.  The more complex your painting is the harder it is but the cooler it looks so if your up for the challenge go for it!  Above is an example I did by signing my name in light, the trick is you need to learn how to sign it backwards if you are behind the light, tricky!

Here are the two examples from the demonstrations I did in class with Trent, Graham, and I of the two different projects.

Photography: Alphabetography

In photography class we are taking pictures of things that resemble letters (known as Alphabetography) which we will then edit in Photoshop.  The example above is from class and includes the full alphabet along with an asterisk and and exclamation mark for balance. The first step is to take pictures of things resembling letters then we'll be arranging them together in Photoshop and editing them like the example above.  Finally we will actually write out photo words with the letters we created.

Photography: Looking with a new eye

This week in photography we are photographing the school from a new perspective with an emphasis on detail and looking at what's often overlooked.  Students should take at least 20 photos around school (some of which we take in class) and edit the best 9 together into a collage like the demo I did above.  We are going to use Adobe Photoshop to edit and combine the photos together with our new keyboards shortcut "Annoying Contemporary Vampires" along with other tricks we will go over in class.

The school days collage is due at the end of the class on Friday along with the extra credit (if you choose to do it) which is a spin off from last week's assignment pictured above.  These self portraits are from Sophia, Alix, Irene, and Nick.  The assignment is from IG photographer Josh Johnson's #JJ weekly challenge and it asks for a great black and white portrait which can be tagged @TimNeedles #needlesclass and #jj_forum_0685 on Instagram or uploaded into the public drive by the end of class on Friday.

Photography: JR PSA Portraits

Now that Mr.Needles photographed every student in class it's your turn to go out and photograph students for the PSA Project.  Each student should take 20 portraits of students (and that means 20 students not 5 photos of 5 students).  I suggest bracketing like I did so that you get a good image of each person.

Photography: Studio Portraits

This week in photography we are continuing our studio portraits so remenber each person should take at least 15 photos and shoose 3 for a black and white series and 5 for a color series.  Above is an great example from our first group featuring Kim and Gigi photographed by Erica.

Photography: Looking at photographer Vik Muniz

This week we are looking at photographer Vik Muniz and his Oscar nominated film Wasteland.  Above is a video from his TED talk on creativity and here is a link to some examples of his work on Artnet.

Semester 2: Welcome new students!

Welcome to the second semester for photography and media art students!  Today well be going over the basics of the class and some of our special projects such as working with MSG Varsity, Instagram, & The Japan Society's Going Global project featured in the video below.  Both classes require a digital data device such as an thumb drive or a SD card and media art students should also get a package of 100 3"x5" white index cards.

AP/Media Art: Hashtags

We will be using a variety of digital media in Media Arts class and the best way to stay organized and submit work digitally is by using the hashtag #NeedlesClass in Instagram and Twitter. For my AP Art students we are going to use the hashtag #NeedlesAPClass for future postings.

This week we are continuing work on our Going Global project and now that everyone has uploaded their "What's Your Sentence?" images we will be creating a short stop motion animation with everyone's result as well as logging on and commenting of the sentances from students elsewhere in the US, in Pakistan, and Japan.