What's important in photo course

[Robert A. Zeichner]

Perhaps an outcome driven approach would serve to steer you in the right direction. I know it sounds obvious, but does the course description as it appears in the college catalog, give you a sense of what skills students should acquire in this course? Is this course(s) designed to prepare students for something that will follow? If this is part of a fine art program, you're approach might be different than if it is part of one in advertizing. I spent 4 years at an internationally respected art institution and got reletively little from my photography instructor. I learned more from the lab manager when working in the darkroom after class. As much in favor as I am of teaching the fundimentals of traditional photography, I'd be surprized if a student in advertizing weren't spending more time learning Photoshop than proper procedure for washing and mounting gelatin silver prints. But, if it's art we're talking about, perhaps two courses are needed to cover both the traditional materials and techniques and the modern!

[michael_1487]

doug, one little note froma current photo student. i am a junior at nyu tisch s chool of the arts and have taken a wide range of photo courses.

the most helpful part of a course is when i am able to use what i am learning. a personal project, one in which the project is up to the student can be extreme ly helpful in using what is learned in the classroom in the real world. it helps to solidy and make real the tech details. it also forces a student to take pict ures, but allows them to do so on their own terms. i would not say that this wou ld be the sole aspect of a course, but for an intro or beginning course, it woul d compliment the weekly (or whatever) assignments nicely. this is how my photo o ne and two courses worked.

on the other hand, when i was in a tech class, such as lighting design, i had on ly weekly assignments and did very little personal work. i found myself much les s into the course and into what i was learning. while i learned a lot, i didn't use it. and that is frustrating. for me using the class to broaden projects i am doing is what i really love.

just a thought. -m

[Blake]

first off,

Good luck Doug... we're all pullin' for ya.

I've taken a wide range of juco and secondary university photo classes from intro and studio to fashion, LF, Alt processes... tons more so, I'll tell you what I remember of my wants behind the mouldering beerfog of my uh, hehehee ... yeah.

Do conduct intensive one on one crits during lab hours (get a TA/hotshot student to troubleshoot a lab for the crit time, trade lecture time, whatever you have to do) for the intro kids so that you can become familiar with what kind of photos they want to take and to discern what level of skill each has attained. Hopefully you'll get a handful that need no tech help and you'll be inspired and begin giving divided (art/tech) crits to them immediately but the majority, I'm sure, will need to go (tech/art) first.

For the advanced class... do them a favor... don't try to cover everything between 35mm to LF in a semester for every student. Pace it for the individual student's wants and abilities. Nothing new there.



p.s. Jucos rule. Mine had good teachers from Brooks and RIT. The secondary university programs around here are worthless.

[Jacque Staskon]

I know this is coming in a bit late, sorry ...Field trip. What's important in a photo class? I hope you have been thinking about this for a while, and did not just get hired on last week and trying to pull it all together. When I teach a photo one course, the first thing I try to do is de-mystify the camera. I will have a class of ladies saying, "my husband always took the pictures, or I am just not technical" Infuriating. (in our area the average student at the JUCO is 37 and female) So make things simple for the photo ones. Basic, film loading, focus, shutter speeds, aperture. the basic workings of the camera. The reason I am stressing this part is, when the students get to advanced, you will be surprised how many of them will not have this basic knowledge. Oh sure, there is always someone in the class that has tons of experience and is taking the class to work in the darkroom or for some other reason. They can sometimes have the worst habits. After the basics, then be very careful to teach proper film development. Then the basics of print making. You can finesse their work in advanced classes. Have local pro's come in and show their work or go to their studios. Lots of field trips. As much one on one as you can. Give them your home phone number, so when they are stuck they will call you. Praise their efforts, remember this is a foreign language to most of your photo ones. And when you have critique, don't let them say things like I did not have time to complete, because... blah blah blah. Make the images stand alone, no excuses and no blaming. If you do that at the get go, they seem to get more motiviated and work a bit harder. when I start critique, usually within the first month, I let the students know that the viewer does not care if the shooter had a bad day. the viewer only cares about what is being viewed. So I hold whats called a no excuses critique. Critique is for overall impact and design, composition and subject matter. All the other stuff is written on the back after critique and given to the students next class. (spotting, mounting, matting, etc.) Personal comments are left to the written word, the student then appreciates the time effort you as instructor are spending with their work. Encourage your students to take photographic risks. Let them know that its normal to imatate, then innovate, then inspire. Sometimes that takes years, other times only days. Do not under any circumstances show them your personal work. Otherwise you will have created Doug clones. If you must show them your work do so during the last class of the semester. Have them bring in all kinds of images instead. Talk about them all the time. Learn from the masters and the locals. Slide shows, books, magazines, videos. Use everything you can get your hands on. Photo One is a hoot to teach, I love it when the light comes on and they realize they can do it. Have fun with it most of all. If you need any teaching info you can e-mail me direct. I have been instructing photography in JUCO and University since 1984 and I keep thinking I will retire, but they keep coming up with classes for me to teach. Now I am teaching mostly advanced students, just got back from exploring the desert under the full moon. Fabulous trip. Oh I almost forgot, the advanced students will let you know what they need. Teach them well.

[James Phillips]

Best of Luck with the new courses Doug.

From all of the answers that you have contributed on this forum we can all see that you are more than qualified to teach photography courses. If I was to sit in on one of your classes I would be less worried about the particular area you were to focus on but rather I would be more interested in how you taught me. What I am trying to say is that whatever area you elect such as focusing clearly and attention to detail, or composition techniques, or perhaps exposure basics I would be more interested in how you explained this to me. Every one of your postings is telling me that you can easily relate to newcomers and can converse on their levels. This is an excellent quality in a teacher that you clearly have mastered. In summary I would suggest that the topic selections can be yours, but please teach me clearly and throughly at least one basic skill that I can continue to build upon when I have completed your class.

From previous experiences I know that you will enjoy teaching almost as much as photography itself.

[Blake]

ya got me thinkin' Doug...

I tried to remember my favorite class from back when... why and how it affects me and my work now.

it was b&w 1...

My teacher forced us to use fiber and learn to mount them properly... and just that tiniest bit of nitpicky-ness over quality, dry to dry, seems to have lasted me. Our first lesson was to watch him do it from exposing to drying the print and not just ponder the end result on his office wall. He explained why he was rating his plus-x at 90 to why he wanted us to use a single weight fiber.

you may not have the equipment to do this for them and these days with good rc materials you won't need to necessarily... but like everyone above intimates... show them how to make one, just one fine print and they'll start asking questions like we do around here and the rest will be fun and easy.

[David_892]

Irrespective of how advanced the class is, send them out with a 35mm camera and atleast one roll of slide film. They need only set camera on auto and the lens to f8. On their return get the films processed (if the college has an in-house lab) and returned to them preferably the morning after. Next get them to mount 6 of their favourites from their roll for projection. Get them to talk about why they took that photo and what they would do to improve it and why. After this get them to shoot the following(again 35mm for now) 2x selective depth of field 2x extended DoF, 1x object on tele lens, 1x object, the same size on a wide angle, 2x panning, 2x high key, 2x lo- key 2x high contrast 2x composition. The above suggestion is an extract from thr camera techniques module I did in college. Other things to show them can be basic portraiture and B+W processing and printing.

[cmc]

you can only learn so much in the classroom. but i found that looking at bookstores and seeing photographer monographs were very helpful. this is not the case of all teachers, but if they're teaching full-time, 90% of the time its because they aren't good enough to be full time photographers. so why would you want to listen to everything they say? unless you want to become a teacher like them, go for it. if not, then go out and just shoot. you'll learn more that way.