This course introduces students to the technical and artistic elements of photography. The first semester emphasizes compositional awareness in creating photographic images, as well as developing technical skills for using professional digital cameras and editing tools such as Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Students have opportunity to explore a variety of photographic subjects, composing in available light as well as work with studio lighting equipment. They also learn to follow the digital workflow of editing their photographs in Adobe Lightroom. The photographs they compose serve as stand-alone images, and images made to serve another type of end product such as graphic designs. Through use of critiques, both by teacher and peers, students display the ability to aesthetically value and appreciate photographic images, as well as understand their place as both objects and symbols in the visual world. Students learn about the history of photography and are introduced to career fields in design, visual and media arts where photography is a foundational skill.
The second semester builds upon students’ understanding of the technical and artistic elements of photography, and provides a hands-on introduction to the technical and creative skills of a professional designer. First, students learn the distinguishing features of communicating visually through layout design. Next, they gain technical skills in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to equip them for commercial design work. From there, students master the basic principles of visual design and then manipulate the elements of graphic design such as color and typography in the layout of graphic imagery. Throughout the second semester, they also hear from a variety of guest speakers in both photography and design fields.