LEI0043 - Creating Art through Unconventional Photography
Course Description
A well-known phrase is "a picture is worth a thousand words". But what does that really mean? And how can we use photography to make creative art photographs? Every environment and every moment offers infinite possibilities for creating compelling artistic photographs. The creative process requires visualization, connecting with our own views of the world and the art of seeing photographically. This course will cultivate our own personal ways of seeing the world through experimentation, practice and an overview of the history of art photography. The final product will be that each student will have at least one matted and framed image finished in the class.
Course Outline
Week 1.
Introduction to the course
Exploring art photography and how it differs from other photographic disciplines
Viewing established art photographs
A brief history of art photography
Assignment
Week 2.
Further exploration of “Art Photography”
Review of Assignment
Review of basic camera techniques
Assignment
Week 3.
Further exploration of the History of Art Photography
Review of Assignment
Description of Photoshop processing
Exploring creative camera techniques Assignment
Week 4.
Lecture: Composition and how it relates to creative photography
Review of Assignment
Beginning hands on Photoshop processing
Assignment
Week 5.
Lecture: perception and learning to see photographically
Review Assignment
Hands on Photoshop processing
Assignment
Week 6.
Developing a style Review assignment
Photographic manipulation using the camera
Assignment, print one or more class images
Assignment, purchase a photo frame for next class
Week 7.
Hands on Photoshop processing
Hands on Framing and Matting photographs
Review assignment
Week 8.
How to use Open Calls for entering contests
Exploring what to do with finished images
Class critique of framed and matted images
Please not that this outline is flexible and may change to accommodate your needs and experience.
Learner Outcomes
The final product will be that each student will have at least one matted and framed image finished in the class.
Notes
Harold Rail WebsiteRelated Course Recommendations
NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
PHOTO 102: BEGINNING PHOTOGRAPHY
POINT AND SHOOT PHOTOGRAPHY I
POINT AND SHOOT PHOTOGRAPHY II
SMALL TOWN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
Testimonials
Chicago’s Best Photography Teachers
If you’re suspicious of photographers who want you to invest in a trip to Kauai in order to take beautiful landscape shots, you’re already more perceptive than most and perhaps you just need to get to Harper College. A photographer in the U.S. Army and a graduate of Columbia College, Harold Rail makes a living in photojournalism, commercial, and creative photography, so the man has the chops. A decade's long dedication to Zen Buddhist practice informs his images with knowing nano-second captures of infinity – and, honestly, where else can you get the combo of experience and artistry? Rail champions the art of photography teaching affordable classes for children, teenagers, and adults at Harper College. See the eccentricity and enthusiasm that blooms in his photographic work on exhibit at the new Hyatt Centric in Chicago, too.
Harold Rail is a photography instructor for Harper College teaching Continuing Education classes. For 25 years he owned Afterglow Creative Services, an independent video production and still photography company. He was an Army photographer stationed at Fort Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. He majored in photography with a minor in film production and writing at Columbia College, Chicago. Presently, along with his teaching work, he mostly freelances with journalist Jacqueline Runice photographing travel and events stories. His primary work is making original creative photographs.