DigPhotog: Becoming a Photo Doctor (Photo Editing, etc.) (W14-P1) [VID] Sp18

Photo by Richard MasonerUsed under Creative Commons.

Let's get a little metaphorical.

Somebody who edits photos is a photo doctor.  A photo doctor diagnoses a photo and then prescribes a treatment for a photo disease.

For example, diagnose the photo to the right.  What's the problem with it?  What photo disease does it have?

It is underexposed.  Is that your diagnosis?  In your favorite photo editing software, how would you treat that disease?

A medical doctor uses a variety of tools to treat medical problems (e.g., a scalpel). As a photo doctor, what tools would you use?

As you begin your internship as a new photo doctor, I'd suggest you start with a small set of "diseases" that you can diagnose (recognize) and treat (fix) and a small set of tools to learn how to use.  As you progress as a photo doctor, become an expert in treating more diseases and learn how to use additional tools.

I'd suggest you start with a set of photo diseases like below and learn the 2-5 general steps that are usually needed to treat the disease.

• Underexposed Photo (whole photo)
• Overexposed Photo (whole photo)
• Part of Photo Underexposed
• Part of Photo Overexposed
• Unwanted Elements in Photo
• e.g., See Photoshop tutorial for how to treat this disease.
• Distracting Background
• e.g., See Photoshop tutorial for how to treat this disease.
• Washed Out (Low Contrast) Photo (See the before photo below.)
• e.g., See how to treat "washed out" disease

For steps on how to treat the photo disease listed above and many more, see Digital Photo Doctor.   The book takes a similar metaphorical approach.  Check out the book.  You should be able to get it for $5 or less.

Of course, you could also do a YouTube search for helpful photo editing tutorials that deal with the disease you want to treat.



As a beginning photo doctor, you should also start learning how to use a small set of of photo editing tools and techniques. Here are some basic photo doctor tools and techniques that you'd need to treat the previously listed photo diseases.

• Crop Tool
• Levels
• Brush Tool
• Burn Tool
• Dodge Tool
• Clone Stamp Tool
• Selection Tool
• Layers
• Blur Effects

When learning how to treat the diseases and how to use the tools, I'd recommend that you learn how to use the tools at a general level so that you can move from one photo editing software to another.  Don't get to caught up in the key-strokes used in specific software (e.g., press Shft+Ctrl+U to desaturate in Photoshop).

Speaking of photo editing software, I would, of course, recommend the premiere photo editing software, Photoshop, especially the cloud based version.  Of course, this'll cost some cash.

In terms of saving some money, I'd recommend GIMP, a free photo editing software package that you download to your computer (see info video).   You can, of course, download on to your own computer Photoshop Express which is free.

I'd also recommend Pixlr.com, a free, powerful, photo-editing site that allows you to edit photos right within your browser.   Go to Pixlr.com right now and try some the things discussed above.

Also, in terms of browser-based editing, I'd also recommend Fotoflexor.com.  While Pixlr has the look and feel of Photoshop, Fotoflexor does not.  It does, however, have some of the same features (e.g. layers and curves).  It also has the added benefit of easily editing photos stored in Flickr.

Another web-based photo editor is Aviary.

As for free photo editing apps, I'd recommend Pixlr Express (Apple | Android), Photoshop Express (Apple | Android), Aviary (Apple | Android) and Snapseed (Apple | Android). If I had to choose just one app, it would be Pixlr Express.  I like the number and type of editing tools.  However, I'm starting to warm up to Snapseed. With Snapseed I especially like slide user interface and the "Selective Adjustment" tool which allows for some dodging and burning. What's dodging and burning, again?  See above.

Do recognize the limitation of photo editing apps.  The apps do not even come close to all that photo editing software can do on a desktop or laptop.


Cosmetic Photo Surgery

The above discussion may leave the impression that the only thing you can do with photo editing tools is fix or treat photo diseases or problems (e.g., underexposure).  However, photo editing tools are not just used to treat a disease, but can also be used to “beautify” or modify the photo   You could think of this a cosmetic photo surgery.  You are not really fixing a problem with the photo, you are adding to it.

You could turn a color photo to black and white and then colorize only one item in the photo.




Of course, there are tons of other interesting photo editing techniques you could learn.  Have fun adding to your cosmetic photo surgery skill set.




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DigPhotog: Photographer's Rights & Street/Public Photography (a YT playlist+) (W13-P3) Sp18

Remember what Gordon Parks said about the camera as a weapon to social ills?
"I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera." -- Gordon Parks

What would happen though if you as a journalist or even as a citizen, did not have the right to use your camera in public?

To explore this idea, let's first answer a set of related questions

Questions to keep in mind when watching the clips below.

• What is street/public photography?
• What are some do's and don'ts of street photography?
• What are the rights of photographers in public spaces according to the ACLU?
• In what ways are street photography and public photography relate?

In the video above Kai suggests that we should "google it" to get a definition of street photography. When you do so, you'll find this definition that works well. Street photography is "a non-formalised [unposed] genre of photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other associated settings"(Fogherty).

Kai also mentions the famous street photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson. If you are curious you can see some Cartier-Bresson's street photos here. Also, if you are curious, I recommend you check out "10 Things Henri Cartier-Bresson Can Teach You About Street Photography."






If you are interested, click on the word "Playlist" or the playlist symbol to see the other videos in my playlist on street photography and the related idea of taking photos in public.

So...
What is street photography?
What are some do's and don'ts of street photography?
What are the rights of photographers in public spaces according to the ACLU?
In what ways are street photography and public photography relate?  How do paparazzi fit into this discussion?  Did I say paparazzi? :)

One of the video clips in the above playlist makes reference to the ACLU and photography in public spaces. Read the following: "Know Your Rights: Photographers"


Other types of photography

Street photography is just one type of photography that you can focus on.  There are such types as black and white photography, portraits, still life, architectural, landscapes, close-up nature (flowers, etc.), children, sports & action, etc.  I'd suggest you "focus" on one type until you developed some skills in that area and then move on to other types, if you want.

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Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.

DigPhotog: Diversity & Digital Photography - Docs on Parks and Maier [VID] (W12-P3) Fa18

This week we look at documentaries about two famous photographers named Vivian Maier and Gordon Parks.


Finding Vivian Maier Official US Theatrical Trailer


Searching for Vivian Maier



Half Past Autumn: The Life and Work of Gordon Parks

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DigPhotog: Diversity & Digital Photography - Practical Issues [VID] (W12-P2) Sp18

We shift now from the serious issues addressed in the previous blog post to practical issues of photographing people of different skin tones.

For some written advice read Photographing People of Color, if you are interested.  But, here, let's watch a couple of videos with further instructions.





The above videos covered what to do if your subject has darker skin, but what if you have multiple people in your photograph with different skin tones?  Follow and read the link.

To take things a step further, if you are interested, you would find it helpful to also understand the use of the gray card and "middle gray" in photography.  If interested, you may also want to explore how spot metering works in to all this.

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Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.

DigPhotog: Diversity & Digital Photography - Serious Issues [VID] (W12-P1) Sp18

The topics of race, gender and photography intersect in a variety of ways.

Photojournalism: A Man's World?

(Washington Post video   Nov. 2013)

Note also that National Geographic has recently publicly acknowledged their racist past.

Also, did you notice anything about the women discussed above?  Now that brings us to race.  Something should be done to promote the presence of African American women in photography, especially photojournalism.

The camera can be used as a tool to promote racism and to terrorize a group of people as in the lynching photographs/postcards in the U.S. in the early part of the 1900s.  The camera could also be used as a tool to catalog and control a group of people as with Polaroid's involvement in the creation of travel documents that black South Africans were required to carry as they traveled within their own country.

However, the camera can also be used as a tool to fight racism and teach tolerance as in the use of photography to fight for civil rights in the U.S., for example, by Gordon Parks.  Parks wrote a book titled A Choice of Weapons in which he talks about the camera as a weapon.

So, the above depends on how the photographer uses the camera, for good or for evil.


Bias in the Camera, itself

But, how about the camera itself?  Could the camera itself be inherently racist?  Racist by design?
How is that possible?  What does that mean?  What we are asking is: Is there bias in the design of the camera and related technologies, like film?

The following cases arose a few years back.  One of the cases dealt with the facial detection feature of the CoolPix camera asking Asian people if they had blinked.  The other case dealt with the webcam on an HP laptop not tracking the faces of African-Americans.


HP WebCam


For more details on these two cases, if you are interested, see the Time.com article Are Face-Detection Cameras Racist? or the PetaPixel post “Racist” Camera Phenomenon Explained — Almost.


Interested in More?

To finish up on the serious side of the topic of race in photography, see the following articles, if you are interested.

• More on bias in photographic technology ('White is Right, White as Standard'):
• ‘12 Years a Slave,’ ‘Mother of George,’ and the aesthetic politics of filming black skin
• 'Racism' of early colour photography explored in art exhibition (The Guardian.com)
• If you are interested, some info. on white privilege and photography:
• White Privilege and The Photography Industry
• Rant: I’m Tired of ‘White Guy Photography’ Projects
• If you are interested in more online reading on the topic, here is some recommended reading: Camera Obscura After All: The Racist Writing With Light by Jonathan Beller.

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Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.

DigPhotog: Apps for the Dig Photog Beginner - Flickr, Instagram & Pinterest (W3-P3) Sp18

As beginning digital photogs, there are obvious apps and online services that you should be familiar with and should be using.  Apps and online services like Flickr and Instagram come to mind.  You can use Flickr and Instagram to show off the photography skills you are learning.

However, a little less obvious app/service that you should be using is Pinterest. Pinterest can help in two key ways.  It can help you collect and share photographs from around the web that you like.  It can also help you specifically collect photographs from photog mentors that you should have.  Unlike Flickr and Instagram, Pinterest is designed to help you collect other peoples photos.

In his book, The BetterPhoto Guide to Digital Photography, Miotke suggests that beginning photographers should keep a visual notebook.

"One excellent way to define your goals is to keep a collection of images that inspire you. You could simply write down a list of photo ideas, but as photographers are generally visual people, it’s usually more effective to collect pictures. Subscribe to magazines or visit the library. Look though catalogs, books, and Web sites like BetterPhoto.com—anything with the kind of photographs you enjoy" (Miotke)

I agree.  However, we can use Pinterest and update Miotke's idea of a visual notebook.

There are also photo editing apps/services, but we'll get to those later.

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Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.

DigPhotog: Photo Composition (W3-P2) Sp18

Remember our bumper-sticker saying: "You don't take a photo, you make a photo"?

Put another way: You compose a photograph.  You don't just take it.

Composition is the arrangement of the objects in the photograph or any other work of art.  As a photographer you have some control of this arrangement in your photograph.  You can move objects around.  You can move yourself around to shoot your photograph from a different perspective.  You take some control over your environment and not just take a photo of what you are given.

In general there are rules of composition that are used in art in general and photography specifically.

One of the best online sources for an introduction to the rules (or guidelines) of photo composition can be found at Photoinf.com.  Go to this site and study carefully the six rules of composition discussed there.

Now, how would you apply these rules in your photograph.  Go try it.  Now go take some photos -- I mean go make some photos.

Of course, there is more to composition than the above, but the above are the basics.

For example, Itten's contrasts provide another way of looking at and exploring composition.  For an online exercise using Itten's contrasts, see The 12 Days of Itten’s Contrasts from the Wild Beat blog.


To go beyond the above basics about composition, I'd recommend The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos









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Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.

DigPhotog: Becoming a Photo Doctor (Photo Editing, etc.) (W16-P1) [VID] Sp16

Photo by Richard MasonerUsed under Creative Commons.

Let's get a little metaphorical.

Somebody who edits photos is a photo doctor.  A photo doctor diagnoses a photo and then prescribes a treatment for a photo disease.

For example, diagnose the photo to the right.  What's the problem with it?  What photo disease does it have?

It is underexposed.  Is that your diagnosis?  In your favorite photo editing software, how would you treat that disease?

A medical doctor uses a variety of tools to treat medical problems (e.g., a scalpel). As a photo doctor, what tools would you use?

As you begin your internship as a new photo doctor, I'd suggest you start with a small set of "diseases" that you can diagnose (recognize) and treat (fix) and a small set of tools to learn how to use.  As you progress as a photo doctor, become an expert in treating more diseases and learn how to use additional tools.

I'd suggest you start with a set of photo diseases like below and learn the 2-5 general steps that are usually needed to treat the disease.

• Underexposed Photo (whole photo)
• Overexposed Photo (whole photo)
• Part of Photo Underexposed
• Part of Photo Overexposed
• Unwanted Elements in Photo
• e.g., See Photoshop tutorial for how to treat this disease.
• Distracting Background
• e.g., See Photoshop tutorial for how to treat this disease.
• Washed Out (Low Contrast) Photo (See the before photo below.)
• e.g., See how to treat "washed out" disease

For steps on how to treat the photo disease listed above and many more, see Digital Photo Doctor.   The book takes a similar metaphorical approach.  Check out the book.  You should be able to get it for $5 or less.

Of course, you could also do a YouTube search for helpful photo editing tutorials that deal with the disease you want to treat.



As a beginning photo doctor, you should also start learning how to use a small set of of photo editing tools and techniques. Here are some basic photo doctor tools and techniques that you'd need to treat the previously listed photo diseases.

• Crop Tool
• Levels
• Brush Tool
• Burn Tool
• Dodge Tool
• Clone Stamp Tool
• Selection Tool
• Layers
• Blur Effects

When learning how to treat the diseases and how to use the tools, I'd recommend that you learn how to use the tools at a general level so that you can move from one photo editing software to another.  Don't get to caught up in the key-strokes used in specific software (e.g., press Shft+Ctrl+U to desaturate in Photoshop).

Speaking of photo editing software, I would, of course, recommend the premiere photo editing software, Photoshop, especially the cloud based version.  Of course, this'll cost some cash.

In terms of saving some money, I'd recommend GIMP, a free photo editing software package that you download to your computer (see info video).  I'd also recommend Pixlr.com, a free, powerful, photo-editing site that allows you to edit photos right within your browser.   Go to Pixlr.com right now and try some the things discussed above.

Also, in terms of browser-based editing, I'd also recommend Fotoflexor.com.  While Pixlr has the look and feel of Photoshop, Fotoflexor does not.  It does, however, have some of the same features (e.g. layers and curves).  It also has the added benefit of easily editing photos stored in Flickr.

As for free photo editing apps, I'd recommend Pixlr Express (Apple | Android), Photoshop Express (Apple | Android), Aviary (Apple | Android) and Snapseed (Apple | Android). If I had to choose just one app, it would be Pixlr Express.  I like the number and type of editing tools.  However, I'm starting to warm up to Snapseed. With Snapseed I especially like slide user interface and the "Selective Adjustment" tool which allows for some dodging and burning. What's dodging and burning, again?  See above.

Do recognize the limitation of photo editing apps.  The apps do not even come close to all that photo editing software can do on a desktop or laptop.


Cosmetic Photo Surgery

The above discussion may leave the impression that the only thing you can do with photo editing tools is fix or treat photo diseases or problems (e.g., underexposure).  However, photo editing tools are not just used to treat a disease, but can also be used to “beautify” or modify the photo   You could think of this a cosmetic photo surgery.  You are not really fixing a problem with the photo, you are adding to it.

You could turn a color photo to black and white and then colorize only one item in the photo.




Of course, there are tons of other interesting photo editing techniques you could learn.  Have fun adding to your cosmetic photo surgery skill set.


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Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.

DigPhotog: Photographer's Rights & Street/Public Photography (a YT playlist+) (W14-P4) Sp16

Remember what Gordon Parks said about the camera as a weapon to social ills?
"I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera." -- Gordon Parks

What would happen though if you as a journalist or even as a citizen, did not have the right to use your camera in public?

To explore this idea, let's first answer a set of related questions

Questions to keep in mind when watching the clips below.

• What is street/public photography?
• What are some do's and don'ts of street photography?
• What are the rights of photographers in public spaces according to the ACLU?
• In what ways are street photography and public photography relate?

In the video above Kai suggests that we should "google it" to get a definition of street photography. When you do so, you'll find this definition that works well. Street photography is "a non-formalised [unposed] genre of photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other associated settings"(Fogherty).

Kai also mentions the famous street photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson. If you are curious you can see some Cartier-Bresson's street photos here. Also, if you are curious, I recommend you check out "10 Things Henri Cartier-Bresson Can Teach You About Street Photography."






If you are interested, click on the word "Playlist" or the playlist symbol to see the other videos in my playlist on street photography and the related idea of taking photos in public.

So...
What is street photography?
What are some do's and don'ts of street photography?
What are the rights of photographers in public spaces according to the ACLU?
In what ways are street photography and public photography relate?  How do paparazzi fit into this discussion?  Did I say paparazzi? :)

One of the video clips in the above playlist makes reference to the ACLU and photography in public spaces. Read the following: "Know Your Rights: Photographers"


Other types of photography

Street photography is just one type of photography that you can focus on.  There are such types as black and white photography, portraits, still life, architectural, landscapes, close-up nature (flowers, etc.), children, sports & action, etc.  I'd suggest you "focus" on one type until you developed some skills in that area and then move on to other types, if you want.

Share this post with others. See the Twitter, Facebook and other buttons below.
Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.

DigPhotog: Diversity & Digital Photography - Practical Issues [VID] (W14-P3) Sp16

We shift now from the serious issues addressed in the previous blog post to practical issues of photographing people of different skin tones.

For some written advice read Photographing People of Color, if you are interested.  But, here, let's watch a couple of videos with further instructions.






The above videos covered what to do if your subject has darker skin, but what if you have multiple people in your photograph with different skin tones?  Follow and read the link.

To take things a step further, if you are interested, you would find it helpful to also understand the use of the gray card and "middle gray" in photography.  If interested, you may also want to explore how spot metering works in to all this.

Share this post with others. See the Twitter, Facebook and other buttons below.
Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.

DigPhotog: Diversity & Digital Photography - Serious Issues [VID] (W14-P2) Sp16

The topics of race, gender and photography intersect in a variety of ways.

Photojournalism: A man's world?

(Washington Post video   Nov. 2013)

Notice anything about the women discussed above?  Now that brings us to race.

The camera can be used as a tool to promote racism and to terrorize a group of people as in the lynching photographs/postcards in the U.S. in the early part of the 1900s.  The camera could also be used as a tool to catalog and control a group of people as with Polaroid's involvement in the creation of travel documents that black South Africans were required to carry as they traveled within their own country.

However, the camera can also be used as a tool to fight racism and teach tolerance as in the use of photography to fight for civil rights in the U.S., for example, by Gordon Parks.

So, the above depends on how the photographer uses the camera, for good or for evil.

But, how about the camera itself?  Could the camera itself be inherently racist?  Racist by design?
How is that possible?  What does that mean?
What we are asking is: Is there bias in the design of the camera and related technologies, like film?

The following cases arose a few years back.  One of the cases dealt with the facial detection feature of the CoolPix camera asking Asian people if they had blinked.  The other case dealt with the webcam on an HP laptop not tracking the faces of African-Americans.


HP WebCam


For more details on these two cases, if you are interested, see the Time.com article Are Face-Detection Cameras Racist? or the PetaPixel post “Racist” Camera Phenomenon Explained — Almost.

Now with this general topic introduced, what follows is some required reading.

To finish up on the serious side of the topic of race in photography, see the following articles.

• More on bias in photographic technology ('White is Right, White as Standard'):
• ‘12 Years a Slave,’ ‘Mother of George,’ and the aesthetic politics of filming black skin
• 'Racism' of early colour photography explored in art exhibition (The Guardian.com)
• If you are interested, some info. on white privilege and photography:
• White Privilege and The Photography Industry
• Rant: I’m Tired of ‘White Guy Photography’ Projects

If you are interested in more online reading on the topic, here is some recommended reading:
Camera Obscura After All: The Racist Writing With Light by Jonathan Beller.


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Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.

DigPhotog: Diversity & Digital Photography - "Through a Lens Darkly" [VID] (W14-P1) Sp16

This last post on this topic is not a lecture post.  It is more an advertisement or endorsement.

If you get the chance to see the following new documentary, please do.  It is available on Netflix, for example.




If you are interested, also check out the transmedia project related to the film at http://1world1family.me/



The documentary is based, in part, on Deborah Willis' book, Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present








Below is just a little on Dr. Willis and her work.



 If you are especially curious, there is a good interview of Dr. Willis on WGBH's Basic Black.

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Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
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DigPhotog: Diversity & Digital Photography - Docs on Parks and Maier [VID] (W12-P1) Fa16

This week we look at documentaries about two famous photographers named Vivian Maier and Gordon Parks.


Finding Vivian Maier Official US Theatrical Trailer


Searching for Vivian Maier



Half Past Autumn: The Life and Work of Gordon Parks

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Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.

DigPhotog: Apps for the Dig Photog Beginner - Flickr, Instagram & Pinterest (W3-P3) Sp16

As beginning digital photogs, there are obvious apps and online services that you should be familiar with and should be using.  Apps and online services like Flickr and Instagram come to mind.  You can use Flickr and Instagram to show off the photography skills you are learning.

However, a little less obvious app/service that you should be using is Pinterest. Pinterest can help in two key ways.  It can help you collect and share photographs from around the web that you like.  It can also help you specifically collect photographs from photog mentors that you should have.  Unlike Flickr and Instagram, Pinterest is designed to help you collect other peoples photos.

In his book, The BetterPhoto Guide to Digital Photography, Miotke suggests that beginning photographers should keep a visual notebook.

"One excellent way to define your goals is to keep a collection of images that inspire you. You could simply write down a list of photo ideas, but as photographers are generally visual people, it’s usually more effective to collect pictures. Subscribe to magazines or visit the library. Look though catalogs, books, and Web sites like BetterPhoto.com—anything with the kind of photographs you enjoy" (Miotke)

I agree.  However, we can use Pinterest and update Miotke's idea of a visual notebook.

There are also photo editing apps/services, but we'll get to those later.


Share this post with others. See the Twitter, Facebook and other buttons below.
Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.

DigPhotog: Photo Composition (W3-P2) Sp16

Remember our bumper-sticker saying: "You don't take a photo, you make a photo"?

Put another way: You compose a photograph.  You don't just take it.

Composition is the arrangement of the objects in the photograph or any other work of art.  As a photographer you have some control of this arrangement in your photograph.  You can move objects around.  You can move yourself around to shoot your photograph from a different perspective.  You take some control over your environment and not just take a photo of what you are given.

In general there are rules of composition that are used in art in general and photography specifically.

One of the best online sources for an introduction to the rules (or guidelines) of photo composition can be found at Photoinf.com.  Go to this site and study carefully the six rules of composition discussed there.

Now, how would you apply these rules in your photograph.  Go try it.  Now go take some photos -- I mean go make some photos.

Of course, there is more to composition than the above, but the above are the basics.

For example, Itten's contrasts provide another way of looking at and exploring composition.  For an online exercise using Itten's contrasts, see The 12 Days of Itten’s Contrasts from the Wild Beat blog.


To go beyond the above basics about composition, I'd recommend The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos








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Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.

DigPhotog: Street/Public Photography (a YT playlist+) (W12-P4) Fa15

What type of photography do you like?  What type of photography do you like taking?  Landscape?  Portrait?  Street photography?  Close-up nature (flowers, etc.)? Other?

Here, let's focus (excuse the pun) on street photography.


Street Photography

Questions to keep in mind when watching the clips below.

• What is street photography?
• What are some do's and don'ts of street photography?
• What are the rights of photographers in public spaces according to the ACLU?
• In what ways are street photography and public photography relate?

In the video above Kai suggests that we should "google it" to get a definition of street photography. When you do so, you'll find this definition that works well. Street photography is "a non-formalised [unposed] genre of photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other associated settings"(Fogherty).

Kai also mentions the famous street photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson. If you are curious you can see some Cartier-Bresson's street photos here. Also, if you are curious, I recommend you check out "10 Things Henri Cartier-Bresson Can Teach You About Street Photography."






If you are interested, click on the word "Playlist" or the playlist symbol to see the other videos in my playlist on street photography and the related idea of taking photos in public.

So...
What is street photography?
What are some do's and don'ts of street photography?
What are the rights of photographers in public spaces according to the ACLU?
In what ways are street photography and public photography relate?  How do paparazzi fit into this discussion?  Did I say paparazzi? :)

One of the video clips in the above playlist makes reference to the ACLU and photography in public spaces. Read the following: "Know Your Rights: Photographers"


Other types of photography

Street photography is just one type of photography that you can focus on.  There are such types as black and white photography, portraits, still life, architectural, landscapes, close-up nature (flowers, etc.), children, sports & action, etc.  I'd suggest you "focus" on one type until you developed some skills in that area and then move on to other types, if you want.


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DigPhotog: Diversity & Digital Photography - Practical Issues [VID] (W12-P3) Fa15

We shift now from the serious issues addressed in the previous blog post to practical issues of photographing people of different skin tones.

For some written advice read Photographing People of Color, if you are interested.  But, here, let's watch a couple of videos with further instructions.






The above videos covered what to do if your subject has darker skin, but what if you have multiple people in your photograph with different skin tones?  Follow and read the link.

To take things a step further, if you are interested, you would find it helpful to also understand the use of the gray card and "middle gray" in photography.  If interested, you may also want to explore how spot metering works in to all this.

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DigPhotog: Diversity & Digital Photography - Serious Issues [VID] (W12-P2) Fa15

The topics of race, gender and photography intersect in a variety of ways.

Photojournalism: A man's world?

(Washington Post video   Nov. 2013)

Notice anything about the women discussed above?  Now that brings us to race.

The camera can be used as a tool to promote racism and to terrorize a group of people as in the lynching photographs/postcards in the U.S. in the early part of the 1900s.  The camera could also be used as a tool to catalog and control a group of people as with Polaroid's involvement in the creation of travel documents that black South Africans were required to carry as they traveled within their own country.

However, the camera can also be used as a tool to fight racism and teach tolerance as in the use of photography to fight for civil rights in the U.S., for example, by Gordon Parks.

So, the above depends on how the photographer uses the camera, for good or for evil.

But, how about the camera itself?  Could the camera itself be inherently racist?  Racist by design?
How is that possible?  What does that mean?
What we are asking is: Is there bias in the design of the camera and related technologies, like film?

The following cases arose a few years back.  One of the cases dealt with the facial detection feature of the CoolPix camera asking Asian people if they had blinked.  The other case dealt with the webcam on an HP laptop not tracking the faces of African-Americans.


HP WebCam


For more details on these two cases, if you are interested, see the Time.com article Are Face-Detection Cameras Racist? or the PetaPixel post “Racist” Camera Phenomenon Explained — Almost.

Now with this general topic introduced, what follows is some required reading.

To finish up on the serious side of the topic of race in photography, scan the following 4 articles.

• More on bias in photographic technology ('White is Right, White as Standard'):
• ‘12 Years a Slave,’ ‘Mother of George,’ and the aesthetic politics of filming black skin
• 'Racism' of early colour photography explored in art exhibition (The Guardian.com)
• If you are interested, some info. on white privilege and photography:
• White Privilege and The Photography Industry
• Rant: I’m Tired of ‘White Guy Photography’ Projects

If you are interested in more online reading on the topic, here is some recommended reading:
Camera Obscura After All: The Racist Writing With Light by Jonathan Beller.


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DigPhotog: Diversity & Digital Photography - "Through a Lens Darkly" [VID] (W12-P1) Fa15

This last post on this topic is not a lecture post.  It is more an advertisement or endorsement.

If you get the chance to see the following new documentary, please do.  It is available on Netflix, for example.




The documentary is based, in part, on Deborah Willis' book, Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present








Below is just a little on Dr. Willis and her work.



 If you are especially curious, there is a good interview of Dr. Willis on WGBH's Basic Black.



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DigPhotog: Diversity & Digital Photography - Docs on Parks and Maier [VID] (W11-P1) Fa15

This week we look at documentaries about two famous photographers, Gordon Parks and Vivian Maier.

Half Past Autumn: The Life and Work of Gordon Parks


Finding Vivian Maier Official US Theatrical Trailer


Searching for Vivian Maier





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