Com 310 Digital Photography

Course Description:

prerequisite: com210 or similar class
Prerequisite waived for graduating seniors or by instructor based on student interview.

Focus is on venues for publication in mass media communication including photojournalism and marketing. Camera fundamentals, concepts of exposure and camera operation are reviewed. Lecture/lab topics include image protocols and techniques for photo display and editing with PhotoShop.  Retouching techniques and photomontage are introduced along with ethical issues regarding image manipulation and the ownership protections of copyright laws.  Students compile digital portfolios of their lab work for display in Powerpoint and a web portfolio.  Labs include use of Live.edu and ECSU student ePortfolio instruction.

Reflection/Assessment:

This class is being used towards my minor, but I also took it so I can help future digital photography students as the photo lab assistant. The things I am learning in this class will be useful in dealing with book covers in my future career. In order to showcase the things that I worked on I created a web page for the class. in order to view the home page click here. To look at more specific things for this class there are links below that will guide to their respective images.

Assignments:

Stories: This assignment is where we have to go out and take photos of certain situations. Throughout the semester we will do 5 of these. These develop our interviewing skills which will help me greatly later on, because it will make interacting with new people in the workplace much easier. I also found that this was a way to make me comfortable with approaching people I didn’t know.

1. Who’s Who in Com 310– This story required us to go to each of the students in our digital photography class and take their picture and interview them. The purpose of this assignment was to get us comfortable with interviewing people and asking to take their photo. It was up to us what we wanted to ask, and I found that the interview often led to finding something in common and led to conversations. As I went through the class list it became easier and I started to develop interviewing skills.
2. Study Habits and Habitats– This story required more out of class time. We were required to take at least six different photos of different places and ways people study. I started in my comfort zone by taking a photo of my suite mate studying in her own bed. For the interview portion I asked for the person’s name, major, and a helpful hint for studying. One thing I found interesting was that many people were very open to having their picture taken when they found out it was for a class. One of them even asked me about the class, because he was thinking about taking it next semester.
3. A Day in the Life of ECSU-I took this assignment as a day in my life so I took many still shots of very stable  things in my life. I used this story to focus more on lighting and composition than on improving my interviewing skills. Then I used photo shop to work on levels and color balance. I had fun with this because I got to completely control the situation by creating my own compositions.
4. Informal Event– For my informal event I chose to go to the first game in the tip off tournament for the men’s basketball game. They were also doing a program called tail gate party prior to the game where they gave us food, drinks, and a free tee shirt. So I snapped a picture of the hot food in the freezing cold and then took pictures of the home team, cheerleaders, audience, and score board. Unfortunately I was only able to stay until half time, because I had homework to do that night. But when I was leaving our team was beating the other by eight points. This was also the first sporting event I have ever gone to at ECSU.
5. Formal Event– For my formal event I took pictures of an event my club, Writers and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults, was doing. The published author and alumni of ECSU, Elaine Alexander, came to do a reading and a presentation on how to and the frustrations of getting published. I found this very informative, because it was someone who had experienced the business that I want to go into. I also bought her book and had her sign it!

Ads

1. Product Marketing
2. Public Relations

Headlines– This assignment consists of us taking photos to match the phrases given to us in class. In total we had about thirty headlines that ranged from summer to winter. I found this assignment fun, because it focused more on the photography than the photo shop process.

Final Grade: A

Credits: 4.00