Encourage Your High School Photography Class To Notice These Things When You Visit A Photo Gallery
Posted on: 12 November 2018
If you teach photography to a high school class, you almost certainly compel them to take their cameras out into the world and document what they see. To offer some inspiration, think about taking your photography class to a photo exhibit at a local photography art gallery as a class trip. In order to maximize the value that your students get out of this experience, give them instructions in advance about what things to notice. Ideally, they'll each take note of a number of things as they look at these professional-caliber images, and then implement some of these elements in their own work. Here are some things that you can suggest.
Composition
Composition is something that separates skilled photographers from those who are average. There is far more to photography that centering the subject in your viewfinder and clicking the shutter. In many famous photos, the subject finds itself not in the center of the frame, but elsewhere. One of the best ways to experience different styles of composition is to browse other photographers' work, so this is an area about which your students can pay attention. Encourage them to find a photo that uses a unique form of composition and then mimic this style in a shot of their own.
Angle
Amateur photographers often position themselves directly in front of their subject before snapping their photo. Those who have more experience will frequently get creative to come up with unique angles to photograph people, places, and things. Encourage your students to note how the photos in the art gallery display use unique angles. A clever angle can immediately increase the visual impact of any type of photo. Photographers can benefit from coming up with creative angles, whether it's lying on the ground and shooting upward or climbing onto an elevated surface and shooting the scene from above.
Blur
Not every photo has a crystal-clear focus. Many photographers use blurred elements to their advantage. This isn't a case of accidentally not holding the camera steady, resulting in a blurred image. Rather, it's playing with the shutter speed or perhaps even intentionally moving the camera at a strategic time to generate the desired effect. Skillfully using blur in a photo isn't something that will come with ease, but you should encourage your photography students to play with this element in a variety of ways and see how well they can succeed.
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