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Syllabus

Studio Portrait Photography
JP216

YEAR:

2023-2024

CREDIT HOURS:

3.00

PREREQUISITES:

None

COREQUISITES:

None

COURSE NOTES:

None

CATALOG COURSE DESCRIPTION:

An introduction to studio portrait photography and the use of studio lighting equipment. The course includes at least one field trip to a professional photography studio to observe a portrait session.

HutchCC INSTITUTION-WIDE OUTCOMES:

  1. Demonstrate the ability to think critically and make reasonable judgments by acquiring, analyzing, combining, and evaluating information.
  2. Demonstrate the skills necessary to access and manipulate information through various technological and traditional methods.
  3. Demonstrate effective communication through reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
  4. Demonstrate effective interpersonal and collaborative skills.
  5. Demonstrate effective quantitative-reasoning and computational skills.

COURSE OUTCOMES AND COMPETENCIES:

  1. Use direct and diffused sunlight as a primary light source in portrait photography.
    1. Discuss the use of sunlight in portraits and how early morning and late afternoon sunlight quality compares to that found at midday.
    2. Discuss the value of an overcast day in portrait photography and the effects light cloud cover can have in sunlight diffusion.
    3. Discuss how to pose subjects in outdoor settings to make the best and most flattering use of the natural light and to allow the greatest comfort for the subject.
    4. Discuss indoor portrait sessions making use of indirect, diffused sunlight coming in through windows.
    5. Discuss why professional photographers often include outdoor, naturally lit portraits when they are shooting projects such as high school senior picture portfolios.
    6. Make portrait photographs with photographic subject posing outdoors in diffused sunlight.
    7. Make portrait photographs with the photographic subject posing indoors, making use of diffused sunlight entering through one or more windows.
  2. Use basic, relatively low-cost, artificial lighting equipment in studio portrait work.
    1. Discuss the use of one or more basic strobe lights to create portrait lighting effects.
    2. Discuss the use of a strobe light with hot-shoe flash extension, as well as a reflector device, to create high-side lighting, with fill light provided by the reflector.
    3. Discuss how to place a light using the principle of "key light" to add life to a subject's eyes.
    4. Discuss how to use an adjustable strobe light to bounce light off of the ceiling to illuminate the backdrop in order to create a separation between the subject and the backdrop.
    5. Discuss how to use an adjustable strobe light to bounce light off of the ceiling to create a high-side, diffused lighting effect.
    6. Use the flash computation chart on the back of a strobe to calculate the correct f-stop for a photo, accounting for the distance from the flash unit to the subject, as well as consideration of the film speed, as described by its ISO number.
    7. Use the technique of bracketing f-stops to increase the chances of perfect exposures.
    8. Use artificial lighting techniques discussed in class, including key light and bounce lights, to make portrait photographs in a studio setting.
  3. Use professional-grade, hand-held lightmeters in the creation of portrait photos.
    1. Discuss the capabilities and control features of a hand-held, incident light meter.
    2. Calibrate a hand-held, incident light meter to a particular shooting situation by entering into the meter's memory the correct ISO film speed and the camera's flash-synchronizing shutter speed.
    3. Correctly position the light meter during flash test to obtain accurateinformation to be used in selecting the camera's f-stop settings.
    4. Practice using a hand-held, incident light meter to measure strobe flash levels, compute camera settings, and make photographs in a studio environment.
  4. Use professional-grade studio lights to create portrait lighting effects in the studio.
    1. Know the basic components of studio lights, including power packs built into the lights, power selector controls, and light sensors in each light that act as remote "slave" units to fire all the lights at once when activated by a single flash of light.
    2. Differentiate between low-power "posing lights" built into lighting units and powerful, tubular flash units that fire at the moment the photo is made.
    3. Use indoor lights to create high-side lighting, short lighting, glamour lighting, fill lighting, back lighting, and other effects.
    4. Place lights using the principle of "key light" to add life to a subject's eyes.
    5. Create soft, diffused effects by employing such techniques as using reflective umbrellas, bouncing the light off of ceilings, and directing the light through white umbrellas and soft boxes.
    6. Use such attachments as "barn doors" and "snoots" to direct where the light beams will go and where they will not go.
    7. Discuss how to carefully assemble and disassemble studio lighting systems and support equipment to allow them to be taken on location for portrait shoots.
    8. Make portrait photographs in the studio using studio lights, umbrellas, remote slave units, and other attachments.
  5. Incorporate the use of the hand-held incident light meters with the professional-grade studio lighting system in a studio environment.
    1. Decide portrait light placement, use of shadows, and use of back lights through the use of the hand-held incident light meter..
    2. Compare the brightly lit side of a subject's face and the side in partial shadow through the use of the hand-held icident light meter to decide whether to adjust the portrait lights.
    3. Determine how much flash is hitting the backdrop through the use of the hand-held incident light meter to decide whether to adjust lighting.
    4. Make portrait photos in the studio environment using the hand-held incident light meter, along with the studio lights.
    5. Use reflective umbrellas, as well as the white, diffusing umbrellas, to soften the lighting in portraits.
    6. Use vertical and horizontal flat reflectors to add fill light and soften shadows.
    7. Use restrictive devices, such as a tubular snoot, or a flap-like "barn door" mechanism, or a flag-style gobo to partially block light so it will not over-illuminate an area of a person's face.
    8. Process film, examine negatives, and select the best negatives from each session, based on sharpness, contrast, density, and composition.
    9. Demonstrate various portrait lighting techniques by making prints in the darkroom from selected negatives.
    10. Interact with other students while in the portrait studio to help each other place the lights and learn from each other.
  6. Use a power-pack-charged flash unit to produce multiple exposures for special effects.
    1. Use a tripod-mounted camera, an open shutter, dark background, and a manual control to fire the flash unit multiple times as a subject passes through the frame to create a multiple exposure of one person walking, running, or hand-springing, for example.
    2. Produce several photographs using the technique described above.
    3. Process the film and print at least one photo illustrating the technique described above.
  7. Use studio lights outdoors to enhance the quality of group or individual photos.
    1. Identify natural lighting conditions that could be improved by the addition of studio lights with reflective umbrellas.
    2. Identify wind conditions that could damage umbrella-equipped lights and ways to avoid damage in light wind by use of light-stand weights or tethers to nearby shrubs, trees, or tent pegs.
    3. Identify alternate ways to cope with wind, such as using the lights without the umbrellas, with flat panels of semi-transparent materials used to soften the flash.
    4. Use the camera's reflective light meter to set up the photo and then use the incident light meter to measure the studio light power and adjust the power packs to provide fill light that balances with the natural light.
    5. Use studio lights outdoors to fill dark shadows and create portrait photographs of individuals or groups.
  8. List a professional photographer's favorite techniques after visiting a local photographer's studio during a class field trip and observing a portrait session.
    1. Plan, prior to the field trip, what kind of techniques to watch for and what kinds of questions to ask.
    2. Travel with the class to the studio and take part in the discussions and interactions with the photographer during the portrait session.
    3. Take note of the photographer's lighting equipment, backdrops, and camera gear and how they are used in the portrait session.
    4. Discuss with the photographer how to put subjects at ease, how to coax smiles from shy subjects, and how to tailor the session to each subject.
    5. Discuss with the photographer how he or she decides which photos should be "re-touched" and whether he or she does it or has a contracted professional photo lab do it.
    6. Discuss with the photographer whether he or she prefers to use film digital, or combination of the two technologies in his or her work and why he or she does it that way.
    7. Demonstrate in the classroom or portrait studio at least one technique learned during the visit to the professional studio.
    8. Make a portrait using the technique demonstrated.
  9. Construct backdrops for studio photography.
    1. Discuss different types of backdrops for use in portrait studio, ranging from solid-color drop cloths to commercial, rolled paper in different colors to muslim backdrops printed with abstract patterns.
    2. Discuss techniques for designs and ways of applying paint to muslim backdrops.
    3. Work with other class members to produce a backdrop which will be added to the equipment used in class instruction.

COURSE ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION:

1. Participation 2. Project assignments 3. Written and oral reports 4. Examinations 5. Portfolio of projects completed for the class that will include various portraits made with natural light, as well as portraits made with studio lights,reflectors and other components in various combinations taught in the course

ACCOMMODATIONS STATEMENT:

Any student who has a documented disability and wishes to access academic accommodations (per the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and Americans with Disability Act) must contact the HCC Coordinator of Disability Services, at 620-665-3554, or the Student Success Center, Parker Student Union. The student must have appropriate documentation on file before accommodations can be provided.

ACADEMIC HONESTY:

Education requires integrity and respect for HutchCC's institutional values. HutchCC students are required to maintain honesty through a "responsible acquisition, discovery, and application of knowledge" in all academic pursuits. Preserving and upholding academic honesty is the responsibility of Hut chCC students, faculty, administrators and staff.

I. Student Responsibilities

All HutchCC students are required to:

  • Submit all work in all courses without cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, dissimulation, forgery, sabotage, or academic dishonesty as defined below.
  • Provide all academic records such as transcripts and test scores that are free of forgery.
  • Refrain from participating in the academic dishonesty of any person.
  • Use only authorized notes and student aids.
  • Use technology appropriately, including refraining from submitting AI (Artificial Intelligence)-generated work without express written consent from your instructor.
  • Protect the security of passwords/login/privacy/electronic files, and maintain sole individual access for any online course information.

II. Definition of Academic Dishonesty

  • Academic dishonesty is any intentional act, or attempted act, of cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, dissimulation, forgery, or sabotage in academic work.
  • Cheating includes using unauthorized materials of any kind, whether hard copies, online, or electronic, such as unapproved study aids in any academic work, copying another student's work, using an unauthorized "cheat sheet" or device, or purchasing or acquiring an essay online or from another student.
  • Fabrica tion is the invention or falsification of any information or citation in any academic work, such as making up a source, providing an incorrect citation, or misquoting a source.
  • Plagiarism is the representation of words, ideas and other works that are not the student's own as being original to the student. A no n-inclusive list of examples includes work completed by someone else, work generated by an external entity (such as AI), omitting a citation for work used from another source, or borrowing the sequence of ideas, arrangement of material, and/or pattern of thought of work not produced by the student, even though it may be expressed in the student's own words.
  • Dissimulation is the obscuring of a student's own actions with the intention of deceiving others in any academic work, such as fabricating excuses for absences or missed assignments, or feigning attendance.
  • Forgery of academic documents is the unauthorized altering, falsification, misrepresentation, or construction of any academic document, such as changing transcripts, changing grades on papers or on exams which have been returned, forging signatures, manipulating a digital file of academic work, or plagiarizing a translation.
  • Sabotage is any obstruction or attempted obstruction of the academic work of another student, such as impersonating another student, stealing or ruining another student's academic work.
  • Aiding and abetting academic dishonesty is considered as knowingly facilitating any act defined above.
  • Academic honesty violations can also include the omission or falsification of any information on an application for any HutchCC academic program.

III. Sanctions for Academic Dishonesty

Students who violate the Academic Honesty Policy may be subject to academic or administrative consequences.

Instructor Sanctions for Violation:

Students suspected of violating the Academic Honesty Policy may be charged in writing by their instructor and any of the following may apply:

  • Assign Avoiding Plagiarism Bridge Module
  • Receiving written warning that could lead to more severe sanction if a second offense occurs
  • Revising the assignment/work in question for partial credit
  • Voiding work in question without opportunity for make-up
  • Reducing the grade for work in question
  • Lowering the final course grade
  • Failing the work in question

Institutional Sanctions for Violation:

Students charged with academic dishonesty, particularly in instances of repeated violations, may further be subjected to an investigation and any of the following may apply:

  • Instructor recommendation to the Vice President of Academic Affairs (VPAA) to dismiss the student from the course in which the dishonesty occurs
  • Instructor recommendation to the VPAA to dismiss student from the course in which the dishonesty occurs with a grade of 'F." Student will not be allowed to take a 'W' for the course
  • Instructor recommendation to the VPAA that the student be suspended and/or dismissed from the program
  • Student barred from course/program for a set period of time or permanently
  • May be recommended by the instructor (after documented repeated offenses) to the VP AA that the student be placed on probation, suspended and/or dismissed from the institution.

IV. Procedure

  • Instructor will communicate in writing via the student's HutchCC email account and/or LearningZone email account to the student suspected of violating the Academic Honesty Policy.  That communication may include sanction(s). Department Chair will notify the student's academic advisor upon receipt of the Academic Honesty Violation Form.
  • For each violation, the instructor will submit a completed Academic Honesty Violation Form to the Department Chair. Department Chair will notify the student's academic advisor upon receipt of the Academic Honesty Violation form.
  • Should the instructor choose to pursue institutional sanctions, the instruct or shall notify the student in writing via the student's HutchCC email account.  Instructor shall also submit a completed Academic Honesty Violation Form and all prior completed forms regarding said student to the Department Chair and the office of the VPAA with recommendation to proceed with specific Institutional Sanctions. Department Chair will notify the student's academic advisor upon receipt of the Academic Honesty Violation Form.
  • The decision of the VPAA on Institutional Sanction is final. The VPAA will notify the student's academic advisor of any institutional sanctions.

V. Due Process Rights

Students charged with violations of academic honesty have the right of appeal and are assured of due process through the Academic Honesty Appeal process.

Academic Honesty Appeal Process

I. Due Process Rights: Students charged with violations of academic honesty have the right of appeal and are assured of due process through the Academic Honesty Appeal process.

  • If an instructor has recommended course or program dismissal, the student may continue in coursework (provi ding there are no threatening or security behavioral issues) until appeal processes are concluded. However, if an issue has been documented at a partnership location (e.g., clinical sites, secondary institutions, correctional or military facilities), then the student is no longer eligible to continue participation in internships, apprenticeships, and/or clinical-based practice. For clinical sites, this sanction is immediate.

II. Process

If the student disagrees with the charge of a violation of academic honesty, the student has the right to due process as described in the Academic Honesty Appeal process below:

  • If the matter is not resolved upon communicating with the instructor about the violation, the student shall, within five business days of the issuance of the written notice of violation, submit a completed Academic Honesty Appeal Form and supporting documentation to the appropriate department chairperson to initiate an Academic Honesty Appeal.
  • Within two business days of receiving the student's completed Academic Honesty Appeal Form, the Department Chair and VPAA will review and the VPAA will render a decision.
  • Within two business days, a response will be sent to the student's HutchCC email address. The VPAA's decision is final.

INCOMPLETE GRADE:

Instructors may give a student a grade of Incomplete (I) under the following conditions:

  1. The student must initiate the request prior to the time final course grades are submitted to Records.
  2. The request must be made because of an emergency, illness or otherwise unavoidable life-event.
  3. The instructor must agree to the request before a grade of Incomplete can be submitted.
  4. A written contract between the instructor and student, signed by both, will document the work required and date needed to complete course work.
  5. If a student does not complete the course requirements within the time frame established by the instructor, a grade of "F" will be recorded on the student's transcript at the end of the next semester.

HLC ACCREDITATION:

Hutchinson Community College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). The Higher Learning Commission is one of six regional institutional accreditors recognized by the US Department of Education and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

Last Revised: 01/25/2019