Cerritos College
Photo 122 - Color Photography Syllabus

Fall 2010
Teacher: Ed Heckerman
Room: FA 40
Office: FA 64B
class hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 4:00 - 7:00 PM
office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 3:00 - 4:00, and Tuesdays 10:00 - 11:00
office phone: (562) 860-2451 x2603
http://www.cerritos.edu/eheckerman/


Course Description:
This course provides instruction in the practical and theoretical principles of color photography. The student will examine choices in film, scanning, digital capture, and digital output. Image evaluation will include technical considerations of light, exposure, color correction, computer monitor calibration, and advanced inkjet printing procedures. Furthermore, color and vision, color theory, and color symbolism will be examined at length. Specific assignments will be addressed with individual and class critiques.



Lab Fee: $ 20.00


Attendance

Three tardy arrivals are equivalent to an absence. Any student with more than six unexcused absences, including lab days, will be dropped. Absences due to illness, family emergencies, jury duty, and religious holidays will be excused unless excessive only if it is feasible for the student to make up the lost time.  It is the student's responsibility to notify the instructor promptly of the expected dates of predictable excused absences.  Also, if a student arrives fifteen or more minutes late, or leaves class early without requesting to do so for whatever reason, they will receive a half-absence. If the student does not work on lab days they will be marked absent even if they are physically present.


Grading and Withdrawal Criteria:

The following factors will influence the final grade:
a. Participation, including class discussions, critiques, and attendance. Also included in this category will be effort and enthusiam, courtesy, and appropriate lab etiquette. (10%)
b. Excellence and punctuality of assignments (80%)
- Late assignments will receive one full reduced letter grade. Late assignments will not be accepted in excess of one week past the due date, except for excused absences.
- All assignments except the final project may be redone after the due date for a higher grade, but late assignments will not receive an "A" unless the student's absence on the due date was excused.
c. Workbook (10%)

For additional information on attendance and grading see the Cerritos College General Catalog.


Plagarism Statement
Representing the ideas of another as one's own is not acceptable.


Classroom Conduct
Please turn off your cell phone. Do not cause disturbances in class. Please do not chat while the teacher is lecturing or during class discussions and critiques. Make an effort to be courteous to the teacher and remain vertical during all classroom activities. Do not take extra long breaks. Please do not come to class under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol.


Lab Conduct
Please do not handle other student's work unless unavoidable.  If you must touch another student's prints or negatives please handle them as if they were your own. Do not use the inkjet printers without the approval of the lab tech or teacher.

Special Needs / Disabilities
If you think you will require any special assistance please contact the Disabled Persons Programs and Services (562) 860-24511 x2333 (DSPS) office on campus immediately and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.


Materials Needed

- film camera with manual exposure possibilities or a digital SLR
- inkjet paper (recommended: Epson archival papers)



Professional camera stores (a selection):
- Samy’s Camera, 585 Venice Blvd., Venice, (310) 450-4551
- Samy's Camera, 431 Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 938-2420
- Bel Air Camera, 10925 Kinross Ave. at Gayley in Westwood Village, (310) 208-5150
- Calumet, 1135 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, CA (213) 466-1238
- Calumet, 1430 S. Village Way, Suite A, Santa Ana, (714) 285-0143
- Freestyle, 5124 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 660-3460
- Freestyle Catalog Quick Order Counter 12231 Florence Ave. Santa Fe Springs, (800) 292-6137


Class Calendar
This calendar is subject to alteration, additions, and omissions at the teacher’s discretion, including due dates for assignments. If the student was absent the previous session they should make sure to check http://www.cerritos.edu/eheckerman/ (click on "teaching" link) for updates and revisions to the calendar. In the event that we should find ourselves ahead of schedule, a field trip to a gallery or museum housing a photo exhibition may be arranged. Please always bring your camera so that you can use the time to take photographs in the event no computer station is available.

1. 8/16/10
Review of syllabus / materials needed for class
Lecture: Illuminations on Color and Light

Clarifying Options: Film (negative and transparency) vs. Digital Capture (Raw and Jpeg formats)
Related Reading: The Beginning of the Rainbow from "Color" by Victoria Finlay


2. 8/18/10
Lecture: The Reverie of Color; Theories of Color Harmony
Assignment #1 explained
Video: "What About Me?" by Sakyong Mipham
Assignment #5 explained
Clarifying Options: Setting Color Space and white balance, and other in-camera options; film and Kelvin temperature

3. 8/23//10
Lecture: Luminism and the Transcendence of the "Vulgar"; DVD special feature The Look of Amelie; The New School Paradigm - Big and Colorful
Photoshop: Adjustment Layers - Hue / Saturation and Channel Mixer

Discuss Victoria Finay reading
Related Reading: Towards A Chaotic Sea by Shomei Tomatsu

4. 8/25/10
C-41, E-6 and Cross Processing
Output Options: Chromogenic Printing; Ilfochrome Printing, Inkjet, and Light Jet
Demo: Importing and processing Raw files
Photoshop: Processing value and contrast

Photoshop: Color Processing Options

5. 8/30/10
Demo: Scanning negatives and transparencies
Demo: Operating the Epson 7880 and 7800 inkjet printers

Lab

6. 9/1/10
Demo: Monitor Calibration
Lab

Labor Day

7. 9/8/10
Lab

8. 9/13/10
Discuss Shomei Tomatsu reading
Beginning of Film Analysis Presentations
Lab

9. 9/15/10-
Lecture: Coded Color - Social and Emotional Symbolism; scene selections from the film Hero
Assignment #2 explained

10. 9/20/10
Lab

11. 9/22/10
Continuation of Film Analysis Presentations
Critique of Assignment #1
Lab

12. 9/27/10
Continuation of Film Analysis Presentations
Lab

13. 9/29/10
Continuation of Film Analysis Presentations
Lab

14. 10/4/10
Lecture: Ambient Photography
Assignment #3 explained
Lab

15. 10/6/10
Critique of Assignment #2
Continuation of Film Analysis Presentations


16. 10/11/10
Continuation of Film Analysis Presentations
Lab

17. 10/13/10
Continuation of Film Analysis Presentations
Lab

18. 10/18/10
Lecture / Demo: Presentation and Display Options
Continuation of Film Analysis Presentations

Lab

19. 10/20/10
Lecture / Demo: Storing and Archiving
Continuation of Film Analysis Presentations

Lab

20. 10/25/10
Lecture: Background As Subject
Assignment #4 explained
Photoshop: Working with Layers

Lab

21.10/27/10
Critique of Assignment #3
Continuation of Film Analysis Presentations


22. 11/1/10
Continuation of Film Analysis Presentations
Lab

23. 11/3/10
Continuation of Film Analysis Presentations
Lab

24. 11/8/10
Lab

25. 11/10/10
Lab

26. 11/15/10
Lecture: Portfolio Strategies
Assignment #6 (final project) explained
Lab

27. 11/17/10
Critique of Assignment #4
Lab

28. 11/22/10
Extra Credit Assignments explained
Individual meetings with teacher
Lab

29. 11/24/10
Individual meetings with teacher
Lab

30. 11/29/10
Individual meetings with teacher
Lab

All redo assignments due

31. 12/1/10
Individual meetings with teacher
Lab

32. 12/6/10
Critique of Assignment #6 Part 1
Pot Luck

33. 12/8/10

Critique of Assignment #6 Part 2
Pot Luck

34. Finals Week (date yet to be determined)
Final Exam
Pick-up Final Project


Assignments
Enough lab time will be provided to complete all assignments during class time. However, a considerable amount of extra time outside of class hours will be required to successfully take photographs and complete the reading necessary to actively participate in class discussions.

Do not use old work.  New images must be generated for each assignment.

(See individual assignment sheets for descriptions, related reading, objectives, suggestions, and evaluation criteria.)

(Percentages do not include participation (10%) and other factors listed at the beginning of this syllabus.)


1. Imperative Color (10%)

2. Coded Color (10%)

3. Ambient Color (10%)

4. Trace and Transformation (20%)

5. Film Analysis (10%)

6. Final Project (no redo / 20%)

7. Workbook (10% of grade)

Each student is required to keep an ongoing written journal reflecting on the assigned readings and lectures. It is recommended that the student take exhaustive notes, but these are not required. A qualitative response is more valuable than a large quantity of words. The journal should not be written at the end of the semester, but rather be evidence of a continuing personal investigation into color, why you work in color, and what color means to you.



Extra Credit

1. Exhibition Review
View an exhibition space currently housing a show with color photographs. Write a one to two page review. This piece of writing should demonstrate that not only have you observed the exhibition, but also considered the works personal, cultural, and social import. Engage in the following four activities: describing, interpreting, evaluating, and theorizing, with the goal of increasing appreciation and understanding of the works in question.

2. Custom Color Chart
Make your own color chart. Feel free to be funky, beautiful, outrageous, goofy, or as sublime as you wish. Include your color chart in several photographs in various lighting conditions, i.e. diffused (fog, overcast), shade, bright sunlight, early morning and late afternoon. Try to match the colors on your chart when printing. The chart can be either the primary or secondary subject of the photographs, but whichever the case, make the picture more than a mere document of a color chart.


Please hand in your assignments together with proof sheets, and the appropriate assignment description sheet with your name on it.

Please note: Poorly done redos will not improve your grade. However, you may redo the assignments more than once.  All assignment redos are due on 11/28/07.