Students at Santa Cruz High have finished the first half of the class which represents one semester of study. Under our block schedule with 5 periods per week at 90 minutes students have had 64 class hours of study. Students should be able to control the exposure on their camera now using the shutter to control motion and the aperture to control depth.  Composition of photographs should direct the viewers eye to the subject of their photographs and the print quality of their prints whould provide good contrast with deep rich black tones.  New projects for this term will change our study to look more at the lghting of our photographs plus work with  special effects and composition techniques that will transition our work from technique to art.

Project Check List Term 2 - Part 1

LIGHTING
1. Hard and Soft light - take two different pictures to illustrate these two types of light (2 photo project)
2. Reflection - a photograph where reflection of light on a shinny object is the key attention getter
3. Shadows - a photo where shadows makes the photo interesting
4. Silhouette - a photo with strong back light causing the subject to turn black

 COMPOSITION
5. Frame - use the composition technique of framing to emphasize your subject
6. Shapes - looking for geometric shapes like circles and squares in our subject
7. Vignette - a darkroom trick that removes a busy background by turning it white or black (2 photo project)

 SPECIAL TECHNIQUES
8. Soft Focus - using a piece of silk to soften the focus of a photo (2 photo project)
9. Solarize - darkroom technique that reverses the colors while leaving a thin white line at the boarders

Infra Red Film Project - This is an elective project- SCHS students may do an extra credit photo to replace this assignment if they can not afford the price of the film.

 ACADEMIC
10. Magazine project examing types of light
11. Questions to check your knowledge of lighting

PLUS students will be making 2 - 5x7 photographs of their best work for class critique. These pictures will be placed in the frames in the back of the class for public display for one week. Students will then be asked to make a written critique or evaluation including a sketch for two photographs to complete the work expected. As usual, all of this work will be put into a notebook and turned in for a grade at the end of week 4. Check the assignment board for actual due date. All of this work will add to the 2nd notebook assignments to make the total for the term. Work for this notebook can be made up not finished by the due date (if this is because of technical problems, students observed just "hanging around or kicking back" in class will not have late work accepted.

Photo students note - you will be asked to turn in a 5x7 or 8x10 Mounted photograph for your final exam. This year that photo will be displayed at the Art Department Show in June -- so -- take your time and start NOW in getting that perfect negative to print. These pictures will be viewed by the whole school with some great prizes for the best photographs.