Location and Time: Fine Arts 047; Th 9:30 AM -1:00 PM+ field trips
Instructor: Robert Schneider
Conatct Info:

• email: robert.schneider@lehman.cuny.edu
• web page: comet.lehman.cuny.edu/schneider/
• office hours-Gillet 200
  
• Tuesday 8:30-9 and 12:30-2:00 
  
• Thursday  3:10PM-4:10 PM
  
•  and by appointment

Grading Policy:

• HW Projects with personal  diary describing shoot-30%
  
• Final Project -40%
  
• Collaborations (2 people)  encouraged on projects but each person must keep a diary indicating contributions.
  
• Final- 30%
• proficiency in techniques taught

Field Trips: After an initial introduction to some techniques of computational photography we will alternate weeks with field trips and in class digital image manipulation and printing. We propose either The Hudson Yards area or the Hi Line area.

Course Objectives:

• Understand  concepts of computational photography
• Creative application of these concepts
• Preparation for future changes

Equipment and Software:

• Camera with ability to set aperture, shutter speed, focus, iso manually. Good if can shoot raw.
  
• cell phone cameras  are getting better and better. Lightroom Mobile has raw hdr built in. Lots of apps for hdr and pans. I am open to your using cell phones but I have not found they have required resolution or dynamic range but they are the wave of the future.
  
• Tripod
• Cable release
  
• Lightroom/Photoshop-- we have in labs
• You can get one month free on your own computer. Afterwards it is around $10 a month as a subscription. 
• Constantly changing especially in the areas we will cover
• need a good computer but lab computers should be great
• Various more flexible software I will talk about. It looks like they all have demo versions with watermarks. I have software so if you figure out what you want to do we can finish off on my computer.
  
• Photomatix-- hdr software
• autopano giga --- panoramic software
• zerene stacker -- focus stacking software

Field Trips

• We would like to take field trips to the Hi-Line area and Hudson Yards  of Manhattan for our work. Perhaps we can include a visit to the Whitney.  We are open to suggestions for other places. You will typically have to go back numbers of times to get good light and redo shoots that dont work.
  

Accommodating Disabilities:

•  Lehman College is committed to providing access to all programs and curricula to all students.  Students with disabilities who may need classroom accommodations are encouraged to register with the Office of Student Disability Services.  For more info, please contact the Office of Student Disability Services, Shuster Hall, Room 238, phone number, 718-960-8441.

Resources and Idealized Course Outline  

Intro -August 31-- Topics- In all of these there will be significant lab time to learn appropriate software manipulations

• Panoramic photography---Talked about and had students do some sample photography. Assignment to do more outside class
  

• many apps on cell phones to make large picture
• basically take many overlapping shots-- show trapeze shots and finished pictures
  

Second Class 9/7:

• Student presentation of work for critique- manipulations in Lightroom and Photoshop explained as needed
• HW for next time: continue with pans but you should do a pan with at least 16 images. You should try to use a tripod and take some pans early in the morning, near sunset when you may get a glow and as night is very near.
  

Third Class 9/14--  The field trip is this Thur  the 28th to look at Hudson Yards, The High Line and The Meat Market of NYC (weather permitting). We will meet at 9:30 AM in front of B&H photo at the entrance on 9th avenue between 33 and 34th street.

• review of student pans
  
• problems (or opportunities) to watch for
  
• projection distortions
  
• alignment
• motion and ghosting
• change of lighting
• dynamic range
  
• 
  
• consistency in shots (or not)
• focus-f stop- focus of camera
  
• motion blur- shutter speed
  
• white balance (gray card)
  
• iso -- sensitivity of camera
• focal length
  
• 
  
• parallax
• blending (even if aligned and light pretty even there are always some variations)
  
• projection
• point of view
• aspect ration not consistent
• large files
  
• display-- gets big

•   HDR Imaging, Camera Raw and Tone Mapping
• Go over creating hdr in Lightroom, Photoshop, Photomatix; use trapeze shot to demo. Note that modern cameras make hdr often unnecessary but demo use in cellphones.
  
• Students take cellphones (or cameras) around Lehman  to practice taking hdr. Start using tripods and cable release. Use at least 7 shots

• Try to get a scene that has high dynamic variations of light intensity-- dont work directly with sun
  
• Don't use app on phone. Get 7 ev difference to see what you need to capture high dynamic range scene
  
• Come back to class and put together-  display results- critique

• What to do with pans
  

• big photos -struth
• pan painting of Versailles in Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Church- "Heart of Andes"-  in Met
• Clfford Ross -- Waves-- Parrish Art Museum -out in Hamptons
• on wood
• tethered on rope entered hurricane water
• gallery show just ended
• 
  
• can always paint from photo with lots of detail -- photorealist painting-- also applicable to high dynamic range photos and focus stacking (later)
• Ralph Goings
• Charles Bell
• Richard Estes
• Works at Parrish Art Museum in a retrospective

• A Blog on How to Do Photorealism

• Go over creating, and modifying panoramas in Lightroom, Photoshop, AutoPano Giga

• What to do with HDR
  

• Gallery of photos from HDRsoft
• not my style at the moment but color variations traditional -Fauve movement
  
• Some HDR Panoramas from project with Professor Gillison
• dawn - traditional good time
• dusk/night exciting too 
• With good photos one can get very involved in examination --  Blow-Up
  
• Major use in lighting-- Debevec
• Little lecture about hdr
• Technical lecture  of  Fredo Durand from MIT -- not part of this course-- just to see what is involved mathematically
• Simple explanation from B&H
  

May have several labs and photographic outings before go on with succeeding topics

  Panoramas:

• panoramas with hdr
• hdr is a natural for panoramas as lighting can change drastically in a large sweep
  

  Focus Stacking:

• New concept of camera light field photography
  
•  Lytro -- look at gallery
• Lytro-- look at cinema
• focus conveys an attitude --
  
• The Graduate
  
• creating totally focused photos-focal stacking
  
• examples and methodology in Phtoshop, Lightroom and Zerene Stacker
• student practice
  

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459028
  3d from many 2d:

• Noah Snavely

    Printing and Display

• printer/paper profiles

Assignments 11/16 (MidTerm Mini projects): You should practice at Lehman during class time where I can help

• Make a modern picture of an object  by an opening with light streaming in similar to Renaissance portrait  paintings( you may need hdr/focalstacking).
  
• A person will be hard unless you can do it quickly by an auto feature of your camera. If the person is not directly in front of the brighter background you may be able to deghost. It might work if the person is pretending to be in an mri.
  
• ex1
• ex2
• ex3
• Do a focal stacking of some ordinary household object in interesting light.
• ex
• there are sinks, presses etc throughout the art department
  
• Make a pan of Pipes in subbasement of Lehman or of tubes just outside the hallway.
• do the pan in hdr
• you may substitute another scene in building