| Assignment Title |
Storytelling through Portraiture |
| Assignment Author | Keith Shapiro © 2019 |
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| Is this a… | Photography Assignment |
| Assignment Learning Objective | Creative Thinking, Visual Communications |
| Photographic Genre | Portraiture |
| Assignment Tasks | Make 7 (seven) portrait photographs of ONE person that work together to tell a story or narrative about the person.
Include a brief self-evaluation of your work on One Drive. This Photography Assignment has three tasks you must complete 1) Take photographs
2)Write a statement about your photos, post as WORD DOC on your OneDrive folder for class
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| Assignment Description | For this assignment you will use your photographic skills to create a short photographic essay or story about one person. The challenge of the assignment is to include enough information in the images that is organized or composed in such a way that your audience can know essential ideas about the person without additional detailed explanations. If you need to include much additional written explanation for your audience to understand what you are trying to get across about the person, then your images may not be communicating your message adequately on a visual level.
Think carefully about the story you want to tell about the person and consider what details you will need to include in the images to communicate those ideas to your audience effectively. Some things you may want to consider are… Scouting locations The LinkedInLearning tutorial “Storytelling through Unconventional Portraiture” will explain the use of these techniques in some detail.
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| Creative Thinking | Acquiring photographic skills, Taking creative risks |
| Visual Communications | Convey central image message |
| Acquiring photographic skills | This assignment draws on the skills and techniques you learned in the previous two assignments and gives you an opportunity to apply them in a practical way. From the Lynda tutorial Learning Natural Light Photography, your will learn to direct composition skills and light techniques to create effective and creative portraits. In addition, portrait related camera techniques will be introduced. These techniques are effective with both SLR cameras and cell phone cameras with RAW or professional apps installed.
In your Peer Reviews, discuss how well your classmates accomplished the assignment by referring to the techniques you learned in the tutorials. Give examples and advice where ever possible. |
| Taking creative risks | The LinkedInLearning tutorial “Storytelling through Unconventional Portraiture” emphasizes making creatively risky portraits to tell interesting stories about unconventional people. The person you choose to photograph for this assignment may not be unconventional, however you may still be able to take creative risks by emphasizing in the portraits aspects of the person’s life that will help build the narrative for the audience. Location, clothing/makeup, poses, and other details of the person’s life might be helpful in telling the story. However, choices such as unusual compositional arrangements, camera angle, lighting, and the choice of color or black and white can add substantial creative drama or expression to your photographs, which will contribute to the final product.
In your Peer Reviews, describe how well your classmates use creative risky techniques in this assignment. |
| Convey central image message | An important aspect of the assignment is the story or narrative you want to tell about the person you have chosen to photograph. This story is the central image message and for this assignment you should plan what story you want to communicate to your audience. The story might have a particular sequence of images or simply have interchangeable images that tell the story with the need for a sequence, that choice is up to you. However, what ever you do, it is important that you do not rely on written word to convey the central meanings. For example, if your subject is nurse, the photo should show the person acting as a nurse. A label or tag identifying the person as a nurse would not be adequate. The challenge of the assignment is to develop the visual language to convey complex meaning to your audience visually.
In your Peer Reviews, describe how well your classmates manage telling their stories visually or photographically. |
| Video Tutorials for Portraiture | Learning Portrait Photography (1hr 34m), Storytelling through Unconventional Portraiture (2hrs) |
