Unit 1: Introduction to Photography | Photography I

St. Thomas More High School, Spring 2020

Title of Lesson(s) Introduction to Photography - Day 1

Teacher(s) Jade Browning

School St. Thomas Moore High School

Grade Level(s) 9-12th Grade Photography

Date to be taught 1/8/2020

Big Idea that drives Lesson/Unit:

The photograph, like all art forms, is subjective. The viewer makes the determinitaion if they are seeing a
good or a bad photograph. In this unit students will focus on what a photograph is, how it is created, and
how to defend the idea that a photograph is good or bad. It is up to the students to decide what their own
definition of a good or bad photograph is and how to apply that to their own artistic practices and
explorations.

Objectives:
● Students will…
○ Learn the auto functions of the camera and learn how to hold the camera.
○ Be able to identify the parts of the camera and their function.
○ Learn a brief history of the progression of photography
○ Understand what photography is
○ What are the key components of a photograph
○ Be able to download and organize images from camera to computer.

Fine Arts Goals Met by the Objectives:

● Cr1.2.Ia: Students who meet this standard understand how to generate and conceptualize artistic
ideas and work. Artists and designers shape artistic investigations, following or breaking with
traditions in pursuit of creative art making goals.
○ Shape an artistic investigation of an aspect of the present day life using a contemporary
practice of art or design.
● Cr2.1.Ia: ​Students who meet this standard understand how to organize and develop artistic ideas
and work. Artists and designers experiment with forms, structures, materials, concepts, media,
and art-making approaches
○ Engage in making a work of art or design without having a preconceived plan
● Pr4.1.Ia: ​Students who meet this standard understand how to select, analyze, and interpret artistic
work for presentation.
 Artists and other presenters consider various techniques, methods,
venues, and criteria when analyzing, selecting, and curating objects artifacts, and artworks for
preservation and presentation.
○ Analyze, select, and curate artifacts and/or artworks for presentation and preservation.
Key Artistic Concepts:
 Unit 1: Introduction to Photography | Photography I
St. Thomas More High School, Spring 2020

● Understand what photography is

● What are the key components of a photograph
● Evaluating visual qualities of an image.
Essential Questions:
● What is photography?
● How many different kinds/genres of photographs are there?
● What makes a good or bad photograph? What photographs are beautiful? Why? What
photographs are not beautiful? Why? What are these conclusions based on?
● How are pictures taken?
● How does the camera work? How do the mechanical parts of the camera create and image?
● The first ever photograph: How does it differ from today's technology?

Vocabulary:
● Photograph/y
● Light (Aperture, Exposure)
● Time (Shutter)
● Subject

Artmaking Materials Needed:

● Sketchbooks
● Pencils
Teacher Materials Needed:
● Powerpoint of vocab words + examples
● Filled in version of vocab sheet
Contemporary/Historical/Multicultural exemplars

Joseph Nicephore Niepce | Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre | Lynn Johnson

Joseph Nicephore Niepce​: View from a window of Niepce’s house, Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, 1826.
Oldest surviving photograph, made from asphalt on a pewter plate-- eight hour exposure. Niepce created
the first permanent photographic image, and called them heliographs.
Example of: vocab word photograph/time. What photography started out as. How has
photography changed over time since this photograph was taken?
Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre: ​Boulevard du Temple, Paris, 1839. This is the first known photograph
of a person, which is only the shoeshine man and his client. This is considered to be a busy street, yet only
the image of two people can be seen.
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St. Thomas More High School, Spring 2020

Example of: vocab word light/time. How come we can only see two still people and no other
people in this photograph?
Lynn Johnson: ​Construction Worker on the Hancock Tower, Chicago, Illinois. Photojournalist Lynn
Johnson found herself in a challenging and dangerous position to get a photograph of her subject.
Example of: vocab word subject. Why would a photographer put themselves in a dangerous
position? What does that say about the photograph and meaning behind it?
Procedures:
● DISCUSSION: (15 minutes)
○ Schedule: Today we will be discussing what photography is and start building our
vocabulary about photography
○ Opening discussion:
■ Where do you see photography today? (instagram, social media, weddings, etc.)
■ What makes a photograph?
■ What do you think about when you are taking a photograph?
○ Go over vocabulary word(s) with examples on powerpoint
■ Photograph/y​: ​a picture made using a camera, in which an image is focused onto
film or other light-sensitive material and then made visible and permanent by
chemical treatment, or stored digitally.
■ Key photographic concepts:
● Light: ​a photograph is the reception of light through the aperture onto a
light sensitive material to create a recording of an image referred to as an
exposure. (​Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre: ​Boulevard du Temple,
Paris, 1839.)
● Time: ​the time of day, the time you actually capture the subject (in what
they are doing), and the time that you have the shutter open to allow the
light into the camera affects the outcome of the image. (​Joseph
Nicephore Niepce​: View from a window of Niepce’s house,
Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, 1826.)
● Subject: ​the reason that you are taking the photograph. (​Lynn Johnson:
Construction Worker on the Hancock Tower, Chicago, Illinois.)
DEMONSTRATION: (10 minutes)
○ Go over digital cameras
■ How to turn on, adjust shutters and apertures, focus, zoom in/out
● Brief overview: we will go over specifics and intentionality to these
components in the next week.
○ Shutter: like an eyeball, a shutter is what blinks and captures the
light to create the image. Controls how long your “eye” stays
open. Shutter is the amount of time that the light is allowed in. Is
located inside the camera lens, the knob to adjust the shutter is
typically a dial by the shutter release button.
○ Aperture: like when our eyes react to light, the iris of our eyes
get larger or smaller to compensate for the amount of light. That
 Unit 1: Introduction to Photography | Photography I
St. Thomas More High School, Spring 2020

is the basic function of the aperture. Controlling how much light

is let in. Can be located either on the lens itself or can be used on
a dial interchangeably with the shutter dial.
○ Focus: typically the most front part of the lens allows you to
make sure that the image is sharp and fully focused.
○ Zoom: typically the middle part of the lens allowing you to
appear closer or further from your subject while remaining in
one location.
■ How to take a photograph with the cameras
● Most cameras will tell you when the settings are right. Today, we will
show you how your camera does sets the settings, and how to follow
those. Next week, we are going to focus on controlling the setting in our
camera ourselves.
■ How does the photographic process differ from using phones or other cameras
● What are the differences in using a camera versus using your phone?
How is using a camera more beneficial than using a phone?
● DESIGN/WORK SESSION: (5-7 minutes)
○ Allow part of the class time for students to take pictures around the classroom to get used
to the cameras they will be using and ask questions on how they use them.
● CLEAN UP: (2 minutes)
○ Cameras off / in bags
● CLOSURE: (3 minutes)
○

Time Alloted for Lesson:​ 35-37 minutes

Activity Time

Discussion 15 minutes

Demonstration 10 minutes

Design/Work Session 5-7 minutes

Clean-up 2 minutes

Closure 3 minutes
 Unit 1: Introduction to Photography | Photography I
St. Thomas More High School, Spring 2020

Title of Lesson(s) Introduction to Photography - Day 2

Teacher(s) Jade Browning

School St. Thomas Moore High School

Grade Level(s) 9-12th Grade Photography

Date to be taught 1/10/2020

Vocabulary Acquisition:
● Genres of Photography
○ Landscape
○ Portraiture
○ Action
○ Still Life
○ Photojournalism
Artmaking Materials Needed:
● Sketchbooks
● Pencils
● Computers
Teacher Materials Needed:
● Powerpoint of vocab words + examples
● Filled in version of vocab sheet
Contemporary/Historical/Multicultural exemplars

Dorothea Lange | Ansel Adams | Eadweard Muybridge | Olivia Parker

Dorothea Lange​: Migrant Mother, 1936. Lange documented the effects of the great depression through
the face of a migrant working mother. ​Lange's photographs influenced the development of documentary
photography and humanized the consequences of the Great Depression.
Example of: photojournalism and portraiture.
Ansel Adams​: Cathedral Peak and Lake, Yosemite National Park, 1938. ​Ansel Adams was a landscape
photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West.
Example of: landscape photography.
 Unit 1: Introduction to Photography | Photography I
St. Thomas More High School, Spring 2020

Eadweard Muybridge​: Galloping Horse, 1878. Muybridge is known for his experimentations in
capturing movements, for this image he used a row of cameras (one per image) to record movements of
animals and humans.
Example of: action photography.
Olivia Parker​: A contemporary working artist, after graduating from Wellesley College with a degree in
Art History, Olivia Parker began to make and photograph ephemeral constructions in 1973. Represented
in major private, corporate and museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum
of Modern Art in New York, The Peabody Essex Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Parker’s
work has been published in four monographs and in numerous magazines in the United States and
internationally.
Example of: still life photography. How does the artist make an ordinary still object interesting?
Procedures:
● DISCUSSION: (10 minutes)
○ Schedule: Today we will be going over the different genres of photography, then in small
groups you will be conducting your own research on each genre to create your own
definition and examples.
○ Opening discussion:
■ What are the most common things you take pictures of?
■ What kind of styles do you like in photography? (black and white, color, etc.)
○ Introduce the different genres of photography:
■ Landscape
■ Portrait
■ Still Life
■ Action
■ Photojournalism
● DEMONSTRATION: (0 minutes)
○
● DESIGN/WORK SESSION: (20 minutes)
○ Students will get into groups of 2-3 and research each strand of photography
■ Students must have the following:
● 1-2 images per genre of photography
○ Images should be what you would consider to be the best
representation of the genre and what the group believes is a good
photograph (be prepared to justify your choices).
● If it is a known artist have some background information on them, and
the photograph itself.
● Save the images into a folder on either drive or you computer desktop to
be transferred to a flash drive at the end of class.
● CLEAN UP: (2 minutes)
○
● CLOSURE: (5-7 minutes)
○ I will be bringing around a flash drive, place the images you selected onto the flashdrive
 Unit 1: Introduction to Photography | Photography I
St. Thomas More High School, Spring 2020

○ Were there any genres that were difficult to find a “good” photo/example of?
○ Is there any genres that stuck out to you or surprised you?
○ What genre do you gravitate toward/like the most?

Time Alloted for Lesson: ​35-39 minutes

Activity Time

Discussion 10 minutes

Demonstration -

Design/Work Session 20 minutes

Clean-up 2 minutes

Closure 5-7 minutes

 Unit 1: Introduction to Photography | Photography I
St. Thomas More High School, Spring 2020

Title of Lesson(s) Introduction to Photography - Day 3

Teacher(s) Jade Browning

School St. Thomas Moore High School

Grade Level(s) 9-12th Grade Photography

Date to be taught 1/11/2020

Artmaking Materials Needed:

● Sketchbooks
● Pencils
Teacher Materials Needed:
● Powerpoint of student found examples from the day before
Procedures:
● DISCUSSION: (8 minutes)
○ Schedule: Today we will review the examples that you have found from last class, and
discuss what makes photos good/bad
○ Opening discussion:
■ Which genre was your favorite to research?
■ Which genre had more examples to choose from?
■ Which genre of photography is your favorite to take pictures of?
● DEMONSTRATION: (0 minutes)
● DESIGN/WORK SESSION: (25-27 minutes)
○ As a class, for each category, discuss the following:
■ Rate the images from best to worst… why? What makes the images good? What
attracted you to the image?
■ Why aren’t the images good? What part of the image don’t you like? What could
the artist have done to make it better?
■ Defend your images- as a pair defend your image. Why did you choose it as the
best image selection?
● CLEAN UP: (0 minutes)
● CLOSURE: (3 minutes)
○ Next class, we are going to have the worst photo competition. Submit the worst picture
you have ever taken (to a google drive). It can be any kind of photo- selfie, accidental
picture, family photo, etc.
Time Alloted for Lesson: ​36-38 minutes
Activity Time

Discussion 8 minutes

Demonstration -
 Unit 1: Introduction to Photography | Photography I
St. Thomas More High School, Spring 2020

Design/Work Session 25-27 minutes

Clean-up -

Closure 3 minutes
 Unit 1: Introduction to Photography | Photography I
St. Thomas More High School, Spring 2020

Title of Lesson(s) Introduction to Photography - Day 4 & 5

Teacher(s) Jade Browning

School St. Thomas Moore High School

Grade Level(s) 9-12th Grade Photography

Date to be taught 1/13-1/14/2020

Artmaking Materials Needed:

● Sketchbooks
● Pencils
Teacher Materials Needed:
● Filled in version of vocab sheet
● Access to the google drive with the “worst images” assignment
Procedures:
● DISCUSSION: (5-7 minutes)
○ Schedule: Today we are going to be competing to see who has the worst photograph.
○ Opening discussion:
■ We know in our head and from previous discussions, what we would classify as a
good photograph, but what makes them bad? (hint: it’s not just the opposite of
what we said was good)
● DEMONSTRATION: (0 minutes)
○
● DESIGN/WORK SESSION: (25 minutes)
○ A big part of art is the ability to justify what it is you have created. We are going to go
around and justify why we think that our image is the worst image
■ Discuss the intended outcome (what were you originally trying to get a picture
of)
■ What could be done differently? Remember the key components of a photograph:
Time, Light, and Subject
■ Do we as a class agree that its a bad photo or do we like the photo? What aspects
of the image are strong?
● CLEAN UP: (0 minutes)
○
● CLOSURE: (5 minutes)
○ The main point of the exercise:
■ To see recognize what our subconscious tells us is a good photograph (it is
different for every person)
■ Also, recognizing the “bad photos” we have taken allows us to accept that we
may not always take good photos but we can grow from them and accept our
“failures” (just because the photo is an unwanted outcome doesn’t mean it is bad)
 Unit 1: Introduction to Photography | Photography I
St. Thomas More High School, Spring 2020

■ Make sure you have your cameras and sketchbooks tomorrow, we will be going
over more vocabulary and working more with our cameras.
Time Alloted for Lesson: ​35-37 minutes
Activity Time

Discussion 5-7 minutes

Demonstration -

Design/Work Session 25 minutes

Clean-up -

Closure 5 minutes