Prints

Dear students, I left yesterday all the prints in the dark room at Fiorentini. You can pick them up.

Thanks

Dear students,

I want to thank you for this intense and passionate semester. I spent with you good days

S.A

Monica/Nicole/Taylor's Final

Serafino,

As I previously stated in a comment, I have my biggest final today and am going to be unable to come to your posted final. I had thought that our final was on Friday (as that's what the school list says), but now that it has been moved to Thursday I am going to be unable to attend. I will post my Final here on the blog. Thank you.

This Digital course was very influential to me. Although I have spent the last three years taking photos and teaching myself the science of photography, I really enjoyed being able to participate in a class in which I was taught rather than teaching myself. In this course I learnt how to focus on the photo taking process rather than the post-production process. I learnt how to capture the image just how I wanted it in the camera without having to rely on post-production methods. 

While never having made a video of my photography before, this class allowed me to showcase my work in both print and digital form. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this class. Both the students and professor were fun, passionate, and all-around good people. There was so much energy and excitement in class, I truly loved it all. I really appreciate all that I learned and I can't wait to take my knew knowledge out into the real world and see what I can do!

Thank you so much for everything!

Taylor Hotter

(Nicole)

Rola's Final

Dear Professor Amato,

I'm unable to attend the Final. I thought it was Friday and today I have another final exam. Thank you anyway for this wonderful semester and I will see you around in fall!

What I learned most from this class is stop thinking about the editing process, but rather try to take a picture the way I desire it to be immediately, appreciating the outcome as raw and as natural as it is. This has really affected the way I take pictures. I think twice before snapping a picture now because I try to use the options on my camera consciously for obtaining the results that I am looking for without the need of editing.

Another thing I learned during the class is that something simple can be beautiful and that sometimes it is those things we ignore that can be beautiful pictures. That's what comes to my mind with the picture below.

One thing I still love to do in the editing process is convert some images into black and white because with B/W photographs there is close attention to composition, lighting, and perspective, making it just right for the picture on the left.

With these three pictures I learned that sometimes it's a good idea to place pictures together and let them tell a story. I think Nicole also illustrated that beautifully with her pictures during the exhibition.

Final

When I look at previous photos from the beginning of the semester they all look somewhat forced.  It looked as if I was trying too hard to create the perfect shot.  I was trying to hard to take pictures that were too complex and overwhelming.  My photos were all close ups and I never took the time to create an open space with the finished product.  In this class I learned to not make my photos so difficult for a viewer to enjoy.  I started to learn about creating open spaces and I focused on not using the zoom lens as much.  I wanted to take pictures without so much complexity and blurry objects.  In these photos my main focus is to create the feeling of being smaller than that of the subjects.  I attempted to make the subjects look larger than they were.  In the picture of the graffiti that was taken in the beginning of the semester I feel was too close up.  I feel that I should have zoomed out and made the space seem more open than it appears in the photograph.  In the picture of the Gianicolo Residence which was taken on later during the semester I wanted to capture as much of the building as possible and put it up against a blue sky so that it made the building look even larger.  In the picture of a cupola at St. Peter's Basilica I created the large empty dark space to make the colors of the sunlit area stand out.  This course has taught me this new style of photography and I feel in the long run it will benefit me greatly.

Hope everyone has safe travels home!

PS
I think we should all continue to post our photos to the blog!  

FINAL MEETING

Dear Students,

The final meeting, (exams) is taking place in Largo dei Fiorentini

THURSDAY - MAY THE 5th from 12:00 to 14:30

Please, in these days write your post with a description of a photos taken by you during the semester.

Art Show Next Week

I wanted to invite you all to an art exhibit I have been co-curating this semester of contemporary Roman artists for my Curating Museums and Galleries course.
~Phoebe

Final Statement

The collection of photos that I took from our class trip to EUR are a nice culmination of my photos taken this semester. I have always been interested in geometry, bold graphic photos with strong lines and shapes. I spent my time in Rome shooting urban landscapes, trying to focus on the architecture and contrast of old and modern structures. I visited EUR earlier in the semester and had a great experience shooting the neighborhood that does not seem like Rome at all. When we returned as a class, I brought a different lens and was able to capture the buildings from a new perspective. My knowledge and photography experience had grown between the two visits. Here is an image from my first visit to the area:

The building is flattened and simplified into geometric shapes of arches, rectangles and squares. I captured the moment when a plane was flying above the building leaving a white streak behind adding an unintentional line to the composition. The combination of the references to the ancient colosseum and the modern straight lines results in an interesting juxtaposition. 

On my second visit there the contrast of the white buildings on the blue sky was vibrant. This is a photo I took of the same building however this time I decided to include the organic elements of the tree. The silhouette of the leafless branches against the white structured architecture interact. I took a similar picture with the traditional camera that Prof. Amato brought for us to use. 

You can see I had the same intentions with this photograph: to include nature in front of the strong architectural elements. In black and white gives the scene more depth than in the color one where the trees are simply silhouettes. 

I am fascinated with this building and am glad I got to visit EUR multiple times and shoot the scene with many cameras. My development can be seen from these three photos. 

Phoebe 

Final Art Show Spring 2011

John Cabot University

Students, faculty, staff, and friends

Are cordially invited to attend

The end-of semester

Student Art Show

Featuring student work in drawing, painting, and photography  

Opening reception Thursday April 28, 2011

From 5 to 7 pm

    At the Largo dei Fiorentini Art Studio

Refreshments will be served.

Please join to celebrate the students’ hard work

and to visit the new photo and graphic design lab.

Final Art Show Spring 2011

John Cabot University

Students, faculty, staff, and friends

Are cordially invited to attend

The end-of semester

Student Art Show

Featuring student work in drawing, painting, and photography  

Opening reception Thursday April 28, 2011

From 5 to 7 pm

    At the Largo dei Fiorentini Art Studio

Refreshments will be served.

Please join to celebrate the students’ hard work

and to visit the new photo and graphic design lab.

A Special Moment In Lebanese History

Throughout the Lebanese civil war, the famous Lebanese singer, Fairouz, stood out as a true symbol of nationalism because she refused to perform in any part of the then divided country. In the above picture, she can be seen performing at the international Baalbek festival 1998 in Lebanon for the first time in more than 20 years. It was a very powerful performance that moved most people to tears.

Iconic Imagery from the US

Here is an iconographic image from the US. The picture was taken on 9/11. I remember the day vividly and this photograph brings back the chilling memories. It is one that will always represent that day and the country.

Phoebe

April the 6th class

Tomorrow, as you know, we are going to take pictures on site.

The meeting point is at 2:15 pm in Piazza Trilussa.

Please be there on time!

Thanks

SA.

Spain

Two of my pictures I took in Spain - this time I really enjoyed taking pictures of architecture. Usually I'm more into people, but the old spanish stones really inspired me.

rola

Athens

Here is a picture I took in Athens, Greece at the Temple of Zeus. I like the contrast between the fallen column and the modern buildings framed by the green palm trees. The ruins remind us of the past while the living trees bring us back to the present.

Phoebe

While traveling...

While in London I took a number of photos. Here is an example of how I like to capture the world around me.

- Nicole

Some of my stuff.

So, I really love to shoot weddings.
My favorite part about it is being to capture just a simple, candid moment. This is one of my favorite pictures.
I think that weddings are a time with a lot of love and life, it's so amazing to me when my camera and I can capture that.

Nicole

Hi everyone!

I came across a photographer from Barcelona, Spain that I thought created interesting and beautiful work. 

Pep Ventosa’s lifelong passion for photography began with his first camera at the age of 10. He learned the mechanics of the darkroom at Escola d’Arts i Oficis Artístics de l’Alt Penedès in Vilafranca, Spain, and later taught himself the possibilities of the new digital darkroom.
His work is focused on an exploration of the medium itself - deconstructing and reconstructing photographic images to create new visual experiences.

Ventosa received top honors in 2009, including both a People's Choice Award and a winning Juror Selection from among thousands of entries from more than 85 countries in the prestigious Prix de la Photographie Paris competition, as well as an Honorable Mention in the London International Creative Competition. His photographs have exhibited in the U.S., Spain, Germany, France, and Switzerland, and have been jury selected for special exhibitions by the late Robert Rosenblum, curator of 20th Century Art at New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; the Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the Royal Photographic Society of Madrid among others. His work is in the permanent collection of the Crocker Art Museum and his creative work processes are used as a teaching guide for photography students. 
Born in 1957 in Vilafranca del Penedès (Barcelona), Spain, Ventosa currently lives near San Francisco, California.

-betsy

Adv Photo Class - March the 16th

Dear students,

Tomorrow the class is taking place in Largo dei fiorentini.

Please bring your cameras.

We'll work at the class book, we will print, and if the weather is good I would like to take some pictures close

to Castel Sant'Angelo.

Raw FIle Format

The RAW file format is digital photography's equivalent of a negative in film photography: it contains untouched, "raw" pixel information straight from the digital camera's sensor. The RAW file format has yet to undergo demosaicing, and so it contains just one red, green, or blue value at each pixel location. Digital cameras normally "develop" this RAW file by converting it into a full color JPEG or TIFF image file, and then store the converted file in your memory card. Digital cameras have to make several interpretive decisions when they develop a RAW file, and so the RAW file format offers you more control over how the final JPEG or TIFF image is generated. This section aims to illustrate the technical advantages of RAW files, and makes suggestions about when to use the RAW file format. 


http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/RAW-file-format.htm


Gabriela Valero 

For those of you who like portraits check out Jim Rakete, a German photographer and photojournalist. He began photographing professionally at the age of 17 for daily newspapers and agencies. He took photos of Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, David Bowie and Mick Jagger.


http://www.camerawork.de/lang-en/photographen-cw-editor-153/55.html


Another interesting photographer is Robert Polidori, who is known for his architectural photographs. I love Polidor's photos of abandoned spaces and places because he is able to tell a story with these places that are filled with rubbish and broken things.

Anyone going to Berlin this month can see his exhibition along with another exhibition of the award winning photographer Nadav Kander:

Link to Exhibition info:

http://www.camerawork.de/lang-en/exhibitions.html

-rola

On Wednesday March the 9th our lesson is taking place in Villa Borghese.

On Wednesday March the 9th our lesson is taking place in Villa Borghese.
The meeting point is inPiazza del Popolo at 14:15 (I'll wait you  untill 14:45) p.m
Then we'll move to Villa Borghese.

My telephone number is:
3487148071

The Big Picture Series: Bodies in Motion

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/03/bodies_in_motion_dancing_aroun.html

This series of photos from Boston.com called "Bodies in Motion" has a variety of photos of celebrations, athletes, dancers, regular people going about their business, performers and more. 
This is a photo of ballet dancers competing in a contest in Switzerland. It seems to have been taken with a wide angle lens in order to capture the whole scene.


This photo was taken with a telephoto lens to focus specifically on the central woman.



And finally this photograph was taken with a normal lens. It is of a man protesting in Cairo.

~Phoebe

Working in the studio

Hi,

Serafino wanted me to let the class know that there will be someone in the studio from 6pm until 10pm during the week so we can go and work during those hours.

Phoebe

JPEG vs RAW

JPEG is a type of file commonly used with photography in which the photos are compressed. There are pros and cons of using this type of file: it can easily be stored, emailed and posted online however much of the quality of the photograph is lost when it is compressed. It is the most common file format for digital images. The acronym JPEG stands for the "Joint Photographic Experts Group" who created the standard format.
Photographers who wish to not loose any of the quality of their photographs shoot in RAW. RAW files are much bigger but also much higher in resolution.

Phoebe

The decade in photos

This site is rather INTENSE so only look at it if you feel up to it.
The site presents some of the strongest and most emotional works of photography from 2000-2010. It's really amazing to see how the art and beauty of photography can capture such terrifying and emotional times.

Like I said, intense, but really interesting to look at if you are able to...


Nicole.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1tkQSP/totallycoolpix.com/2010/12/best-pictures-of-the-decade-the-noughties/

today the class will be at Fiorentini

Largo dei Fiorentini at 2:15 pm

Give a look at this LINK, please

Here you can find a lot of different photo galleries

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/02/libya_unrest_and_uncertainty.html

Hyperfocal

Hyperfocal distance is the closest distance at which a lens can be focused and have everything in sight be sharp. In other words, the hyperfocal indicates the distance with the largest depth of field that will remain in focus.  When a lens is focused at this distance, all of the objects at distances from half of the hyperfocal distance to infinity will be sharp.

Here is an example:


Phoebe

EO Hoppé

I was in London this weekend and had the opportunity to see a wonderful exhibition of E.O. Hoppe's photographs:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/feb/13/photography-hoppe-portraits-in-pictures

I loved many of the portraits he took of famous people such as Henry James, Kipling and Masefield. There was also a section dedicated to fascinating photographs of London life in the 1920s. He not only liked taking pictures of famous people, but also ordinary people like maids and street vendors. He captured ordinary working men and women throughout his career as he travelled throughout the world.

Some background info:

Emil Otto Hoppé (14 April 1878 – 9 December 1972) was a German-born British portrait, travel, and topographic photographer active between 1907 and 1945. Born into a wealthy family in Munich, he moved to London in 1900 originally to train as a financier, but took up photography and rapidly achieved great success.

(Wikipedia)
EO Hoppe website:
http://www.eohoppe.com/index.html

-rola

REMIND!! Largo dei Fiorentini

The lesson (feb the 23th)  is taking place at Largo dei FIorentini.
Cross the river and walk towards Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Before the bridge turn right
There is only one building there.
Ask information to the front office.

BOOK IDEAS

Themes for the book.
For next week bring some photos that somehow fit in some of these themes.
Just so we have something to work with.

Themes:
Geometry
People (ambient)
Light
Landscape
Friendship (travel, social)
Movement (sports, action)
At work
Abstract

Surfers

I find this photograph interesting because of the shadows. The people appear to be much longer than they are.The spacing between everyone is also good allowing for the viewer to appreciate the entire photograph.

Lily

Malik Sidibé _ African Photographer

http://www.repubblica.it/persone/2011/02/07/foto/malick_sidib-12153547/1/

Give a lok to this link

Exploring E.U.R.

As recommended, I went to EUR and explored the modern architecture of the neighborhood. The most notable building was the square colosseum. Here is a photograph I took of it. To see more of my work you can check out my website: www.phoebepundyk.com (The work on my website does not include anything from this semester in Rome yet)

Phoebe

Bruce Weber & Thomas Ruff

Bruce Weber
Bruce Weber is an American fashion photographer and occasional filmmaker. He is most widely known for his ad campaigns forCalvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Pirelli, Abercrombie & Fitch, Revlon, and Gianni Versace, as well as his work for Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Elle, Life, Interview, and Rolling Stone magazines.

Thomas Ruff

His initial focus was the interiors of German living quarters, with typical features of the 1950s to 1970s. This was followed by similar views of buildings and portraits of friends and acquaintances. These are typically shown with emotionless expressions, in very large, high-resolution passport-style portraits.

Andrea Ruggeri

Tomorrow february 9th

the italian photographer Andrea Ruggeri is going to talk about his photograpy work from 2:15 to 3:15 pm
In class

JCU PHOTO CONTEST

Friedlander and Basilico

Friedlander is an American photographer from the 1960s and 1970s who primarily worked with Leica 35mm cameras producing black and white photos. His largest body of work is of urban ‘social landscapes’. His photos are in an urban setting and include pieces of stores, buildings, posters, and street and signs giving clues to the environment.  I like this photograph of Friedlander’s because of the graphic, linear elements created from the signs and their shadows. The vertical lines of the poles break up the strong horizon line.

Gabriele Basilico is an Italian documentary photographer who takes pictures of industrial landscapes and architecture. In 1984 and 1985 he was commissioned by the government to document the transformation of today’s national landscape in various European countries. He has a similar style and artistic intention as Friedlander, however they are working on different continents. Basilico has captured the precise elements of industrial machinery and his work captures the shadows and linear characteristics.    

-Phoebe

Pixels

Pictures are made up of little dots called pixels. The picture is made with enough of them together arranged horizontally and vertically.

If you get close to an image or use a magnifier you'll see them.

The picture of the left gives you the example on how you could see an image with a magnifier glass and depending on your distance to the image you'll see it clearer.

The same happens with the size. Depending on how big you want your picture, you will need a picture with more Megapixels, therefore if you want a 2.1" x 1.6" picture, you don't need a camera able to take 24 Megapixels or something like that.

Final Print Size Megapixels Image Size on Monitor
2.1" x 1.6" 0.3 640 x 480
4.25" x 3.2" 1.2 1280 x 960
5.3" x 4" 2.0 1600 x 1200
6.8" x 5.1" 3.0 2048 x 1536
10" x 6.5" 5.3 3008 x 1960
10.25" x 6.8" 6.3 3088 x 2056
13.5" x 9" 11.1 4064 x 2704

Here is what we name resolution, which refers to the size of the image that your camera will produce, so if you have e.g. a 2.0 Megapixels camera and you print a picture as a poster, then you will get a print with a lot of big dots as on the left picture showed above.

To figure out the amount of megapixels that will give you, you multiply the dimensions. 

For example:
1600 x 1200 = 1.92 million pixels or 1.92 Megapixels. This would commonly be rounded up and referred to as a 2 megapixel camera. 

As this amount goes higher, you will notice a much sharper image, so then....more pixels don't mean better quality, everything depends on the size and the distance.







- Nicole

Ferdinando Scianna

This is Rola. Unfortunately I'm laying sick in bed and won't be able to come to class today. I thought to post something about Ferdinando Scianna. I was lucky enough to see some of his photos exhibited in Venice last summer. The one above is one of my favorites. I love the contrasts, shadows and simplicity of this pictures which I think says a lot about life in general as well as about beauty and age. 

A little about Scianna:

"He was born in Bagheria, Sicily, in 1943. In 1967, he moved to Milan, where he started to work for the weekly L’Europeo as a photojournalist and special correspondent. He then went to Paris, where he worked 10 years as a correspondent, writing about politics, photography and literature. In 1982, he joined the prestigious Magnum agency, thanks to master photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. He alternated between reportage, fashion assignments, advertising and portraits, and finally achieved international acclaim, while continuing to work as a journalist." -lavazza.com

P.S:

Can anyone please post or send me Professor Serafino's email address. My email: rollahalabi@gmail.com

I spoke to him about Dropbox last week and I think it would be a great idea if we all use it for sharing photos as well as documentaries about photography. I got some great ones I would love to share with you. If you would post your email addresses I could easily invite you to use dropbox or start sharing a folder with those of you who already have it.

-rola

Light (color) temperature

Light temperature, which is more commonly known as color temperature involves picking the right film or setting your camera to the appropriate setting depending on the type of light present. When a camera takes a picture the "white" in the photograph may be altered depending on the type of temperature that the source of light is distributing. The temperature of the light is measured in Kelvin degrees. For example, if light is over 6000 Kelvin degrees, the white in the photgraph witll appear blue. When the light is below 4800 Kelvin degreees the white will appear yellowish. Meaning that a standard flash is around 5500 Kelvin degrees. In a digital camera, you can set the white balace to a certain fixed temperature. If you for example set it to 3200, you are telling the camera that you want yellowish tones to appear in the photograph.





-bets