Teaching photography without cameras

[grouchos_tash]

I've been asked to teach some photography classes for school kids for an hour a week. After accepting I found out that they don't actually have any cameras! There will only be iPads available during the class.

I was looking for suggestions for topics to keep them interested cos I guess aperture, shutter speed etc is not going to be possible.

Thanks!

 

[David Hughes]

But you might have a camera...

 

[pechelman]

the universal fun thing to teach kids is what the f-stop means and how they can also use it in practical applications, such as determining how good of a deal a certain size pizza might be based off area, without having to do any calculations, if they remember the f-stops.

I would also say it would be fun classroom exercise to bring in a flashlight and teach them about the inverse square law, reflected vs incident light (bring in a lightmeter), and the difference between hard/soft light.

 

[grouchos_tash]

Yeah, I'm thinking about introducing them to different styles of photography/photographers, using photoshop, lighting styles, reading/critiquing pictures, maybe have a group blog/flickr group.

Tomorrow I need to find out what I'm working with I guess. They might have access to their own phones/cameras outside of the school which would make things MUCH easier!

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Gary,

Well, they teach sex education without sex. For probably the majority of the kids, anyway. At least the younger ones. Consider how they might do that...

(I'm being serious. Teach 'em what they might do, once they have the opportunity. Use paintings, engravings, propaganda...)

Cheers,

R.

 

[radi(c)al_cam]

Well, they teach sex education without sex. For probably the majority of the kids, anyway. At least the younger ones. Consider how they might do that...

😀

(I'm being serious. Teach 'em what they might do, once they have the opportunity. Use paintings, engravings, propaganda...)

Exactly.

Gary, how many hours (units) will you teach them?
How old are they?

I might add, depending on the aforementioned factors of course, you could teach them a lot of the very basics of photography:

If there are cardboard boxes (e.g.) at hand, let them build a camera obscura, e.g.

Ask them, whether they can bring magnifying lenses, some tubes, some pipe clamps, and let them build a simple objective; and so on …

 

[grouchos_tash]

Dear Gary,

Well, they teach sex education without sex. For probably the majority of the kids, anyway. At least the younger ones. Consider how they might do that...

(I'm being serious. Teach 'em what they might do, once they have the opportunity. Use paintings, engravings, propaganda...)

Cheers,

R.

Yeah, that's a very good point. In my school that was homework.

 

[grouchos_tash]

😀



Exactly.

Gary, how many hours (units) will you teach them?
How old are they?

I might add, depending on the aforementioned factors of course, you could teach them a lot of the very basics of photography:

If there are cardboard boxes (e.g.) at hand, let them build a camera obscura, e.g.

Ask them, whether they can bring magnifying lenses, some tubes, some pipe clamps, and let them build a simple objective; and so on …

Last time I didn't something like this it was only for three 1 hour sessions and we built a camera obscura 😎

I will be delivering 1hr 15mins every week till February. They are 15/16 and there is no qualification to guide me. Today I plan on finding out what they have done already and what they'd like to do.

I was wondering if there was any apps out there where you can control the aperture/shutter speed on an iPad?

Thanks for the help!

 

[jonmanjiro]

I was wondering if there was any apps out there where you can control the aperture/shutter speed on an iPad?

Not sure about apps that control the camera itself, but a light meter app might be useful for experimenting with how aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are linked.

 

[grouchos_tash]

Not sure about apps that control the camera itself, but a light meter app might be useful for experimenting with how aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are linked.

Yeah, that's a great idea!

Thanks

 

[rhl-oregon]

There's an iPad app called RedDotCam.
Controllable ISO starting at 60, speeds from 1/2-8000, +/-3 EV;
28mm can be cropped 35/50;
focus choices are infinity/room/macro, with a touchscreen focus point box;
flash off/on/auto, timer 2/10/30s.
No aperture control, but the smarties could hack ways to make the lens work harder with tape and tiny masks.

Pair it with a light meter app, and treat ISO as fixed, and you have a number of available light exposure experiments. Then change the fixed point (1/30 exposure, e.g.) with the new set of variables, and so on.

Then add things like hacked lighting -- lighting a subject with one iPhone flashlight at 45 degrees, sidelighting, backlighting, then with multiple iPhone flashlights or iPad whitescreens....
Of course, they'll come up with even cooler experiments once they engage with the idea of creative restrictions instead of the AutoBot Snap ethos. Have fun.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

As I see it, teaching about photography means teaching about photography and that's not limited to smart phones nor is it limited to what the students own. If it was then a lot of subjects couldn't be taught, physics f'instance can be taught without the Large hadron Collider actually being there...

Surely you'll have enough time to begin at the beginning, go on to the end and then stop and ask for questions?

Suggesting you might have a camera or two was this old fool's suggestion about you bringing things in and showing them and talking about them. If you're being paid you could even buy something and claim it on expenses or against your income tax: even the humble Zenit could be a useful demo article.

Regards, David

PS And get a room with black out curtains and you could explain how camera obscuras worked with just a suitable pinhole; in theory I'm told f/90 is best.

PPS Finished typing this and realised I'd not mentioned film (gasp).

 

[radi(c)al_cam]

I will be delivering 1hr 15mins every week till February. They are 15/16 and there is no qualification to guide me. Today I plan on finding out what they have done already and what they'd like to do.

PPS Finished typing this and realised I'd not mentioned film (gasp).

Exactly. Film and film chemistry could also be a topic that is worth covering; when they're 15/16, they should find it interesting that this — probably «boring» — school subject is actually quite useful in real life 🙂

 

[radi(c)al_cam]

Suggesting you might have a camera or two was this old fool's suggestion about you bringing things in and showing them and talking about them. If you're being paid you could even buy something and claim it on expenses or against your income tax: even the humble Zenit could be a useful demo article.

I'd consider that you might actually sacrifice a Zenit, and/or a Zorki e.g., when you're showing how all the mechanical parts work.
Voilà, you'll have covered another part of physics, I guess some of the school's nature science teachers will have to thank you when you repeat all that stuff 🙂

 

[David Hughes]

Exactly, and film means chemistry, which is quite an interesting but minor part of physics.

And then there's the maths etc...

Regards, David