Academic Catalog

PHOT 72: LIGHTROOM & PHOTOGRAPHIC DESIGN

Foothill College Course Outline of Record

Foothill College Course Outline of Record
Heading Value
Effective Term: Summer 2023
Units: 4
Hours: 3 lecture, 3 laboratory per week (72 total per quarter)
Advisory: PHOT 5 or equivalent experience; this course is included in the Digital Photography family of activity courses.
Degree & Credit Status: Degree-Applicable Credit Course
Foothill GE: Non-GE
Transferable: CSU
Grade Type: Letter Grade (Request for Pass/No Pass)
Repeatability: Not Repeatable

Student Learning Outcomes

  • A successful student will demonstrate in-depth awareness of composition and photographic design.
  • A successful student will be able to import images into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and make use of the organizational and output abilities of this professional software.

Description

Develop intermediate photographic skills with the use of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and photographic design techniques. Evaluate and utilize current methods of workflow, including archiving, file management, development, image publishing, beginning color management, and printing. Build skills in composition, design, project editing, and visual communication. Utilize design principles to create images that communicate effectively.

Course Objectives

The student will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate in-depth awareness of and ability to use the digital camera
  2. Demonstrate ability to import and export images using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and manipulate photographic images to professional standards
  3. Create hard copy photographic images for portfolio presentation
  4. Create image archives, including compact disk (CD), DVD, and hard drive technologies
  5. Create slideshows and websites
  6. Utilize effective design principles in the creation of photographs for visual communication
  7. Demonstrate awareness of contributions from diverse cultures and backgrounds to the development and application of digital camera technology

Course Content

  1. Use of the digital camera
    1. Comparison with traditional camera/film/processing
    2. Lenses, focus, and depth-of-field characteristics
    3. Sensitivity, noise reduction, and tonal range
    4. Resolution for capture
  2. Effective use of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom software
    1. Import images
    2. Workflow and backup
    3. Keywording
    4. Editing process
      1. Using flags, labels, color labels
      2. Effective use of collections
      3. Stacking
    5. Adjust images
      1. Color correction
      2. Exposure
      3. Contrast
      4. Expressive purposes
      5. Altering file formats
      6. Color modes
  3. Create hard copy photographic images for portfolio presentation
    1. Resolution for output
    2. Profiles and file preparation
      1. Inkjet printing
      2. Commercial services
      3. Other output options
  4. Create image archives and catalogue backups
    1. Image backup
      1. Creating backups on compact disk (CD) and DVD
      2. Creating backups on hard drive technologies
      3. Image storage and retrieval
    2. Catalogue backups
      1. Preferences and daily backups
      2. Long-term catalogue retrieval and updating
    3. Archival properties of electronic media
  5. Create slideshows and websites
    1. Use of collections for effective digital output
    2. Sequencing and timing in slideshows and websites
    3. Planning effective communication with images in slideshows and websites
  6. Design principles for photography
    1. Composition
      1. Rule of thirds
      2. Foreground, middle ground, background
      3. Leading lines
      4. Centered and off-centered compositions
      5. Balanced and imbalance
      6. Weight
      7. Flow
      8. Repeating shapes
      9. Symmetry and asymmetry
    2. Lighting
      1. Natural light
      2. Artificial light
      3. Flash
    3. Apply above to genres of photographs
      1. Portrait
      2. Landscape
      3. Still life
      4. Documentary photograph
      5. Abstraction
    4. Applying design principles to photographs and using terminology in discussion and class critiques
  7. Practitioners from diverse cultures and backgrounds
    1. Historic contributions
    2. Contemporary contributions
    3. Issues of access and communication
    4. Representative examples of digital imaging artwork produced by individuals from diverse cultures and backgrounds

Lab Content

  1. Practice of image editing, manipulation, presentation, and techniques learned in lecture
  2. Online discussion of techniques and of design
  3. Field sessions to practice camera handling techniques

Special Facilities and/or Equipment

1. A lecture room equipped with color LCD overhead projector displaying projected computer displays; a desk or workstation for each student; an instructional computer with high resolution monitor, scanner, color printer, and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom software; lighting and wall space suitable for displaying and critiquing hardcopy output; an integrated or separate facility for student computer time.
2. When taught via Foothill Global Access, on-going access to computer with email software and hardware, including Adobe Lightroom Classic; email address.

Method(s) of Evaluation

Methods of Evaluation may include but are not limited to the following:

Critiques of image files on disk, and hard copy output of digital camera images
Written discussion, critique, and questions using appropriate terminology
Instructor's review of student's on-going work
Review of student's participation in discussion and critiques, laboratory performance
Quizzes

Method(s) of Instruction

Methods of Instruction may include but are not limited to the following:

Lecture presentations and classroom discussion using the terminology of digital photography and photographic design
Critique and discussion of images by students and experts in the field
Demonstrations of image editing, manipulation and presentation

Representative Text(s) and Other Materials

Evening, Martin. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC Book, 2nd ed. (ISBN-10: 0135447399, ISBN-13: 978-0135447390). 2019.

Students will use the Help section of the Lightroom Classic application and Adobe's online user guide: helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/user-guide.html

Types and/or Examples of Required Reading, Writing, and Outside of Class Assignments

  1. Written paper with a detailed analysis of a fellow student's photograph using the terminology learned in the lecture addressing both design and technique
  2. Written paper looking in-depth at a topic in the class and reading and commenting on other students' essays

Discipline(s)

Photography