JRNL 328.01: Intermediate Photojournalism

University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Syllabi Course Syllabi Spring 1-2016 JRNL 328.01: Intermediate Photojournalism G. Keith Graham University of Montana - Missoula, keith.graham@umontana.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/syllabi Let us know how access to this document benefits you. Recommended Citation Graham, G. Keith, "JRNL 328.01: Intermediate Photojournalism" (2016). Syllabi. 3827. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/syllabi/3827 This Syllabus is brought to you for free and open access by the Course Syllabi at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Syllabi by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact scholarworks@mso.umt.edu. J328 Intermediate Photojournalism Spring 2016 • Monday, Wednesday 11:10 am to 12:30 pm. • DAH 306 Professor Phone Office Office Hours E-Mail Keith Graham 406.243.2238 Don Anderson Hall 430 Monday and Wednesday, 1 to 2 pm or by appointment keith.graham@umontana.edu Course Introduction Intermediate Photojournalism prepares you for future work in the professional world of photojournalism (newspapers, magazines, online and other publications). This course addresses the three foundations of photojournalism: quality of content, command of technical elements and the ability to meet deadlines. You will learn about “photo” with an emphasis on “journalism.” You will also develop your creative eye and your vision while learning to make creative decisions with your camera. Assignments are fast-paced and deadline driven. Assignments include features, sports, portraits, news, stories and two picture story projects. This course offers challenges that ultimately provide you with basic fundamentals and creative story telling skills that will serve you in the professional field. The work in this class will help build your portfolio and prepare you for internship opportunities. One of the goals of this class is to get some of your work published. One of your assignments will be published this semester. Course Objectives/Outcomes To improve your visual story-telling skills To understand and cover diversity in your community To produce assignment work on deadline. To shoot, shoot and shoot some more. This is a shooting class. To produce images/stories that will enhance your portfolio. To develop your research, reporting and writing skills. To develop your understanding of ethics and fairness in photojournalism. To develop multimedia skills. To publish your work. Class Time This class will feature lectures, presentations, editing sessions and critiques. The majority of the learning in this class will come from shooting and critiquing. Assignments will be discussed and the instructor and the class will critique your work. See weekly schedule for assignments and respective due dates. Any changes to the schedule will be announced in class. Students will be expected to participate in class discussions and critiques. If you are absent, you will be expected to learn the material that you missed from a fellow student. Instructor will not review missed classes. Arrive to class on time and be prepared for the day’s agenda. Attendance will be taken and points are deducted from the final grade for unexcused absences. If you are late you are marked absent. Suggested Texts Kobre, Kenneth. Photojournalism: The Professional’s Approach, 6th ed. Boston: Focal Press, 2008. Barbara, Stone, Jim and Upton, John, Photography, 9th ed., Upper Saddle River, NJ, Pearson/Prentice Hall, Longman, 2008. Equipment You are required to shoot your assignments with a professional digital camera (DSLR) that has manual exposure control. We strongly recommend that you purchase a Canon or a Nikon. If you purchase a strobe you will need it by end of February. (We recommend Canon 320EX, 430EXII, 580EXII, 600 EX-RT, Nikon SB-500, SB-600, SB 700, SB-800, SB-900, SB910) We’ll review specific cameras and flash units in class. We have a limited amount for checkout. Academic Honesty Nothing that was shot before this semester may be turned in for this class. It is expected that you will turn in new work for each assignment in this class. It is also expected that all work done in this class on photographic exercises, captions, quizzes, etc. will be your own. Any act of academic dishonesty will result in referral to the proper university authorities or disciplinary action. Students must be familiar with the conduct code. See Student Code online You may not submit for this course any assignment that has previously, or will be concurrently, submitted for another class, unless you receive prior approval from the professor for this course. To do so without permission will result in an F for the assignment and could result in an F for the course. After Hours Access Graduate students and Professional Program students You will NOT need to submit this form for Spring 2015 if you are a journalism graduate student or an undergraduate student, already admitted to the Journalism Professional Program. Your security-code has already been generated for the semester and your GrizCard has already been activated. You will have continual access (during the semester) to Don Anderson Hall, until you graduate or drop from the professional program. If you have forgotten or misplaced your six-digit code, please drop by Don Anderson Hall, room 201 or call 243-4001, to attain it. For after hours access to Don Anderson Hall, complete and submit this form online. The deadline is January 29. After Hours Access to Don Anderson Hall. Drop Deadlines Online drop deadline information Beginning the sixteenth (16) instructional day of the semester through the forty-fifth (45) instructional day, students use paper forms to drop, add and make changes of section, grading option, or credit. The drop/add form must be signed by the instructor of the course and the student's advisor. The signed drop/add form must be returned to the Registration Counter no later than the forty-fifth instructional day. Beginning the forty-sixth (46) instructional day of the semester through the last day of instruction before scheduled final examinations, students must petition to drop. The petition form must be signed by the instructor of the course and the student's advisor and, the dean of the student's major. Documented justification is required for dropping courses by petition. One of the following four must be met: accident or illness, family emergency, change in student work schedule or student does not receive any evaluation of performance before drop deadline. Students With Disabilities If you have a disability that you feel affects your performance in this class, please come see me and we'll create the right work environment for you. See Disability Services for UM Students Website Cell Phones and Text Messaging If you bring your cell phone to class it must be in the off position. No text messaging allowed in class. If you are discovered text messaging you will receive a zero for that day – that includes any assignment that may be due that day. The same is true if you are on any electronic contact device. Assignments Your photographic assignments receive the most weight toward your final grade. Assignments will be discussed in class. Single assignments, exercises, stories, story proposals. You need to wait until we discuss each assignment in class before you photograph that assignment. You must shoot a different subject for each assignment. You may not select photos from a prior assignment for a current assignment. A late assignment is assigned a grade of zero. Do not come to me with your excuses instead be on time with all your assignments. If you email me your assignment, you will be assigned a zero. Submission of Assignments All photo assignments will be turned in electronically to the J-School Server. There may be some that I require you to shoot and submit via email or ftp. Please see each assignment for specific details. For the single-picture assignments 1. Always shoot in RAW format. 2. For every assignment you will submit two files – one file will be in the Raw format, the other file will be saved as a TIFF file after you make corrections in Photoshop. The TIFF file will be 10 inches wide if a horizontal, 10 inches deep if a vertical, at 300 dpi. Submit each image with the following slug. Example: First image - Graham_portrait.NEF (for Nikon) orGraham_portrait.CR2 (for Canon). This means you to need to make a copy of the original RAW file and rename that copy. Second image - Graham _portrait.tif 3. Make a Photoshop Contact sheet in PDF format with all of your images from your shoot. 4. You will put the PDF and your final files in a folder slugged with the same name Graham _portrait) You will place those in the appropriate folder in my Professors folder: >Keith Graham, >J328 >Assignment Drop Boxes > Portrait. Always back up your work. (on DVDs or an external hard drive or both.) You are required to keep backups – and not on the server. Final project submissions will be covered in the classes leading up to deadlines. Deadlines Assignments must be submitted on the server no later than one hour before class on the due date. A late assignment is one that is turned in after the deadline. All assignments must be turned in on time or you will receive a zero. Grading Assignment Grades: Points will be earned for each assignment based on photographic quality, versatility, consistency, human interest, news value, originality, captions, deadline and submission requirements. As with anything in life there are always a number of solutions to each assignment, there is no one right answer. Points 45 20 200 50 20 Class attendance and participation Classmate portrait (10 pts. each) Photo assignments (20 pts. each) Event (Proposal =10, Final Event = 40) Final Project Proposal 20 20 30 100 Final Project Photo Update 1 Final Project Update 2 Final Project Rough Cut Final Project 25 Portfolio images ____________________________ 520 Possible Total Grading Scale A 93 to 100% A – 90 to 92% B+ 88 to 89% B 83 to 88% B– C+ C C– D+ D D – F 80 to 82% 78 to 79% 73 to 77% 70 to 72% 68 to 69% 63 to 67% 60 to 62% 59% and below Resubmissions There are no resubmissions for this class. This class simulates a newsroom environment and many of the assignments are time sensitive. Supply List Mandatory Compact Flash or SD cards (we recommend several 8GB or 16GB or 32 GB cards) A portable external hard drive for backing up and storing your work. We recommend at least a one terabyte drive with USB 2.0 and Fire Wire 400 and Fire Wire 800. If you can afford it look into the newer and super fast Thunderbolt. Highly Recommended 35mm digital SLR camera, with a manual mode or a choice of manual and automatic modes, and a 50mm lens. More lenses are better (a wide angle and a telephoto). We highly recommend the Canon and Nikon camera systems. Dedicated flash unit for your camera Off camera shoe cord: check compatibility of sync cord connections from flash to camera. Batteries for your flash unit. We recommend NIMH rechargeable batteries. Jump drives CF or SD card reader Tripod SCHEDULE OF TOPICS, ASSIGNMENT DUE DATES, AND LABS WEEKLY SCHEDULE NOTE: Will review in mid March Week Date Class 1 Assignment Due Introduction - Syllabus Assign classmate portraits 1/25 Composition/Light/lens/equipment review Captions PhotoJ is verbs, Action Heartbeat - Get there, get the picture Shooting Styles/Approaches 1/27 Interaction – Assign Interaction Assign gear 2 3 2/1 Critique Classmate portraits Camera Review Strobe list 2/3 Sports: local basketball Assign teams 2/8 News assignment (assign General News and Spot News) News scanner app Swibold: captions Caption writing exercise Critique Interaction 2/10 Critique captions…bring camera on Feb. 17 Assign great picture hunt video 4 Discuss event Feature Hunting Event Coverage 2/22 Class Exercise – Germanfest Event Pitches Critique Sports 1: due before playoff 2/24 Toning images/Class captions/accuracy for Sports Critique Feature 6 7 Interaction 2/15 Presidents Day- No Class 2/17 5 Classmate Portrait Event Pitches Sports 1 Feature 2/29 Portable Strobes 1… bring strobes to class 3/2 Covering Diversity in Your Community 3/7 Critique Fill Flash and Bounce Flash Slow Shutter Speed….bring strobes to class 3/9 More Strobe techniques…bring strobes to class Check out location kits and bring to class Fill-flash/Bounce flash Week Date Class 8 3/14 Narrative Picture Story & Photo Essay. Show proposals Picture story editing assignment 3/16 St. Patrick’s Planning Critique Slow Shutter Speed assignment 3/17 St. Patrick’s Day Deadline Assignment…..THURSDAY 9 3/28 3/30 11 12 Critique Event Story Critique Proposals Spring Break 4/8 Spring Break 4/18 Critique Diversity Portrait Critique Picture Story photo update Group critiques 4/25 Picture Story Update 2…groups of 4....20 min slots 4/27 Portfolio Image Critique 15 Event Story Picture Story proposal 4/11 TBA 4/20 Critique Sports 2…..any sport 14 St. Pats, Due 7:30 pm Narrative Picture Story & Photo Essay continued 4/6 4/13 13 Slow Shutter 3/21 Critique St. Patrick’s Day Assignments 3/23 10 Assignment Due 5/2 5/4 Critique Spot News & General News Feature RESHOOT Evaluations Critique Final Picture Story Diversity Picture Story photo update Sports 2 Picture Story Update 2 Portfolio images due General & Spot News Feature RESHOOT Final Picture Story