Photography Class for Kids

[andrewfuncrew]

i know we have a lot of photographers in here so i thought i might ask a few suggestions

i'm teaching a digital photography class for kids 4th-8th grade and was curious if anyone had any suggestions as for projects/things that might interest kids in this age group.

any input is appreciated

[Guest DUM]

have them join and post waywts.

[andrewfuncrew]

have them join and post waywts.

i'll save that for the end of the class, once i've forcibly become their stylistic inspiration

[sybaritical]

GIvethem cameras then let them off the leash and allow them to take pictures of their local area.

The places they see everyday.

Guaranteed some glorious details and interesting scope on how they see the world and what really interests them.

[kai-wun]

Why digital?

A coupla manual SLRs with 50mm would be perfect. (maybe Spotmatics or something) If you wanna be a real asshole force them to shoot slides =)

[sybaritical]

never spotted the digital thing.

Should give them disposable cameras, then digitalise it from there.

Much more interesting.

[isdenn]

at that age level i think just getting them to shoot a lot is the most important thing. you might want to have a final project where they have to organize a certain minimum number of photos around a theme of their choosing, but beyond that they should just be encouraged to take cameras everywhere, so they can learn what kinds of things they like to photograph, how to use their camera, etc.

it may be asking a little much of the younger kids, but i think it would also be good to try to get them to critique each other - learning how to tactfully and effectively give and receive feedback from your peers is an important skill, and elementary/middle school age kids arent given much opportunity to practice it. for example perhaps you could have each student pick one photo each week to present to the group - they talk about why they like it, what it depicts etc, and then their classmates can comment.

[BodiesOfLight]

I don't know, I would go through the fundementals of course.

Have them take a few that uses negative, and positive space. Then few that uses color as the main focus, then texture, symmetry, line, numbers, and movement--you can go on and on. Gvie them exaples of each.

[passant]

does it have to be digital? because pinhole cameras are a great project.

this is probably the best advice:

at that age level i think just getting them to shoot a lot is the most important thing. you might want to have a final project where they have to organize a certain minimum number of photos around a theme of their choosing, but beyond that they should just be encouraged to take cameras everywhere...

[passant]

oh -- another idea: i took a digital whatever class in high school, and one thing we did was make a "music video" using a bunch of photos we took and putting them together in windows movie maker. that might need extra teaching though.

[chrisj]

no matter what sort of photo, i would definitely go through some of the basics. rule of thirds and shit like that... then i would tell them, dont think jsut shoot (lomo term)

just tell them to fire away, its digital so no ones checking.

maybe give guidelines for shit to shoot, it constraining but gives them a direction...

ie: hw for you guys is to come in with some portrait images or some shit.

and yeah passant: pinhole is def fun.. but if you dont have a darkroom .. you can take the body cap and drill a tiny or poke a tiny hole in it and wala ur own digital pinhole

hf

[m@!]

the pinhole camera is definitely a good project!

[upandcoming]

i wanna be in the class

[C0C0]

first couple of assignments should be on the basics shutter, aperture, etc

then a couple of assignments that focus on different themes

then a couple of open assignments that are open to the work the student wants to produce

[rome1]

I remember making pinhole cameras in the 6th and 8th grade, hated it both times. In todays society these children will have no appriciation for them, they barely have any experience with film and developing. Show them basic teckniques using both types of cameras (slr/digi)and give them a rundown of a brief history of film and darkrooms. Have them create a documentary of their average day, or specific assignments like shoot wildlife but only in black and white. You could easily create slideshows on the computer, don't know if your classroom has any. Try and get your hands on photoshop and let them play with the images and create a digital diary of soome sort.

These are just some basic ideas, don't know if any of this helps but whatever.

[C0C0]

one of my fave assignments i had in a photo class was to create a portrait of "My America" the way the student sees it ... no mcdonalds arches allowed =x

[Corbin Law]

when i was in 9th i took the basic photo class

if you just run over history and use and the process they will get bored out of their minds really fucking quickly

tie in what you are doing assignment wise with a specific part of the process

so instead of memorizing a bunch of steps in the begining

they get it all in chunks that they can remember

for example

give them a low light assignment, so they are forced to push their film

use that to teach them how to develop pushed film and grain quality n shit

start them off in the darkroom with easy shit

the pinhole camera project is always used, evne though it is boring as hell

because it shows them the basic outline for how to develop just the print

you cant really go out and express yourself much if you dont learn all of the technical aspects of it all first, so there will be a good deal of *seemingly stupid memorization, but just do what you can to avoid that in mass quantities.

keep it fun, and dont show up to class stoned every day like my teacher.