I began teaching this basic photography course to high school students in 2007. I have taught digital photography and media in high school since 2000. As a career photographer since 1974 and an adult education photography teacher since 1980, I have always wanted to teach high school students a film-based course.

Many districts throughout New York State have been scuttling their darkrooms and closing down their photo programs. I have found the the interest level of students in my Photo courses, the excitement they display, and the quality of the work they do, far exceeds the interest and enthusiasm in any other course I teach, including digital photography.

We teach 80 minute blocks in my high school, so all classes meet for 80 minutes every other day. This gives students much more time to shoot and print in the first half of Photo 1. This also alleviates some pressure on the darkroom - with only 12 enlarger stations there is always half the class that can't print.

I split the Photo 1 curriculum into two halves. It always meets the first semester of the year - for two quarters. Sometimes I refer to the first and second halves, and sometimes the first and second quarters - sorry for the confusion.

Instructional Objectives

I have students supply their own materials- film and printing paper, plus a 3-ring binder and 81/2 x 11" transparent page protectors for the binder.

Purchasing Instructions
Parent Information Summary and Release Form

First Quarter (10 weeks)

Whether the students use the camera I issue or their own from home, they need to make out these two worksheets about their camera. I may sit and work with the partners or individuals as they explore the particular controls they have. Partners (though they are exploring the same camera)  need to make out their own sheets. These are graded.

Camera Body Worksheet     Lens Worksheet

I use the following PowerPoint so students can began to understand what the effects of different shutter speed and aperture settings cause.

Power Point Presentation: shutter speed and aperture examples

We now need to explore the relationship between shutter speeds and apertures as we manipulate them while maintaining the correct Exposure Value for well exposed film.

Shutter Speed and Aperture Notes

I find that students have the most trouble understanding the effect different apertures have on the image; it's easy for them to visualize the effect of longer and shorter shutter speeds, but the idea of Depth of Field being shallow or deep is elusive (in spite of the examples in the Power Point above). I have an additional follow-up example sheet devoted to aperture.

Aperture handout Side One and Side Two

We start to discuss film. This is a fact sheet I use as a prompt, but in class we start out with a blank sheet and explore the answers and values through discussion and observation.

My Note Sheet and the Work Sheet blank

Next we look at the first assignment. I provide a printed example sheet for the students to examine and carry around with them as they shoot.

First Shooting Assignment and First Assignment Examples

After we practice loading our cameras, we devote some class time to the concept of exposure - getting the "right" amount of light onto the film. We use this exposure guide (it gets printed on the back of all the shooting assignment sheets). We never rely on meters. I don't put batteries in any of the cameras I issue (there's almost 8 different makes and models, almost all donations) and I encourage students with their own cameras not to use the meter.

Exposure Guide

I now have to introduce students to film processing. Here is my handout. It is very specific and detailed. We go over it in class. Students forget everything immediately. At the beginning of the next 2-3 classes we go over the chemistry on the board. I give a test and there are still people who fail. Everyone eventually internalizes the steps when they have processed 2-3 rolls of film. Several people are usually processing at the same time and they advise one another - there are also numerous copies of the flip side of the sheet (the simple side) in the area where they process film.

Film Processing Procedure

At this point there are students who are shooting and students who are loading development canisters and having their first processing experience. Here the class of 20 (average) starts to string out a little, with the lucky ones/the ones who paid attention forging ahead, while there are those who can't seem to shoot an entire roll or screw up their processing.

Now is the time to introduce the first darkroom assignments, so that those who finish first are able to go in the darkroom and experience that area. My first two assignments are prints without negatives: I have students make an 8x10 print with a stepped strips of exposure. Then they make a simple photogram.

First we discuss the darkroom process of printing.

Students often don't finish the first assignment requirements on that first roll of film - it doesn't come out, they run out of frames, or they simply don't understand the Depth of Field procedure. While some students are doing their first printing assignments (see below) there will be some who want to go back our and shoot again, so I give them this handout for a second set of shooting situations.

Processing Prints

Then we look at schematics of the enlarger and the timer buttons, studying the parts and how they work. We go into the print darkroom a few students at a time to orient to the enlargers and timers with the lights on , then off.

Then I give them the assignment sheets, and I show them (and post) actual examples of finished stepped prints and photograms.

First printing assignment: the stepped exposures and photograms.

These first "negativeless" assignments help them orient themselves and develop habits for negotiating the process. There is an awful lot to remember: negatives, paper, black card for the test strip, focus paper, the enlarger controls, printing protocols (open aperture, focus, close down, set timer, etc), all the solution times, etc etc... but they coach one another and after these two prints most students have adapted to the procedure in a semi-permanent way.

Refer back to the first shooting assignment - students start to print these negatives after they have successfully printed the first two non-negative 8x10's.

All these prints are 5x7 (half an 8x10" sheet) and we do NOT pay much attention to print quality. These prints are crooked, flat, and unspotted. I just want students to get used to the process of printing. We concentrate on getting the negative in focus on the paper, and making the right printing routine habitual.

There are seven 5x7 prints they need to make, in any order.

1. Motion control: action frozen and action captured in a panning motion with the camera . The student has to figure out the appropriate aperture/shutter speed combination.

2. Depth of Field: focusing on the same near object, shoot one image with a large aperture (and a corresponding fast shutter speed) and another of the same image and same focus point with a tiny aperture and longer shutter speed.

3. Portrait: A face in the full sun, a face in the shade, and a profile silhouette at a window (using the outside exposure).

After these exercises in shooting, students should have a basic understanding of exposure control and camera handling. After printing these negatives, students should have a sound, basic routine for the print darkroom.
 

The last two prints in the quarter are 8x10's. this is their last printing assignment. They can choose any negative (with guidance) and they need to print an 8x10 with as full a negative as they can fit in that format. Then they need to raise the enlarger and print another 8x10 ENLARGEMENT of a portion of the same negative. Before they start, we talk in class about print quality.

Second Quarter (second ten weeks)

The second quarter of Photo 1 gives the student much more individual choice for image making. The structure of the class is looser. The class is usually smaller, with 12-16 students (still too many for the 12 darkroom enlarging stations). I allow my class to shoot on school grounds for these assignments, though there are some assignments that must be shot on their own time, off school grounds, to be entirely successful.

In this second quarter I give students due dates for negatives and prints: this forces them to continue shooting and to not rely on their first quarter negatives or on only one or two rolls that they might shoot at the beginning of this half of the course.

I usually begin my 80 minute class with a brief PowerPoint of examples from the photographers I have listed in parenthesis with each assignment. I have found that this introduction (and repeated visual reminders of new examples) helps keep students true to the spirit of the the assignment.

The final "Masters of Photography" assignment does include some writing and genuine reflection. The writing component continues more intensely in Photo 2.

This evaluation form (student on one side and teacher on the other) helps me to give specific feedback to students on their prints. They hand their finished prints in inside a clear acetate binder sleeve, and I hand it back to their bin with the evaluation form inside the sleeve.

The most critical teaching moments of the printing process occur at the view station outside the darkroom. There are usually 2-3 students cued up waiting for my critique. I try to have a directed dialog with each student as their print is up on the board under the light: I have examples handy and my questions are always stepped through a protocol -

1. Negative-print focus (have they focused the negative well on the print paper)
2. Process chemical stains
3. Tonal range and contrast

and then a general comment of the need for eventual spotting.

#3 takes the most time, as I try to elicit accurate assessment of the test strip or print, leading the student to a reasonably accurate evaluation of the sample. At this time there are many related and peripheral comments and inquiries that come into play - scenes with too high a contrast range, the quality of the photographic image and grain, the quality of light, etc. As the class progresses students make comments on each others work at the view station and I feel that qualifies too as valid instruction.

So by the time make out their evaluation sheet, the flaws in the print quality are likely to be listed by them, and my comments on the flip side reinforce their observations and our original discussion at the view station.