Campus Instagram Photo Contest and Scavenger Hunt Oct 5-7

Posted on by

@ucberkeley Instagram Photo Contest and Scavenger Hunt

Date and Time:
Friday
Saturday
Event Description:

Take part in exploring — and photographing — Cal during our first-ever @ucberkeley Instagram Photo Contest (Friday and Saturday) and Scavenger Hunt (Saturday only). To participate, you must have an Instagram-capable device and a public Instagram account. An eye for mobile photography, sense of humor, and knowledge of campus wouldn’t hurt either. Both the contest and scavenger hunt are open to all Instagrammers. You must sign up for both portions at Homecoming Headquarters (Campanile).

Photo Contest
Runs from Friday, 9 a.m. through Saturday, 11:59 p.m.
Capture, edit, and post Instagrams that best capture your idea of “Homecoming.” Our photo contest judge is Richard Koci Hernandez, a professor in Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, Emmy Award-winning photojournalist, and mobile photography trailblazer — @koci on Instagram. His inventive eye and distinctive visual style, as well as a gift for storytelling, stretch the power of mobile photography. The first-place winner will receive a Keepsy photo book and calendar package. Additional prizes from Casetagram and CanvasPop. (Please note that the top prizes for the contest are reserved for UC Berkeley alumni, students, faculty, staff, and parents of current Cal students.)
Scavenger Hunt
Saturday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Sign up at Homecoming Headquarters to receive the scavenger hunt list, then scour the campus in teams of up to four people to photograph and post Instagrams of as many items as you can find. All scavengers are eligible for prizes from StickyGram, CanvasPop, and others.
RSVP to identity@berkeley.edu with your Instagram user name and which events you will be participating in.
Not familiar with the Instagram mobile app and service? Find out more at instagram.com.

Exposure and Varying Skin Tones

Posted on by

I emphasize this topic because it’s so often an issue with the kinds of images students make.  You obviously must be able to photograph anyone and everyone effectively.  Heterogenous groups are a particular challenge. (And it’s not just dark skintones — very light skin can easily get over-exposed and blown out —  especially with shaved heads!)  The point isn’t skin shade per se — it’s the variation of light and dark in the same image. And you usually want to optimize the image for faces.


Here’s good advice:
Ignore his technical advice and concentrate on what he says about background and light.

Often the solution is simply to be more *aware* of where people are placed relative to the light, **especially their faces.**  

Also, remember that the faces of people who are closer to the camera will be more visible, so sometimes you just want to move some people closer to the camera to make up for the ways that exposure may obscure their faces.
Examples:



The woman on the left is a little over-exposed.  We don’t know how pale she actually is.

This woman’s face would have been more visible if she weren’t backlit — the background problem —  or if her face were not in the baby’s shadow. (You probably didn’t notice that she’s in the baby’s shadow, did you?)  Her lovely expression gets a little lost.

The hat on the guy helps here — shades his face — except his eyes are shaded a little too much. (This can be fixed easily in Lightroom.)

This is fun, but the dark-skinned guys in dark clothes the doorway in the back disappear. And bet that light-skinned woman with the white sleeves and the light-skinned guy in the fluorescent green and white away from the flash!

This is a really hard location for mixed skintones, with such bright surroundings.  The photographer did exposure compensation at +1/2 (see the EXIF) — which helped with the faces and the curtain in the background but blew out the architectural details on either side of the curtain.

A less contrast-y location — even the same place with less exterior light — would be better for a mixed group.   I’d move the woman with the dreadlocks to the front, putting her closer to the camera, to make her face bigger in the image and more visible. The girl in the front row on the left could move back.  Most of the light is coming from the left — the guy in the back row, on the left, could move to the other side to avoid his blown-out face.

Photobook event Sept 13-14 & exhibit Sept 14-Oct 18 in SF

Posted on by
A Survey of Documentary Styles in early 21st century Photobooks
Selections from the Indie Photobook Library
Exhibition at Gallery Carte Blanche, San Francisco

September 14, 2012 – October 18, 2012
Opening reception Friday, September 14, 2012
with a weekend full of workshops, lectures, and a Photobook Club meet-up
Welcoming the iPL for the first time to the West Coast, Gallery Carte Blanche in San Francisco will host the 3rd Indie Photobook Library feature-length exhibition curated by Darius Himes (Assistant Director, Fraenkel Gallery and Co-Founder, Radius Books) andLarissa Leclair (Founder, Indie Photobook Library). Concurrently, an exhibition of photographs chosen from the selected photobooks will be displayed in the gallery curated by Gwen Lafage, (Founder, Gallery Carte Blanche). This component will explore the differences in experiencing photography in books versus on the wall. 

 

Friday September 14th, 15th & 16th
September 14th, 2012 to October 18th, 2012 

  & present

 

A SURVEY OF DOCUMENTARY STYLES IN EARLY 21st CENTURY PHOTOBOOKS

Selections from the Indie Photobook Library
Curated by Darius Himes & Larissa Leclair 

Exhibition at Gallery Carte Blanche, San Francisco
Opening reception Friday, September 14, 2012 – 6-9pm
with a weekend full of workshops, lectures, and a Photobook Club meet-up.BOOK YOUR TICKET NOW @ http://iplgcb.eventbrite.com 

Event sponsored by  &

Welcoming the iPL for the first time to the West Coast, Gallery Carte Blanche in San Francisco will host the 3rd Indie Photobook Library feature-length exhibition curated by Darius Himes (Assistant Director, Fraenkel Gallery and Co-Founder, Radius Books) and Larissa Leclair (Founder, Indie Photobook Library). Concurrently, an exhibition of photographs chosen from the selected photobooks will be displayed in the gallery curated by Gwen Lafage, (Founder, Gallery Carte Blanche). This component will explore the differences in experiencing photography in books versus on the wall.

Framework

The early- to mid-20th century produced a handful of photographic styles with a photojournalistic or documentary vocabulary at their core. This “documentary tradition” flourished in the latter half of the century, as photographic equipment shrunk, film speeds increased and world-wide traveled became easier and cheaper. The last decades have seen an explosion in art-photography educational programs and self-publishing, coupled with a continuing desire to explore the world, near and far. As we stand in the morning light of a new century, already some 12 years old, it is worth considering the question, What of the documentary style? When it comes to approaching the world around us—its people, places, conflicts, development and intertwined societies—how have the languages within the growing world of photography changed and shaped the conversation we have in images?

– Darius Himes

 

Friday September 14th, 6-9pm: Opening party

Saturday September 15th:

11.30am-2pm: Photobook Club (limited space available)

2.30pm-6pm: 3 panel discussions moderated by Larissa Leclair and Darius Himes: ‘The Art of the Artist Book’, ‘Publishing a Photobook’ and ‘Documentary photographic styles in the early 21st century’. The panelists will include well-known photographers, curators, photobooks publishers and experts including Lauren Henkin, Michael Light, Patrick Aguilar (Owl & Tiger Books), John DeMerritt, Nick Haymes (Little Big Man Books), Todd Hido, Darcy Padilla,  etc…

Sunday September 16th: Spend the day with Daniel Milnor & Lauren Henkin.

Limited space available – Fee: $150 – $130 for early registration

In the morning, 10am-1pm: “How to make a book that works” with Dan Milnor.

[Dan is the friend I’ve mentioned who’s an expert on photo books.]

Daniel Milnor, Blurb Photographer at Large, will demonstrate how to make a professional quality photography book using the Blurb publishing platform. Milnor will walk students through a start to finish process of creating a print-on-demand book, from downloading the Blurb software, defining what their book is, editing and sequencing, through design and promotion.  Milnor will illustrate the range and nuances of the Blurb platform by showing real-world examples of books that work. Other topics will include choose the right cover, building an audience for a book, using the Blurb bookstore, adding eBook to your offerings and realities of making books in the print-on-demand world.

In the afternoon, 2-5pm: “Introduction to self publishing Artist books” with photographer and book maker, Lauren Henkin

This lecture will provide an introduction for photographers looking to self publish artist books. By presenting potential advantages/benefits as well as the challenges of publishing, explaining types of publications, and a walk-through of her own experiences in publishing, Henkin will leave participants with the knowledge of what tools, skills, and resources will be necessary to complete a self published artist book.

Flickr Group – Update

Posted on by

OK, I’ve got this figured out.  I had to find a discussion of it, where people complained about Flickr not documenting the procedures for private groups well enough.  (I had made us a public group by invitation only, though I had promised you all a private group, not viewable by outsiders.)


I have to invite you to join — you can’t ask to join.  You have to email me so I can invite you.

If you have already joined Flickr, I can use either the email you used to register with Flickr  or your Flickr user name.  It will automatically make us contacts (which is not great)  but we can delete one another from our contacts without it messing things up.  If this last part makes no sense to you, ignore it for now. You have to email me & tell me your username or the right email to use.

If you are not a Flickr member yet, pls do this:
1. Join Flickr
2. Email me your Flickr id
3. I’ll send you an invitation
As above, it’ll make us contacts but we can change that.


I’ll try to turn these around as fast as I can.