One of the many exciting challenges in teaching photography at whatever level is getting students to think hard about the nature of the subject. Why is this important? I think there are several possible answers to this question:
Photography is often taught within art, craft and design GCSE and A level specifications but many practitioners and historians would dispute its place there, preferring to think of it as a vocational discipline.
Photography is a multi-disciplinary subject with its origins in science.
Photography is bound up in the history of technological innovations, from the invention of the Daguerreotype to the digital revolution. Each new technological breakthrough has shifted the way we see and represent the world photographically.
Photography is a democratic subject. Almost everyone is able to take a picture these days and the sheer scale of photographic picture-making across the planet is overwhelming.
Photography is therefore all around us. Students see numerous photographic images every day, many of which advertise products, services, lifestyles and ideologies. Being aware of the ways in which they are being manipulated, what might be called the visual literacy argument, seems even more important.
Feel free to suggest, ask questions, or add. This is a repost from one I did about a year ago, with some minor tweaks:
Bokeh- The portion of an image (often the background in a portrait) that is rendered out of focus. Japanese origin. Became trendy term in the late 1990s-early 2000s. It has a more positive connotation than “blurry,” “soft,” or “out-of-focus.” Meaning that the photographer most likely dropped portions of the image into bokeh intentionally, for a specific reason. Basic bokeh formula = Longish focal length + Wide aperture (low f/#) + Camera as close to the subject as possible + Subject as far away from the background as possible
Blurry- Most often used to describe motion rendered in a still image, like a car in motion rendered as a blurred streak by use of slow shutter speed, or the blur you see from camera shake when you hand-hold while using too slow of a shutter speed. Sometimes used to mean out of focus, not sharp, though the better term for these qualities is “soft.”
