High school photogs have a field day

By Shor M. Masori

SAN DIEGO — High school photographers from throughout San Diego convened recently at San Diego City College where they practiced lighting techniques, working with models, developing photos the old-fashioned way in the dark room, and finding beauty in small objects.  Being a student at Patrick Henry High School, I was privileged to accompany them to “Photo 360.”

We explored three lighting techniques.  Almost all the students were excited by light painting, which permits a photographer to enhance photographs of subjects by adding light swirls and designs. I’m actually in this photograph, but am invisible because I was waving bundled Christmas lights, and a flashlight taped to a clear plastic bottle.

The students also experimented with a light ring which, as it sounds, is a device that projects a ring of light enabling a subject’s face to be evenly lit and without shadow.  However, a reflective ring of light often can be seen around the pupil of the subject’s eye.

A third lighting technique involved two parallel flashes extended to the sides of a camera — similar to those used for high school yearbook photos.

Photographing live models was also quite interesting for the students.  In our exercise, a male and a female model took turns posing.  In one setting, a motorcycle was used for a prop.  In the other, the models struck their own poses, but did respond to occasional requests.

Students interacted not only with the models but also with the on-site lighting expert, telling him which areas needed more illumination.  This was a time for students to review their techniques for setting camera apertures and speeds.

Macro photography involves zooming onto small objects and revealing the beauty within.  A fellow student, Jared Stockdale, fashioned a bird’s nest, with an egg inside, from pipe cleaners, wire and marbles.  I added some other accouterments, including a clothespin which looks like a bird’s beak.  For a photographer, the trick was to keep the lens steady and to transform the assemblage into a memorable picture.  We changed the setting from color to gray scale in order to emphasize the shapes.

A fourth exercise took us into a dark room — which I had thought was an anachronism in today’s world of digital photography.  However, after seeing how the application of chemicals can subtly change the hues of a photograph, and how negative and positive images may be interestingly combined,  I realized this too is an important arrow in the photographic quiver.

On a personal note, I’d like to thank Patrick Henry faculty member Thom Hunt and Greg Quirin, a program specialist in the San Diego Unified School District’s Office of College, Career and Technical Education, for making possible my participation in the field trip.

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Masori is a staff photographer for San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via shor.masori@sdjewishworld.com