General Announcements

  HONR 279K - Section 0101 - M/W 2:00-3:15 - PLS 1129
  Instructor: Evan Golub egolub@glue.umd.edu

Reminder: Final exam in PLS 1129 on Monday December 18th, 1:30pm-3:30pm



12/20: The Teaching Theater accounts will be deleted on December 25th. You can access your folder on those machines via directions at https://ttclass.umd.edu before then.

12/20: The final exams have been graded and those grades have been sent out via e-mail along with your semester grade. I hope you have a nice break, and that I see some of you next semester for workshops and/or at the campus photography club or Honors events.

12/14: I will have office hours Friday (tomorrow) between 1:30 and 3:00 if you have questions related to studying for the final exam. I will not review answers to the example questions. I will also have office hours next week after sending out grades in case you have questions about the grades on things that I return in the next few days (ie: project 2, final portfolio submission, final reading journal submission).

12/13: I have posted the example final exam questions. I expect to be able to send out project 2 comments tomorrow, and hope to send out comments on the recent reading journal and portfolio submissions on Friday.

12/13: Please take a moment to fill out this Teaching Theater Feedback Form. This information can help improve both the teaching theaters around campus, and also the classes that use them.

12/11: The National Archives instructions for digital photographs

12/10: I have posted a gallery of the "Color Me" submissions.

12/06: The last required reading has been posted - please read it before class on Monday. Please e-mail your reading journal to me at HonorsPhotography@gmail.com by 8:00pm on Wednesday, December 13th.

12/06: As with the midterm exam, I am inviting you to submit a question that you would expect to see on the final exam. I will post a collection of the submitted questions (might be slightly modified) and my own example questions, some combination of which will appear on the actual final exam. Please e-mail the question to me at egolub@glue.umd.edu by 8:00pm on Tuesday, December 13th so that I can post things before that weekend.

12/06: For each presentation you saw today, write a short summary of the presentation's strengths and weaknesses, and a paragraph on your reaction to their prototype in general. Additionally, rank the members of your team from 1 to 6 (yourself included) and say what each member's biggest contribution was (again, yourself included). Send this to me via e-mail to HonorsPhotography@gmail.com by tomorrow (ie: write it up tonight while everything is still fresh in your minds).

12/04: The last photo assignment posted (the colorization one) will be the last photo assignment of the semester. I've decided not to assign a stitching one since they didn't install everything in the classroom and I'm not sure whether we'll be able to get everything working Monday. The final component of your course portfolio will be to provide me with 4-10 of what you consider to be the favorite pictures you've taken and/or images you've created throughout the semester which were not explicitly for a photo assignment. Directions for getting those to me are online now. If you are interested in exploring panoramas more after I show you the basics in class Monday, please feel free to contact me to borrow a tripod and/or to meet to explore the software more.

12/04: A very interesting use of flash that ties into the discussion we had around this photo from class.

11/30: The visit to the National Archives II just off campus (http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/college-park/index.html) will be on Friday December 8th. If you are coming, please be there a few minutes before 11am (we need to sign in at the main lobby so bring a photo ID). We should be done before 12:30. The page at archives.gov has directions, and I'm told that the Powder Mill Village ShuttleUM line stops near there as well. They have a set of standards for digital images posted on their site ( http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/digital-photo-records.html).

11/28: An article about one possible problem with using non-exclusive photos in an ad.

11/27: The new photo assignment has ben posted.

11/24: My office hours on December 4th will be 12-1 rather than the normal 1-1:30.

11/16: An interesting picture of the Eiffel Tower.

11/15: A few items:
    
  • The "How To Guide" assignment deadline is being pushed back to the end of classes - December 13th is the new due date.
  • Class on Wednesday, November 22nd is often a low-attendence day, so I will be careful in choosing which things to show that day, but there will be class (and it should be fun) so if you do not have to hit the road early, please come to class.
  • For the prototype teams, using online tools such as Blogger or Google Docs can be useful coordination and sharing tools.
  • Tomorrow's office hours will be from 10:30-11:30 instead of 11:30-12:30 due to a meeting I need to attend and vote at.


    • 11/13: Project 2's description is posted. We will discuss this in class today and Wednesday. I also posted a new item in the required readings list that you should read this week.

    11/12: We have an opportunity to visit the National Archives just off campus either December 1st or 8th - I'll be asking which would be better in class this week. I saw an interesting picture of a wall on Flickr that reminded me of a bank in Brooklyn that had been built inside the structure of an old movie house - if you looked up you could see the old banisters still attached to the walls, but painted black.

    11/08: I corrected two numbers on the Huffman problem for HW #3 (the red frequency and the orange frequency) so that there are no ties. To resize an image (to scale it down without cropping it more) you can open the image in GIMP, go to the Image menu in the window showing the picture, select Scale Image, and type in the new width (it should automatically determine the appropriate new height based on that width). For the Interpolation setting, I'd suggest Cubic. Other image tools should also allow you to resize an image in a similar manner. The name of the person I mentioned in class today is spelled Vannevar Bush.

    11/06: Homework #3 is posted. Due in class on Wednesday November 15th.

    10/30: Project 1 is posted.

    10/30: We will discuss the programming project in class today and work on pairs for the programming project (which will be posted later today). I have posted a gallery of the "Heads & Tails" submissions. We will look at these a bit today as well.

    10/24: I have posted a description for the "How To Guide" assignment. Please review it and feel free to ask questions about it. It is not due until December 6th but it is something that I'd like you to start thinking about now. Also, please continue to upload an occasional picture to Flickr and mark it with the honr279k tag.

    10/23: An interesting picture that looks like a tree. This is a good time of the year for some interesting foliage shots. Sunrise and sunset might make for some interesting backgrounds.

    10/20: I have posted a new photo assignment. I will also be posting an update to the previous assignment's gallery this weekend which includes later submissions.

    10/19: The Cornell Box is an example of a simulated scene that is used in some experiments and class projects related to computer-generated images. Please explore this site and include it in your readings journal. I also found the web page of a student in a class where they generated several variations of the box - the images start at HW#5 on this page.

    10/19: For tomorrow's "eBay photography" you can come to AVW 1112 at noon - if that room is too crowded, we'll find another space in the building to use.

    10/15: I have posted a gallery of the "On The Level" submissions. Not all of these actually did what was asked, but I am posting all of them anyway. Ones to particularly pay attention to are numbers 04, 07, and 08. I will not post the next photo assignment until after Wednesday's exam. Early warning grades were due so I have submitted those based on work to date. After the exam, I will also inform you of your updated grade to date.

    10/14: On Friday October 20th, we'll have our next optional photo shoot event at noon in the A.V.Williams Building (room TBA). This session will be an initial exploration of what I'll call "eBay photography" - taking a picture of a relatively small object in front of a plain background.

    10/14: In class the idea of taking individual frames from video captured by your camera and I mentioned the lower resolution that I've seen on cameras that also have a video mode. I should have mentioned that with a good video camera, this is a viable option, and sometimes the best bet. Here's a composite taken this month of an ISS lunar transit that was created by using 12 individual fields captured by a video camera.

    10/11: I have posted some example exam questions

    10/07: I have posted a new photo assignment. I have posted a gallery of the "The Shadow Knows" submissions. Another nice collection with some very interesting/creative shots.

    10/02: I have posted a small clarification to HW2's first part for the case where your printer does not print the image centered and on the whole sheet.

    09/29: I have posted a new photo assignment. I have posted a gallery of the "Fun with Fruit" submissions. There are some very interesting photographs there, and a wide variety of approaches. Great job!

    09/28: One of many articles about the recent 3D digital scan of the "Mona Lisa".

    09/27: I have posted Homework #2. It is due on October 9th. As with the last homework, please feel free to come to office hours with questions regarding individual questions.

    09/25: Contrast done in stellar fashion.

    09/22: It appears that new accounts on Flickr are in some sort of provisional state for a while (I've just found out that you need to have at least 6 or 10 photos and then it should be reviewed and hopefully moved out of provisional after 2 or 3 days), so your tags, etc. are not added to the public pool. To try to give our class another way to explore each other's works through Flickr, I've created a Flickr group for the class. It will be a private group, and I'm not able to test what happens when a non-member visits this link, so I don't know whether it will allow you to submit a request to join from there. If you email me at egolub@glue.umd.edu with your Flickr account name, and add PhotoInspirations as a contact, I can invite you to the group. What I'd like to ask you to do is to create a new set within your Flickr account called "HONR279K" in which you place any images that you specifically want to share with the class. Of course, any public photos you place on Flickr are public, but having this small, named set should make it easier for us to share specific images. To create a new set, go to "Organize" and then on the "Batch Organize" tab, select "Add to Set" and then "New Set". Name the new set "HONR279K" and drag at least one image that you've already uploaded into the set. Flickr sets allow images to belong to more than one set.

    09/20: I have posted a new photo assignment and have also posted a supplemental reading. I have also posted a brief comment about the "Signs" assignment, along with a gallery of results for you to explore before our next class session.

    09/18: I have updated the individual portfolio (tentative description) with some more details, and discussion about everyone getting and using a Flickr account for some pictures. I have also written a short page discussing how to scale your photos which includes links for downloading the GIMP software tools. We will be using this in class shortly. If you have been using the BIRD note-taking application in class and want to be able to view your notes files on your Windows machine at home, you'll need the installer.

    09/16: A few items. First, we will have an optional campus photo outing this Friday (09/22) at 2:00pm. We will meet in room AVW 1112 (the large room across from my office) and leave from there to visit several campus locations to look for interesting photographic opportunities. Second, I'd like to ask you to, in general, become "Honors Activities Photographers" - look for opportunities to capture students, faculty, staff, and visitors interacting at Honors events. I'd like to work with you at the end of the semester to assemble an Honors Events gallery to share with your community. Finally, the Terrapin Photography club has started meeting again. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 27th at either 6pm or 6:45pm (I'll know more this week). The theme for that meeting's photo sharing is "Fall" - you can attend without sending in a picture and see what others have taken and participate in the discussions around them.

    09/13: I have posted Homework #1. Also, over the next week or two, you should try to take at least 2 "staged" pictures of people who have signed a model release card for you. If you are feeling adventurous, you can try work with your models to create a Figure/Ground illusion such as the Rubin Face/Vase Illusion by using a solid color as a backdrop (would a campus building's white column work?).

    09/12: I have posted some information about uploading images to the GRACE cluster via an SFTP program. To access your personal folder on the classroom account from your own computer, OIT has an informational document.

    09/07: If you still have not picked up a digital camera, I thought I'd post a link to digital cameras under $150 at Target since there is a Target over in Beltway Plaza, and when I asked them if I could try out some cameras while I was there, they let me. As was brought up yesterday, the typical monitor is only 1-2 megapixels, so getting a "VGA" digital camera can do the trick for starting with digital photography. As you can see in this camera comparison set of my $20-$50 cameras (with my $500 snuck in too), very dim and very bright settings can present color and white balance challenges, but these shots show extreme situations. Also, if everyone who already had their camera could bring it to class Monday, I'd like to have everyone take a picture of the same thing so that we can then compare them online. It will also give everyone still shopping a chance to see a variety of cameras in person.

    09/06: I have posted the notes we started today. We will continue on this topic during Monday's class. I have my office hours schedule posted at http://www.cs.umd.edu/~egolub/office.hours.shtml.

    09/05: In advance of a planned class session next week centered on "Photography and The Law," please read: this Reuters article.

    08/30: I have posted today's notes. I have sent the account/password info for the class notes to your e-mail addresses. The film that I was trying to think of in class that had MANY layers of emulsion was "Kodacolor II" (which had a dozen layers). The name of the painter I mentioned when talking about the way CCDs capture individual points of color in a single channel was Seurat.


    Mouse-over blue text to see the effect of levels changes in Photoshop:    Original, Levels Changed