Teaching Kids Photography

Hey guys,

Was just wondering if anyone would have any ideas on this at all. It looks like I may end up teaching a class of young kids (12ish would be the age group) photography.

I'm not sure if I'll end up doing it or not, but I'm just trying to think of some things to do with them. I'd have them for about 10 hours overall (2 per day for 5 days).

I'd be avoiding anything too technical, and instead trying to make it more fun and enjoyable than anything else, but I was wondering if anyone here had any ideas or such.

I was considering spending a half an hour or so making pinhole cameras with them out of boxes (they wouldn't actually take any photos with it, of course, but it'd be a bit of arts/crafts I suppose, and would be able to give them an idea of how a camera works in it's most basic form?).

I also thought a trip to the local Fire station or such might be a good idea to pass an hour (a little demonstration or training exercise or such, for them to photograph. Again, just trying to keep it fun and it'd be something enjoyable/different for them). Failing that, organise a small football match with a few friends that they could photograph, or some event with a bit of movement to it (so i can lightly cover shutter speeds).

They'd all have their own cameras, but I doubt they'd be DSLRs, so im going to try and avoid manual shooting or using flashguns and such (though I'll cover some portrait basics with them and such).

They need to have something to present at the end of the week, so i'd do a bit of paint.net with them to let them make some basic edits to their photos (brightness/contrast/sharpness/glows/black and white/adding blurs/text boxes/etc.) (using paint.net because it's able to do a fair bit, but it's easy to use, too) and hopefully print out a few photos for the end of the week (mount them on a large coloured page or something, they're only kids so it wouldn't need to be anything over the top).


I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas. I think I have most of it covered, but I've only ever showed adults how to use their cameras (and whilst i did do up some notes and such on it, it was more of a friend of a friend situation and on a one-to-one basis).


Anyone any ideas they'd like to throw out? I'd like to keep it fun, somewhat informative, and something that could (hopefully) contribute to having an end-product (I'm very demanding, I know!).


Just thought I'd throw it up and see.

Mountainsandh

I got my little nephews some photosensitive paper once, they had great fun with it, and they have to understand the light is what will do the trick (or lack of).
I get mine from that crowd, they're a little dearer than others but very reliable.
It's a bit of an investment, but nearly guaranteed to be a success. Use keys, plants, etc...

edit : while you're at it, you could illustrate good and bad composition while setting up the paper and subjects.

re-edit : looked at the kit and it's not what I got actually, at the time I got them a pack of 12 sheets, 4x4 or varied sizes, can't remember. It was reasonably priced, but you might have to get it from a different shop then since they don't seem to stock it anymore.

jackie1974

You could go on a nature walk and do some macros with flowers and insects etc.. that would introduce them to dof.

pearljamfan

you could pick out a few famous photographers and show them some examples of their work...
you could teach them about copyright. and stealing photos..:D
and talk about the impact of photography on people, how pictures can show a story, emotion, make memories etc... ask them about a favourite photo they have at home and how it makes them feel....

do a stop motion/ timelapse with them?

or give them a storyboard kinda project and get them to take photos for it...

also could do the alphabet in things they can see thru there cameras, if you know what i mean???

have fun! id love to do stuff like that, id just be too shy to do it.

aidanic

Pinhole cameras don't have to be exposing onto film/paper. I did this about 18 months ago with some primary school children.



We also did some images with Sun Paper. It requires good sunlight, or strong UV light. I ended up building a UV light box for this.

10 hours (2 x 5) is really not enough time to do much with film/chem photography. Maybe more on composition, around themes.

Say, 30 mins talk about the topic. 45 minutes with whatever digital cameras they have to work on the composition [still life, portrait, landscape], and then 30 mins C+C. Have a PC, projector, and a memory card reader ready.

Even mobile phones would be OK as a camera - maybe a session on Instagram.

I'm not sure that digital editing is something you'd want to start on. It involves each student having the same. More interesting would be an "ethical" discussion on fashion photoshopping, and some of the more public disasters/problems.

Keep it fun, relevant, and age appropriate!

jackie1974

jackie1974 wrote: »

You could go on a nature walk and do some macros with flowers and insects etc.. that would introduce them to dof.

Unfortunately, I can't really bring them from the school (the fire station suggestion was pushing it a bit, and that's practically across the road from the school).

Mountainsandh wrote: »

I got my little nephews some photosensitive paper once, they had great fun with it, and they have to understand the light is what will do the trick (or lack of).
I get mine from that crowd, they're a little dearer than others but very reliable.
It's a bit of an investment, but nearly guaranteed to be a success. Use keys, plants, etc...

edit : while you're at it, you could illustrate good and bad composition while setting up the paper and subjects.

re-edit : looked at the kit and it's not what I got actually, at the time I got them a pack of 12 sheets, 4x4 or varied sizes, can't remember. It was reasonably priced, but you might have to get it from a different shop then since they don't seem to stock it anymore.

That's a nice idea and something I may look into alright. Not sure if expense will be an issue though (I know they're relatively cheap, but there's 24 students, I think, and each would need to have 2-3 sheets (at least) really, wouldn't they.. I'll have to look into it.

pearljamfan wrote: »

you could pick out a few famous photographers and show them some examples of their work...
you could teach them about copyright. and stealing photos..
and talk about the impact of photography on people, how pictures can show a story, emotion, make memories etc... ask them about a favourite photo they have at home and how it makes them feel....

do a stop motion/ timelapse with them?

or give them a storyboard kinda project and get them to take photos for it...

also could do the alphabet in things they can see thru there cameras, if you know what i mean???

have fun! id love to do stuff like that, id just be too shy to do it.

Stop-motion/time lapse could be a bit of a laugh alright, yeah, but i'd be afraid of it being too time consuming and with it not having any kind of physical end-product to display/show off, I reckon it's a clever idea, but probably a little too time consuming.

Storyboard idea is genius though, and I'd definitely be looking to use that!

aidanic wrote: »

Pinhole cameras don't have to be exposing onto film/paper. I did this about 18 months ago with some primary school children.



We also did some images with Sun Paper. It requires good sunlight, or strong UV light. I ended up building a UV light box for this.

10 hours (2 x 5) is really not enough time to do much with film/chem photography. Maybe more on composition, around themes.

Say, 30 mins talk about the topic. 45 minutes with whatever digital cameras they have to work on the composition [still life, portrait, landscape], and then 30 mins C+C. Have a PC, projector, and a memory card reader ready.

Even mobile phones would be OK as a camera - maybe a session on Instagram.

I'm not sure that digital editing is something you'd want to start on. It involves each student having the same. More interesting would be an "ethical" discussion on fashion photoshopping, and some of the more public disasters/problems.

Keep it fun, relevant, and age appropriate!

Back to having a bit of expense, again, including the paper in it (and I'm not sure if there's a budget for that kinda stuff, so I'll have to see if it'd work or not). It's a good idea though, I admit.

Handy thing about a non-functional pinhole is that it just requires a box per student and some tape. Something most schools will have lots of.

You're right about the time though, 10 hours over 5 days isn't an awful lot and doesn't give much room to move unfortunately.

Mountainsandh

Do you know what would be super fun, if you could split them into groups, all equipped with a tripod, and a camera able to do long exposure, is to do ghost pics !
Sit one of them on a sofa/at a desk, still for the full 16 seconds or so (of course low light), and have another one standing behind them, "ghost like", for 7 to 10 seconds (just guessing the seconds, they could experiment themselves). The results are such fun !
You know, like that (my pics)http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawbarcollective/5415987422/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38994151@N03/4059141312/

that idea (kids especially that age, would love it !) (not my pic) http://cdn.buzznet.com/assets/users16/scarletlark/default/attack-pirate-ghost--large-msg-11939901669.jpg

Also, light painting !
And these 2 activity, imo, would be great to explain exposure too.

edit : whenever I do ghost pics with friends, I count out loud the seconds I want them to stay in the shot, then I roar "Gooo Goooo" and they've to run out, it's great childish fun

dazftw

A camera obscura would definitely get them interested.

Chorcai

Long exposure shots, light painting, tell em bring in any light that they can find. Get them to draw a simple picture 1st then get them to try and recreate it.

Changing bokeh, ie hearts, shamrock etc ..http://shutterskills.com/make-your-own-bokeh-shape.html