By Susan Olson, Colorado Mountain College, CO, student of Buck Mills

4
Technique Education…Tools

“To a child with a new hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

Anonymous

 

At the beginning of this chapter we need to say that while the chapter is centered on technique, many of the discussions are equally applicable to areas of instruction that are more cognitive in concept. Unlike learning in other disciplines, learning in photography is heavily technique involved, and all theory and history come back to the application of technique. So while several parts of this chapter do not specifically address technique, it is always there.

Regardless of what medium one is using, technique is an integral part of creating an image. A painter needs to learn how to mix paints to create a particular color and to know the archival quality of the paint, and how and when to use certain types of brushes. A sculptor needs to know how to use the various tools available to create form, and how to select the material (stone, wood, metal) to be used. A photographer needs to know the various camera types available, how to use them, and which is best for the job at hand— 35 mm, SLR, large format. Technique is important in choosing and operating scanners, printers, Photoshop, and the like. Technique is also important in teaching, for there are many ways to facilitate learning, depending upon whether the learning is cognitive, affective, or psychomotor.

Teaching to a Moving Target

In opening this discussion of teaching technique, we need to address one of the major issues in photographic education today. This is the ongoing change from silver halide-based photography to digital imaging. In reality since its introduction, photography has been an art form in transition. However, today the rate of change is accelerating.

This change brings into focus the reality that education in many areas of technology happens beyond the scope of the teacher/learner interchange. We have individuals coming to us to assist them in their learning journey as change in technology impacts the learning they have already accomplished. We are also seeing individuals coming to us with more information about emerging technology than has been normal in the past.

“Technique is what you fall back on when you are out of inspiration.”

Rudolf Nureyev

Today even with the rapid change in technologies used to make pictures, we still find that we must teach technique and aesthetics as they apply to making pictures. Looking for teaching methodologies that will address change is not the issue. We will find that the changes in imaging and photography apply to the tools used to make pictures and have little effect on the way these visually capturing arts are taught. So while the teacher must now shift from the silver-based to the digital format, there is no need to radically change our thinking about how we teach imaging.

The real impact of change in teaching a subject is that it reinforces our need to continue our learning journey. The need to increase our knowing and mastery of changing technology is critical to our success in helping others with their learning photography.

“The problem is that students and photographers to a certain extent get hung up on the paraphernalia of what they are actually shooting with. They think that it is important if they are shooting on film or with digital, if they are shooting small or medium format or 5 × 4. The only requirement that dictates what they shoot on is what is going to happen to the picture at the end. But the principles are exactly the same.”

Ian Kent-Robinson

Salisbury College, United Kingdom

Technology and Technique

There is a difference between technology and technique. Technology is always part of technique, but teaching the technology of photography is not the same thing as teaching the technique. The technique is the application of the sciences and technologies with the methodology to produce pictures.

With conventional silver halide photography for example, an understanding of how the relationship between exposure, development, and density can be described in terms of a graph (Density vs. Log Exposure) is important to acquire. This is most helpful when looking at an image to determine whether exposure or development needs adjustment and how much is needed. A variation of the D-log E curve is used when working with curves in Photoshop. Learned concepts and techniques from conventional silver halide photography are easily transferred to similar concepts in digital photography.

Some detailed photographic technology is required in teaching technique, but not all or necessarily in great depth. In early stages of learning photography, the level of technology can be greatly lowered. As the learner advances through the photographic sequence, technology will inevitably make its way into the learning. The technology can be integrated or addressed separately from making photographs.

“Technique is only a vehicle.”

Callum Innes

Whether approached as science or as technical information, the technology that enables photography can be seen in many cases separately from its application. Usually when we wish to separate the technology form the technique, a course or lecture about the “Science” of photography is used. It is clear that though we may wish to teach the technology of photography, the technology alone will not produce excellent photographs. It only allows the physical making of photographic marks.

While there is an important place for teaching the technology and science of photography to image makers, it must be clear that this is supporting information and not the act of photography itself. After the first photographs, shown as evidence of the viability of the processes, few images demonstrating only the technology have been hailed as great images.

“Taking the edge off the technical learning. Treating the technical as though it's a friend not a foe. Being happy in front of the students as well. Make it enjoyable, make them appreciate what they are doing.”

Andrew Moxon

Savannah College of Art and Design, GA

A Philosophy of Tools in Photography

Just as there are tools that will be important to learn to make photographs, there also tools that will enable us to assist others in their learning. In approaching the teaching of technique we are dealing with the tools to help others learn the tools of photography.

To understand the “technique education” side of photography we must look at what we are actually teaching. While it is easy to say that we are teaching the various techniques and methods used in making photographs, this only explains the first portion of our task.

We are discussing an approach to the technology involved in image making—how photographs become objects. We can use this as representing “making marks” that will later communicate the meaning of the photograph. However, the technology used to make the photograph is only the first part needed to give meaning to the photographic image. In this way we are defining the process of making the image as a tool to create the marks.

If we return to our discussion of photography as a visual language we can think of the physical making of the images as the words and structure of the language. This means that the various parts of the photographic process, from capture through presentation, are the devices that will be used to communicate the information but not the meaning.

“The artist can know all the techniques in the world, but if he feels nothing, it will mean nothing.”

Chen Chi

Photography represents a constructed vision of the world. Just as any other construction, we will require tools to accomplish our tasks. Within a verbal language our tools are grammar and syntax. In the visual language of photography our tools are the methods, techniques, and processes that create the photographic image. Tools are needed in photography as a way to make the art, but the tools…the techniques, regardless of how well executed, are not the art.

Common tools include, but are not limited to, physical equipment and materials used in photography such as light meters, cameras, films, and sensors. We can also look at processes such as development, the Zone System, printing, and finishing as tools. It will often be the case that a learner will be opposed to a particular tool. However, it is one of the roles of the teacher to use education to expand the learner's toolbox. For an example, when Bruce Davidson was a student, he was “married” to his 35 mm camera and was not interested in learning about a view camera. He told his professor that he would never use one, so why bother to learn about it. The professor patiently convinced him that it was important and an integral part of the course. So he learned how to use a view camera, but not with much enthusiasm. Some years later he found himself using a view camera to photograph East 100th Street, which became a book classic and one of his signature pieces. He tells this story to remind learners to keep an open mind.

Learning the Tools

If we analyze the tools needed to produce photography, we see that we are dealing with interrelated linear techniques. There are many single tools that gain in importance as they are used together. It is the Gestalt saying, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” We need to lead the learners through the techniques with an understanding that it will be through the interrelation of the single techniques that photography happens.

“Putting together an appropriate set of building blocks, trying to move logically through what digital photography is but what the students want to do is to see it as a Photoshop 1 class. So what I try to do is to impress the students that all things technical are tools that serve an end. And that end is making pictures.”

Barry Andersen

Northern Kentucky University, KY

Teaching tools easily fall into the concept of learning as a path through an informational field. Because we will be teaching an information-laden area we can use many differing approaches to providing the learners with the photographic tools. As stated at the beginning of this book, there are many paths that we can take and some will be more appropriate than others.

Traditionally in education, we use lectures, laboratories, and out-of-class work as methods to help others learn. Just as there are many different paths to learning, the appropriateness of choosing any particular method for presentation or assisting learning is as much dependent on the learners as it is on the materials. If we define the types of teaching for technique into concept of presentation, directed work, and independent work, then we can assign different orientations to the learning and how these can facilitate each type of learning.

As in any technologically based art, the steps of the processes used often define the technique and the way we will learn the art. In photography the technique is the most linear learning part. Teaching techniques in photography and imaging has the learner progress through a series of interrelated steps.

“What makes photography different is its dependency on materials and processes. These need to be addressed, understood, and controlled before serious creative work can be done by the students. If we do not deal with these issues and simply allow them to do ‘ART’with little understanding of the processes they work with, it is allowing them to play in the sandbox. Not serious! Too many photography faculty dismiss the technical issues as not worthy of serious consideration and concentrate on the critical visual and intellectual issues posed by the students'work. I have no problem with the intellectual focus of the critique, but would like to see a more balanced approach.”

Hans Westerblom

Ryerson Polytechnical University, Canada

Learning technique in photography is like arithmetic learning; the learning is a series of processes to reach specific answers. With photography we want the learners to have results with specific outcomes from the related steps…defined outcomes from defined processes. Because we know the outcome desired from the learning activities, we can relate this success of the learning to the specific step or process. If the learner is following the steps needed to make the proper exposure, the answer will be seen in the outcome on the film or in the histogram.

The level of the learner is important when contemplating how the steps will be put together. It is far more important for beginning learners to have successful outcomes than it will be with more advanced learners. Early steps in learning techniques need to provide opportunities to accomplish easily the goals of the process. Thus, in developing a strategy to introduce new learners to photography there must be a concept that the learner will leave the process with acceptable results that reinforce their interests and the goals of the early learning.

Early learning in these steps should be filled with successes so that later learning will produce repeatable outcomes. It is the repeating of simple steps that builds up a reservoir of increasing technique. The materials need to be arranged to bring the learner up the technique path supported by successes. It is an issue of steady progress without giving up the technique gains between steps, and the early successes reinforce this idea.

“Photography has to teach tools…not rules.”

Dennis Keeley

Art Center College of Design, CA

The step process in early learning of technique is best in small portions that can be easily augmented by succeeding steps. The presentation or demonstration of the techniques is best handled in monitored instruction or directed laboratories. As the learners advance from simple successes the material can also be accelerated to be larger interrelated techniques.

With a simple structure of technique, the areas for failures will be restricted. This allows for easier correction and improvement. This strengthens the teaching/learning dialogue, with corrections solving the learner's error by simple technique modification. While correct technique is the goal, it is not assumed as the starting point. If errors occur in the beginning they will be small and easily seen and corrected. This allows their correction along the learning path in small steps, enabling the learner to become skilled at a higher level of technique.

When the learner becomes more familiar with the processes involved and they push the processes, they will make errors that allow for correction, leading to more advanced techniques. This will repeat positive learning to the benefit of their photography. Beyond the movement through correction to easier technique control, the repeat ability in technique that the learner will strive for is the real goal.

Helene; by Andrew Davidhazy, Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, student of Richard Zakia

Therefore, the issue facing intermediate instruction in photography is to build replication of technique to reinforce the positives and allow for correction of native outcomes.

Leslie Stroebel's book, View Camera Technique, 7th edition, can be used as an example. It was first published many years ago and is still in print and is still used by students learning photography. The contents of the introduction to the book lists some of the tools involving technique:

1.1 View Camera

1.2 Ground-glass Viewing

1.3 Lateral, Vertical, and Angular Adjustments

1.4 Interchangeable Lenses

1.5 Flexile Bellows

1.6 Large Film Support

1.7 Camera Support

1.8 Advantages and Limitations of View Cameras

After the learner becomes familiar with a view camera and its various adjustments, the book continues with a progressive sequence of advanced techniques. Well-structured books, such as View Camera Technique, give good roadmaps to teaching technique. In these texts there has been a pedagogical structure imposed on how to see the learning of specific tools.

As the learner advances, the opportunities to perfect technique come from investigating nuances in the various steps that they have already learned, know, or have mastered. However, it must be realized that even though the learner is advancing they are still involved in a series of steps. Though we might expect the advanced learner to be expanding their visual vocabulary, the outcomes of their efforts still must conform to specific expectations in order to advance their technique to the levels of mastery and, finally, owning.

“Perfecting a good technique in the use of tilt and swing adjustments on the back of the camera to control image shape, and the use of tilt and swing adjustments on the front of the camera to control image sharpness, requires practice in making the proper adjustments with a variety of subjects until the procedures become automatic—so that attention can then be shifted to the more subjective factors required in the production of effective photographs.”

Leslie Stroebel

Rochester Institute of Technology, NY

Presentation Technique

There are a number of techniques that a teacher can use to assist the learner, depending upon the type of learning desired. While this chapter is about teaching technique, and others deal with other concepts and teaching platforms, the subjects in all these chapters cross back and forth through the idea of teaching photography and imaging. For this reason he subjects discussed in any of these chapters apply to all appropriate approaches in photography.

Lecture

Because photographic technique is an application of the technology, lecturing can be only tangentially associated with the highest level of learning of how to make photographs. These aligned areas include many areas of the technology, history, and theory that make for a fuller understanding of photography. This does not mean that there is no place for lecturing to assist learning technique, but that it is only that this method of presentation will not be where the majority of the learning takes place.

Lecturing is a transfer of information in a one-way direction; it supports learning in the cognitive domains but is not as effective for the application-based activities. Effective lecturing introduces and/or instructs the technologies and science that support the technique supporting quality picture making.

“Chemistry, camera designs, and computers can overshadow the classroom learning experience. In presenting the fundamentals of these and other elements, students see the synthesis between science and creativity. By demystifying the technical side, they become less anxious and more engaged with their craft.”

Bill Davis

Western Michigan University, MI

The concept of the teacher as an actor on the stage is not totally correct; a lecture is primarily a one-directional presentation, with information going from the presenter to the learners. While it is advantageous to have questions within the lecture format, this does not need to be formalized either. The instructor can move throughout the group of learners and from the formal or informal as determined by the material, depending on the presentation style of the instructor, the needs of the learners, or requirements of the educational provider.

The length of lectures and the communication skills of the presenter influence the success of a lecture. An old axiom points out that “the mind can absorb only as much as the posterior can stand.” As Albert Einstein pointed out, time is relative; thus the ability to stimulate and engage the learners determines how long “long” is. Beyond the length, the clarity, tone, and liveliness of the presentation also make the lecture positive for the learners. Though the ability to connect and communicate is important in all parts of teaching photography, it is particularly important in a lecture. It can be said that teaching is a performance and the lecture is where this shows the most.

The critical item for the creation of a successful lecture is the planning. While it is not required that an outline or written lecture be prepared, it certainly is recommended. Particularly with the linear nature of the technique of photography, a good flow of information will assist the learning process. Of course, slides or digital presentations provide the organization that holds the information in its planned flow. A projection-supported lecture allows the visual preference of photography learners to assist them in acquiring the information from the lecture.

“Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.”

Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki

Depending on the size of the lecture and the presentation methodology, the use of examples of technique are a real advantages of the lecture format. Even with larger groups present, the lecture format allows the presenter to concentrate the learners' attention to specifics of the technique. While this book is not about instructional technology, in today's instructional milieu there are many presentation methods that expand the lecture format. Many media can be used to illuminate and expand the information coming from a lecture. Photography is a visual art and even if the information flow is in one direction, the ability to present a visually interesting presentation makes the lecture more effective.

Successful lecturing provides an efficient way to provide large amounts of information to a cohort of learners. While this is the least personal method of instruction, it is effective as part of an overall approach to presenting technique.

Note Taking

What the students write, what is printed, and why the learners need to write it down are at the heart of note taking. Since the lecture is a single-direction event, note taking is the way the learner becomes more active in a lecture situation. Notes assist learning in several ways. First, because the learner has become more active in the learning process there is a stronger likelihood that learning will take place. It is known that the more times information is perceived, the better the learning. By taking notes the learner immediately reinforces the memory of the information. Second, notes provide a method to review information and/or study. Also, in many cases, information recorded as notes can become a personal “hard copy” LUT.

To assure that the note taking is a learning activity, a follow-up needs to take place. The most common approach to monitoring note taking is to grade notebooks on a regular basis. However, there are other methods, including use of “open note” testing and creations of “lab books.” The concept of open note testing will be addressed in a later chapter. The lab book is a linear (page-numbered) volume in which the learner can add examples and other writings to build a reference volume. Because the lab book concept uses a linear note-taking process, there is a burden placed on the instructor to assure the proper flow of material and examples for inclusion. A notebook utilizing a loose-leaf binder allows for less linear presentations because the notes can be rearranged to give a good flow to the information.

“I believe the students are learning when, as a group, they are taking notes. When their heads are looking down and snapping back up I think they are getting it. When they are moving slowly or not taking notes they are probably not getting it.”

John Tonai

Brooks Institute of Photography, CA

Another way to assist the learning process is to prepare lecture notes. These can be elaborate or sparse. They are as much an aid to the lecturer as the learner. Particularly helpful to the learner are illustrated “empty notes.” Illustrated empty notes are notes that include the illustrations that will appear in the lecture without the names and words that describe the illustrations. The learner is then given the ability in the lecture to pay attention and take notes without needing to take time to draw the diagrams or illustrations that are in the lecture. This will enhance the lecture's information because the learner writes in the term or name related to the images, and that action reinforces the learning.

With the growth of Power Point® and other computer-generated presentations, the creation of empty notes has been simplified. To allow the note-taker to fill in the information, the preparation of the presentations often means removing terms and names as well as restructuring illustrations. Where there are animations or sequences, the cells may need to be condensed, combined, or augmented. However, regardless of the way the information is presented, notes need to be thought of as a tool used by the learner in concert with the presentation.

Demonstrations

More practical for assisting others'learning technique is a demonstration. There are basically two types of demonstrations, lecture and simultaneous demonstrations.

“Once you have really ‘heard’what the artist has expressed, it is simple—and fascinating—to work back, step by step, through the technique. Thus one may share in the task of creation.”

Edwin Jewell

A lecture demonstration is a method of presenting information and the steps of a technique. As the name indicates, this is a hybrid of the presentation style of a lecture for the purpose of a demonstration. In this type of demonstration the learners are observing, taking notes, or otherwise following the steps through the technique. The advantage to this type of demonstration is that it can be presented to large groups. Because of the nature of the lecture demonstration, it can be accomplished in any location. The critical issue in presenting in this format is the ability of the learners to accurately view the steps. However, because the lecture demonstration is passive for the learners, media can be used to facilitate the learners in seeing the steps accurately. If, for example, the lecture demonstration is to be used to introduce the students to a view camera and the class size is large, a video camera and monitor can be put in place to show the various components of the camera and how they function.

Simultaneous demonstrations are active for the learners. These have the learners follow the technique as it is demonstrated. This is a slow method to work through a demonstration, but it is very effective, especially for new learners who are unfamiliar with equipment or processes. As important as it is for the learners to be able to see the demonstration steps, there must also be a way for the instructor to reinforce accurate (and correct inappropriate) actions of the learners. When this involves the use of computers, there are several software packages that allow both monitoring and correction of interconnected units.

Preparing for Demonstrations

Preparation is important for all types of demonstrations. Even if the demonstration has been done many times before, it is best to go through a preparation sequence to assure that the demonstration shows the technique desired.

“One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty, until you try.”

Sophocles

There are two issues facing the preparation of a technique presentation. These are the preparation of the presentation itself and the preparation of the learners.

As mentioned previously, many presentation tools lend themselves to technique education. Regardless of the type presentation chosen, the outcome desired is a perfection of technique for the learners. This means that the planning for these presentations needs to consider how the steps involved in the technique will be processed by the learners, leading them to their success.

“One mustn't let technique be the consciously important thing. It should be at the service of expressing the form.”

Henry Moore

Since technique is a step-based idea, the teaching of technique lends itself to modularization of the steps. In approaching the modules, all portions, for the learners'success, must be included in each unit. This does not mean that the totality of photography must be included from the beginning. If there is to be success in any specific step, planning for presenting the step needs to include the information for the learners' success in that step. As an example, if we look at making a first photograph, there is a need to have the learner be able to succeed at framing a picture, but not necessarily to know how all of that relates to processing of the image. Particularly for newer learners the steps in the technique to be learned need to be small in concept, so that they do not overwhelm the success.

If we return to using a text to assist in preparing to teach a particular technique, we can see that to demonstrate how to make a high-contrast film-based image, you might use the chapter by J. Seeley in Darkroom Dynamics (edited by Jim Stones) as a guide to modules that can be used to prepare a demonstration. In using this method you will see a highlighted outline to assist the learning process. To follow this example, we see the sequencing for a presentation: this sees a demonstration as including the materials, setting up, making a film positive, making a litho film negative, and making a final high-contrast print. Your knowledge and experience will fill in the modules, using the text as assistance in setting up the demonstration.

In planning for a demonstration it is important to do more than look to the outcome of the learning. Part of the planning for the demonstration is to work through how all the learning takes place. This includes assurance that those who wish to learn from the demonstration can adequately see the individual steps and that the steps accomplish the learning objectives. Even though the steps for the technique may be part of the teachers'knowledge base, the demonstration should be worked through.

The run-through of the demonstration can have specific beneficial parts. With a run-through, the instructor has the opportunity to check the availability of equipment and materials required for the demonstration and to make sure that the time allotted for the demonstration is adequate for the learning objectives. There is nothing more disappointing in a demonstration than to have to explain something that the learners expected to see demonstrated.

As part of the preparation for the demonstration, check the visibility of the steps. This may mean that you need to consider multiple passes through the technique to enable smaller groups to see the critical steps. Because a person is present at the demonstration does not ensure that they have seen the technique.

The technique needs to be demystified. This is part of the preparation of the learner. Many novices coming to photography see that there are difficult tricks that they will need to discover to master the medium, which is perceived as an obstacle to their easily learning the technique. While some advanced technique may be more difficult, the techniques used in photography are not mysteries. The instructor needs to convey this idea. As John Sexton has said, “I do not know any great photographers who have secret techniques.” It becomes the role of the demonstrator to show that the mystery is there to be mastered.

“The mysterious is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and science.”

Albert Einstein

A good way to prepare for the learners'successes is to develop handouts that the students can use as they go through the technique demonstrated. Preparation of handouts is a sound method for the instructor to organize the demonstration. The linear pattern codified in the handout will support both the demonstration and the activity that the learners will use in the up-compilation of the technique.

Handouts that are used as part of a demonstration need to transition from the demonstration to the application of the technique. When the handout can be used directly to reinforce the technique demonstrated, it becomes a stronger part of the growth of the learning. With this in mind, the design of a working handout should not only consider the steps in the technique but also how the learner will use the handout. When the handout is to be used directly in the field, its size should be taken into consideration. The ability to take a handout into the field or darkroom allows the learning process to continue as the learner applies the technique. Depending upon the design and function of the handout, the techniques can be guided through the steps delineated in the handout. Beyond the size of the handout, ideas such as laminating the handout or sizing it to fit within existing notebooks or field guides should be taken in consideration. The LUT shown in Chapter 2 was part of a card handed out at Brooks Institute of Photography. This allows the learner to carry this BDE Chart into the field as they make photographs.

It must be clear that a working handout is not the same as a lecture note. Notes should be designed to help the learner in understanding the technology, while working handouts need to be designed and constructed to assist the learner in using the steps of the technique.

Laboratories

While lectures provide an opportunity to give learners the background and knowledge base for photography, it is in the laboratory that techniques are perfected. Just as demonstrations can involve learners in the laboratory on different levels, there can be varying levels for the instructor. There are primarily three differing levels of involvement in three types of lab situations: directed, monitored, and open.

“Technique serves creativity. You need a refined level of craft in order to express yourself. One does not substitute for the other, they are independent and when someone has control of their craft, they are capable of what Ernst Haas referred to as ‘poetic response,’then the possibility of something transcending pure technique is there.”

Craig Stevens,

Savannah College of Art and Design, GA

The directed lab allows the learner to work on specific techniques with the direct involvement of the instructor. Just as in a lecture demonstration, the time needed to perform each step of the technique must be taken into consideration when planning the laboratory. Directed labs, also known as technical laboratories for accreditation purposes, are highly structured learning environments where the instructor works directly with learners to assure that the technique is properly applied the first time. In this lab structure, the instructor is commonly in the lab along with the learners. This provides direct instruction to the technique. Whether in the computer lab, darkroom, or in the field, the instructor's role is to interact with the learners to assure that the steps of the technique are properly executed. In a Photoshop® lab the instructor might be interconnected through software to each learner's computer or might move throughout the lab facility to assist learners as problems arise. This might include showing a learner how to access particular menus or how to adjust a curve; the teacher's interaction will simplify the learning activity. A note of caution: it may be detrimental to learning for the teacher to perform the desired activity rather than to demonstrate and then monitor the learner as he or she applies the same steps.

Directed labs have the greatest importance early in the learning sequence. They are very important for new learners, but as learners progress through the photographic concepts, the need for directed labs diminishes. While the directed lab provides direct instruction on the application of technique, as the level of science in the curriculum increases, the directed lab format becomes problematic, both from the standpoint of working with each learner and from pure time considerations.

As students advance through the techniques, the need for directed labs is reduced; directed labs are then easily replaced by monitored labs. The monitored lab provides learners with access to an individual with knowledge of the technique being learned, without the requirement that the instructor be in the laboratory environment.

An issue arises with the qualifications of individuals assigned as lab monitors. For liability as well as educational reasons a level of qualification needs to be established for those monitoring laboratories. It is not necessarily enough to have as monitor someone who has gone through the lab. If the monitor does not know the material and lacks a level of mastery of the technique being performed in the lab, their ability to address problems that the learners have with the technique may create deficiencies that will need to be addressed by un-teaching and re-teaching the material technique.

“The students need tools. I see technical knowledge about photography as essential tools.”

Lex Youngman,

Wingate University, NC

While a staff employee may meet the liability requirements of the lab, it may be important to restrict their role in teaching the technique. This can be particularly problematic since it is beneficial to have the learners view the support staff as authority figures and as a source of knowledge. If the opportunity exists, it is probably best to have a fully qualified instructor monitoring laboratories. With larger laboratory situations there is the potential that staff employees may not have the skills in the techniques the learners are studying. However, with a staff employee manning the instructor's station, a learner may ask for technique help, regardless of the staff employee's qualifications. This is simply a result of the staff person's presence, not affirmation of his or her skills. It is possible that the staff person does have the requisite skills, but if a technique requires a specific application sequence, then their skills as a photographer or as a staff employee do not necessarily translate into their abilities as a teacher.

Of course, many lab situations are neither directed nor monitored. Open lab situations provide opportunities for the learners to utilize lab facilities or work on assignments within a structured environment, without direction or monitoring. The effectiveness of an open lab is often determined by the priorities, independence, and determination of the learner.

One of the major advantages to an open lab and at the same time one of the major detriments is that the learners will share information among themselves. It is important to realize that the learners will find comfort in asking others for assistance when they believe that the assistance offered will be on their level of comprehension. This is true whether the learners asked are from the same or from a more advanced cohort. Just as with staff, it is important to realize that misinformation about technique from a fellow learner may be a problem as the learner progresses.

Whether directed, monitored, or open and independent, the laboratory provides the opportunity to apply the techniques learned in lectures or demonstrations. The lab structure allows the highest level of learning through doing. For learning technique, this is where the action is!

Correcting Technique

Whether in a laboratory or in other learning situations, correcting technical problems provides a strong learning activity. The use of the correction process provides an opportunity to teach far more than the technique that was improperly accomplished. However, correcting technique can become frustrating for the learner who has erred in their technique. Because of potential embarrassment, a balance must be struck between the need to new show corrections to a large group of learners and the personal effect on one individual. One method of use lies in the correction mode; to instruct is to provide a review for all learners, whereas corrections are discussed without identifying where the problem was detected.

“We learn from our mistakes; not to, is a bigger mistake.”

Anonymous

Because photographic techniques are linear, correcting problems relates to first defining the point at which the steps have gone awry. This many times requires the instructor to demonstrate the process from the beginning or to start at a logical point in the process, where the students have demonstrated mastery. Adequately correcting the problem requires assurance that the step where the problem arose is visible. With the linearity of photography there is the potential that the source of the problem will not be evident until very late in the process. Thus, solving the problem will require backtracking into this sequence of steps, to reach the point to make the correction.

Within a structured laboratory there is the opportunity to bring learners together to provide collective direction to problems as they arise. This is most helpful particularly with cohorts of newer learners, because they all tend to run into the same problems. However, care should be taken to use the same “non-personal” demonstration location within the laboratory whenever possible. This will provide the learners with an opportunity to clearly see the correction process without attaching the problem to any particular individual.

Knowing and Perfecting Technique

Knowing technique is demonstrated by its application. There is a decision made by the instructor that either the learners will be able to apply the technique easily or that they will strive to know and own the technique. There are many ways that techniques of photography can be applied without consideration for the underlying knowledge of the technique. Though shortcuts provide quick successes for the learner, they short-change the process. Learning photography is a long journey and the shortcuts do not provide the understanding needed to solve advanced problems, if they fall outside the prescribed steps used in the shortcut.

The decision as to the use of shortcuts is most closely aligned with the level of the learning expected. With new learners, it is often important to provide easy successes that will encourage further learning. As learners advance in their photographic skills, it becomes more important that they understand the “whys” of technique and not just the steps involved in how to perform the technique. In discussing knowing his skill set, the all-time great golfer Jack Nicklaus said, “I'm impressed by players who ask why a shot turned out the way it did rather than how to execute it properly. If you discover why something happens, the execution part becomes much easier” (Golf Digest/April 2004).

“To be a good photo instructor you have to be technically and artisticallycompetent and have a good imagination…you need to be willing to thinkoutside the traditional box.”

Art Rosser

Clayton State College and University, GA