Photography 101; Wednesday, Second Period [02/01].

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Alright, guys," Prompto, sitting on the desk at the front of the classroom as usual for now, greeted the class with a grin. "So far, we've been talking about some technical stuff: how to use our cameras, the Rule of Thirds, lighting, different types of shots....and now we're going to move into focusing each week on a different type of photography itself, and we're going to start with probably the most popular and common kind of photography, and that's portraits.

"We'll get to last week's photos in a little bit," he said, hopping off the desk now to move over to the projector, "but let's talk portraits first. And, of course, I've got some examples."

Which meant the class was now being shown a variety of different shots from participants both willing and unwilling, mostly Liz, although there were a few dramatic shots of Ignis in there, a lot of Gladio looking like he was just tolerating it, and even some of Apu and the cheese panda in there (for extra nightmare fuel).

And Prompto was kind of thinking he needed to get out and socialize with people more.

Just wait, though, until he had baby pictures.

"Simply put, a portrait is going to basically be a picture of a person, but there's really so much more to it than that. A good portrait is going to capture the...you know...essence of a person, or you'll want to convey a certain mood or characteristic of that person for the people who view. For example, this picture here is really dramatic, makes the subject look very serious and almost a little cold. This one," he switched to the next, gives us a little more dynamic action and interesting places to look. While this one," Prompto chuckled a little with that one, "is rare proof that Ignis does, in fact, know how to smile.

"I'm sure by now now, you get...hah...the picture. Portraits are all about capturing a person or a mood, and there are definitely some tips and tricks when it comes to taking a portrait that goes a bit beyond just snapping pics of your friends, and we're going to take some time to go over them with some more examples."

Which, of course, he then did.

"Any questions about portraits, then?" Prompto concluded, reaching the end of the lesson. "Let's take a moment to look at your different kinds of shots from last week, and then you'll have the rest of the class to practice taking portraits of each other and myself, and for next week, I'd like you to come in with at least three different portraits, each trying to capture a different mood."

There was the briefest pause, as if remembering what he'd seen from his students so far.

"Of people," he specified. Not looking at you, Sakaki. "Portrait of people. We're doing animals another week. Okay! Who wants to go first?"

Art is for Everyone, Wednesday, February 1, 2023

[heroic_jawline]

"Tony's feeling a little under the weather today," Steve said with a smile to the students as they arrived, "so we'll do a project without him just this once."

He gestured to the white wall behind him where he'd hammed a series of nails into it. "Today we're going to explore string art. We'll arrange colored thread between points to form geometric patterns. Even though we're forming straight lines are formed by the string, the slightly different angles and metric positions at which strings intersect gives the appearance of curves, which is fun and mathematical. String art has gotten much more complex thanks to artists using computers to design their works--you can even make photorealistic string art these days--and because string is a three-dimensional media, you can make really interactive displays."

He pushed a few buttons on the Danger Shop controls and one of the corners of the room filled with giant tape art displays. "Go for a walk through that display, get inspired, and then come back over here and work on a project of your own," Steve said.