Photography 101; Tuesday, Third Period [09/12].

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Welcome back, guys," Prompto said, getting class started once everyone was there and grinning from his spot leaning against the desk at the front of the classroom, "and welcome back. Now, these new few weeks of class are going to be doing a lot of talking about techniques and methods, although if, after a week of taking shots, you've got some more technical questions about camera use, come see me and we'll go over them. Today, we're going to focus on something called the Rule of Thirds, which is a popular principle in how to most effective frame and position your shots. But, before we go into that, you guys did have a little bit of homework, so let me take a second to show you how to use the projector here with your camera and you can show off some of your shots from last week."

And once that was taken care of, it was time to get into the lecture proper.

"Now, again, the rule of thirds refers to the framing composition of something, whether it's a drawing or painting or photograph or even a movie or video game frame. They all can take into account the rule of thirds. Basically," he hopped off the desk and moved around to the blackboard so he could start drawing as he explained, "it's breaking the shot down into three parts horizontal and three parts vertical, like this, see? Voila! Now you have a grid with nine equal sections of your picture or painting or movie frame or whatever, and now it becomes all about how you fill each of those squares, what's going on in each of them, and why having things in certain ones makes for a better picture.

"All these points where the lines intersect..." He started drawing circles on the spots where they crossed, the four in the middle. "Those are your points of interest. And the idea is that if you place the main subject of your picture within these points of interest," he drew a circle around all of them to emphasize them, "then you've pretty much got a perfect shot! The points of interest is the goal! Of course, that's just in general. There are a lot of interesting ways to sort of break that general rule, but that's something you can play with in your shots to start seeing for yourself how and when to apply and when to defy," he grinned, a little too proud about that one, "the rule of thirds."

"And when it comes to landscapes that might not have a particular focal point, then the idea is keep things lined up with the lines of the grid, so, like, your horizon might rest on one of these horizontal lines, or let's say you've got a few trees, try to get them to line up with the vertical ones! Same goes with portraits: how can you line up the subject and pose with various lines of the grid to make it seem more balanced? Rule of Thirds is basically just Placement, Placement, Placement!

"So...any questions? We're going to use this class to dive deeper into the Rule of Thirds if you want...I've got plenty of examples, or we can sort of use the class period to practice shots that take the rule of thirds into account. Obviously, then, next week, I'd like everyone to come in with a few shots where you try to put it to use IRL. And? Pro-tip? The cameras we got at the beginning of the class actually have this really neat feature where you can put a digital overlay of the grid right there on your viewfinder, so you can just boot that up and use it as a guide! I'll show you guys how, and then you can start playing around and seeing how following or not following the rule of thirds can change the way your pictures look and feel. I don't want you to rely on the grid entirely, but it could be a good way to get started until you can start seeing the Rule of Thirds in action just by looking at something!"

Philosophies of Good and Evil, Tuesday

[suitably_heroic]

"Welcome back, everybody," Lana said. "Now that we've gotten the pesky good-and-evil thing out in the open, we can talk a bit about what it means and how you might approach it. For one thing, not every philosophy does deal in good and evil. And those that do, often distinguish as some of you did, between the good a person is and the good they do.

( There's an Earth philosophy called Virtue ethics... )

Archaeology For Fun and Profit! - Tuesday, First Period

[good_for_six]

Aphra was missing in action this class, and since she was the only one who actually knew anything about archaeology, well, the projector probably wasn't too much of a surprise.

"So the lovely Chelli had some business that took her away from you," this may or may not have been a lie. "So today we'll be watching a story all about a young archaeologist abandoning her hot girlfriend over her daddy issues."

That wasn't...quite what the film was about Isabela. Not exactly.