Christine J. Shanks, Image Maker, Designer, Educator
Christine J. Shanks
  • About
    • Teaching Philosophy
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • Full Course List
    • Professional Biography
    • Commencement Address
    • Portfolio PDF
    • Student Portfolio DESIGN
    • Student Portfolio PHOTO
  • BLOGS & SOCIAL MEDIA
  • Contact/Office Hours
  • Course Policies
    • Grading
    • Course Policies >
      • Good Students = Success
  • Resources
    • Concept Development
    • Logo/Branding >
      • Logo Do's and Dont's
      • 10 Logo Guidelines
    • Photo
    • Web
    • Motion Graphics
    • Graphic Design
  • TC3 Courses
    • Kelab Literary & Arts Journal
    • TUTORING for ART/Design
    • CD Exercise
  • Interactive/Web Courses
    • Intro to Web Design >
      • PSD Mockup
    • Web Scripting >
      • Weekly Outline GR20755
      • Assignment GR20755 >
        • Photoshop Mockup
        • Promo Boxes Demo
        • Logo and Background Tiling
    • Motion Graphics For Web >
      • Type Examples
      • Animation Examples
    • Interactive Portfolio
  • Media Courses
    • Media Techniques >
      • Lazertran
      • Acrylic Transfers
  • Photo Courses
    • Do's and Dont's
  • OKI Data Printing Collaboration
  • C.H.O.P Book Project
  • Transitioning to Online Learning Guide COVID19

HIGHLIGHT: Digital Photography For Designers Course

This is a class I developed for the graphic design department at The Art Institute of Philadelphia. It covers aspects of photography that are important to design students, enabling them to create their own photographs for layouts, illustrations and their portfolios. The class also helps students learn to communicate with photographers and choose interesting and dynamic stock photography when working in the field. They learn all of the Advanced shooting modes associated with the RAW file format on a DSLR. They work with ambient light shooting a wide range of styles and subjects. They learn to work with hot lights and flash in a studio setting and are introduced to professional lighting techniques. Since they are design students the final project is to create a photographic magazine using their photographs, this teaches them how to design utilizing photographs in an image heavy publication. They also submit their best images to Pique Magazine (the school's photographic magazine) for possible publication.
The course is a fundamentals of photography course with studio lighting added. The graphic design students taking the course have often never used a camera or have only dabbled in photography. I have found that generally their work exhibits stronger composition than many beginning photo students because they have a strong background in layout prior to taking the course.

In the course they complete:
  • A series of photographs
  • A photographic scavenger hunt
  • Photographic illustration
  • Logo from a photograph
  • Studio and Environmental photography

Below you'll find a Gallery of photographs as well as several student's photo publications, uploaded as pdfs.

Jordi Sabate: Chiaro Oscuro (Double Cover Flip Magazine Concept)

Charisma Henzie: Photography Magazine Excerpt

Kyle Earl: Eyes Wide Open

Justin Golt: HDR Magazine Excerpt

Intellectual Property Copyright

Syllabus and all of its Contents and Supplements are the intellectual property of the instructor and may not be used without consent and proper citation.