Antelope Valley Community College, Digital Photography
At Antelope Valley Community College, the Macintosh is a key element in several “hands-on” courses in digital photography and desktop publishing. Students have access to a lab equipped with two dozen Macintosh computers running Aldus PhotoShop, as well as a variety of hardware peripherals. Students can capture and manipulate images on the computer, preparing photographs for publication or creating original artwork.
According to Dennis White, dean of fine arts at Antelope Valley, the school began working with digital photography for two reasons. OSHA reports revealed the possible hazards of working with traditional chemical-based photography over an extended period. At the same time, digital photography began to emerge, becoming more widely used in private industry, with improved quality.
Graduates from Antelope’s Fine Arts Department can move on to employment in mass communications, magazine and newspaper publication, professional photography, and military and medical fields. Since the Antelope Valley project is currently the only approved certification program in the state, courses in the fine arts program have been a great success.
White says that computer use in his department began in 1985, when the lab purchased several Apple IIe computers. In 1987, the department purchased its first Macintosh computers, and has continuously upgraded the lab. The current art lab includes 24 Macintosh machines, two LaserWriterNT printers, two Tektronics thermal printers, and inkjet printers for producing rough drafts of documents. The lab also has two black-and-white grayscale scanners, two color flatbed scanners, two slide scanners, and two film printers. The Fine Arts Department is also equipped with a variety of multimedia equipment, such as six video capture boards, four CD-ROM drives, a laserdisc player, and a 30-inch video monitor.
The digital photography class is used as part of a desktop publishing (DTP) class, as well as in commercial illustration, beginning fine arts (design and color), and beginning, intermediate, and advanced photography.
In the DTP class, computers are used throughout the lecture, making the lecture and lab virtually the same component. For example, an instructor might discuss a particular design element, which would be followed by a video presentation or a demonstration in front of the class. The class is offered as two three-hour lectures per week, or once a week as an evening class.
The classes, taught by Robert McMahon and Rich Sim, focus on giving students traditional design concepts as a foundation, followed by more advanced topics on the computer. For example, in a typical assignment, a student might be asked to complete a three to four-page layout incorporating two color photographs and three or four black-and-white grayscale photographs. The layout would be broken into a particular amount of columns, and perhaps incorporate a spreadsheet or graphic along with some rotated text or illustration.
Contact: Dr. Dennis White, 3041 West Ave. K, Lancaster, CA 93536; (805) 943-3241.
