Computer Science 39J, Section 1
The Art and Science of Photography: Drawing with Light (2 units, P/NP)
Professor Brian Barsky
Friday 12:00-2:00, 405 Soda Hall, CCN: 26251

On the first day of instruction, please meet Professor Barsky at 12:10 in Crossroads Dining Hall in the back on the left near the ice cream machines. Additional Food for Thought dining arrangements will be discussed in class.

This seminar explores the art and science of photography. Photographs are created by the control and manipulation of light. We will discuss quality of light for the rendering of tone, texture, shade, shadow, and reflection. The seminar examines the photographic process from light entering the lens through the creation and manipulation of the final image. Some typical topics are composition and patterns, mathematics of perspective projection, refraction, blur, optics of lenses, exposure control, color science, film structure and response, resolution, digital image processing, the human visual system, spatial and color perception, and chemical versus electronic processing. The seminar is open to freshmen only. Although this seminar is offered through the Computer Science Division, the focus of this seminar is not computer science. The focus of this seminar is photography, and it is not limited to digital photography but embraces also film photography. Students should have experience using a camera with manual control of exposure and focus and that either has interchangeable lenses of different focal lengths or has a zoom lens. Students must have such a camera to complete the course assignments. Ideally, students should have access to both a film camera and a digital camera. It is helpful, but not essential, for students to have an interest in science (at least chemistry and physics). Class assignments will be based on color slides, prints, and digital images. Although print film assignments are welcome, the darkroom facilities are outside the control of the class. Student work will be critiqued in class. Participation and attendance at all classes and other course-related activities is required to receive a "pass" grade, except for prior arrangement with the instructor or documented emergencies. "Guidelines Concerning Scheduling Conflicts with Academic Requirements" by the Committee on Educational Policy state: "If unforeseen conflicts arise during the course of the semester students must promptly notify the instructor and arrange to discuss the situation as soon as these conflicts (or the possibility of these conflicts) are known" and "faculty may decline to enroll students in a class who cannot be present at all scheduled activities."
To read an interesting article about this seminar, please see http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs39j/fa06/engnews/http://inst.EECS.Berkeley.EDU/~cs39j/ This seminar is part of the Food for Thought Seminar Series.

Related website: http://inst.EECS.Berkeley.EDU/~cs39j/

Brian Barsky received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in Computer Science and joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1981. His research interests are CAD/CAM, computer-aided geometric design and modeling, computer graphics, geometric modeling, visualization in scientific computing, and computer-aided cornea modeling and visualization.