Photo workshop for our Preparatory Class

The teaching programme for students in the Preparatory Class at the 3D Animation Film School MoPA is designed to enable our students to explore a number of artistic techniques that will help them develop their creative mind. The photography workshop is one of the highlights of their year, and the students are looking forward to it.

Nathalie Bossard, a photographer and visual communications instructor, is doing us the honour of accompanying the students in the Preparatory Class on this technical exercise. Nathalie is also the founder of the association "l'image en jeu", which offers creative workshops based around photography: invaluable expertise for meeting the educational objectives of the exercise.

Creativity at the service of educational objectives

While Nathalie Bossard's basic aim is to teach them how to handle a camera properly and manage the technical parameters of shooting, such as exposure, speed and iso, other objectives are also listed to develop their skills. Through an awareness of the language of photography and its narrative dimension, the students learned to manage shot values, sharp/blurred oppositions, points of view and composition, for example. They were also able to work on the narrative ellipsis between two photos and develop a more 'cinematographic' approach by juxtaposing photos, as well as getting their first taste of studio lighting management. Finally, our young photographers developed their ability to anticipate an image and to become 'actors' in their photos, all in a creative approach!

One workshop, three topics

In order to provide a complete workshop, Nathalie Bossard set up three separate exercises, allowing students to learn different techniques.

The first exercise, "Prise de tête" ("Headshot"), required students to illustrate in a photo, without Photoshop editing, a French expression including the word "head". The aim? To manage a portrait in studio lighting using a creative and symbolic approach. Discover six photographs illustrating this exercise.

 

 

For the second exercise, the students told a story in three images or in three parts: context, action and punchline. They worked on structure and narrative ellipsis, and considered their framing and points of view, as well as the management of shots and backgrounds. Take a look at six of our students' stories below.

 

 

The third and final exercise was to tell a story in a single image. By working on the narrative value of a photo, playing with the technical constraints imposed and looking for a visual 'tension' that generates imagination, our students succeeded in creating fine photographs. They worked on blur, sharpness, point of view, off-screen, the placement of glances, characters and the reading path to create their images, including the six you can see below.

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to our students for capturing moments and telling original stories through this workshop, and a huge thank you to Nathalie Bossard, who we invite you to discover on her networks.