For teachers · Camera School

What students need

A laptop or desktop with a recent browser is best for the bench and the fieldwork; phones and tablets work, with a simpler layout. Headphones help if the class works at the same time, since the narrator talks them through each step.
No prior knowledge. The course starts from what a shutter is. Students who already shoot 35 mm will move faster through modules 1 and 3.
No accounts. Progress is kept in each student's browser, so ask students to use the same browser throughout, and to save their contact sheets and exam result as they go.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the unit, students can:

Name the four modules of a V-system camera, say what each does, and explain why the shutter is in the lens.
Make a correctly exposed picture from a cold start: load film, compose and focus, meter, set the lens, fire, wind.
Explain each of the camera's interlocks, and recover the camera from any locked state.
Meter a scene by averaging, spot and incident readings, measure its range, and place a key tone with the Zone System.
Choose an aperture and shutter speed for a reason, and trade between equivalent pairs.
Outline the history of the camera and recognize the photographs it's known for.
Inspect a used camera, judge its condition, and plan its servicing.

A two-week plan

Four class meetings of about 75 minutes, with work between them. Adjust freely: every module stands on its own.

Session 1 · The square

Before class: read Why this camera.

15 min · Open: project the bench and fire the camera once, with the sound on. Ask what they think just happened inside. Collect guesses on the board; you'll return to them in session 2.
30 min · Bench, in pairs: Meet the camera, Your first picture, Look through it.
20 min · Discussion: the square and the waist-level view (questions below).
10 min · Set up: assign the history reading and the module 3 bench lessons.

Session 2 · The machine

Before class: read From Gothenburg to the Moon; do the module 3 bench lessons.

15 min · Slow motion: run Inside, in slow motion on the projector and check it against session 1's guesses.
20 min · Mini-lecture: leaf versus focal-plane shutters, and why the body needs rear blinds. The reading Why the shutter is in the lens covers it.
25 min · Challenges, in pairs: Change lenses mid-shoot, The stuck lens, Double exposure. One student works the camera while the other times and counts refusals, then they swap.
15 min · Discussion: design that protects the user (questions below). Assign the Zone System reading and the module 4 bench lessons.

Session 3 · Light

Before class: read The Zone System; do the module 4 bench lessons.

20 min · Demonstration: with a real gray card, or a sheet of white and black paper, meter a few objects in the room with any phone meter app. Show how each one comes out gray if you shoot at the reading.
30 min · Studio, individually: fieldwork assignments 1 and 2 in the Loft Studio.
25 min · Critique: put three or four contact sheets on the projector. For each frame, ask what was metered, where it was placed, and what fell where.

Between sessions: fieldwork assignments 4, 5 and 6 in Yosemite, handed in as contact sheets with a sentence per frame.

Session 4 · Seeing, and owning

Before class: read The masters and Owning one.

25 min · The masters: small groups take one photograph each and work through the "Looking closely" questions, then report back.
20 min · Inspection: if your department has a Hasselblad, or any old medium-format camera, run the inspection checklist on it in front of the class. If not, walk through the checklist and the test roll, and show what each fault looks like on a negative.
30 min · The final: the twenty-question exam, individually. The challenges can be done as homework.

Discussion questions

The square

What does a square frame do to composition that a rectangle doesn't? Find a picture in which the center is the right place for the subject.
How does looking down at a picture on glass change the act of photographing, compared with looking through a viewfinder or at a phone screen?
The camera has no meter and twelve frames to a roll. Is slowness a limitation or a method?

The machine

Every lock on this camera prevents a mistake. Which modern devices do the same, and which ones let you make the mistake and fix it later? Which approach teaches more?
Putting a shutter in every lens made lenses more expensive. Why was the trade worth it for Hasselblad's customers?

Light

A meter "doesn't know what it's looking at." In what ways is that also true of automatic exposure on a phone?
Adams said the negative is like a score and the print its performance. How does placing a tone before the exposure fit that idea?

History and the masters

NASA chose an off-the-shelf Swedish camera, and modified it. What does that say about the camera's design, and about NASA in 1962?
Pick one photograph from the masters. What did this specific camera make possible that another wouldn't have?
Macmillan drew lines on his focusing screen before the Beatles arrived. How much of a great photograph is decided before the moment?

Assessment

Formative: the quick check at the end of each bench lesson, and the questions at the end of each reading. Neither is graded; both explain wrong answers.
Skills: the five timed challenges. Students can report their stars, time and mistakes from the course map on the bench.
Portfolio: the six fieldwork assignments, handed in as contact sheets with notes. A rubric follows.
Summative: the final exam. Sixteen of twenty is a pass, and passing unlocks a printable certificate.

Criterion	Excellent	Proficient	Developing
Exposure	Key tones placed deliberately; detail held where intended in every frame	Most frames well exposed; placement used in some	Exposure follows the meter's reading without judgment
Metering notes	Says what was metered, where it was placed, and what fell where, for every frame	Notes for most frames, with some reasoning	Settings listed without reasoning
The square	Compositions use the square deliberately: center, symmetry, balance	Some frames use the square well	Compositions read as cropped rectangles
Technique	Pre-release and shutter priority used where they matter	Used when the assignment asks	Not used
Reflection	Identifies what to change, and why, in specific terms	Some specific self-critique	General or none

With a real camera

If your department has a Hasselblad 500-series camera, the course maps directly onto it: every bench lesson is a procedure you can repeat on the real thing, and the inspection checklist and test roll in Owning one make a good lab session. Have students load a roll of real 120 film after they've done it on the bench a few times, and shoot assignment 1 with a real still life and a window. If not, any medium-format camera teaches the same lessons about film, the square and metering.

Accessibility

Every step is written on screen as well as spoken; narration can be turned off, and R repeats the last line.
Every control on the camera has a keyboard key, listed under About on the bench, and a "Show me" button that does the step for you.
The readings are plain web pages that work with screen readers and print cleanly, and each can be read aloud by the narrator.

Teaching with Camera School