Research+Paper

Research Paper

Running Head: USING CELL PHONE CAMERAS IN A DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS Using Cell Phone Cameras in a Digital Photography Class A Review of Some Related Literature Ron Reynolds Shippensburg University TCH 501, Spring Semester Dr. Han Lui April 18, 2012 1. //Problem Statement:// Can cell phones be a viable learning tool for elementary/middle/high school students? 2. //Hypothesis or Research Questions:// Is it possible for cell phones to be a viable tool for use in a high school digital photography class? a. What benefits are there for using a cell phone for taking pictures as opposed to using a more expensive digital camera? b. Would students prefer to use a camera on a cell phone for taking pictures? Why or why not? 3. //Literature Review:// At the website **__Digitaltips.org__**, there is an interesting story titled, “Tech Choices: Cameraphone or Digital Camera?” that asks why camera phones are becoming serious competition for the long established digital cameras like Canon. There are demographic polls and anecdotal evidence that boils the speculation down to a few points. The Internet photo sharing website called Flickr notes that the iPhone 4 is tied with the Canon Digital Rebel XTi as the most popular camera. The next most popular camera, and moving up fast? The iPhone 4S. A big boost for the camera phones as digital cameras is the social networking aspect of today’s life. Twitter, Facebook, iMessage, and Flickr are just a few of the many social media outlets that use photographs in their connection between users. This gives more people more reasons to take not just pictures, but well staged and arranged photographs. If a picture is not what the photographer wanted, it is incredibly easy to delete the shot and try again and again and again. Many apps are Twitter and Facebook integrated, so pictures are uploaded practically without any effort. So when people see that today’s camera phone functions better than high end digital cameras, they take a lot of pictures, take photography courses, and the line blurs between professional photographer and amateur. In a PDF from the HP labs in Palo Alto and published in 2005 (before great iPhone cameras but during the time when camera phones were starting to be used a lot) titled, **__“PLOG: Easily Create Digital Picture Stories Through Cell Phone Cameras”.__** PLOG is a program that HP was working on that did then what many free apps nowadays do, which is to be able to shrink the image size of a camera photo down to a good size, then give the phone the ability to upload the image to the web. Back in 2005, this was a big deal, and HP made great strides with the technology, but since then, the market has been saturated with phones capable of taking great pictures (or some might say with cameras capable of making phone calls), and it was only inevitable that the ease of use and integration of the technology into the devices should catch up. HP wanted to tap into peoples’ desire to use photography to tell a story about what was going on in their lives long before Facebook and Twitter. At **__iTunesU__**, I found a video lecture series on digital photography. In it, the instructor talks about using Adobe Photoshop in enhancing digital photographs. In the past, Adobe Photoshop has been only for desktop and laptop computers. But now it is an app that can be put on the iPad and used for the traditional purposes. When I teach my students to use Photoshop in my class, they ask why I prefer digital photography to film. I tell them that film photography is dead, and digital is the new format for the foreseeable future. I say that if they go into some field that requires photography, they won’t ask if the students can develop their own film. They will ask what version of Photoshop and Illustrator they can work with. To //not// teach students digital photography and Photoshop would be doing them a great disservice as a teacher and an educational establishment. 4. //Research Design:// -Descriptive -Comparative -Survey -Casual Comparative 5. //Participants:// 53 high school Intro to Art students ranging from grades 9 through 12 divided into 2 separate 18 week classes. 6. //Intervention and Procedure:// For the 2 weeks of the 18 week Intro to Art class that focuses on Intro to Digital Photography, the students will be asked to take photographs of specific subject matter using a digital camera. I ask the students who has or has access to a cell phone with a digital camera, and every hand goes up. It is extremely rare these days for someone to not have at least //access// to a cell phone with a digital camera. After the class has been instructed on how to take proper photographs (how to stand, breathe, seek out the best light/shadow balance, etc) they will be given a few days to take them. After taking the photographs and uploading them in their original form to their computers, they will save them onto a flash drive and bring them to class to be uploaded to my iMac lab. The basics for the digital photography section include color and contrast enhancement, cropping, and creating Ansel Adams-like black & white pictures. After that, I will show them how to create nonreal scenes, like inserting themselves into a picture with someone famous, long dead, or in a movie. The students will see that they can start with a simple photograph, then turn it into something much better. They will see how they can not only add to a photograph, but also remove things from one. They will learn how to potentially make money from taking pictures, at weddings, sporting events, birthdays, and so on. They will see that they can possibly make a career out of taking photographs, as long as they can make them look aesthetically pleasing. 7. //Data Collection:// 8. //Data Analysis:// -Survey 9. Results Prediction: Based on my hypothesis, I can predict that cell phone cameras will be able to be used in a digital photography class, since many students have, or have access to, cell phone cameras, and the students are very fluent in the function of said cell phone cameras. Not only do I predict that the cameras will be able to be used, but I feel that the students will be more enthusiastic about taking pictures, improving them, and manipulating them because the tool and technology will be ones with which they are familiar.
 * __Cult of Mac__** – This is a very reputable book and blog that focuses on all things related to Apple computers, iPhones, iPads, and any other peripheral device produced by the company. In an article titled, “English College Offers iPhoneography Course”, the virtues of having such an offering are extolled. It discusses aspects of the argument for iPhone use in a digital photography class that I completely agree with, such as the fact that most people who use their phones also use them as cameras. It also points out that there are so many apps out there specifically for photography, many people feel overwhelmed and need guidance on how best to use them. The popularity of using cell phone cameras is go great, in fact, that the once a week class filled up very quickly despite the $182 US price tag.
 * __MacLife__** – Similar to //Cult of Mac//, //MacLife// is a magazine that is heavy on technology. From the title it can be deduced that the technology the staff at the magazine focus on is mostly Applecentric. Products, peripherals, and apps are constantly reviewed and torn apart so they can be better explained to the consumer and geek alike. There have been many stories and articles on the iPhone, and both the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S have been touted as comparable to regular digital cameras. The technical specs of the iPhones are impressive, and at the same time incredibly simple and user friendly to the point of being intuitive in their operation. In an article titled, “iPhone 4S – The Good, The Bad, And The Awesome”, the many features of the new (at the time) iPhone were discussed. The overall article is broken down into smaller sections, and the one that fits into my paper is the section titled, “Picture Perfect”. Features like image stabilization, pinch to zoom, face detection algorithms, 8 megapixels, f/2.4 aperture, and auto balance, just to name a few, make the iPhone a great camera instead of a “phone camera”. The new Canon S95 cost about the same as the iPhone 4S, takes comparable pictures, but can’t make phone calls, play games, show tv shows, or play music like the iPhone. These combined features make it an ideal tool to be used by students who might not be as technical savvy as many adults (although more professionals are actually starting to use the iPhone camera as their everyday camera).
 * Non-experimental
 * Questionnaire
 * Observation
 * Qualitative

References: // iPhoneography @ Kensington & Chelsea College: Terms out, and the results are in. // (n.d.) Retrieved April 18, 2012 from iPhoneography Website: [] kensington-chelsea-college-terms-out-and-the-r.html

Case, L. (2012, January). Picture Perfect: The iPhone 4S packs in picture and video sharp enough to drive another nail in compact cameras’ coffin. //MacLife, 60//, 26-27.

// Tech Choices: Cameraphone or Digital Camera? Why taking pictures on a cameraphone is gaining in popularity //. (n.d.) Retrieved April 16, 2012 from digitaltips Website: []

//PLOG: Easily Create Digital Picture Stories Through Cell Phone Cameras.// (n.d.) Retrieved April 16, 2012 from HP Website: []

//__ Photoshop CS5. __//__ (n.d.) Retrieved April 17, 2012 from iTunes U Website: iTunes / iTunes U / Photoshop CS5 __