Main Panel Photo © Steven Pitts
Covid 19 Accommodation
The sheer volume and special features of our studio space gives us enormous advantage in meeting the special Social Distancing demands of the CDC. As of this date, CDC demands are less restrictive than at more challenging times. As such, we can express a fully-featured curriculum with proper social distancing, hygiene stations, masks, and dedicated spaces. For example we can create separate sets for individual students who want it and share very large sets with proper distancing. Our computer lab will be deconstructed and the computers will be distributed individually in our small film-loading rooms and limited to 3 in each of our lab rooms, 8 in our 2 Darkroom spaces and 2 in our Office. All will be hand-cleaned after each use.
The Laney College Photography Department’s spacious and fully equipped Studio Suite is the crucible for developing Photographic craft.
Studio
The 1800 sq ft studio is unmatched in the East Bay and gives City studios a run for their money. A 50-foot span of floor to ceiling windows emits beautiful available light. Draw our full blackout curtains closed and you have that black slate that sets the stage for lighting control. A full complement of grip includes C-stands and arms, Matthews Mini and Manfrotto booms, 12’x12’, 8’x8′ & 6’x6′ butterflies with silks and griffoils on overhead rollers and tons of seamless. 8 3’x6′ rolling and folding tables are supported with carts that manage sandbags, apple boxes, cords and a zillion LEDs for 8 identical sets. Currently we are redeveloping our storage systems to make our mountains of gear more accessible and portable.
Got an idea or assignment? This is the place.
Lecture Hall
We are a visual craft; all about seeing, capturing and reproducing images, so a viewing process must have fidelity. Projectors simply cannot produce what we need. Our lectures, critiques and discussions are enhanced by an 84” Phillips LCD. Beautiful colors, sharp; it makes all the difference. Key to any good studio space is convertibility and utility. Our bright and roomy classroom seats 30 students comfortably. The desks are mobile to accommodate conventional classroom or in-the-round group seating and easily clearing the room for Studio use.
Shooters’ Arcade
Vision drives us to make what is evident in our fertile program. Here we get to show off the great imaging from all levels of our classes. Our students and Darkroom Club spread their images out on the 200 sqft of wall space lining the entrance to the Studio. As a productive department images are changed often. Is there a better voice for the Laney Photo Department than this?
Equipment
Lighting
We provide a variety of light systems with continuous AC/DC LED, Tungsten, spots and floods. Our Monolight and Power Pack strobes connect to Cameras via radio remotes. We have all the stands you will ever need from 3” to 16‘. Light sources are modified by a variety of soft boxes, honeycombs, barn doors, pans, and umbrellas. TTL on-camera flashes and high-powered battery flashes are at hand for commercial event use.
Camera
It’s no secret that photography makes gear demands that can cost a few bucks. Fear not, we have lots to make your experience smooth and complete. In support of our shooters our program has invested in Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras and we are currently transitioning to Mirrorless cameras, all for use while you are enrolled with us. They are supported by Macros, Telephotos, fast Zoom and Prime lenses. We have some specialty lenses like the Canon 400mm 2.8, with other fast/fixed focal length telephotos. Macros? we got ’em. The gear is further supported with light meters, tripods and all the odd bits.
Labs
Digital
To bind this digital process together we have developed our Digital Lab System, equipped with 22 iMac Pro 21.5" and the newest 24" workstations. It is the same platform we use for our professional jobs along with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Laney provides full support, through Adobe, for image management applications on personal processing devices. Our iPads and MacBooks connect with cameras via Wi-fi and tether. We also have two Epson photo printers, and MicroTek flatbed and Nikon Film scanners.
Film
The department was built around our B&W Darkroom in the mid 70s. So there are seven 35mm film loading rooms and a dedicated 4×5 room with 3.5-gallon tanks. Film dries in hot air or static-free cabinets. The 4-sink, 18-station wet lab has digitally-timed, wheelchair accessible, enlargers up to 4×5. Two 26×30 print washers allow separate and simultaneous washing of both RC and fiber-based prints, dried in an apron-fed hot air unit or 20″ drum drier respectively. For fine finish there are multiple light tables, cold and hot presses for dry mounting and ample work space.
