Monday, April 29, 2013

Dream Trip Project

I am super excited about our Dream Trip Project!  This is going to be a great way for you to picture yourself (literally) on a fantasy vacation as well as to learn some new Photoshop skills.

Dream Trip Project Directions:

  1. Select 3 or more pictures from your dream destination.  For example, if my dream destination is Paris, I might choose a picture of the Eiffel Tower, Monet's water lily gardens, and a quaint city street.  Please get all your pictures from the site Ookaboo, as *all* of the images are public domain or creative commons.  Download the FULL size images (best resolution) to your desktop.
  2. Select 3 or more pictures of you from your portraiture photo shoot.  Make sure they're on your desktop.
  3. Open Photoshop and create an 11x14 size canvas; give the canvas a black or white background.  The canvas can be horizontal or vertical.  It's up to you!
  4. Add your destination pictures.  You can arrange them in any way you want, but try to take up most of the canvas.  You can rotate and overlap them for a collage look or you can put them in neat rows.
  5. Add a large text box with your destination:  ex/"My Dream Trip to Paris!"
  6. Open a new window in Photoshop and open your first portrait.  Dupliate the layer and then get rid of the original background layer. Use the MAGNETIC LASSO tool to cut yourself out.  Select NEW LAYER VIA CUT.  Then drag your cutout over to your project canvas and arrange it so that you are "in" one of your destination photos (you will probably need to resize, rotate, etc.).  Repeat this with your other portraits until you appear in each destination photo.
  7. Optional:  Use brushes (default or add extras from Brusheezy) to accentuate your project.
When you're done, call me over to check it, and then we'll print it!  We'll also save it as a JPEG for your portfolio.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Magnet Project - Intro to Photoshop

I am super excited about our first Photoshop project.  It involves some of my favorite things:  QUOTES, FONTS, PHOTOSHOP and... MAGNETS! 

Have you ever seen an image online with a quote on top of a background or photo?
Check out my Pinterest board of quotes for some examples:


Your next project is to make your own cool quote image.  You can pick any quote you want, so long as it is appropriate for school, and can use any image you want, so long as it's appropriate for school.

A good place to go for backgrounds is http://photoshopbackgrounds.com/

It will take us most of today to set up your project.  Tomorrow we will learn some more Photoshop tricks, finalize our projects, print, and create our magnets. 

The goals for this activity are:
  • to set up a canvas in Photoshop
  • to add and manipulate a background in Photoshop
  • to add and manipulate a textbox in Photoshop
  • to learn about layers in Photoshop
  • to learn the difference between saving as a Photoshop file and as a JPEG
  • to make a cool magnet!
Here is my sample:

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Portraiture Day 1

Today we will begin exploring portraiture!  I am super excited because portraiture is one of my FAVORITE photography genres.  I love people...all different kinds of people...even the annoying ones.  Documenting their personalities through photography is an exciting challenge.  

Before you jump into your photography, I want you to take a few minutes to explore some portraits and get some ideas.  I used Pinterest to gather examples.  Click on the screenshot below to go to my Pinterest board with portraiture samples.  Come to the rug in four minutes with at least four ideas for portraiture.


Sunday, April 21, 2013

Getting to know a DSLR camera

So we have these big fancy black cameras here at NFS, and you might have one at home too.  And you probably know that these take "better" pictures than other cameras and also cost more.  But you probably don't know why...

These larger black cameras are called DSLR cameras:
 D   =   digital
 SL  =  single-lens
 R   =  reflex

Let's watch a video from About.com that explains the difference between a DSLR and a point-and-shoot camera.
  • What are some benefits of a point-and-shoot?
  • What are some benefits of a DSLR?
  • How can a DSLR with lower megapixels than a point-and-shoot take better photographs?
Now that we know a little bit about DSLR cameras, let's learn what some of the buttons do.
Grab a camera and let's find these buttons together:
  • shutter button
  • AF/MF
  • on/off
  • camera mode dial
  • aperture/shutter dial
  • ISO
ISO is a really important term in photography.  You need to know:
  • what does ISO control?
  • what happens when the ISO is set to a low number?
  • what happens when the ISO is set to a high number?
  • what is the recommended setting for ISO for different situations?
As you know, I'm not an expert in photography.  I am an AMATEUR :)
So let's watch this YouTube video from Kerry Garrison and hear an expert explain ISO.




That is enough vocabulary for today!  We'll explore more later this week.

Now I want you to do practice using the DSLR cameras and start gathering photos that we can use for future projects.  Go outside (or stay in if you like) and take at least 10 pictures each.  If you like, you can play with the ISO setting to see how it affects your photos.






Friday, April 19, 2013

PUT YOUR NAME ON YOUR GLOG!

Hey guys! I am looking at your glogs from home and realizing that I totally forgot to tell you to put your name somewhere on your glog. So go ahead and do that! Thanks, and have a great weekend!

Monday, April 15, 2013

Sunday, April 14, 2013

History of Photography Mini Project

Woohoo, a mini-project!  I love mini-projects.  It's hard to do something really meaningful in one class period, but sometimes big tasks are overwhelming and I get bored by the end.  A mini-project is the perfect in-between...a few days to do something cool and then you're on to the next big thing!

Ok, enough small talk, on to the project...

Since I'm not with you in class this week, it is the perfect time for you to dip in to the history of photography and learn a little about how cameras have evolved.  I would like you to present your findings in a glog.  This means that you must know your glog username and password!  It should be the same info that you use to login to the computers at NFS.  If you need help, email me during Monday's class period.  I will be online during that time period and will be able to help you reset your password very quickly.  *Remember to login to edu.glogster.com * If you go to regular ol' glogster.com, your usernames won't work.  

You have four class periods (Mon, Wed, Thurs & Fri) to complete this project.  I will be able to track your progress via Glogster and will link them all together into one super glog.  You can work on your glog at home if you like, but this isn't necessary so long as you use your class time efficiently :)  Efficiency is great.  You should give it a whirl.

Oh wait.  Before we go any further.  Let me be clear.  DO NOT PLAGIARIZE!  No!  Don't even think about it.  This is super duper important so listen up.  I expect you to make every effort to use your own phrases and sentence composition.  Lots of times you'll hear teachers say "put it in your own words."  That is all good, but some words can't be changed.  For example, there's really only one word for camera.  What teachers mean is that you have to put the words together in your own way.  I shouldn't be able to Google a chunk or sentence from your writing and find it online in someone else's.

So no plagiarism, ok?  Promise?  Ok, phew.  We can keep going now.

In your glog, you must include the following:

  • When did photography start?  See if you can find out who/what/when/where, as that's a pretty easy way to organize this kind of thing.  [a beefy paragraph at most]
  • How did the first photographs actually get made?  We're talking physically here.  What did they actually use to make the photos? [a beefy paragraph at most]
  • When did digital photography start?  See if you can find out who/what/when/where. [a beefy paragraph at most]
  • How has the digital photography changed the world?  If you Google this question, you'll find a range of different ideas and opinions.  There isn't necessarily one right or wrong answer here.  That's a-ok and whatever you decide is fine by me.  The best questions often have no clear answer, and my goal is for you to think.  [a beefy paragraph at most]
  • Who is a famous photographer?  How did she or he influence photography?  There are loads of people to choose from.  Pick anyone you want. [a beefy paragraph at most]  
  • At least three pictures!  This IS photography class, after all! 
  • A bibliography of your sources.  You should have at least three.  Use MLA format.  It's okay to use www.easybib.com or www.bibme.com  See Ms. Hensley if you need help with this. 
Here are a few more options.  I like choices, and maybe you do too.

* Instead of typing out your paragraphs, you can do audio recordings.  The perks of this method are that you don't have to worry about spelling and punctuation.  Woot!  And, as if that wasn't enough of a reason to try this out, you also get to use those nifty audio players that Glogster has.  So cool.  Ms. Chiko would say "huzzah!" about this option.  Instead, I'm going to say "YOWZA!"  Ask Jody Smith about YOWZA.  Don't tell her why though. Just say, "hey Jody, I just want to say YOWZA!"  Trust me, she will definitely love this and give you mental brownie points.  And who doesn't want mental brownie points from Queen Jody?  Ok, back to the options...

* Instead of jamming all this in one single glog, you can build two or more glogs and then link them.  This doesn't necessarily mean you're writing more.  It just means you can make your text bigger (easier to read), use larger pictures, add more spinning graphics, etc.  I bet a lot of you are thinking no way am I doing this.  That seems like a boatload more work.  Personally, I think this maybe takes a little more work, but not really if I want my glogs to look good.  Crowded and cramped is no fun for anyone, including glogs.  Give your glog a little room to breathe and stretch out, ok?

All-righty, that's probably enough to get you started on this fine Monday morning.  I rambled a bit here tonight so you better get going.  Efficiency, right?  

Peace y'all.

~ K

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Lesson 1: Welcome to Digital Photography Class!

Today we are going to complete two baseline assessments:  one written and a photo shoot.

We're going to do the written one first.  When you've completed it, please bring the paper to me and then I will put you in a group for your first photo shoot.

Photo shoot rules:

  1. take turns with the camera so that everyone gets a turn
  2. each person must shoot one landscape (outside), one still life from the school supply pile, and one portrait (photograph someone in your group only)
  3. it is okay to help each other
When you come back inside, you must transfer the pictures into the student common folder.  I will show you how to do this if you don't know.


These baselines will be useful to you later in the quarter as you reflect about your growth.