Rule Of Thirds Field Mission

Hello Students,

Your new assignment is a field mission utilizing the rule of thirds. Details are below. This assignment is due at end of class wednesday.

Rule Of Thirds Field Mission:

Create 10 Photographs using the rule of thirds. You must properly compose pictures of the following:

1. A person facing the camera, closeup on head
2. A person facing the camera, closeup on head, looking to the upper right or upper left
3. A person facing the camera, closeup on head but turned 45 degrees from camera and not looking at camera
4. Two people facing the camera, closeup on heads looking into camera
5. Two people facing the camera, closeup on heads but subjects are looking to the upper right or left
6. Two people, one in the foreground, one in the background out of focus (depth of field)
7. Two people, one in the foreground out of focus, one in the background in focus (depth of field)
8. An object or objects
9. A landscape view
10. A tree
11. Using Photoshop, crop your photos appropriately if you need to. Create a version of 1 photo with a grid that demonstrates the rule of thirds. Use the line tool or pencil tool to draw the simple grid.

To See A Rule Of Thirds Grid in Photoshop:

1. View > Show > Grid
2. Go to Photoshop > Preferences > Guides, Grids and Slices
3. Set: Gridline to 33.3333 Percent
4. Set: Subdivisions to 1

Grading Rubric:

2 Points: Images properly exposed

2 Points: Images show proper mode use

2 Points: Images are in focus

2 Points: Images utilize rule of thirds

2 Points: Each subject represented with version that shows grid overlay (10 images, with grid overlay version for one

Student Work Examples:

Editorial Photo Assignment

What is Editorial Photography?
Editorial photos are used in print and online media to support written articles, they can help to tell a story, bring issues into focus for the reader or used to support a viewpoint that is stated in the accompanying article.

An editorial photo sequence for an article about Earth Day 

Editorial Photo Assignment:
You have just been hired by Wilson Magazine to shoot a photo that supports one of the following articles. You can choose which article you wish to shoot a photo for. You must show all the shots you take and then choose the final version. Follow the steps carefully:

Choose Your Assignment Topic:

• Poor Diet Choices Made By Teenagers
• Stress In School
• Spring Fashion Trends

Plan Your Photo Shoot and Execute:

• Plan out how you will stage your photo
• Choose your model(s)
• Pick environment that will look good on film
• Make sure you have optimal lighting conditions
• Pose your model(s)
• Shoot at least 36 pictures to capture and explore different poses, lighting, scenery
• Pick your best image and enhance it with Photoshop

Posting:

• Create a contact sheet with Adobe Bridge
• Post your contact sheet as a large JPG to your blog
• Post your final image to your blog
• Write a short summary of the project, do you like the results? Did you choose background, poses and lighting correctly? What setting did you use on your camera? How would you do it differently if given an opportunity?

Required Watching:

• How to Create a Contact Sheet with Adobe Bridge

A contact sheet is a great way to quickly preview all the images you shot and is a nice item to show clients or employers to document the work that was put into your project and to pick and compare images.

Student Showcase: First Portrait Project

Simple Yet Powerful Image Enhancements Tricks in Photoshop

Hello Students,

Your new assignment is to enhance your best portrait that you took during your photo shoot yesterday. Read through the color enhancement assignment and find a way to enhance the colors in your image to make it rich and vibrant.

Color Enhancement Assignment:

• Choose your best portrait from your photo shoot yesterday and create a copy of it, open the copy up in Photoshop
• Read the entire tutorial below and try each step out on your photo
• Boost the color and depth of the photo with the tricks outlined in the tutorial
• Create an image border
• Add your first initial and last name to the lower right corner as a watermark
• Post the original and enhanced versions to your blog
• Write a short paragraph describing the enhancement tools you used
• When finished email to me, Due at end of class today

Color Enhancement and Photoshop Basics:

For many beginning photographers, any version of the image editor, Photoshop, can look quite daunting to use. With all the menu options, palettes, tools, filters, layer styles and various changes you can make to an image, it’s difficult to know where to start. This article provides some ways to get started with the most popular image editor in the world.

Here’s a copy of the original image used in this introductory photoshop tutorial. Notice it’s lacking control and saturation of color. It’s a little flat.

To get started, simply open a portrait or facial shot similar to the one I’m using here.

1. Duplicate The Background Layer

The first thing you want to get used to doing is making a copy of the background layer of your image. The Layers palette should open by default, but it is also found by clicking onWindows>Layers in the menu bar of Photoshop.

Select the Background Layer and click on the little triangle at the top right of the palette. When the palette options open, click Duplicate Layer, or you can use the shortcut keystroke, Command+J.

By duplicating the background layer, you can make all types of adjustments to duplicate layers without permanently changing the bottom background layer. If you make some adjustments you don’t like, you can drag the duplicate layers (with all the adjustments and effects you made to them) to the trash at the bottom right of the layer palette.

2. Automatic Image Adjustments

When you start learning how to use Photoshop to improve your photos, you might want to try out some of the automatic adjustments that can be made, even if you don’t understand the tools themselves.

The basic image enhancement and adjustment tools in Photoshop are found underImage>Adjustments in the menu bar. In the Adjustment palette, there are various tools likeLevels…, Auto Contrast, Curves, Brightness/Contrast.

To introduce you to these adjustment tools in this introductory photoshop tutorial, I’m going to suggest that you use the automatic and preset features of these tools. As you begin to understand them more, you will make use of manual adjustments.

So with your background layer duplicated and selected, click on Image>Adjustments>Auto Levels in the menu bar. When you release the mouse of the menu item, the automatic Levels adjustment should enhance or at least affect the shadow (dark), midtones, and highlights (bright) areas of your image. Often, a photo can be improved in Photoshop with just the automatic adjustments applied.

3. More About Layers

Now let’s revisit how layers work. Go back to the Layers palette and click on the little eye next the Duplicate layer that you just applied the Auto Layers adjustment to. When you toggle that little eye off, it means that you’re turning off the adjustment or effect that you made in that layer. Since the adjusted layer is on top of the background layer like a clear transparency, you can toggle the eye off and on to see how the adjustments are applied to the background layer (also remember: you can drag the duplicate layer to the trash to get rid of the adjustment(s) all together).

4. Automatic Curves

Okay, let’s return to a few other automatic adjustments and enhancements you can make to your photo. Go back to Image>Adjustments and then click on Curves. The Curves box will open. This box may look seriously scary with its grid, points, lines, and ear droppers. But don’t worry about that. We’re simply going to use some automatic adjustments to see how Curves can impact your photo.

Click on the button next to the word Preset. In the drop-down box, select Medium Contrast (RGB). If you don’t see much of a change in the contrast of your photo, go back to the Preset button and try Strong Contrast. You should be able to see the effect of the Preset on your photo before you click OK. Curves works similar to Levels but with more intensity in contrast.

Much more could be said about Curves and Levels, but this is just an introduction. You can play around with the points in the Curves box and see how they affect your photo. Remember, the changes you make are non-destructive to your photo, so you can experiment as much as you like. The illustration below explains a little about how the three main points in the grid function. If you make a mess of things, simply click Cancel and start over, or click OK when you’re satisfied with how the photo is looking.

5. Make Colors Pop

Okay, now lets move on to learn about other enhancements that can be made. One of the tools I use on nearly all the images I bring into Photoshop is one called Soft Light. Here’s how it works.

Go back to the Layers Palette, drag all the layers, except the background layer to the trash. Click on the Background layer and create another duplicate of it. Now click on the Normal button at the top of the Layers Palette. In the drop-down box, select Soft Light. When selecting this adjustment, it should make the colors of your image pop, or at least intensify the contrast of your images. The contrast of most digital images always need to be improved. This technique does that job extremely well without too much loss to detail.

If the Softlight application is too strong, select the Opacity button at the top of the Layers Palette and decrease the opacity of the layer/effect.

6. Image Border

Another tool that beginning Photoshop users might want to know is how to add a border around an image. Again there are a few ways to do this. One way is to select the top layer in the Layers palette. Next click on Image>Canvas Size. In the dialogue box that opens up, change the Width and Height to both to .2. Choose a color for your border. Make sure the center of the Anchor box is selected. Click OK and you should see a border around the image.

Thats it! Use these techniques to enhance your own image and post the before and after versions to your blog.

Have fun!

 - Mr.W

First Portrait Assignment: Dutch Angle Portraits

Hello Students,

Read the assignment specification carefully to ensure a high quality result from your first portrait assignment:

Dutch Angles:

A dutch angle, jaunty angle or canted angle is a technique where the camera is tilted off to one side to create an extreme angle. Derived from cinematic techniques it can be used to convey tension, or to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the image, adding a creative element to the framing.

Dutch Angle Portrait Assignment:

1. Team up with 2 classmates and check out a camera
2. Find an interesting background or scene to shoot your portrait, avoid putting your subject in a place that makes them squint from sunlight, this can result in an unflattering portrait. Look for areas that have colorful surroundings or interesting textures to shoot your model against
3. You may use Intelligent Shooting Mode for this project
4. Shoot at least 24 images of your subject, try different angles and heights to create a cool and creative framing of your subject
5. Pass the camera on to a team mate so that everyone takes turns shooting portraits
6. Review your pictures and choose a single photo that represents the best of your shots, your image should be properly lit and exposed (not too dark or too light) and in focus
7. Display your best image on your computer and share with the class. Tomorrow you will enhance this image and post the original and enhance versions on your blog, due tuesday

Previous Student Work Examples of Dutch Angle Portraits:

Photo Scavenger Hunt: Typeblock Poster

Alphabet Scavenger Hunt

This is your first assignment that involves taking pictures. Now that you can open files in photoshop, manipulate their color, use layers and understand some of the tools we can move forward.

Your new assignment is a Photography Scavenger Hunt. The subject matter is typography and the challenge is to create a photographic typeblock poster of the alphabet.

The project specs are below:

• Subject Matter: Typography
• Deliverable: Poster, PSD Format, 11"X17"
• Challenge: Use whatever camera is available (phones and smart devices allowed) and take pictures of signage, print, posters, artwork that uses typography. Attempt to capture the entire alphabet. If you can't find a certain letter you may create an interpretation of it.

Format: For your current project the final document size should be a poster that is 11X17 inches with a resolution of 150 pixels per inch. Set your New Document settings like I have shown below:

Process: Collect your photos, download them to a folder. Create a large document in photoshop at 11X17 inches, 150 Dpi, bring in your photos and arrange, crop and work them into an eye pleasing typeblock poster of the alphabet.

Saving: Make sure you save your document in the PSD format. Remember to convert to JPG before uploading, you can do this by Photoshop's File / Save As function and changing the image format to JPG.

Colorizing B&W Photography with Adobe Photoshop

Colorization Project:

Students, this project will strengthen your skills in photoshop, especially with the Selection Tools, Layers and Blending Modes, which are some of the most commonly used tools.

Part 1: Download a black and white photo, or find a color photo and remove the color information with photoshop.

Part 2: In Photoshop there are several ways to colorize a photo. Here is the basic idea of the colorization process:

• Open your image in Photoshop and create a new blank Layer using the Layer Palette
• Set this new Layer's Blending Mode to "Darken"
• Take a Selection Tool, such as the Magic Wand Tool, Lasso Tool, or Magnetic Lasso Tool and select an area to colorize over your photo
• Fill this Selection with the color of your choice, the "Darken" Blending Mode will make this color mix with your original black and white photo
• Continue this process with a new layer for each new color until the entire photo has been colorized

Colorization Project results are due end of class on Thursday

- Mr.Wilson

It's Bloggin' Time!

How to set up a Blogger Blog:

Despite all of the hype with "blogs" in recent years, a blog really isn't anything much more complicated than a means for publishing work on the web in an easy to read and easy to update format. Some blogs are very personal, resemembling a diary, while others seem more akin to newspaper or magazine journalism. For our class this term, you will keep a blog where I'll ask you to post several short writing responses this term. Most of these exercises will be just a few pages long and they should help you working on the longer writing projects this semester.One easy way to do this is with Blogger, a free and easy to use service. Here are the instructions for how to set up a blog with Blogger.

Step 1: Go to http://www.blogger.com and sign up for a blog

Again, it's an easy to use service, but let me give you a few pieces of advice on how to accomplish this:

• At the start page for blogger, click on the orange arrow that says "create your blog now."
• Blogger now is part of Google, so if you have a Google account (which allows for things like gmail) you should use that to set up your new blogger account. If you don't have a Google account, now is a pretty good chance to set one up. Otherwise, it is just a matter of following the instructions on this page.
• Be sure to check the "terms of service" box; of course, you might actually want to read through it a bit first, though the rules are pretty standard for these sorts of services.
• Save your username and password some place. In fact, I would encourage you to write it down some place. Don't lose this!
• When you're done, click on the orange "continue" button, which will take you to another page. If you did something wrong or you supplied a username or password that doesn't work, Blogger will stop you from proceeding until you fix the error.
• The "Blog Title" will be what appears in the title portion of your blog. I recommend you keep it something simple like "My English 328 Blog" or whatever you want.
• For the address of your blog, I'd encourage you to use your username. So, in my case, the blogger blog address would be http://krause328.blogspot.com Unless you know what you're doing with ftp functions, you should use blogspot.com to host your blog.
• The "word verification" section is a security set-up the blogger folks have; simply type in the word you see in the funky font into the provided box. Click "continue" when you're done.
• You can choose any template you want for your blog, and you can also change the template later if you would like. Click continue when you're done.
• After waiting a few moments, you should get a screen that says your blog has been created. Good for you! Click on the "start posting" arrow and get to work!

To change your comment settings:

• Log into your blog
• Click on the "design" tab
• Go to "settings" and then "posts and comments" and change your settings to the example above
• Save your settings before finishing

Please change your blog settings to block comments and set all comments to be moderated always.

Your comment settings should look like the one shown here...

Step 2: Get posting!

• The posting screen for blogger is pretty straight-forward. Give your entries a title, type in the appropriate window, and use the editing tools for your blog entry as you want. We'll talk about more advanced options for your posting later, but if you know any basic html, you can incorporate most of that code into your blog posts.
• To post or "publish" your post, click the button at the bottom of the screen "Publish Post." If you start writing something but you don't want to post it until later, click where it says "Save as Draft."
• When you publish your post, blogger will process the information and then, if everything worked (and it usually does), it will give you the option to "view blog." Take a look at it; you should notice a couple of things:
  • The address for your blog-- something like http://stevendkrause.blogspot.com-- is the address for your blog. Send this URI (web address) to me! I will link to your blog from the class web site.
  • Readers should be able to post a comment to your post by clicking on the "comments" link.

Step 3: Do some adjustments to your account

There are a number of different things you might want to do to make your blog a bit more useful. But here are a couple of things you really should do no matter what.

Blocking blog spam. I know, hard to believe, but yes, the world of spamming extends to blogs too. Fortunately, Blogger has a pretty decent security feature that will eliminate almost all spam posts from your blog. Here's what to do:

• If you aren't already logged in, log in to your Blogger account. You did remember your username and password, right?
• From the "Dashboard" screen, click on the name of your blog.
• Click on the tab "Settings."
• Click on the link near the top of that page under the tabs labeled "Comments."
• Set "Who Can Comment?" to "Only Registered Users." It isn't essential that you do this, but I'd recommend it.
• A bit further down, set "Show word verification for comments?" to "Yes." This is a security feature that requires the comment poster to type a specific word that shows up as slightly distorted text in a window.
• Select "Save Settings" at the bottom of the page.

Time zone. It'd be nice if the time was right on your blog, right? Here's how to do that:

• If you aren't already logged in, log in to your Blogger account. You did remember your username and password, right?
• From the "Dashboard" screen, click on the name of your blog.
• Click on the tab "Settings."
• Click on the link near the top of that page under the tabs labeled "Formatting."
• Under "Time Zone," select the right time zone (and if you're reading this as part of one of my classes, that'd be "Detroit." Duh.)
• Select "Save Settings" at the bottom of the page.

Doing things to customize your blogger blog. There's lots of stuff you can do customize your blog. At a minimum, I'd recommend including some links to your classmates' blogs or other blogs you like to read, but there are a lot of other things you can do, too-- include pictures, lists of stuff you like, etc., etc.

• If you aren't already logged in, log in to your Blogger account. You did remember your username and password, right?
• From the "Dashboard" screen, click on the name of your blog.
• Click on the tab "Template."
• Make sure the "Page Elements" tab under this is selected, and click on "Add a Page Element." From here, simply follow the instructions. Be sure to save you page element additions and double-check that it worked.

Step 4: Repeat

This is all you need to do to set up your blogger interface (though, as you can see further down on this page, there are some other things you will probably want to try to do sooner than later). Easy, right?

To post to your blogger blog from now on, here's all you need to do:

• Once again, go to http://www.blogger.com
• Log in with your username and your password (you remembered your username and password, right?) DO NOT click on the "create your blog now" because that will just get you back to step 1.
• After you log in, you should get to your blogger "dashboard," which has a link to your blog. Click the link to manage the blog or click on "New Post" to make a new post to the blog.

Trouble-shooting

"Hey, what should I do if it didn't work?!" Well, blogger really is pretty easy to use, and while it does sometimes have bugs that are of course not your fault, usually if your blog doesn't work, it is is because of something that you did (or didn't) do.

So the first thing you should do is re-trace the steps above: are you sure you did everything I outline here? Really? Are you positive?

If you're confident that you did everything right, here are a couple of other thoughts:

"I tried to enter in my blog address into a web broswer but it didn't work"

Then try this:

• Log in to blogger, using your username and password that you used to sign up for blogger in the first place.
• Get to your blogger "dashboard."
• Click on the link to your blog.
• Click on the tab at the top that says "view blog"
• The web address (or URI) that appears in the window is the address to your blog. It will be something like http://something.blogspot.com Copy this information and paste it into an email message to me.

"I wrote my posts but nothing has shown up yet"

If this is the case, then you probably didn't "Publish" your entry yet but you did a "save as draft." Go back to it and push the "publish" button. This should bring up a window with a time-clock where Blogger indicates it is publishing your entry.