Race to the Finish

Good Morning and Happy Monday!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving Holiday Break. Now that we're back, the goal is to have a strong finish to the Semester which is literally 3 weeks away (including finals). Below is our agenda for the week:

• Please complete our White Balance Unit:
• Post your Photoshop Assignment correctly in Schoology
• Post your White Balance Blog (with photoshop assignment and chosen images)
• Complete the White Balance Quiz: https://goo.gl/SZpD7C
• Begin our Composition Unit
• Complete the Composition Quiz: https://goo.gl/U9k4gC
• Read the Assignment and Review the Lecture Materials (including this weeks blog)
• Prepare for taking photographs this week by brainstorming different ideas.
• Completing our Composition Unit
• Download and Complete the Photoshop Assignment attached in Schoology.  I have laid the groundwork for you - all you have to do is insert the images and update your name/background color if desired.
• Respond to our Composition Blog

Next Step: Prepare for Finals!

Photography Blog Post #7 - Composition

This week we are finally transitioning from a focus on basic skills and camera operation into creating some unique compositions and taking artistic photos.  Remember this week that you can adjust the aperture, ISO, shutter speed and white balance to properly capture whatever images you want (within the assignment's confines of course).

For this blog please:

• Post your Photoshop Assignment highlighting the 8 photos that "Use Composition to Show Who You Are."
• Give a detailed explanation of each of your photos and your overall vision for what you set out to show in each photograph.
• How well do you think each of your photos tells a story about who you are?  If you had more time, what would you have done the same?  What would you have done differently?  Do you believe the gallery of photos you have taken tell a story themselves?
• Which of the elements of composition did you personally like the most?  Why?  Can you think of other things you would like to photograph now that you have studied these different elements?
• What did you enjoy about this assignment? What challenges did you face?  How did you enjoy this assignment in relation to our previous assignments?  Explain why you either enjoyed it more or, alternatively, not as much.

Thank you!

Photography Blog Post #6 - White Balance

You are really learning all the tools of the camera aren't you ... well, not really - there's a long way to go but you are learning about some of the most important adjustments you can make on your camera so that you can truly take unique, one of a kind, photos!! That's honestly, pretty awesome!! This week we learned about white balance and why we need to be good about telling our camera what color the light we are shooting in is. For today's blog:

• Please post your Photoshop Assignment and 3 favorite images you took this week.
• Discuss White Balance. What did you notice about the different settings you used this week and how did each setting specifically affect the color of the image you took.
• Do you notice a significant difference between the images you took with different WB settings? Having completed this assignment does it seem important to adjust these settings or not particularly?
• Discuss whether you think the best photo taken for each subject was the one that aligned best. For example, if you took a picture of a flower on a bright sunny day, did it look best under the "Daylight" setting or did you think it actually ended up looking better using a different setting?
• Discuss what you enjoyed about this assignment? Were there any challenges you faced? What could you have done, if anything, to make the process go smoother.

Thank you!

Photography Blog Post #5 - Shutter Speed

This week you had the opportunity to learn about and experience what various shutter speeds can do for your photography!  Shutter speed is another amazing tool you can use to create incredible images and gives you the specific power to freeze motion or show motion with your photography!!  For today's blog, please complete the following:

• Post your completed Photoshop assignment along with your two favorite images from the week.
• Respond to the following questions:
• Explain to your readers what shutter speed is/does.  Be sure to explain it clearly and discuss how your images above demonstrate the different shutter speeds you used.
• Explain how you would show motion and how you would freeze motion.  This is a good opportunity for you to discuss what slower shutter speeds can do for you and what faster shutter speeds can do for you.
• Discuss a few situations where you would definitely want to use a slower shutter speed and show movement in your photography.  Discuss a few situations where you would definitely want to use a faster shutter speed to freeze movement in your photography.  At minimum, you should discuss 2 examples of each.  Be sure to also discuss how shutter speed can affect your audiences perception about what is going on in the image.
• Lastly, discuss your experience this week with our assignment.  Did you enjoy the assignment?  Did you face any challenges?  What were they?  What did you enjoy about the assignment.

Thank you!!

Photography Blog Post #3 & #4 - Mastering Photoshop Filters and Layer Blend Modes

Week 3 has come and we are taking a brief break from our field assignments to focus on some of the creative elements you can add to your photography by using Photoshop. This week you will complete two assignments. The first one gives you an opportunity to take an image and use Photoshop to create a watercolor painting effect. The second assignments allows you to take another image along with a texture of your choice and learn how to blend your chosen textures with your photo in Photoshop.

For today's blog there are two parts, please complete them as separate postings:

Watercolor Painting Effect

• Post your original image and adjusted image for the watercolor painting effect assignment
• Please discuss the following in detail:
• Discuss the different filters you used to complete this Watercolor Painting Effect.  Be specific and, as much as possible, discuss what each of the filters you used accomplished.
• What did you think of your final product in comparison to your original image?
• Discuss an image you would like to take and how adding a water color painting effect would either enhance the original image or detract from it.  Does this seem like a tool you would like to use again with your own work?
• What is your impression of Photoshop and what have you liked about working with it to date?  You should include 3 things you think are "neat" about working with the program.

How to Blend Textures with Photos in Photoshop

• Post your original image(s) and your adjusted image for the blending textures with your photo assignment.
• Please discuss the following in detail:
• Discuss the layer blend modes and what that does to your original images.
• Discuss the different blend modes and how they affected the look of your image - be sure to address the Normal, Dissolve, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Soft Light, and Hard Light blend modes and the effect they had on your image.
• Which Blend mode did you ultimately choose to use?  What did you particularly like about this blend mode?
• What does the desaturate command do for your image and did you like the outcome? What about inverting the texture, hue/saturation, Gaussian blur, etc?
• What do you like about the final image and its effect?  What do you not like?  Does this seem like a neat tool to you? Why or why not?  Lastly, what did you think of this project? Easy, challenging? Would you be able to use this for any photographs you have or would take?

Week of November 2nd - 6th

Welcome to the week of November 2nd - 6th.  Please see the outline above for what we will be working on this week.  I recognize with our field trip last week (1/2 of you out) and, again, this week with the other 1/2 of the class, there was limited time to complete all work to the very best of your ability.  For that reason, I am offering you time in class today, Monday, to complete all of the requirements from last weeks assignment.  In addition, this week, partly because I will be off campus almost every day and partly because I want you to build your Photoshop repertoire I have posted two assignments, neither of which require you to leave the classroom.  These assignments will be due in Schoology on Friday and we will post them to our blog next Monday, November 9th. Please make the most of your time in here this week and make sure you are right on track with meeting all requirements for the course!

Thanks.  I am excited to return to Adobe with the 2nd half of you and also look forward to you learning some fun and creative Photoshop tools.