Transformation Project

You don't look like yourself today!  Just kidding, it's because of your transformation project!

Please turn in all 5 of your transformation photos.  Title each photo, and tell me which 2 photos have been dramatically changed in PhotoShop.

(Remember to flatten your design and SAVE AS a jpg in order to upload to blogger)

Then answer the following questions:

1. Who did you transform yourself into? Why?
2. What was most challenging about this project? Why?
3. What was simple about this project? Why?
4. If you could choose one more photo to add to this transformation project, what would you add?

Then, choose one photo that you are most proud of and would like to share with the class tomorrow. Prepare a statement about the photo - what it is? what you did to create the photo? anything special about the photo?

Transformation Brainstorm

Yesterday we learned about the idea of Transformation in contemporary photography.  We looked at the work of Cindy Sherman and Nikki S. Lee and saw how they transformed their identity in their photography.

For this next project, you will transform yourself into someone else.

Let's Brainstorm!

1. If you could transform yourself into another person, who would it be?  Would it be a person of a certain occupation?  A celebrity?  A family member? A fictional character?
2. Why do you want to transform yourself into this person?
3. What locations will you photograph yourself in?
4. What props will you need in order to complete this transformation?
5. What research will you need to do in order to photograph yourself as this person?
6. Upload a photo of inspiration for your new character. Explain how you will create the mood and expression of that person in your photo series.

American Photography (part 3)

We finished our last segment of American Photography, learning about 1960-1999.

Answer the following questions:

1. What event from this segment was most eye-opening for you? Why?
2. How have photographs changed the way we see the world?
3. What impact have digital photos had on the world?
4. If this video were to continue on to 2011, what events would be covered? What new technologies would you see?

Digital Collage

It's time to turn in your digital collage!  Remember to Flatten your collage, and Save As a JPEG. Then upload your collage to your blog, give it a title and tell me a bit about it.

Answer the following questions in paragraph form:

• What imagery appears in your collage? 
• What types of changes did you make to the layers of your collage?
• How did your idea for your collage change as you were working on it?
• What new ideas did you try out in your collage?
• What is most successful in your collage?
• What would you change and why?
• Anything else?

Then, save a JPEG copy of your digital collage to the To Print folder.

Quarter 2... and your ideal world.

Welcome to Quarter 2!  This quarter we will dive deeper into the world of digital art by manipulating photos on PhotoShop.  But first please answer this question on your blog:

Is there anything related to photography that you would like to know that I haven't yet taught you?

Now.... let's start with getting ideas for our first project in Quarter 2.

Answer the following questions:

1. If you lived in your ideal world, what would it look like?
2. Where would it be?
3. What colors would you see?
4. What objects or things would be common?
5. What objects or things wouldn't be common?
6. What type of people would live there?
7. How would people interact with each other?
8. What else?  Tell me something unique about your perfect world.

Documentary Photography Project

Well, you did it.  The 1st quarter is almost over.  Let's celebrate by uploading your series of Documentary Photographs!

Please upload all 6 photos and give each a title.

Then, at the end write a paragraph that answers the following questions (do NOT answer for each individual image):

• What did you photograph for your documentary photography series?
• Why did you choose to document this?
• What did you want to reveal or show about it?
• What did you learn about what you documented during this process?
• What is your favorite image and why?

These photos and the paragraph must be uploaded by the end of class on Friday, Nov. 4th.

Proposal: Documentary Photography

Yesterday I introduced our next photography project: Documentary Photography.  Please answer the following questions about what you'd like to document for your project.

1. What are you planning to document for this project?
2. Why did you choose this idea?
3. What location will you photograph in?
4. What type of imagery (subject matter) will you try to capture?
5. When will you plan on photographing?

American Photography (part 2)

During the second part of American Photography: A Century of Images, we learned about historical events and how photography was used to document them. 

Please discuss two events that were talked about in the film.  For each event, tell me about the event and how photography was involved.  How did the images shown change your mind about the event? 

If you could document one event in history, what event would you want to document and why?

Our next project will involve documentary photography.  Documentary photography is the act of candidly capturing events, places or people.  What type of event, place or person would you be interested in documenting? 

Portraits

Today is the day to turn in your 6 portraits.  Remember, before you can upload them to Blogger, you must flatten the image in PhotoShop and save it as a JPEG. 

Give each photograph a title.  Then, tell me about the person that you photographed and why you chose to photograph them.  Also, tell me which is your favorite photograph and why?

These photos should be uploaded by the end of the hour, today.

Photo Editing Tutorials

There are a few photo editing tutorials that I would like you to try out:

• Dark Processed Lomo Effect  
• Retro Analog Effect
• Vintage Polaroid Effect

(These come from my favorite tutorial site SpoonGraphics)

Line, Color and Texture

To turn in your Line, Color and Texture project, please upload all 6 photographs (2 line, 2 color, 2 texture) to a new post in your blog. The blog post should be called Line, Color and Texture.

Give each photograph a title, and then answer the following questions in paragraph form below:

• Describe the subject matter in the photographs you took.
• What changes did you make to the photos on PhotoShop?
• What photograph do you feel is your best? Why?
• What did you discover about yourself as a photographer during this project?
• If you did this project over again, what would you do differently?

Flickr - Line, Color and Texture

Visit each of these Flickr sites with photographs that emphasize LINE, COLOR and TEXTURE.

Choose a photograph from each site (1 line, 1 color, and 1 texture) and answer the following questions:

1. What is the Subject Matter in the photograph?
2. What shot/angle was the photo taken from?
3. Describe the composition of the photograph.
4. What makes this photograph successful?

Either include the link to the photograph or upload the photograph to your blog post, so I can see what image you are referring to with your answers.

LINE - http://www.flickr.com/groups/linescurves/pool/

COLOR - http://www.flickr.com/groups/catchy/pool/

TEXTURE - http://www.flickr.com/groups/texture/pool/

Shots and Angles, edited.

Today you will use PhotoShop to edit all 8 of your Shots and Angles photographs.  Use the different editing techniques I taught you: Brightness/Contrast, Hue/Saturation, Exposure, Vibrance, and Photo Filters.  Remember to turn in a REALISTIC looking photograph.  You are using the editing techniques to enhance your photographs to create beautiful art work.  Keep a log in your notebook about what changes you make to each photograph when editing.  Then upload each photograph (in the SAME BLOG POST), title the photograph with what shot or angle it is, and below the photograph tell me what changes you made while editing.

Photos should look like this:

Low Angle

Exposure: +0.03
Brightness: +6
Warming Filter (85): 7%

Learning Shots and Angles

We looked at examples of Shots and Angles today in class and what they look like in photographs.  Today's blogging task will be to find a variety of shots and angles on the web, you will post them on your blog and identify them.  For 3 of the images that you upload, explain why the shot/angle works for the picture, and how the image would change if the shot/angle was different.

Choose 2 from the following:

• Extreme Close Up
• Close Up
• Medium Shot
• Long Shot
• Establishing Shot

Choose 2 from the following:

• Low Angle
• Eye Level Angle
• High Angle
• Birds Eye View
• Dutch Angle

 Choose 2 of the following:

• Rule of Thirds
• Symmetry
• Asymmetry

When uploading your image examples, it should look similar to this:

Dutch Angle 

 

This dutch angle works for this photograph because it helps to enhance the movement of the person and dogs running.  If the photograph was shot using a high angle, the person and the dogs would appear to be smaller and less significant.

American Photography (part 1)

American Photography: A Century of Images provided the viewer with information about the rise of photography in America in the early 20th century and how influential it was in the beginning to our current world today.  When watching this video, I asked you to take down notes about what was being shown.

Please write a response to this video in a new blog post.

In this response, give a summary of the video, provide two examples of how photography influenced America, one thing that surprised you about photography that you didn't know and one question that you have about Photography in general.  Response should be no shorter than 2 paragraphs.

Response is DUE: by beginning of class on Sept. 14, 2011.

What is Art?

"What is Art?"

I've heard this question asked many times. There's no right or wrong answer to the question.  Art is many things and I can guarantee that the answer we give is dependent on our personal relationship to art, and what's we've learned about it.  I would like to ask you a series of questions to find out what your relationship to art is.

Please answer these questions in paragraph form.  No shorter than 2 paragraphs. 

1. What is Art?
2. What is Art to you?
3. Where do you see Art?
4. What is an example of Art?
5. What do you know about Art?
6. What do you want to know about Art?