Feld's Digital Applications Classes

Monday, December 10, 2007

December 2007

I know it's hard to believe it's almost the end of 2007...! We will start our Christmas Vacation December 21st. By December 20 you should have completed Exercises 1 - 5 in the "Photoshop Exercises" Folder in iLife05 in the Server. We will leave Exercise No. 6 (Magazine) for the Third Quarter. The "Magic World" exercise will replace Exercise No. 6. Besides these six exercises, you should have the Leaf Brush Exercise and the other exercises we did in class in your "Photoshop Exercises" Folder. Please create different folders per quarter (it will make it a lot easier for me when I'm grading your work).

The Class Exercises were: the Layers and Gradient Tool Exercises Kitchen World, Zenith Design, and Flower Power. As well as the New England Fall Exercise.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Test: 12/13/07

On December 13 we will have a Digital Applications Test covering the following:

1. What is Photoshop?
2. How do we import files in Photoshop?
3. Why do we use Photoshop Filters?
4. What are Layers and why do we use Layers in Photoshop?
5. What is “Desaturate”? How do we desaturate an image in Photoshop?
6. Which commands do we use the most in Photoshop?
7. How do we deselect an image in Photoshop?
8. Review the Photoshop Toolbox and all the tools learned in class.
9. What are Pixels?
10. What are Bitmaps?
11. What is Resolution?
12. What is Interpolation?
13. What is Compression?
14. What is the difference between “lossy” compression and “lossless” compression?
15. What are Picture Files?
16. What is “Pixelated”?
17. What are File Formats? Which are the most popular ones?
18. What does JPEG stand for and what is it?
19. What does GIF stand for and what is it?
20. What does PNG stand for and what is it?
21. What does TIFF stand for and what is it?
22. What does BMP stand for and what is it?
23. What is “Photorealistic”?
24. What does “Platform Independent” mean?
25. Which File Formats are “Platform Independent”?
26. Which is the preferred File Format in the printing and publishing industry?
27. Which is the most popular File Format for images taken with digital cameras?
28. Which is the File Format that only uses 256 colors?
29. Which are the File Formats more used in the Web?
30. Which is the File Format used primarily for Windows wallpaper images?

Please review your Photoshop papers and notes taken in class. If you have any questions, cannot find one of these definitions or don't understand something, do not hesitate to ask Mrs. Feld. Check the "Photoshop" section in this blog (October 21st's entry). There you can find a good definition, as well as descriptions of the tools used in the program.

ADD THE FOLLOWING TO YOUR NOTES:


Layers: Photoshop's layers can be thought of as separate films, much like transparency sheets. Each layer contains its own discrete contents. Individual layers contain objects which together create your composite image. Layers are "everything" in Photoshop! Each object in Photoshop exists on its own individual layer, making it easy to control the position and quality of each layer. Layers give you flexibility when you make changes. By placing images, effects, styles, and type on separate layers, you can modify them individually without affecting other layers. You can add, delete, and move layers in your document.

When you select a layer in the Layers palette, that layer is active (when you're working in Photoshop, make sure that the desired layer is selected). Review the following tips to learn about active layers:

• Only one layer can be active at a time.
• The name of the active layer appears in the title bar of the image window.
• Changes affect only the active layer even though you view the whole image in the image window.

The Layers palette is your essential tool for working with layers. It contains a list of all the layers, starting with the topmost layer. To the left of the name is a thumbnail of the contents of each layer. You can use the Layers palette to perform many tasks (e.g., create, delete, hide, merge, and flatten layers).

You may find it useful to hide layers while working in Photoshop. For example, when merging layers, you can hide some layers so that they will not be merged. Visible layers have a VISIBILITY icon (the "eye") next to them; hidden layers do not. Get used to working with layers - they're extremely important in Photoshop. Practice changing their order (like the exercises we did in class), hiding, copying and deleting layers.