Photoshop Exercises - Second Quarter

On Friday, October 24, 2008, you created your first Photoshop Exercise. The goal is to start getting you used to the Photoshop Toolbox and the different features the program offers to help you create great "digital art." Practice using different Filters (especially the "Artistic" Filters) and enhancing your pictures, going to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast or Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (or just pressing the Command-U Keyboard Shortcut). You can also "Desaturate" a picture - convert it into a Black & White picture by going to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (or pressing Command-Shift-U).

You should re-create what you did that day (if you weren't here then just follow the instructions or ask Mrs. Feld). First, select a picture of a flower - from the iLife05 folder or from the internet. It should be a picture with good resolution (so that when you make it bigger you don't see the pixels right away).

Using the "Magnetic Lasso Tool" select your flower. Practice selecting images with this tool until you become proficient. It takes a little while to get used to it. If you make a mistake and want to go back, just press the Delete/Backspace key. Once your item (flower in this case) is selected - you should see the selection as intermittent little lines around your image - then create a layer of your flower. To create a layer you can press: Command-J. If you look at your layers palette, you see the layer of the flower, as a separate layer from the background.

Once you have the layer of the flower, you can now desaturate just the background. Select the Background Layer (it should be highlighted) and press Command-Shift-U - this will turn your background Black & White. Afterwards, you may want to add a filter to your background: go to Filters > Artistic > Poster Edges.

If you want to change the colors of your flower, select the Flower Layer and press Command-U. The Hue/Saturation window will appear. Play with the sliders and see what happens. Change the color and appearance to your liking.

Save your work as a JPEG and put it in the Server in your Digital Applications Folder. Save it as Exercise No. 1. Under your Pictures Folder you should create a folder called "Photoshop Exercises."  Try to keep your work organized and saved in the right folders.

Lesson 6 - iMovie

You've been working on the iMovie "Sgraffito Technique" - Lesson 6. You downloaded pictures from the "Sgraffito" Album (in the Biz Owner Folder) and others of "Finished Products". You've been adding the text (in the "Sgraffito" Script) and checking the "Sgraffito Technique" QuickTime movie trying to re-create it. I mentioned that the iMovie doesn't have to be exactly the same, but it serves as a guide. The text in Steps 1 - 4 (including the titles "Step 1:", "Step 2:", etc.) can be imported in pictures and "Over Black" screens, your choice. The transitions should only be "Fade In" and "Fade Out" set to a speed of 00:14 (it's not a good idea to have transitions greater than 1 second). You can also add music to this iMovie slide show and cut the audio track, as learned in class - fading out the end of the song. (Remember: to cut or clip an audio track, or a picture, go to the Time Line View, select the track or picture you need to trim, go to Edit > Select "Split Clip at Playhead" and delete the desired portion of your audio track or image).

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask Mrs. Feld. When your movie is completed, you must convert it into a QuickTime movie (Go to Share on the Menu Bar - while the movie is active - and select QuickTime> make sure CD ROM is selected and click "Share"). Put this QuickTime movie in the Server, in the Digital Applications Class Folder under your name.

Once you complete this iMovie you can start working on the next iMovie Project "The Story of My Life". You must start looking for some pictures of yourself that you will bring to class and scan. Read the Project Papers VERY CAREFULLY. I need you to understand this project well.

On Fridays (and some other times as the schedule permits) I will start teaching you the Adobe Photoshop CS3 Program - or Adobe Photoshop 7 (depending on the computer you're using). Those of you taking Desktop Publishing with Mr. Schuster already know a little bit about this program. You can create some interesting digital art work and enhance your pictures using Photoshop; besides being able to create collages and editing your images in many different and interesting creative ways.

Test: On October 20, a "B Schedule" day, you will have your next test. The test will include: Lesson 6 - iMovie, your notes and hand-outs given to you by Mrs. Feld. Please type the Review at the end of the lesson. Pages 190 and 191. Also review the different parts of the iMovie Interface - which was your homework (to review the papers on iMovie HD 6 and enter the names of the different parts of the iMovie Interface). We will also cover "Copyrights" this First Quarter - soon you'll type notes on this subject.

Homework: Go to Google or any other Search Engine and find a good definition for "Copyrights". What is a Copyright? Why are copyrights important? Explain with your own words after doing some research. Homework due: October 14, 2008.

Fall is here! Don't forget to take some great pictures of fall landscapes or fall leaves (anything "FALL"). You are to show Mrs. Feld at least 6 Fall Digital Pictures (on your camera) and download them into iPhoto under "Fall" (Film Roll or Title). Advice: Take more than 6 pictures - between 10 and 15 and select the best for a grade. These pictures should be your own. Be creative!
Pictures due: November 17, 2008.
Check: http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo for ideas.