Assignment: Alphabet Art

For your photography assignment, you will be experimenting with what we'll refer to as "Alphabet Art". Using photography, you'll be responsible for spelling out a word of your choice using black and white images. Please photograph in color and we will learn as a class how to properly convert to grayscale so as to achieve proper contrast. 

"KENNEDY"

Choose a word, at least five letters long, and cannot be the same as any other student in the class

Start photographing, take more then 1 picture for a given letter as you may find something better later in the week. Look high and wide to find your letters, they can be in the most unique places. Try your best to find natural letter forms and not have to "spell it out" yourself using found objects.

• See me to approve your word and make sure no one else has claimed it
• Take COLOR images
• Upload images by Wednesday MORNING and we will, as a class, talk about color conversion.
• SAVE EACH IMAGE separately in a folder titled Letters, in Major assignments.
• For POST credit, place each image on panoramic canvas much like the one above, using a black or white background color. Post to blog by Friday Nov. 3 titled "Alphabet Art", before you leave class.
• Also place a saved version of your flattened, full word in 'letters' folder as a final image.

"LOVE"

Photo Walk Friday: Get up Close!

There is something magical about seeing a subject up close and personal. This opens up a whole new world of options for you as a photographer. Close-up photography, or macro photography, can be a very rewarding form of photographic expression. The great thing about it is that you can do this from your basement at home, if necessary. Of course you can, and should, go outdoors too and setup shots in a forest or at the sea, but you can also setup shots of everyday subjects and shoot them up close.

To do some great close-up shots, you won’t need a macro lens. You can use almost any lens to make close-up images. Bear in mind that each lens has a minimum focusing distance. This can range from a few centimetres (1-3″) to half a meter (20″) depending on the lens. Telephoto lenses will have a longer minimum focusing distance, while medium range lenses (24-70mm) will have a closer focusing distance. The difference between macro lenses and non-macro lenses is that a macro lens has a much shorter focusing distance (30cm/1 foot or closer) in most cases.

Also, a macro lens has a magnification ratio of 1:1. What that means is that the lens can reproduce the subject onto the sensor at it’s actual life size. So if your subject is 20mm in size and it is captured as 20mm on the sensor, that means it has a 1 :1 ratio.  Some lenses can only reproduce a 1:2, or 1:3, ratio which means that the subject will be half the size or less, on the sensor, relative to the size of the subject. I would suggest that you try close-up photography with the range of lenses you have. See which one works best. Prime lenses are usually a good place to start as they have great clarity and sharpness. 

Experiment with different exposures, sometimes a slightly overexposed macro scene can look good, so play around with that. Above all, have some fun. Use it as an exercise in learning more about photography, and try and get some dynamic images too! In a future article, I will go into more details about settings and exposure modes. In the mean time, start shooting some close up images and let’s see how things look.

Photoshop Tutorial: Gold Foil Text

Follow Tutorial above for creating gold foil text. This tutorial can be used for any background, not just gold foil. Go nuts! Create something fun and POST to your blog titled: Text Tutorial for full credit. 

Assignment: Reflection Photography

Using what you have learned about composition, lighting and backgrounds when shooting portraits, create a portrait that is a reflection of  someone.

Portrait Photography:  Reflection.

Create a reflection portrait: DUE Thursday 10.26.17

1. The photo that you use for this assignment MUST be an original of yours, one that you took with a digital camera/iphone this semester.

2. Your image must be a portrait of a person, reflected in something.

3. Do NOT take a picture of you in a mirror, we have seen way too many of these already. Try for the most amazing, creative, compositionally dynamic image I have ever seen.

4. Upload your image in your drive or personal photos folder and POST the image to your blog titled Self Reflection. We will VOTE on the most creative one! Prizes are involved.

How to make stuff FLOAT in your photos!

Peter McKinnon teaches us how to levitate objects in his video series...

Please watch the video and follow his instructions to make the cup float- 

Hopefully you created your own over the weekend for HOMEWORK, so pay attention!
In the meantime, we'll be practicing this skill Monday!

"FLOAT" photographs DUE MONDAY 10/23/17

Photowalk: Primary & Secondary Colors

Primary Colors: Red, Yellow & Blue

Secondary Colors: Orange, Green & Violet

You'll be looking for the primary colors out in the world today. You'll need to POST MINIMUM 3 photos showing 3 of the 6 colors. Extra points if you can get the colors in one image!

Critiquing Photographs

Guidelines for Critique

1. Describing the work (what does it look like? what is it made of?): Assume the audience has not and will not view the piece and that you are the sole mediator for their understanding of it's formal qualities
2. Interpreting the work (what does it mean?): Here you are asked to synthesize any contextual or biographical information you have with your own subjective interpretation of the work's significance.
3. Evaluating the work (is it art? is it interesting? does it "work"?): This is, perhaps, the most difficult critical task, yet it is usually the one to which most people skip when criticizing a work of art. To thoughtfully evaluate a work of art, you must determine what your criteria are for judging its relative worth or effectiveness. Only you can provide this information. Do not assume the reader (or your fellow student) shares your point of view. Explain why you feel the way you do. "Thumbs up" or "thumbs down" will not cut it. This is college.

Here are some simple guidelines for a successful critique:

1. Listen! Most people new to the critique forum fail to understand that criticism of a work does not mean the work is "bad", or that the artist has failed in some way. In order to refine our ability to produce effective artworks, we must listen to what the participants in the critique have to say about it.  The whole point of the exercise is to go make better work.Describe the image: What do you know with certainty about what you see? What do you see? What adjectives come to mind? What is the subject matter, really? What about form? Interpret the image: What does this image mean? How is this meaning manifested? Can you discern a difference between what was intended and the result? Are there metaphors you can decipher? 
2. Is this a successful work of art? Why/why not? What criteria have you used to make your judgement? Be very specific.
3. Whereas it is mandatory that you respect your colleagues in the class (I don't tolerate abusive behavior at all), we are here to get work done. Please check your ego at the door. Be willing to say what you think about others' work and to hear potentially harsh criticism about the work you've done. In order to become better artists, we must be willing to speak openly about the issues at hand and to dispense with qualifying opening remarks such as "this is just my opinion" and the like.

Yearbook Avenue Tips!

While you continue to work in yearbook avenue, this video will show you a few tips you may not know that can help you create your pages! You may watch when you've finished your studio work. 

Assignment: David Hockney Inspired Collage

Between today and tomorrow, your assignment is to research  David Hockney and his work.

Objective: Create TWO photo collages in the style of artist David Hockney. If you are not in school today, email me and I will attempt to explain in as much detail as possible.

You will need to bring in your photographs for this assignment tomorrow, October 11th.

 

Hockney, Photo Montage

Here’s what you need to do…. 1. Watch the presentation on artist David Hockney, go on the Internet and find his work. Really get to know his work. How does he do it? What stories does he tell? What angles/perspectives does he use in his work?

2. Decide what the subject matter of your collage will be. You will have to shoot 1 portrait (of anyone) and 1 your choice: Landscape, a certain room??? TOTAL: TWO PHOTOGRAPHS

3. Start shooting. Take LOTS of pictures! - these are digital photos so you've got nothing to lose, the more the better. Stand in the same place, get up close, back up, think about your angles, your perspectives. What story will you tell?

4. The more images you have to work with for this collage the better off you will be. You will layer the images to create your collage. 

5. Create your collage in Photoshop following the tutorial given in class. Create a large background canvas to work on. (directions to follow) 

 Cassandra Siena, 2011

6. Save your final collage with your name as the title in the folder labeled  MAJOR Assignments in your Google Drive folder that you've shared with me. Ex: Smith_Joe_HOCKNEY1

7. Don't forget to SAVE A SMALLER VERSION & POST your assignment onto your blog as well titled "David Hockney Inspired Collage". You need to also add an artist statement. *Step by step by step directions and assignment Rubric can be found in your ASSIGNMENTS folder

Grading Criteria

_____ 20 Points Ready for Project on Wednesday: gathered images and uploaded to class computer.

_____ 50 Points 1-13x19”, 300 Res ready print on due date

_____ 20 Points Aesthetic considerations

_____ 10 Points POST Project to Blog           

    Total: 100 Points

Photowalk Friday: Worms Eye View

For today's walk, get down LOW. Take a picture from worm's eye view. Don't just look up, get low and photograph looking up at something. Play with depth perception!

Jones photography

Photo by Mark Liebenberg

POST at least one image to your blog today for credit

Assignment: Making a Sports Layout

Since I will not be in today, we will not be photo walking. However, you still have captions to write and fonts, etc. to edit! Please see below for specifics I need you to check on your sports layout. If you didn't finish your "Where I'd Rather Be" image yesterday, please do so and POST on your blog. October photo a day will still be graded TODAY so mkae sure it's on a new OCTOBER page and is visible on your blog.


This is a two page spread, that will be a MAJOR assignment for you. You will be responsible for checking one another's work and making any final edits to the page your assigned, regardless of how many people are in your group.

1. THE TEMPLATE CAN'T CHANGE. Do not move picture or text boxes around- all the sports pages must look the same to make the book flow correctly. Your template may look SLIGHTLY different as we alternated between two different designs. Fonts, etc must be consistent throughout.

2. Compare your page to the other finished Fall pages. What's missing? ZOOM IN! Check and re-check every thing! File view as a PDF! Proof read!

3. Use the specific fonts. See the sample image above for reference.

4. Ask me to SHARE this document with you via GoogleDrive. I have one from each coach, where they will provide a roster, a season recap, etc. Rosters go on TEAM index page at the start of Fall Sports. You will have to email link to this document to the coach to be sure they saw it and KINDLY request they complete the form.

If you don't have a  Fall sport, see me for another assignment!

Assignent: Where I'd Rather Be

DUE WEDNESDAY 3/1/17

Inspired by the work of Max Asabin, Swedish Photoshop whiz, you will be manipulating multiple images to create a scene or place or situation where you’d rather be.

© Max Asabin

For this project, you will be manipulating multiple images to create a scene or place or situation where you’d rather be. You must use scanned or internet images (if they are good enough resolution) but the photo or yourself MUST BE RECENT AND TAKEN THIS SEMESTER BY YOU.

© Max Asabin

1. Plan image. Photograph according to plan.

2. EDIT image in Photoshop. Flatten, save as high quality JPEG

3. SAVE AS Last_First_PartnerPortrait in GoogleDrive Major Assignments Folder

4. POST to your BLOG, title post as WHERE I'D RATHER BE

5. Include in this post, a few sentences about your process and a caption. I would like you to include the ORIGINAL photo as well, so we can see the before and after!

© Max Asabin

© Max Asabin

 Your HW is to take the photographs of yourself, and find the background images necessary to complete your creation. I will be showing you quite a few Photoshop skills  to help you along this process. 

Aurasma

Watch the following, sound not really necessary.

How to create an Aura....

Photoshop Tutorial: Removing Acne, Skin Blemishes

See Google Classroom for your assignment and to download this photo! You may use a portrait of your own if you prefer...

take skin from this...

to this!