Fun Work | February 1

Aloha my friends. Here's what we've got brewing for next week:

1. Read this and write a one paragraph response regarding whether or not you agree with the article. Did you over apply some of these same things to your project last week?! Maybe time to re-examine your work?

2. Go through and watch each of the basic tutorials here and write a two sentence summary of what the basic components of each tool accomplishes on your blog.

3. Stay tuned!

Fun Work | January 25

Here's what's in store for next week:

1. Read through and watch the video at this link.

2. Write a 1-2 paragraph summary of what you learned in the tutorial as it relates to editing portraits and more specifically how to accomplish certain things while editing an image in Pixelmator.

3. Take the below image and go step by step through the video tutorial to edit it. Some of the colors may differ but you will accomplish each step by utilizing the same tools in Pixelmator.

4. Upload a before and after image to your blog.

5. You're done!

My little Mac Class!

January 18 | Fun Work

I hope you guys enjoyed last weeks assignment with doing basic editing to the pictures you took on our field trip. We're going to continue to explore the world of Photography and Design this next week. Here's what's in store!

Since we've been studying portraiture, we're going to keep at it.

1. Read this article.

2. On your blog write a two paragraph response summary to the article and what you learned about taking portraits and techniques.

3. Using the article as your guide, choose four of the sixteen mentioned techniques to emulate.

4. PLAN! Don't just shoot without giving any thought to what you're going to shoot. I want you to plan / shoot / edit / upload four separate images. Each image should coincide with the particular technique that you've chosen.

If you're choosing "Posing" as one of your techniques, how are you going to pose your subject? What environment do you want your subject to be in? Is it an establishing shot or a close up? Is it a light and happy mood or are you trying to portray drama and intensity?

5. REALLY IMPORTANT! Each of your images MUST be in focus. You'll find that it's easiest to get an image in focus if you have plenty of natural light. In other words, it's harder to accurately shoot photographs in focus inside with a point and shoot camera. Not impossible, but harder.

6. Once you've shot your images, make basic edits to each image you choose and upload the four finished images to your blog.

7. Under each photograph write one paragraph stating what your vision(s) were for the image when you were planning and how you think the finished product turned out.

January 11 | Fun Work

Hello my lovely class. Here's what I'd like to see for next week with the images you took on our field trip.

1. After looking through all of the photographs you took, select your top 5 favorites (1 needs to be one of your city scape shots).

2. Edit those 5 images, keeping in mind that it's not about completely changing the image as it is about preserving the original photograph and enhancing it's attributes.

Things to edit (If you don't know how to, look it up!):

a. Exposure

b. Color temperature / white balance / tonal adjustments

c. Levels (shadows, midtones, highlights)

d. Curves

e. Sharpening

f. Vignette (What is a vignette? Maybe you want a subtle vignette on a couple of your photographs?) This is optional, you don't have to do this if you'd rather not, but I want you to know what it is and how to do it.

3. Once you've edited those five photographs, make a new document in Pixelmator with the following dimensions: 15x15 in, 240 dpi, background - white.

4. In this new document, place your original image on the left side and the edited image directly to the right of that image. You'll need to resize the photographs to make them fit accordingly in the document. Write "Before" and "After" on the respected images. Make sure to save out as a .jpg in order to upload to your blogs

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the remaining four photographs.

6. Post all 5 before/after images to your blogs.

7. Write a one paragraph statement about what you learned with the editing process.

I'll choose the image that I believe features the best editing job and subsequently Kevin will buy that person some sort of beverage, if I'm not mistaken :)

As always, let me know if you have any questions!

6. Post all