Friday, December 4, 2015
1:30-2:30; 60 min.
Photography:
Event photography -
Today was Jackson Holliday’s birthday, and Will was tasked with capturing the event for the yearbook. Will took photos of the cake, and Jackson blowing out the candles. He also made sure to get images from the appreciation circle, and ice cream social that followed. We downloaded the photos and viewed his work. He did an excellent job. We found one image that was especially good, but was photo-bombed by the Morris boys. Will cropped the image, and used the clone stamp to remove the silliness, making the photo one of his best.

Thursday, December 3, 2015
9:15 - 10:00; 45 min.
Photography:
Photoshop: Light Saber project -
We continued with the light saber project, finishing by erasing the binding centerline from the image. Will was distracted with the dots that show up when he zoomed in to magnify the image. I explained that we had taken this image from ‘Entertainment weekly’ magazine. Since this magazine comes out every week, and the publishers do not expect their readers to keep it for more that a week or two, Therefore, it is printed on lower quality paper. And that determines how much ink they can use before the image bleeds through to the other side. This magazines, uses a form of dot matrix printers, and we can see the dots when the image is magnified. The images we have used previously, came from a magazine printed for collectors, on higher quality paper, ink, and printer. This eliminates the visibility of dots.

Today, Gio and I started his project. We read the guidelines and began by choosing three scriptures that he was either interested in or inspired by. then, we looked up and found out what the rule of three is (a composition law in photography). Last, we found several examples of photos that would be fitting to accompany his choices of scripture.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015
1:45 - 2:45; 60 min.-
Photography:
Photoshop: Light Saber project -
Will continued with the project he started yesterday. Now that he has a single image, it looks just like the two page spread in the magazine. Will and I worked on making the center binding disappear from the image. Will worked with the clone stamp tool, the opacity filter and color management adjustment functions in Photoshop.

Monday, November 16, 2015
1:30-2:30; 60 min
Photography:
Photoshop: Light Saber project -
After examining Will’s homework assignment from over the Thanksgiving break, Will started a new Photoshop project involving combining two scan images. He is using an image of two light side soldiers against the dark side villain from the upcoming Star Wars film. The image covered two pages in a recent magazine and each page was scanned for this project. After some instruction, Will proceeded to combine the two scans into one image and adjust the colors so both sides match. Will worked with the new image, color balance, exposure adjustments, and merge tools

Friday, November 20, 2015
1:30-2:30; 60 min.
Photography:
Photoshop -
Will prepared, isolated and re-sized an image of the Millennium Falcon. He added it to his last Photoshop project, which now includes the Earth, a death star and the newly added light side star ship.

Thursday, November 19, 2015
9:15 - 10:00; 45 min.
Photography:
Objective vs subjective -
We examined Will’s photo project homework. He had used books to arrange in groups of two, four and more. He did a good job, missing only the odd number arrangement. His photo edit project was more problematic. We took the time to look at the photos he submitted of the books, and he was tasked with choosing between two of the same set-up. Once he chose one, the other was deleted. We then compared the remaining photo with the next in the series, and so on, in the attempt to cut the series down to one or two. I explained to Will the difference between objective and subjective choice. A photo that is out of focus or not representative of the subject, is objectively poor. Two photos that are good on all main areas (focus, light, composition, subject and frame) and are virtually identical - require a subjective approach. One has to be chosen as we cannot have so many images that are the same. We discussed how photographers always edit their images, and only submit their best. homework: continue with editing the seashell photos.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015
1:45 - 2:45; 60 min.-
Photography:
Review of composition project -
Will and I examined his work from the last class. We divided the photos into folders marked series 1-6, each from a unique perspective. I put the folders on Will’s thumb drive. Will then showed me his new STAR WARS magazine, and showed me a photo he wants to work with in Photoshop. He also told me he wanted to add the millennium falcon to the Photoshop project from last week. Will was tasked with finding the appropriate image of the starship from the Internet. Homework: review each series folder, and choose one or two images from each to submit for class consideration.

Monday, November 16, 2015
1:30-2:30; 60 min
Photography:
Composition -
Will was tasked with arranging and photographing seashells in an artistic manner. He was given specific criteria, but left with the image composition without direction. He took photos from the side, above and Will level. Homework: take photos of groups of 2, 3 and 5 object, watching for good composition.

Friday, November 13, 2015
1:30-2:30; 60 min.
Photography:
Death Star -
Will used the Internet, to find an image of a death star, and an image of the planet earth to use for his Photoshop assignment. He combined the images in layers and sized and positioned the death star to his liking. He used the eraser, magic wand, and the lasso to remove background that was unwanted. We explored how to invert selections and masks to clean up the images before merging the layers and finalizing his image. We discussed the differences in the suffix used for Photoshop documents and the jpeg images.