Monday, December 19, 2011

Self Portrait Assignment Over Break









You will shoot four different self-portraits over break. You need to pick four photo types from the following five categories.
1. A self-portrait where color is emphasized. Color may include wardrobe, location, props, or natural objects. Think of your picture as a one or two color concept picture.
2. A picture that emphasizes lighting and shadows. This will be a grayscale self-portrait.
3. A self-portrait that showcases your interests and hobbies. In this picture we learn what you like to do away from school. Think about what interests you and transfer that into a photo.
4. A fantasy self-portrait. Dress up and use costumes. In this self-portrait you can use Photoshop to enhance your picture in any way, shape, or form. Transfer yourself to Hawaii or become a Viking like you have always wanted.
5. The Supermodel self-portrait. Dress up like a GQ or Cosmopolitan magazine model. This can be a grayscale or color picture. You will use Photoshop to airbrush and enhance this photo.
 


More ideas
Even more ideas

Video tip:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvRtSh9rfpY&feature=related

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Editing Your Portraits: Photoshop "Vintage" actions

You will edit 16 of your Portrait photos. Please use at least 7 of the "vintage" style adjustments listed below. Please make sure you save your work using the "vintage" name at the end. On Tuesday the 20th please turn in a Portraits Adjusted CS along with your Best Picture (this pictures might NOT be the one in the display case).

Article: Why We Love Instagrams from Macworld

Photoshop Actions:

"Nashville" Instagram Tutorial

Instagram Video Tutorial 

Cross Processing

Cross Processing
Cross processed photographs are recognisable from the unusual colours and tones in the final shot. The effect was originally produced from developing the photographic film using the wrong mix of chemicals. Nowadays, a cross processed style can be simply achieved in just a few steps. Photoshop Support shows us how.

Street Photography

Street Photography
One of the most recognisable street photography shots is ‘Homeless Mike’ by Leroy Skalstad. The gritty, high contrast style of the image really emphasises the nature of street life. Recreate a similar image with this Dramatic Gritty Effect by Photoshop Frenzy.

Lomo Photography

Lomo Photography
The Russian made Lomo LC-A camera was manufactured a cheap alternative to the higher quality Japanese rivals. It was poorly made and the photographs it produced were just as bad, however as time passed popular culture brought the mis-coloured shots from the Lomo camera into a whole new light, which is now a very sought after effect. Not everyone has the opportunity of trying out the original camera model, but Digital Photography School has some great tips on mimicking the effect in Photoshop.

Vintage Photo Effect

Vintage Photo Effect
With limited technology the early colour photographs often had poor colour reproduction, with shots having an obvious colour casts and inaccurate tones. Today the effect can transform a photograph, instantly sending it back in time to give the impression of an aged effect. Veerle takes us through some techniques for producing a vintage style photo using a few simple Photoshop tweaks.

Tilt Shift Photography

Tilt Shift Photography
Tilt Shift is a photographic technique where the image plane is rotated, giving a very shallow depth of field but maintaining sharpness in a specific area of the shot. One of the popular post processing effects related to tilt shift photography is known as miniature faking, where the depth of field manually added to a shot gives the illusion of tiny model figures and sceneries. TiltShiftPhotography.net has this fantastic overview of creating the effect yourself.


The Velvia Effect

The Velivia Effect
Fujifilm Velvia film created highly saturated, largely contrasting and extremely sharp images, which made it particularly popular with nature and landscape photographers. PSHero takes a look at using modern day Photoshop techniques to recreate the Velvia effect.

Dark Grunge Photo Effect

Grunge Photo Effect
The term grunge has evolved from the music genre also known as Seattle Sound, characterized by stripped down sounds and heavily distorted guitars. The term grunge also made its way into photo post processing, where the key features are muted colours and large areas of texture and grain. PSHero has this excellent tutorial for creating your own dark grunge photo effect.

HDR Photography

HDR Photographyhttp://still-scripts.com/photoshop/faking-the-hdr-effect-using-only-one-photo-and-photoshop/
High Dynamic Range Imaging is a photography technique that produces an image with a much larger range of luminance between the darkest and lightest areas, making it much closer to the spectrum seen by the human eye. More recently the effect has been pushed to the max, with heavy tone mapping producing an abstract and highly stylised photo effect. The genuine effect is created with various RAW images and processing software, but the Nill Photoalbum has this great tutorial for producing a similar style directly in Photoshop.

Movie Photo Effect

Movie Photo Effect
Alongside post processing, the video filming of movies often involves a range of camera filters. Ebin has this fantastic tutorial for creating a polished movie-like effect complete with diffusion glow and temperature tweaks in Photoshop.

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Digital Photography: Portrait Assignment


You will shoot portraits over the next two weeks on Friday Dec. 9 and Wednesday Dec. 14. One day you will shoot at school using the lights in the studio and the other day you will shoot off-campus at a predetermined location. You will shoot AT LEAST 24 pictures of your subject each day (most of you will shoot between 50 and 75 pictures.
You can, and probably should, take pictures on the weekend as well.

1. Find two interesting human subjects. The people you choose should WANT to be in the picture and they should be willing to cooperate. It's OK to work with people in this class.
2. Talk to your subject. What type of portraits do you want to create? Use colors or lighting to create a concept for your portrait. Costumes or uniforms work great. Imaginary ideas are OK. Choose an interesting setting based on your concept.
3. Change angles between shots. Shoot at least 24 pictures of each subject.
4. Use props if they will help the audience learn something about the subject.
5. Vary the lighting. Use filters, flashlights, lamps, or multiple lights to enhance your picture. Use the different lighting techniques that you will read about in class (see above).
6. Encourage different emotional looks. Pretend you are Austin Powers taking pictures. Tell your subject they are "groovy".
7. Having your subjects "pose" in action is just fine.
8. Most importantly for this assignment don't forget your compostion rules. Use framing, leading lines, rule of thirds, color contrast etc. to enhance your photo. Fill the frame.

Portrait HintsPart 1
Portrait Hints Part 2

More Hints

Even more hints












Here is a list of the different types of portraits photos you will turn in:

  • A Vignette Photo
  • A Grayscale Method Photo
  • A One Item Kept in Color Photo
  • A selective Focus Photo
  • A minimally adjusted photo
  • One WHACKY anything goes portrait (change the colors, use the liquefy tool, and make this as unique and interesting as you can)

Finally, you will turn in your best picture as well.
Lighting!!!
http://mrstorydigiphoto.blogspot.com/2011/12/different-lighting-techniques.html

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Animation: Import Pictures into Final Cut

1. Make sure the pictures are on the server for your whole group to get.
2. Open Final Cut Pro
3. Go to Final Cut Pro>User Preferences
4. Select Editing>Change Still Frame Duration to 00:00:05
5. Go to File>Import>Import Folder> and select on your stop motion picture folder
Final Cut Shortcuts:
Render Red=Command R
Render Green=Control R
Selection (move tool)=A
Razor Blade (cut clips)=B

Monday, November 28, 2011

Animation: Stop Motion Assignment


Your next project is a stop motion animation assignment. You will work in groups of three. You will have two full class periods to shoot your assignment using my digital cameras. You will edit your videos on final Cut Pro and add sound effects and music.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJzU3NjDikY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtbQ4J3RfQ8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKWdSCt4jGE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpWM0FNPZSs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2pvO-FEqq4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m23bL9AqB0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYhhfHYZa5s&feature=related

Stop Motion Pre-Production

Please get in your groups and start planning your production.

1. Please use TEXT EDIT and turn in the following information in the STAFF server:
  • Group Member names
  • A four to five sentence description of your animation project. 
  • Please tell me what special "tricks" you will create to make your animation look interesting. What will your characters do that they can't do in real life?
  • Also, let me know if you are using props or if the characters are wearing costumes. Who will wear what outfits?
  • Most importantly please tell me the story from beginning to end.
  • What type of music will you use? Why?
  • What kind of sound effects will you add?
2. Create a shot sheet. Write down the different shots you will take and the order you will take them. List the locations as well.
3. Create a storyboard of the first 45 frames.

 Each video will need:

1.                 Fade In/Out

2.                 Titles

3.                 Credits

4.                 Music and sound effects

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Friday and weekend Action Merges

On Friday I want you to go to a location where you can shoot action photos. 
Keep the camera in one spot, use a tripod, and capture a subject moving four or five times.
Do this five times in different spots at your selected location (25 pictures total).
You will merge the pictures on Monday (see below):
Suggestions for activity:
  • Ice Skating
  • Basketball
  • Skateboarding
  • Dancing
  • Acting as a one-man band 
  • Gymnastics
  • Soccer
  • Tennis
Weekend Homework
Do the exact same assignment over the weekend.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Monday Homework

4 Landscape-style Photomerges are due on Wednesday.
Please take as many pictures as you need to catch up.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Sequences

If you have overlap, use a layer mask

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReDRMX2-8n4&NR=1&feature=fvwp

step by step

  • import pictures
  • auto align layers
  • create a new black layer mask on your top layer (alt + click on the layer mask icon in the layer palette)
  • paint in white over your subject (sometimes lowering the opacity will help you see where to paint.
  • flatten image
  • add shadows as needed
  • save
 

Photomerge Static

















Your assignment over the next five to six days:

You will shoot Photomerge. These are 3-5 pictures that overlap to show a wide landscape or cityscape.
Your three  Landscape style Photomerges should be taken at three different locations preferably at different different times of day.

Use a tripod if possible. Remember to manually adjust the white balance or select something like "cloudy" or "sunny" on your camera.

Summary
  • Three locations
  • One Photomerge from each location
  • make sure each Photomerge is taken at a different time
All three locations are due next Monday.







Monday, November 07, 2011

Action Photo Practice

Today you will shoot and turn in a full contact sheet of action pictures. You should have 10-12 panning style pictures using shutter speeds of around 1/20-1/60 and then 10-12 pictures of regular fast shutter speeds (usually 1/500-1/2500).

  Please review the motocross video with the Crocodile Hunter. The panning instruction starts at about 1:30.

Action Script

To create a STOP action script do the following:
1. Create a STOP layer on your animation timeline.
2. Control click and select actions.
3. Under TIMELINE CONTROL in the upper left hand corner double click STOP.

To create ACTION SCRIPT for your button do the following:
1. Click the frame that your button appears in the timeline.
2. Select directly on your button you have created down in the work area (not on the timeline).
3. Control Click>Actions
4. Under MOVIE CLIP CONTROL select ON and then RELEASE
5. Move the cursor to the second line
6. Under TIMELINE CONTROL select GOTO AND PLAY and then type in the frame where you want the button to transport the gamer player on the timeline.
Note: at the bottom of the Action Script commands your button should be selected under current selection:




Friday, November 04, 2011

Friday's Manual Adjustment Work


Manual Camera Adjustment Assignments with partners:
Come back to class in between each assignment.

1) Take ten pictures of a moving subject using ten different shutter speeds.  Create a Contact Sheet called ‘Shutter.’ (2x5)

2) Take ten pictures adjusting the iris to a different setting for each picture. Create a Contact Sheet called ‘Iris.’ (2x5)

3) Using Manual mode take pictures a subject with a shallow depth of field and deep depth of field. You CAN adjust the ISO for this assignment. The subject should be interesting to look at. Picture should be well lit and well composed. Create a contact sheet with both pictures. (2x1) Call the Contact Sheet ‘Manual.’


CYOA



CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE ASSIGNMENT:
For this project you will be creating an adventure of some sorts that pauses periodically and gives the viewer a choice in where the story goes, thus a "choose your own adventure" tale! Your movie must contain:

* 8 Buttons

* goto and play
* stop
* up, over, down, hit states
* no stick figures
*multiple motion and shape tweens
* movie clips
* at least three instances of sound, sound should FILL your animation
At least three places where decisions need to be made


Please answer the questions below in Text Edit and drop the responses into the Staff Server>Mitchell>Classes>Period 1

* Who are the characters? List at least two.
Where does the story take place?List precise location with details.
* What is the main story from beginning to end? What is the main character trying to do?
* What are the options in the choose your own adventure? What are the outcomes?
* How will your animation be more interesting and better looking than your last project?

Monday, October 24, 2011

Abstract Editing: Adjust 24 pictures


  • Four Selective Focus (SF)
  • Four One item in Color (OC)
  • Four Vignette (Vig)
  • Four Vivid Color (Viv)
  • Four Enhance Saturation (Sat)
  • Four of your choice (this includes Grayscale) MC

One item kept in color:

Option one: Select item>copy item>image mode grayscale>image mode RGB Color>paste item 
Option two: image adjustments desaturate> open history palette> click to the left of the 'Open' state in the history palette to select your History Brush source point>select History Brush (y) in the tool palette and pain in your colors>adjust opacity as needed


selective focus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSZ_Pqh63dM

vignette:
http://rockysnapper.blogspot.com/2007/12/creating-vignettes-in-photoshop-cs3.html

Vivid Color:

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/vivid-glow.html

Enhance Saturation:

http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/The-Best-Technique-to-Enhance-Saturation/33311

More Vivid Colors, that look natural:

http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Naturally-Vivid-Colors/32530


This is NOT due today (Wednesday).
You will have time on Friday to finish.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

You can get college credit for Computer Animation and Digital Photography!

Click on http://sers.techprepwa.org/ to register.
You must register by Dec 2nd.

New SCNN Commercial: Pick a sport, event, or club


New SCNN assignment:
Only 15 seconds required (roughly 170 frames)
Detailed figures and background (simulated 3D)
Motion Tween
Shape Tween
2 Movie Clips
Frame by Frame Animation
Music Throughout
Sound Effects as needed

Monday, October 10, 2011

Grayscale Adjustment Assignment

Please adjust your best 24pictures pictures using the six methods we discussed in class.
You must adjust four pictures for each adjustment method.

The adjustment methods: Basic Black and White (BBW), Calculations Method (CM), Lightness Channel (LC), Ansel Adams(AA), Duotone (DUO), and Basic Channel Mixer (BCM).

Please save and name each picture with the appropriate adjustment method abbreviation (BBW or CM etc.)

Turn in this assignment as naming convention_grayscale_adjusted

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

SCNN Commercial Pre-Production


First, please sketch four different SCNN commercial ideas on the piece of paper provided. You can sketch characters, shape tweens, or anything else that will help you brainstorm the commercial.
Next, scroll through the Sound Effects on the computer to get some sound ideas.
Next, please answer the following questions on the back of the piece of paper.
1. What is the concept or story of your commercial? What happens?
2. What will be your movie clip?
3. What will motion tween?
4. What will shape tween?
5. What sound or music will fill your animation throughout the commercial?
6. What sound effects will you use for the characters or effects?

Monday, October 03, 2011

Pattern and Shadow work















































Your assignment over the next week is to shoot 24 pictures involving man-made and natural shadows and 24 other images involving lightness/darkness relationships with a focus on patterns.

On Wednesday you will shoot 24 pictures in-class. Your homework over the weekend is to shoot 24 pictures  For your weekend assignment you may shoot during the outside during the day or night or you may use man made light at any time.





Animation: SCNN Assignment

Next Animation Project: SCNN

Your next assignment will be a 20-30 second SCNN commercial for anything school related. This could include a dance, a game, a club, an event, or anything else. Content must be related to the specific school related item and must take place at the end of October at the earliest.

Your animation needs to include:
  • Music or sound effects throughout the entire animation
  • Keyframe animation
  • Shape tween
  • Motion using the motion path
  • movie clip
  • Text that says either "SCNN" or the information for the school club, group, or event
Most of these projects will be between 240 and 400 frames each at 12 frames per second.
Here is a list of clubs:
http://learn.shorelineschools.org/shorecrest/sasb/index.php#activities_clubs_organizations

Animation: Exporting from Flash to Quicktime


File
Export Movie
Format:
Select Quicktime Movie
Export
Use the naming convention to save your work
(1_mitchellt_animation 2)
·  Go
·  Connect to server
·  Vidstore.shorelineschools.org    
·  Name: scvideo
·  Password: Jetta23
·  SC video classes
·  Drop your file into Period 1

Importing Sound to Flash


·   Download Sound Effects Folder (Drag to Desktop)
·   Find sound files you would like to use
·   In Flash select File>Import>Import to Library and find your sound effects
·   In the timeline create a new layer for each sound effect
·   Create a keyframe where you would like the sound to start
·   Create a keyframe where you want the sound to end
·   Highlight the first frame of the sound in the timeline, in Properties select your sound, then sync> start
·   Highlight ending frame in timeline. Under Properties>Sync select stop
 

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Landscape Adjusted Assignment



· Edit and adjust your ten best pictures. They should all have foreground, mid-ground, and background elements.
     Use Exposure, Photo Filter, Clone Stamp, Color Balance, Crop, and any other methods you need to make the pictures look awesome. Make sure they look “real.”
· Create contact sheet with ten best pictures called landscape adjusted _CS
· Turn in your best_adjusted_landscape full size as a jpeg

Friday, September 23, 2011

Friday and the weekend in Digital Photo

Due today:
A 24 picture landscape 1 Contact Sheet

Homework:
24 more landscape pictures
Don't forget to focus on foreground, mid-ground, and background photos.




Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Wed Class Work

You will take pictures emphasizing camera composition we discussed in class. Please fill the frame in every shot with something interesting. Boring pictures will not be accepted.

  • 10 landscape shots showing proper use of the horizon line (I would shoot from the baseball, football, and softball fields). Please try to show foreground, mid-ground, and background if possible
  • 3 Shots Tonal Balance
    3 Shots Balance Mass
    3 Shots Patterns  
  • Add your 3 Leading Lines Homework Shots to this 
When you are finished please import your pictures into Image Capture or iPhoto using your USB cable. Create a contact sheet named composition_2. Always use the naming convention.

Animation Assignment

  • 5+ layers
      60+ frames
      15+ keyframes
      foreground, mid-ground, and background
      both shape and motion tweens
  •  1 Movie Clip
  • All items on separate layers
You will work on this assignment Wed, Fri, and Mon.

Animation: Tweening

Shape Tween

Motion Tween Youtube tutorial


Monday, September 19, 2011

Turn in 12 pictures on a Contact Sheet

How to create a Contact Sheet



  • Create a new folder on your desktop with your pictures.
  • Open Photoshop CS3.
  • Select File>Automate>Contact Sheet II
  • Select on Folder and choose the folder your created.
  • Make sure the image size is 8*10 inches.
  • The resolution should be 300.
  • Columns and rows will vary: 12 pictures = 3*4 and 24 pictures=5*5
  • Click OK.
  • File>Save as a jpeg

Drop contacts shet into the STAFF server period 5 and make sure you use the naming convention_composition1. Contact sheets and other assignments without the naming convention will not be graded.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

10 Movie Scenes That Were Very Realistic

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2011/04/10-fantastic-scenes-that-were-more-real-than-you-knew.html

Class Reading

Class work and homework
This is not a writing intensive course, but there is some reading the first couple weeks of class.
Please take notes on the bold faced words as you read from the links below. You will be shooting the various composition elements this weekend and next week. We will also have a quiz on this material as well.

Friday's Reading and Homework:

Homework:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/learnmore/composition.mspx

In Class reading:
http://photoinf.com/General/Geoff_Lawrence/Composition.html

(Take quizzes at the end of each section below)

http://cybercollege.com/tvp023.htm Start reading at "Strive for Feeling of Unity"
http://cybercollege.com/tvp024.htm
http://cybercollege.com/tvp025.htm



This Friday you will shoot six pictures with six different subjects. Please shoot three Rule of Thirds shots and three Unique Angle shots. Your homework is to shoot three leading lines shots and three frame within a frame (using other objects to frame your subject) shots.

Due Monday  the 19th of September: 12 INTERESTING shots using all four techniques described above.Some people will take 30-40 pictures for 12 good ones.
You do not have to shoot outside.

Make sure you read both sections above.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

First Animation Assignment

I would like you to visit the following websites and watch a variety of flash animation.

When you are done watching the animation (spend about 30-35 minutes or so on this) I would like you to tell me what your three favorite flash movies were and why you liked them.
Did you like the storyline? Animation style? Sound effects? Music?
Please list this information, along with the link to access the animation, in the comments section below. Don't forget to put your name at the beginning so I know you did your work. Please use headphones.




http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=gsis,i18n%3Dtrue&cp=8&gs_id=r&xhr=t&q=flash+animation&qe=Zmxhc2ggYW4&qesig=4HzSe-7WX88H955yLaEwJw&pkc=AFgZ2tmWnBPedwme1MAPR0IZWb6hGzKL87L_oLRBub29FOmOGiZsvxlRoixp1KAnPnmFgVptKUxydmG2-3nd3yE7QtnyFR_ObA&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbm=vid&source=og&sa=N&tab=wv&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.&fp=47b7749a5a622465&biw=1779&bih=941&surl=1&safe=active




http://youtube.com/results?search_query=flash+animation+movies&search_type=&search=Search


Welcome to class! Don't forget to fill in the comment section with your favorite videos. Log in as anonymous and then write your name at the top of your comment.
Mr. Mitchell

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

HDR Homework

Grab your camera.
Get to an interesting an scenic location around sunrise or sunset (water in the picture would be a plus).
Place camera on tripod or something steady.
Take 4-5 pictures, each on a different setting. Either adjust the shutter bor adjust the camera mode (sun, snow, beach, clouds, and action etc.) between each picture.
Change angles and take 5 different "sets" of HDR pictures. In other words, take 20-25 pictures total.

For more info about HDR pictures please see below.

Friday, May 27, 2011

HDR


HDR

This is a new assignment for some of you and for others it's something you have done before. There are detailed instructions on how to create HDR pictures below.

I'll give you some hints:
1. Use a tripod.
2. Take 8-10 pictures using a variety of shutter speeds from almost dark to too bright. (Adjusting aperture only works also).
3. Make sure tripod is completely steady.
4. Import pictures and put all the HDR pictures in a folder on the desktop
5 Merge pics in Photoshop using automate>merge>HDR

Your assignment today is to read the instructions and using your own cameras (or a friends) go in groups of 3-4 and take a scenic OR landscape type shot 8-10 times using the HDR technique described below. Do this for two locations somewhat near school.
At 11:30 (not 11:40) please return and import your photos and then merge them to HDR. You can eliminate any pictures that you don't need.

Turn in a contact sheet with 16-20 pictures and also turn in one good HDR picture.
Email me with questions.

Step-By-Step HDR Instruction


Here

In the instructions above they suggest you change your shutter speed (I have successfully created HDR merges with aperture adjustment). I will recommend you try both. You CAN take HDR pictures using a point and shoot camera. Instead of adjusting the aperture you can try different settings for each picture like Beach, Snow, Clouds, and Sun etc.

HDR Pictures







Each of these pictures is actually three pictures combined, each with a different aperture setting.