Make Fun of Jake Day

Once a year, we have a different challenge to do something with my boyfriend's face. Then all of his students get to see it and enjoy the best of your Photoshop pieces. This year, we are trying to hide Jake's face for a Where's Waldo challenge- his students will actually have to find his face in a crowd or famous image. It will take your clever Photoshop skills to make it clever and difficult.

Tricks:
-Search source files on LARGE for high quality
-Use Image-->Adjustments--> brightness/contrast or levels to make the values of the source image match the face
-CTRL + J objects in the foreground to overlap the face and hide it if necessary
-Don't underestimate black and white. It can be challenging!

Source images and examples:

Hello everyone, I apologize for the absence. 

I would like you to not only finish ALL of the retouching challenges we tried, but also create a new challenge by trying a tanned skin tone on your models. You can find the step by step instructions on the M drive, at the end of the retouching document provided. So far, you have only submitted a  portion of your facial retouching abilities to me. By tomorrow I would like you to have at least 2 models you have tried this technique on, among others. if you finish early, you can do work from another class or do extra photos for extra credit. 

Please run a contact sheet for your selfie that is 2 columns and 1 row-- and change the height to 8 and width to 10 (I know we usually leave these alone, but this time we will change it)

By the end of the day, I would like you to submit a FOLDER (this is new) containing the following files:

Pen Tool sports collage

I'm finally back, so I can show you some examples from past years!

 

 <-------- Careful not to have cut off chunks of mystery meat "floating". If your figure cuts off at the waist, you need to have them on the edge of the picture.

Pen tool sports collage

You will be creating an homage to an athlete from your favorite sport using pen tool. We have used pen tool before, but many people are reluctant to use this powerful tool because it takes a little extra time. Unfortunately, pen tool usually gives you the best results when cutting an object, giving you complete control and smooth edges.

You have 3 days to do this, so take your time and make it look good.

1. Think about your favorite sport. If you're not into sports, pick a sport you find visually appealing. It can be anything! I have had people use tennis, ballet, running, martial arts, etc.

2. In photoshop, click File-->New and create a document that is 10" wide by 8" tall, 300 resolution.

3. Using Google image search, click TOOLS and modify the SIZE filter to LARGE.
This will give you the highest quality images.

4. Find high quality images of your selected athlete. Copy and paste the photo into your new document in Photoshop.

5. Click on the pen tool. Zoom in on your athlete so you can see the details very clearly. I tell you to zoom in so you can do a precise job with the pen tool.

6. Click  to connect a path of dots around the outside of your athlete.

7. Once you have completed your path, right click and click "make selection". This tutorial says you can also click CTRL+ENTER to get your marching ants.

8. Once you have ants around the outside of your athlete, you can click CTRL+J to copy a fresh, trimmed up version of your athlete into a new layer.

9. Discard the old athlete layer once you have your trimmed one.

10. Repeat this process until you have your athlete 5-7 different ways. Arrange them nicely so they overlap and make a nice composition. The athletes should have perfect, smooth edges. If you try to short cut using quick select, I will know.

This example is a different size/shape than yours, but the figures are still arranged nicely, so you get the idea. (I do not have access to my past examples to show you the proper ones!)

Here are some posters with a concept similar to yours

11. Finally, create an interesting background- whether you choose to use text like the Chicago bulls example above, or a custom gradient of your team's colors using this tutorial. Scroll down to where it says "The presets area" to begin. 

If it works with your background, you can add drop shadows to your figures.

I WILL MAKE TURN IN FOLDERS ON THURSDAY when I return. Plan on having this finished by then. 

If you finish early, here are a couple links to some interesting tutorials to try: 

***Tutorials***

MACRO DUE!

Edgar Amador

Ashlee Jurevich

Bailey Vandergriff

Here are a sample of some beautiful flower macros I have seen in the classroom. Well done- to everyone- everyone has some shots that REALLY stand out, and I cannot wait to show these at the Turlock Public library in MAY!

MACRO CONTACT SHEET (30 pts) AND BEST PHOTO (10 pts) DUE TODAY. What I upload off the servers today is IT. I will be out of town, far far away from the school servers, and will not have access to your files. Also, ALL EXTRA CREDIT FOR Q3 IS DUE TODAY. Again, if it's not in the folder by 3pm, I will not upload it to my Google drive, and I will not see it.

Contact sheets are 3 COLUMNS and 5 ROWS. Make sure the rest of the boxes stay default- 8x10 300 resolution. The contact sheet should look like this (Thanks, Adelo!):

This photo is proof that you don't have to HAVE a pretty background to make it look like you do. It depends on your camera angle. You must learn to point the lens in the direction that shows the most pleasing little piece of a background.

In this case, the photographer has an alleyway full of weeds, and he makes it work. I want you to experiment with angles in your macro shots, and if you have to include the background, make sure it is pleasing. We don't want to see things like fire hydrants, bathrooms, trash cans, cars, etc.

Take at least 3 different angles of each photo. Then you will have more options when you return to the classroom!



Here are the lists for those people catching up at home:

Macro Scavenger

Your tiny planets came out amazing!
Lets turn our eye in the opposite direction...
Instead of looking at a distant view of a whole landscape, lets look really really closely at tiny things.
That's right.... It's time for the macro scavenger hunt.

Take a look at the examples of past macro shots on the blog. What do they have in common? As yourself, are they interesting? Colorful? Rule of 3rds? Creative angles? The key with macro photography is not JUST photographing something small, but making it look interesting. Showing it in a way that other people have never seen it.

Think about your elements of art. Do the colors of your shot go well together? (Complimentary colors always work!) Do the lines and textures create something interesting to look at? Do you have a good range of value (lights and darks?) Is there some interesting shape or form you found to show? Lookat these 3 examples of how students handled the subject  of a "leaf":

In this photo, the camera was just pointed at some leaves on a branch. There is not one area of focus or main subject. I would consider this "basic" and uninspired. C or C- level work.

In this photo, the student focused on one main leaf covered in rain droplets. We see the crisp, focused texture of the droplets, and still get a nice sense of space by the blurry background. This photo would get an A.

 In this photo the student has gone even farther, giving us the shiny texture of water, bold lines of the plant, and an interesting main subject (the center of the flower) AND they used rule of thirds for that main subject. This photo shows knowledge of elements of art AND composition. It would get an A.


You can pick from 2 lists, found on the M:/. The first is a little easier, the second has a couple more challenging items.