Digital Photography

Focus Project

Due December 14

In this project, your PRIMARY PURPOSE is to show off your creativity while keeping in mind the technical aspects of photography, composition, and re-touching that you have been taught this semester and using your raw photographs, modified and combined, as the inspiration.

There will be three options for you to choose from, each of which has its own requirements. I assure you that none of them will be easier than the others if done properly. While it may appear that one or another of the projects is “simpler”, at least in terms of requirements, the very fact that it has fewer requirements will mean that I will require you to put more of yourself into the final product and will grade accordingly. Therefore, I highly recommend that you choose the project that interests you, rather than the “easiest” project.

General Time Requirements:

  • You will have class time to work (approx 5 hours), but you will also be required to find additional time to work on Photoshop and/or take photographs outside of class. I expect you to spend at least an additional 3 hours actively working on this project (approx 20-25 minutes a day between now and the due date). You are welcome to use the lab, or download a trial version of Photoshop from the adobe.com website. You must turn in a timelog. Failure to turn in a timelog will result in a letter grade deduction

Option 1: Artistic Photo Collage/Poster

For this option, you will use Photoshop and your digital images to create a Photo Collage. You will want to experiment with Photoshop and come up with a “style” that fits your images and your sense of art. As with our other projects, you may find it easier to pick a “theme” or title for your poster to focus your choice of images and inspire your efforts.

The following two websites might serve as inspiration for ways to creatively combine photographs into a collage. Search for other inspiration if you choose, but don’t spend too much time on that portion of the assignment.

Requirements:

  • The poster should have a size of at least 25 linear inches (length + width), although I recommend using 11 x 17 (with half-inch margins).
  • You must use at least 6 images (or parts of images).
  • Keep all layers in your final file so I can review them.
  • Keep a “diary” of what photoshop techniques you use on all the images.
  • Keep the original photos used, and turn them in as well.
  • Turn in your timelog.

Option 2: Brochure or Photo Map

For this option, you may choose to make a brochure or a photo map using a combination of Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. For the brochure, you may use your creativity and make up a business or event that the brochure is “advertising.” It could even be a brochure of your artwork. The focus will be to have exquisite quality images for the brochure and to learn about some layout and placement so that the flow of the brochure fits with the images and the desired effect of the brochure.

For the photo map, you will create a map of some area and artistically combine your images of the location with the drawn map. Feel free to either draw your own map or use another sort of map (electronic or scanned in) of the area. For example, you could “map” the close, your neighborhood or some other favorite location.

Requirements:

  • The project should be sized either at 11 x 17 or 8.5 x 11 (double-sided), all in inches.
  • You must use at least 10 images (or parts of images).
  • For your photoshop work, keep all layers in your final files so I can review them (and turn in the .psd files, not just image files).
  • Keep a “diary” of what photoshop techniques you use on all the images.
  • Keep the original photos used, and turn them in as well.
  • If you use InDesign, turn in a brief writeup of the tools and techniques you used and/or learned while doing the project.
  • Turn in your timelog

Option 3: Digital art

In this project you are going to create a true “artwork” using only digital images and Photoshop manipulation of those images. You can produce practically anything, abstract art or otherwise, but I recommend that you base your image on physical objects as done in the book examples.

Part One:

Using the book, The Art of Photoshop by Daniel Giordan, choose one of the final artistic images that appeals to you and recreate the final image from the required starting images. You will read the chapter, learning more details about the tool that is featured for that art project. It is recommended, but up to you, whether or not you want to try any of the intermediate exercises within your chapter. You will then follow the steps outlined in “Building the Image” section to create the final image.

Part Two:

Using what you learned in Part One and your own photographic inspiration and exploration of Photoshop, you will create 1-3 artistic images (depending on the complexity of the images that you turn in). Similar to the layout of the book, you will keep track of the images at each stage of the “production” – so in addition to saving layers, you will save separate images for each step along the way. For each separate image you save, you should keep track in a separate document the steps taken from the last “snapshot.” At the end, you will have your series of pictures and corresponding written description of each step that shows the work in progress for each of your final artistic images.

Requirements:

  • The Part 2 images can be 4 x 6s or larger sizes.
  • For your photoshop work, keep all layers in your final files so I can review them (and turn in the .psd files, not just image files).
  • Turn in the Part one images and final result.
  • Turn in for Part 2 the original images and final result.
  • Turn in for Part 2 the documentation of the steps taken and all intermediate “snapshots” of the progress of your work.
  • Each image should be titled.
  • Turn in your timelog.

Option 4: Be a Photojournalist

For this option, you will produce a “story” told only with photographs. The final project will be a series of photographs in a slideshow format, each of which should be as “professional” as possible. This means that you should take pains to correct images that require it and use all the tools we have learned and rules of composition to emphasize the part of the story told by each image.

This option blends more photographic focus into the final project that the others, but you will be required to do some Photoshop work as well. You will also need to spend some work time researching ways to be a successful photojournalist.

Requirements:

  • You must use at least 25 images in your final story. At least 15 of them must be corrected in photoshop using as many techniques as required. (Using “too few” techniques will result in a deduction of points).
  • Your story must have a title.
  • You must use and turn in a “diary” of the techniques used on each image.
  • You must turn in all the original photos used in addition to the final product.
  • Turn in your timelog