Back in the Swing of Things

Welcome Back, Everyone! We officially kicked off this semester's 7th Grade Digital Photography Class with a bang! The students are already sharing ideas for projects and photo shoots. It is wonderful to have such an enthusiastic group of young people, and I look forward to the next several months of creativity!

If students have a digital camera that they can bring to class with them for each class period, that is great! If not, Calvert has several cameras that can be used for our class projects! Our goal is to familiarize students with all types of cameras and shooting modes so that they are more than comfortable with whatever camera is available for use.

Please check this blog often as we will post our work on a regular basis! Stay tuned!

Digital Installations

Installation art describes an artistic genre of site-specific, three-dimensional works designed to change the perception of a space or place by intentionally adding – or subtracting – material of any kind to or from it. In this project, seventh grade digital photography students were commissioned by Calvert School to install a sculpture somewhere on campus. After creating a small model in a variety of materials, students photographed their piece as well a location on campus to install the sculpture, which was done digitally using Adobe Photoshop tools. Students were sure to consider placement, scale, light and shadow in this piece.

Take a Closer Look

The 7th Grade Digital Photography class continues to impress us with their creative and technical skills. Macro photography is the art of taking close-up pictures to reveal details which can’t be seen with the naked eye. These images are highly focused and detailed and are often used for nature shots. In this project, students went outside to take macro photos of their own using the macro camera setting. They focused on interesting shapes and forms on campus while paying close attention to color, lighting, and composition. After selecting their favorite photo, they used Photoshop to crop it even more and then rotated, flipped, and duplicated the cropped tile to form an abstracted kaleidoscope image. If you take a closer look, you may be able to identify the original subject!

Comic Strip Creators

For this project, students came up with comedic story lines and completed sketches of the layout of each panel of their comic strip. Using their sketches as a guide, they shot photographs to create each scene (or part of a scene) in a digital format. These photos were then cropped and manipulated in Adobe Photoshop and effects were added to create the look of a drawing or newspaper copy. Students also added word and thought bubbles while carefully considering the placement, font and color of each. Lastly, an Adobe InDesign document was created to bring the panels together in their final layout and a title was added. Enjoy!

Self Portrait Tiles- Ink Transfer Onto Clay

Seventh grade artists incorporated digital photography into clay work by using an image transfer process. First, students took simple self portrait photos before cropping and manipulating them in Photoshop to reduce the photos to simplified black and white line and shape. The resulting photos were printed on an inkjet printer. Students then rolled slabs of soft clay and transferred the image by rubbing the ink onto the damp clay, allowing it to bleed. The slabs were trimmed and students used various tools to carve away the lines of their portrait. After the first firing, students painted the entire tile with black glaze before wiping away the surface glaze and leaving black inside the carved lines, In the last step before the second firing, colored glaze was added to the background and shiny overglaze to the whole tile, resulting in fabulous portrait tiles. Check out the process and the finished products below!

Lots on Our Plates!

We've been very busy in our Digital Photography class these past several weeks. Minus a quick Spring Break, we've been working on three different projects, which we are looking forward to showing you!

First, we transferred self-portraits onto slabs of clay. What an amazing project! Mrs. Kamp came up with the idea and we tried it out as a class. The slabs are in the kiln as we speak, so we'll be sure to post photos as soon as they are ready!

Another project we've started is a cartooning assignment. Students are taking photos and will then apply visual effects in Photoshop to create a comic strip!

Lastly, our class was asked by Mr. Skeen to design the planner cover for the 2009-2010 school year! We have about six designs in the works now and are selecting our favorite this week!

Stay tuned as we clean off our plates so we can deliver some visuals!

How Did You Do That?!?

Our students continue to "wow" us with the projects they produce! We asked them to take a photograph of themselves as well as a photo of a scene of their choice that would serve as the background for the finished piece.

The goal: create an unlikely scene.

The trick: successfully integrate two images in a realistic and believable way.

As in Project #1, students used Photoshop to apply shadows, adjust color, and resize/rotate photographs to make the viewer believe what he sees.

Take a look at what the class created! You'll be "wowed" too!