introduction to photoshop

exercise 1 ‘exquisite corpse’: working in groups of three we will produce a composite ‘portrait’ or what the surrealists called an “exquisite corpse’. this is a portrait produced by a group of individuals without prior knowledge of the specific contributions of each member.

assignment 2 ’self-portrait’ or ‘tableau’:
self-portrait panorama: an exercise in visual storytelling and introduction to image file-formats, sizing and photoshop basics. using found or created visual imagery students are asked to produce a panoramic self-portrait that describes a defining event or a significant relationship in the student’s life. the final portrait will be comprised of a series of six (6) images. these materials can include a range of imagery but may only include one picture of the students themselves. images should communicate something about the student’s interests and values and be considerate of the formal aspects of both the individual pictures and all elements as they cohere in the group—the tone, texture, contrast, and scale of each individual element should work together harmoniously. when choosing images, pay attention to the consistency of time and space that is represented. additionally, the order should be carefully considered. for the final presentation, each image will be cropped, and have contrast adjusted to suit the graphic sensibility of the whole. images will be saved for the web in jpeg format (and original scale tiff) and posted to the student’s website or blog, to be presented in class march 6 ~15%

an alternative ~ a tableau: students will integrate (a minimum) of three source images into a single image frame to create a collage or ‘surrealist’ repesentation of a fictional scene or event—domestic, public, catastrophic, dramatic, comic... the scene can represent an original theme or can synthesize themes from a film you have made, seen and/or admire. source imagery can be taken from a number of sources—newspapers, magazines, snapshots. the final work can be reproduced as a poster, cd/dvd cover image or a stand-alone print. images will be saved in jpeg format (and original scale tiff) and posted to the student’s website or blog, to be presented in class march 6 ~15%

digital print workflow – self-portrait or tableau (steps 1 – 5)
1 plan your picture: begin your project with an idea about the size and orientation of the final print. decide also on the quality (resolution) and mode (black and white, RGB or CMYK colour). also, decide on the basic corrections you want to make to the image—cropping, colour and contrast correction, lightening or darkening parts of the photograph—and, because you are making a composite photograph, decide which parts of the image you plan to select. it is a good idea to make a drawing or ‘maquette’ of the final image. it helps you plan and follow the steps in your image production.
2 file organization: open a folder on the scratch disk of your computer with your name on it. inside this folder open three others: one called image bank, another called projects and a final folder called final versions.

3 acquisition: at this stage you will be scanning images or collecting them from storage material or the Internet and saving them in your image bank folder. when scanning scan at 200 d.p.i.. title the images using obvious and memorable titles and save these images in your image bank folder.

4 open, title and size a new project: open a new project in photoshop (file>new). choose your mode (bitmap, grayscale, RGB, CMYK, lab colour), image size (preset or width, height, resolution) and contents (white, background colour, transparent).

5 selection/transformation/adjustment/combine: return to your image bank and open the acquired and saved image files. using the appropriate tools from the tool menu individually select, transform and adjust the material you want to include in the final image. this stage will take up most of your time as it involves the most time-consuming aspects of digital image production. after making the appropriate adjustments, resize the images proportionally, keeping the final picture in mind, and copy and paste the materials into different layers of your project file.

6 prepare and print the image: once the basic elements are combined in the project file, place each layer according to your ‘maquette’ and make final adjustments to the image. save two versions in your final versions folder: in .psd, jpeg and TIFF formats (File>Save As). if you haven’t already flattened and/or sized your image for printing, do so now.
Photoshop CS Introduction

please come to class next week with your ‘panorama’ or ‘tableau’ planned and the images scanned @200 dpi