Photoshop Curriculum

By Jane Pawlowski

W.T. Clarke High School

 

References

 

Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Photoshop 7 in 24 Hours  by Carla Rose

 

Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Classroom in a Book by Adobe Creative Team (Paperback)

 


TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Introduction to Photoshop............................................................................................................. 3

Paintbrushes and Art Tools.......................................................................................................... 5

Digital Painting.............................................................................................................................. 7

Moving Paint.................................................................................................................................. 9

Selection Tools.............................................................................................................................. 9

Transformations........................................................................................................................... 11

Repeat Design............................................................................................................................ 13

Filters............................................................................................................................................ 14

Book Cover Design.................................................................................................................... 17

CD Cover..................................................................................................................................... 18

Currency Design.......................................................................................................................... 19

Self Portrait.................................................................................................................................. 20

Photoshop & Design................................................................................................................... 21

Assessment and Digital Imaging Lesson …………………………………by Donna Pauler

 

Examples using Photoshop


Introduction to Photoshop

 

Students will learn the basics of their desktop; from turning on their machine to opening Photoshop and beginning a new program.

 

Turn on the computers if they are not already on.

Go over the components of the desktop.

The Start button, the icons.

Double-click on Photoshop to open the program. Depending on the computer, this is a large program and takes a while to open.

Go to file new to set the size of the screen. The image size can be set in inches, centimeters, pixels, points, picas or columns.

 

Define: Pixels, points, and picas

 

For the purpose of this lesson, set the screen at 7 x 5 inches.

 

The resolution refers to the number of dots of ink per inch (for print) or pixels per inch (for the screen). The higher the resolution, the better quality your image is. Most print images are 300 dpi or better. The monitor has a dpi of 72. You set the resolution depending on the output. For now keep it at 72.

 

Set the Mode to RGB Color (RGB stands for Red Green and Blue). Again the different modes depend upon the output of your art.

 

Under contents, click the button to select white, which gives you a white canvas to paint on.

 

Click OK. This brings up the active window. The canvas is the large white box within it. More than one window can be open; only one is active at a time.

 

After you have created a new file, you can change the size by selecting Image®Canvas Size.

 

The Toolbox - (Handout)

The toolbox is equivalent to an artist’s worktable. It holds all the tools you use to paint, erase and otherwise work in your picture. There are four kinds of tools.

 

·        Selection tools

·        Painting tools

·        Specialized tools for working with type, gradients, and so on.

·        Viewing tools.

 

Selection Tools

At the top of the toolbox is the group called the Selection tools. They are used to select all or part of a picture. There are three: the Marquee, the Lasso and the Magic Wand. When an area is selected you see a blinking selection border, called a Marquee after the movie theater marquee lights that flash on and off. The Marquee and Lasso tools work by clicking and dragging the tool over the part of the image that you want to select. The cropping tool is also here.

 

The fourth tool in the selection area is the Move tool. After you have made a selection, use the Move tool to move the selected area to another place on the page.

 

Painting Tools

The painting tools consist of an Airbrush, Paintbrush, Pencil and Rubber Stamp. These all apply “paint” to the screen in one way or another, just like the real tools they imitate. The Airbrush and Paintbrush can change width and angle. The Pencil draws or erased a single pixel line. The Line tool, which pops up when you click the Pencil draws straight, 45 and 90-degree angles, as if you were using a T-square and triangle. There’s also an Eraser that takes away part of the picture.

 

New to Photoshop 5 is the History brush, that gives you the ability to selectively undo and redo as many of your changes or individual brushstrokes as you want.

 

There are also tools that move, blur and change the intensity of the image. These are the Smudge, Blur/Sharpen and Dodge/Burn/Sponge tools.

 

Viewing Tools

There are two Viewing tools; The Hand tool and the Zoom tool. The Zoom tool is shaped like a magnifying glass, and the Hand tool, like a hand. The Zoom tool lets you “zoom in” by clicking the tool on the canvas to see a magnified view of your picture or “zoom out” again by pressing (Alt) as you click to see a smaller view. The Hand moves the image within the window and is helpful when you have zoomed in to enlarge the picture.

 

Special Tools

The letter T represents the Type tool, which adds type to your picture. The Pen tool draws paths, which are a means of drawing a curved line or shape. Paths can be used as a selection or drawing tool. The Measure tool can be used to measure dimensions and angles in the picture.  The gradient Tool lets you create backgrounds that shade from one color to another or even all the way through the rainbow. The Paint bucket pours paint into any area you select. The Eyedropper tool picks up a sample of any color you click it on, making it the active color.

 

Tool Shortcuts

These tools can be selected by clicking the icon or a single letter shortcut to the tool.

 

Tool                             Shortcut          Tool                             Shortcut         

Marquee                     M                     Move                           V

Lasso                         L                      Magic Wand              W

Airbrush                      J                      Brush                          B

Rubber Stamp           S                     History Brush             Y

Eraser                        E                     Pencil                         N

Blur                             R                     Dodge                        O                    

Pen                             P                     Type                            T

Measurement            U                     Gradient                     G

Paint Bucket              K                     Eyedropper                I

Hand                           H                     Zoom                          Z

Crop                           C                     Switch background   X

                                                            Foreground colors

 

Menus

 

Across the top of the screen are the dropdown menus. Take a moment to scroll through them to see what is there. Many menus have submenus. The little arrow offering more selections indicates these.

 

 

 

Paintbrushes and Art Tools

 

Students will have the opportunity to explore the painting tools: the Airbrush, paintbrush, eraser, pencil, line, gradient, paint bucket and eyedropper tool.

 

Assignment: Students will create an original work using these tools. This will be printed in black and white. Students will also create their image either by 1) coloring in the print with color pencils or 2) recreating and enhancing the art on paper.

 

The painting tools are all highly configurable. You can adjust such settings as diameter, hardness, roundness, angle, opacity and so on.

 

The Brushes Palette

This palette either appears as soon as you open your file or can be opened via the menu command Window®Show Brushes. This palette works with all the art tools, from the Airbrush to the Dodge tool. It gives you the ability to select any of Photoshop’s preset brush shapes or to create your own.

 

Click one of the preset brush shapes. The size and shape you see in the box are the size and shape of the brush. The only exceptions are the rushes with the numbers, which indicate the diameter of the brush in pixels. A brush can be up to 999 pixels wide (almost 14 inches). We have not yet selected a tool. You need to type a shortcut or pick a tool in the toolbox. The brushes palette just influences the shape of the tool.

 

Brush Options Dialog Box.

Double-click a brush and the options dialog appears. Here you can select the diameter, hardness, spacing, angle and roundness of the brushes. The harder a brush is (nearer 100%), the more defined the edges of paint will be. A brush with a setting around 20% has a more translucent appearance.

 

The next option is for spacing. If left unselected, the speed of your mouse movements determine the spacing of discrete drops of paint. If you move more slowly, paint appears in a continuous line. If you move the mouse quickly, circles of paint appear with spaces between them.

 

By selecting the spacing check box, you are able to set a standard spacing of paint, no matter what the rate of the mouse movement. Anything around 25% should give you a very smooth line of paint. As you increase the percentage, the spaces increase.  Select the paintbrush, double-click on it. See how the different spacing settings change the stroke. Set at 25%, 50% 100% and 200%. You can also set the angle and roundness of the brush. Experiment with these to get a brush line that duplicates a real paintbrush.  You can either enter numerical values or adjust the graphic. You can save a brush you like in your file with the Save Brushes command found in the brushes palette menu. Click on the upper right corner to open the menu. You must name your brush.

 

Tool Options Palette

This can be opened either by clicking on the Window®Show Options menu or by double-clicking on a tool. The tool options change depending on the tool you are using. Notice the slider that sets the opacity. Click and hold the right pointing arrow next to Opacity field to enable the slider. A low setting applies a thin layer of paint – nearly transparent. The closer you come to 100%, the more concentrated the color.

 

Wet Edges creates a sort of watercolor effect when you paint. Experiment with the wet edges on and off.

 

Fade, when used with a full brush of paint makes the paint run out after a set number of steps, just as if you were using a real brush. You can set the fade amount from 1 to  9,999 steps. Try starting with a Fade setting of 24 to get an easily controllable brush stroke, neither too long or short. Experiment with the settings to see the different effects.

 

The Stylus Pressure options affect the way that Photoshop responds to a pressure sensitive digitizing tablet, ignore it for now since we are not using this.

 

Blending modes affect the way a layer of paint interacts with whatever is under it.

 

Brushes

Airbrush

This tool, sprays paint (or pixels) on the canvas. It is like an artist’s airbrush that uses compressed air to spray paint through an adjustable nozzle. The Airbrush applies paint with diffused edges, and you can control how fast the paint is applied. You can adjust it to spray a constant stream or one that fades after a period. Experiment with different brush sizes and shapes. The longer you hold the Airbrush tool in a single spot, the darker and more saturated a color becomes. Type J to activate the Airbrush or click it in the toolbox.

Paintbrush

The Paintbrush tool is the workhorse of all the painting tools in Photoshop. Type B to use the Brush or click on it. Double-click to open the Brush Options palette if it is not already open. The Paintbrush behaves very much like the Airbrush, only paint is applied more evenly. That is to say, if you hold the mouse clicked in one area, paint does not continue to flow onto the canvas.

 

To paint a straight line, constrained either vertically or horizontally, hold down the Shift key as you drag the brush. To draw a straight line between tow points, click once on the canvas to set the first point, and then Shift-click to mark the end point.  A line appears between the two points.

 

 

Eraser

The Eraser tool is unique in that it can replicate the characteristics of the other tools. It can erase with soft edges as if it were a paintbrush painting with bleach. It can erase a single line of pixels as if it were a pencil, or it can erase some of the density of the image as if it were an airbrush. It can also act as an ordinary block eraser. The first three options are controlled via the Brushes palette-size, harness, and so on. These characteristics are set on the Eraser Options palette.

 

You can also Erase to History. This lets the eraser work with the history palette so you are erasing to an earlier version of the picture.

 

Before you begin to erase or make any drastic changes to your picture, you can take a snapshop of it by choosing New Snapshot from the History palette.

 

Pencil

The Pencil tool, works like a paintbrush except that it createshard-edged lines. To set the diameter of the Pencil, double-click on it to bring up the Options palette. One option unique to the pencil is the Auto Erase. Whenever you start to draw on a part of the canvas that already has a pencil line on it, you  pencil becomes an eraser and will erase until you release the mouse.

 

 

Let us experiment with some of the paint tools.

1.      Open a new page, making it big enough so you have some elbow room. About six to 8’ square is fine.

2.      Open the Brushes palette (Window®Show Brushes). On the same set of palettes as the brushes, you’ll see a tab for Swatches.

3.      Click Swatches to open an electronic paint box. Click on any color.

4.      Type  or click on the Paintbrush.

5.      Click the Brushes tab to go back to Brushes to choose a brush shape.

6.      Press and hold the mouse button as you move the brush over the canvas.

7.      Try the Airbrush and Eraser tools too.

 

 

Assignment

Create a drawing using the painting tools.

  1. Do your drawing on paper first.
  2. Try to recreate your drawing on the computer
  3. Compare the two. Remember that it takes a lot of time to get used to manipulating the mouse. The skills used here will help for future projects.

 

 

 

Digital Painting

 

Students will gain knowledge to choose and apply colors using the tools learned in the previous lesson. They will also learn about the blending tools.

 

Foreground and Background Colors

At any given moment while working with Photoshop, you have two colors available – two active colors a foreground color and a background color. The foreground color is the one you use to paint, to fill or to stroke a selection. This is the color currently on your brush or pencil. The background color is the color Photoshop uses when you erase or delete a selected area on the background layer. This is the color of your canvas.

 

Selecting Colors

The fastest and easiest way to select color is to use the foreground or background swatch in the toolbox. The color swatch to the upper left is your foreground color and  the other one is the background color. To set either color, click its swatch. 

 

The small icon to the lower left of the swatches, which looks like a miniature version of the swatches, resets to the default colors (black and white). The little curved arrow to the upper right of the swatches toggles between background and foreground colors.

 

To change the color, click either of the swatches. This opens the Color Picker.

 

The Color Picker

This lets you select color in several ways. You can click the color spectrum to select a color or drag the triangle up or down if you’d rather. You can click the large swatch (the color field) to select a color, or you can enter numbers in the color model boxes.

 

By default, the Color Pick opens in HS model, which stands for Hue Saturation and Brightness, with the Hue button active. HSB mode is often preferred by artists . You can change it to RGB which is the colors your monitor displays.

Remember when working in RGB you are working with the way light affects color.

 

Experiment with the Color Picker.

 

The Color Palette

The Color Palette has several advantages over the Color Picker. It can be left open on the desktop,so you can change colors without opening the Color Picker. Change your setting to RGB or CMYK depending upon your output.

 

The Swatches Palette

This is the easiest way to choose color. The Swatches palette works like a paintbox. Dip your ‘brush’ in a color and paint with it. This palette opens with the current System palette. You can add colors from the Color Picker or select a color system such as Pantone (this is for printing). You can also customize the color with the eyedropper tool.

 

To add a new color

1.      Click the foreground color swatch in the toolbox.

2.      Use the Color Picker to select the desired color and click OK.

3.      Open the Swatches palette.

4.      Using the tab in the lower-right corner, drag the window to enlarge it.

5.      Move your cursor into the space below the existing swatches. It changes to a paint bucket tool.

6.      Click and the new color is added.

7.      If you press Shift, you can add the new color anywhere, replacing another swatch.

 

 

You can create a customized palette and save it.

 

The Eyedropper Tool

When you move the cursor over a color swatch, you see the eyedropper tool. Its function is to pick up bits of whatever color you touch it to. You can also use it to pick up a color in you r picture to have a perfect match.

 

Blending Modes

If you were using paint, the colors would blend together. There are several Blending Modes in Photoshop.  They can be found on a pop-up lit in the paintbrush options window. Experiment with the different modes.

 

 

 

Moving Paint

 

Students will learn to manipulate the paint like a painter as well as some darkroom techniques. Students will learn to use the blending tools.

 

Smudges

Smudge means blending two or more colors. The Smudge tool is the easiest way to blend. This tool looks like a finger. This tool picks up color from wherever you start to drag it, and moves it in the direction you drag. You can use the Options window to set the pressure of your smudging finger. At 100%, the finger simply wipes away the paint. At 50%, it smears it. At 25% the smear is smaller. You can also set the width of the “finger”.

 

The Smudging tool can also mimic finger painting. This option starts each stroke with the foreground color. This can e used to blend color into an existing picture. To do this check finger painting in the options menu.

 

The Blending modes are on a pulldown menu.

 

The Focus Tools

Blur and Sharpen used for touching up an image as well as bringing items into sharper contrast. They cannot save a bad photo but they can increase contrast and sharpen up one that is a little off.

 

Sharpen rings up the contrast to create the illusion of sharper focus, while Blur is useful to rid the background of unwanted clutter and de-emphasize parts of the picture you don’t want viewers to see.

 

 

Selection Tools

 

Students will learn several ways to select a piece of a picture. Students will use their knowledge of these tools to manipulate a photograph into a new image.

 

The Selection tools are: the Marquee tools, the Lasso tools, and the Magic Wand.

 

Rectangle and Oval Marquees

The Marquee tools, both rectangular and oval, are found in the upper-left corner of the toolbox. To select the rectangular marquee, just click it or type the letter M. to select the oval marquee, click and hold the rectangular marquee in the toolbox for the rollout menu to appear. Select the oval marquee.

 

You can switch back and forth between the two -- Shift-M.

 

To select:

1.      Click the marquee tool.

2.      Move the tool over the canvas, the cursor appears as a crosshair.

3.      Click and hold the mouse.

4.      Drag out a marquee. Experiment with the different marquee tools. Drag in different directions.

5.      If you hold the shift key while using the marquee, you can make additional selections. (You will see a plus sign under the crosshair. Where the selected images overlap, they’ll merge to form a larger shape. )

6.      To select an area inside another area, (a “knock out”) press the Alt key as you drag the inner shape.

 

The thin horizontal and vertical marquees select a single row of pixels. They are useful for cleaning up an area.

 

When dealing with selections, only the area within the confines of the marquee can be edited. Before moving on, you must deselect the area. This is done by clicking outside the selected area with one of the marquee tools or by typing Control-D.

 

Lasso

To select irregular shapes, use the lasso. This requires a steady hand and good eye-hand coordination. You can add to the original selected area by holding down the Shift key and selecting additional parts of the object.

 

To make a selection:

1.      Select the lasso tool or type L

2.      Click and carefully drag the lasso around the piece of the image you want to select. You will see a blinking line. Be careful not to release the mouse. If you do, you lose the marquee. It automatically closes the selection.

3.      When you are close to completely enclosing the selection, you can release the mouse. The two ends automatically join.

 

Polygon Lasso

The polygon lasso behaves in much the same way as the regular lasso tool. The difference is that  it makes irregular geometric selections. It is easier to use, easier to control. You click the polygon lasso to lace points and Photoshop inserts a straight line marquee between the points. You can place as many points as necessary.

 

Magnetic Lasso

This lasso works well with objects that are clearly defined. The marquee will snap to the edges. This tool works by looking for differences in contrast. Use the Options menu to set the parameters. The Lasso Width refers to how close to the edge you must be to have the Lasso recognize it.

 

Magic Wand

This tool selects pixels based on color values. By holding the Shift key, you can select more than one area.

 

The wand selects adjacent pixels based on color similarities. Its tolerance can be set in the Options palette. Tolerance refers to color sensitivity. The lower the tolerance, the less tolerance the wand has for color differences.

 

The Wand is best used for selecting objects that are primarily one color.

 

The Selection Menu

In addition to the above tools, there is a Select menu. The most useful commands are the top four.

Select All draws a selection marquee around the entire picture.

Deselect removes the selection marquee.

            Reselect replaces the marquee.

Inverse lets you select everything but an object, by selecting the object and then inverting.

Feather lets you make the edge of the selection fuzzy or feathered. This is useful for selecting an object from one picture and pasting it in another.

Modify This has a submenu. Border changes the selected area so instead of the whole object, you have only selected a border around it. You can set the width of the border in the dialog box.

Smooth is useful when working with a shaky hand.

 

Cutting and Copying

This allows us to borrow from one picture to add to another.

 

Cropping

Cropping is the term for trimming away any unwanted parts of the picture.

To crop a picture:

1.      Select the Cropping tool from the toolbox.

2.      Drag it across the picture, holding the mouse button down.

3.      Use the handles on the Cropping window to fine-tune the selection. You can even twist the Cropping window, by clicking the doted line and dragging when the double-headed bent arrow appears.

4.      After you have the tool placed where you want, double-click to delete the area outside the window.

 

 

Assignment

Use the selection tools on an existing photo. Select, cut, copy, paste to create a new picture.

 

 

 

Transformations

 

 

Often you find that your picture is not the correct size or shape for you needs. You may need to change the size, straighten it, tilt it, reorient the objects (direction) or put something upside down. These transformations and more can be done in Photoshop.

 

Resizing

You can change the size of the picture y resizing the canvas or the image. Resizing the image makes the picture bigger or smaller. Resizing the canvas makes the picture area bigger, while leaving the image floating in it.

 

Image

To resize an image, open the Image®Image Size dialog box. Make sure Constrain Proportions is checked. You can change the image by percentage or by size. Be aware that the dimensions affect the file size.

 

Canvas

This gives you extra workspace around the image, instead of changing the image size. You can determine where you want your original image to be on the canvas.

 

Selection

You can also resize a selected object. First select the object or piece of image. Use whatever selection tool is easiest. With Marquee active, choose Edit®Transform®Scale. This places a window that has handles around it. Drag on the handles to change the size. Hold the Shift key down to constrain the proportions.

 

Rotating

To rotate the entire image, use the Image®Rotate Canvas submenus. This will have 90 degree rotations. You can also rotate the canvas by choosing Image®Rotate Canvas®Arbitrary to open a dialog box. Enter the number of degrees and the direction.

 

Rotating Selections

To rotate a selected object, first select it. Choose Edit®Transform®Rotate. This places a box around the selection. Rotate by dragging a corner of the box.

 

Flipping

This creates a “mirror” image of your original.

 

Selection Transformations

Resizing and reorienting can be applied to either the whole canvas or a selected object. The following can only be applied to a selected object.

 

 Skewing Selections

Skew means to place at an angle. In Photoshop you can slant it, twist it, stretch it and distort it. To do so: Layer®Transform®Skew.

 

Distorting Selections

Layer®Transform®Distort to crush or stretch an image.

 

Changing the Perspective of a Selection

If you want to change the perspective, use the perspective tool. The opposite corner of the one you drag becomes a mirror image. Perspective automatically adjusts both corners when you drag one.

 

Assignment

  1. Use one of the photos that come with the program such as the skull or bottles. Have the students use the selection tools to select just one bottle of just the skull. 
  2. Delete the background. Make sure the students do not save changes to the original photo.
  3. Create a composition pasting at least 5 images to their canvas while using at least 3 different transformations.

 

 

                                                                       

Repeat Design

 

Choose a simple image that can be isolated for a repeat design. To this design, add an appropriate title using type.

 

To find stock photos within Photoshop, follow the following directions:

File®Open®C®Program Files®Adobe®Photoshop®Goodies®Samples®(at this point choose a photo to use).

 

It will probably be easier to select the background areas and Invert to select the object. Copy the object. You may want to change the image size to make it work into your pattern.

 

Pull Guidelines down from the ruler. (If the ruler is not showing, bring it up). The guidelines will not print. They help you bring order to a repeat pattern.

You may find after you have created the repeat that it does not look aesthetically nice. Crop the picture to get the desired effect.

 

Add a background color to your picture. This can be done by going to your first Layer and adding color if you did not begin with color.

 

Choose an appropriate word to add using the type tool. Work on the spacing and color of your type to make it work with your design. Remember, we print in black and white so you need to think about the contrast.

 

 


Name_______________________                                                 Mrs. Pawlowski

Period_____                                                                                     Project #3

 

Repeat Design

 

Assignment: Choose a simple image that can be isolated for a repeat design. To this design, add an appropriate title using type.

 

 

1.      Explain the steps you used to isolate your photographic image from its background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.      How can you control the placement of your image to create your pattern?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.      How was color added to your background?

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.      How did you apply the type?

 

 

 

 

 

5.      Are you satisfied with your completed image? Explain.

 

 

 

 

 

6.   What could you have done to improve your design?

 

 

 

 

Filters

 

One of the fun applications of Photoshop is the use of the many filters. You can create many different effects ranging from changing a photograph to look like a painting to distorting the photograph in swirls or waves.

 

This lesson will involve some exploration on the part of the students. They are to choose one photo to work from. This can be from their own disk or on the hard drive. Students will create a reference file of the different filtered effects. They will take this knowledge and create a design for a book cover using one or layered filters as well as type.

 

Different Types of Filters

 

Sharpen

 Some filters are useful for correcting common photographic problems. One of the most common problems is the out of focus picture. If a photo is slightly out of focus Photoshop can create the illusion of sharper focus using the Sharpen filters.

 

The first two Sharpen filters, Sharpen and Sharpen More, provide different amounts of the same function. They find areas in the image where there are significant color changes, such as the edge of an object. At these areas, Photoshop increases the contrast between adjacent pixels making the lights lighter and the darks darker.

 

If the photo is not enlarged too much, the effect looks good. (Sharpen More is the same as applying Sharpen twice)

 

Unsharp Mask

Unsharp masking is a traditional technique used in the printing industry for many years. It is probably the best bet for precision sharpening. It corrects blurring in the original image or scan as well as any blurring that occurs during the resampling and printing process. The Unsharp Mask works by locating every two adjacent pixels with a difference in brightness values that you have specified, and increases their contrast by a specified amount.

 

Note: Many Photoshop experts recommend always applying the Unsharp Mask filter to every image you process, for print or the Web. You can at least try this.

 

Blur Filters

The Blur filters are useful tools when you want to soften the effects, either of a filter you have just applied or of brushstrokes in the painting. Blurring can gently smooth a harshly lit portrait or, when used on a selection instead of the whole image, can throw an unwanted background out of focus. The Blur filters include:

·        Blur

·        Blur More

·        Gaussian Blur

·        Radial Blur

·        Smart Blur

·        Motion Blur

 

Blur, Blur More

There are two basic blur filters – Blur and Blur More. They do exactly what they say. Blur is very subtle, and Blur more a little less so. They can smooth out the wrinkles in a portrait or soften a hard edge.

 

Gaussian Blur

This is a more controllable blur filter. It uses a mathematical formula (the Gaussian Distribution Equation or the bell curve) to calculate the precise transition between each pair of pixels. This filter is a useful retouching tool when applied to an area within the picture that you want to de-emphasize.

 

Radial Blur

This filter gives you two choices, Spin and Zoom. Spin gives you a blur that looks as if the image is spinning around a center point. Zoom gives the effect of zooming the camera into or away from the image.

 

Smart Blur

This is probably the most useful blur filter. It blurs everything in the image, or selection, except the edges. It is the perfect filter to take 10 years off a portrait subject’s face, smooth out a teenager’s skin or remove the texture in a piece of cloth without losing the folds.

 

Motion Blur

This tool can add the appearance of motion to a stationary object by placing a directional blur for a predetermined distance.

 

Fading Filters

Sometimes filters do too much. You can fade the effect from 1 to 99% by opening up the Filter ® Fade.

 

Artistic Filters

Photoshop offers approximately thirty different filters that you can apply alone of in combinations to turn your so-so picture into a masterpiece.

 

Distortion Filters

Other filters in Photoshop distort, stylize and pixelate the photos. Experiment with the different ones to see what they do alone and in combination.

 

Assignment

Select one photo from the clip art photos that comes with Photoshop. Using your selection tools select different areas of the photo and apply one filter to it. Do this on ten areas of the photo. On at least three areas, apply a second (or more) filter. Notice how some filters distort the image beyond recognition.

 

 

Book Cover Design

 

 

Assignment:

What is a book cover? What is it used for? What kind of information must be included on it? Think of these questions as you create sketches for an original book cover design. Your sketches are your method of visual brainstorming. They can be as tight (detailed and carefully rendered) or as rough (simple shapes, figures) as you want. The sketches can include words and other notations (such as which filters you want to use).

 

Once you decide on a sketch, start to acquire the necessary photographs for your art. These can be taken from the Internet or they can be scanned onto your directory.

 

Criteria

Size: 5” x 7”

 

Show evidence of filter use. Be careful not to over filter and lose your images.

 

Include a title.

 

Include the author – you. It is not necessary to write ‘by’ before the author’s name.

 

The final art will be printed in color. Include your sketches when you hand in your log sheet. You do not have to do any additional sketching.

 

 


CD Cover Design

 

Assignment

Now is the chance to put together all we have learned so far and create a CD cover. You can use an existing group or, even better, make up a group. Perhaps you are the latest musical rage. For this assignment, go online to obtain photos. Make sure that you are not copying any logos, existing CD covers, illustrations or typography from the Internet.  Collect photos of your chosen musician. Make use of layers, typography, and different opacities. You can filter, select parts of photos, transform images and have some fun with the cover.

 

Criteria

Size: 4.752 inches

Use of at least two photographs to create your CD

Include the artist and title

If time allows, create a back cover.

 

The finished art will be printed and placed into actual jewel boxes.


 

Currency Design

 

Assignment

You are an important dignitary in a new country. It has been suggested that new tender be designed incorporating your photograph. To make sure the currency cannot be counterfeited you must use complex patterns in it as well. Design this currency.

 

Criteria

Size minimum: 3” x 5”

Full color

Your photograph must appear in it. Make sure you use the selection tools to isolate the head. You can use the picture within a shape or . . .

Pattern(s) in the background

A denomination

A country

Your imagination

Log sheet upon completion.

 

If you finish the front, you may work on the back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Self Portrait

 

Assignment

You have been commissioned to create a self-portrait for an upcoming museum exhibition. Using a photo of yourself either scanned into the computer or taken with a digital camera, create this self-portrait. Try