Digital Photography Assignment


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Digital Photography Assignment

There are two parts to this assignment. You will be handing in (uploading to your server space) two Photoshop documents with all of the layers intact. These documents are to be called person.psd and texture.psd. Keep in mind that you are to take these photos yourself. Do not use existing photographs or use images taken from the web. You will be using the digital still cameras available for check-out here in SMAD. This assignment requires the use of Adobe Photoshop. You are not required to use Dreamweaver or actually create web pages for this assignment.

Part 1: Effective Utilization of "People" on a Web Site

Photograph at least one person (one to five are fine) and strip out the background leaving it all white. Place the photos into a Photoshop "mock-up" of a web page for a hypothetical company. Think about something other than a "snapshot" of two people just looking into the camera. Are they doing something? Are they talking? Are both standing? Does one appear to be subordinate to the other? Are they holding anything or working with anything?
Put the photos on top of a white background so that the figure(s) blend in with the background. Here's are two examples of photos on a white background. Notice the photos no longer appear to be square or rectangular and that they seem to be part of the page.

Example 1
Example 2

You'll need to work on the design of the page in Photoshop and incorporate the photo(s), but you will not actually be slicing the image up for creation of an a web page. Feel free to use Photoshop to create text and any other images you might want to make it look like an actual web page.

WHAT TO "HAND-IN"

You will need to store the file in two formats.
1). Store the file as a .psd file with all the layers intact and call it person.psd.
2). When I view the file on my computer, I may not have some of the fonts you used on the computer you used to create this image. Therefore, you will need to save a .jpg version fo the file for me as well. Call this file person.jpg.
Upload both files to your server space in a folder called digphoto

These files should be available at: http://streaming.smad.jmu.edu/smad339/lastname/digphoto/person.psd
http://streaming.smad.jmu.edu/smad339/lastname/digphoto/person.jpg

Part 2: Effective Utilization of "Textures" on a Web Site

This time, you will be using the photos above, but I want you to place the photos over some background you create with a photo from a digital still camera. You already have the photos, now find some object, or part of an object, that you can use for texture. Here are some examples of things people have shot "close-up" to get texture.

- Wood, stone, marble, granite, brick, cement, a leaf, tree bark, grass, water, fabric, rugs, plastic, etc. Be imaginitive. Look around your house or car. You probably have hundreds of objects you could shoot in extreme close-up to get texture. What about the bottom of that dirty cooking pan that's still in your sink? :-) How about a trip to the local home center? They have lots of interesting objects. You'd be amazed at the way you can generate your own backgrounds using very common objects.

WHAT TO "HAND-IN"

You will need to store the file in two formats.
1). Store the file as a .psd file with all the layers intact and call it texture.psd.
2). When I view the file on my computer, I may not have some of the fonts you used on the computer you used to create this image. Therefore, you will need to save a .jpg version fo the file for me as well. Call this file texture.jpg.
Upload both files to your server space in a folder called digphoto

These files should be available at: http://streaming.smad.jmu.edu/smad339/lastname/digphoto/texture.psd
http://streaming.smad.jmu.edu/smad339/lastname/digphoto/texture.jpg

The Process:

STEP 1: Use a digital still camera to shoot something that will provide a texture. In this case, we have nothing more than a piece of wood with some "streaky" paint on it. Notice that it is shot as an "extreme close-up."

STEP 2: Using the photograph of the person, start by placing the photo on its own layer above the a white background layer.

STEP 3: Select the outer edges of the person in the photo

STEP 4: (Below) Use the Inverse of the selected area


	STEP 5: Delete the selected area by hitting the delete or backspace key on your keyboard. This takes away all the pixels in the selected area on that layer.

	STEP 6: Combine the image of the person with the textured image. You can even "feather" the edges of the photo to get rid of sharp edges.

Grading

The Persuasive Web Site accounts for 25 points (5%) of your final class grade. I will grade your efforts on the aesthetic quality of the images and the requirements listed above.

For more information about this web site, contact Dr. Steve Anderson at anderssd@jmu.edu