Please read and write a response to the following reading:

“Into the Digital” and “Of Pixels and Paradox” from After Photography by Fred Ritchin

(update due Wed. 9/5)

Create a believable illusion through digital compositing and manipulation of images.  The resulting image should be realistic, but convey a powerful sense of mood and emotion.

Use only images you shoot yourself: no found imagery, stock photos, or images off the web.

1. Plan out your composition.  Determine what elements you will need – images of environments, images of things, people, textures, etc.
2. Shoot the images you need for the composition. Use different subjects, and different times.  Get in the habit of carrying your camera with you at all times. Take lots of pictures of people, places, plants, animals, things, textures, anything you see.  You can always go back and delete the ones you don’t like.

   Take multiple shots of each element with variations in angle, lighting, and other parameters to have multiple options to use when compositing.  Things to pay attention to when shooting:

1. Light direction: make sure the lighting direction and shadows will match up between the different elements in your composition
2. Resolution: shoot at the highest resolution you have available on your camera.
3. Exposure and noise: aim for shots with well-balanced exposure and low noise.  If shooting in low light, use a tripod to avoid blur from slow shutter speeds.
4. Focus: make sure your images are in focus!  You can apply effects like blur and depth of field if desired in Photoshop, but start with images that are in focus.
5. When shooting a subject with a complex edge (for example, hair in a portrait), try to use a neutral background.  This will make compositing easier.
6. Experiment with different points of view or perspectives, different ways of framing the image, and different shutter and aperture settings.
7. List of formal elements and compositional principles:
• Line
• Shape
•  Form
• Color
• Space
• Texture
• Value
•  Movement
• Symmetrical Balance
• Asymmetrical Balance
•  Proportion
•  Rhythm
• Emphasis
• Unity
3. Bring the images into Photoshop and combine them together.  Remember you can also remove parts of an image as well as add other images.  Use the selection tools to combine the images, and adjustment effects to make them blend together well.

Some helpful handouts

Media Studio Imaging

In-Class Exercise : Exquisite Corpse

The image is a pure creation of the mind. It cannot be born from a comparison but from a juxtaposition of two more or less distant realities. The more the relationship between the two juxtaposed realities is distant and true, the stronger the image will be — the greater its emotional power and poetic reality…  [Pierre Reverdy, Nord-Sud, March 1918]

The Exquisite Corpse is a Surrealist game for producing collaborative images or poems.  For this exercise, we will create collaborative digital images using an Exquisite Corpse process.

Materials:

• Computer
• Photoshop
• USB flash drivel
• Recommended: graphics tablet

1. Create a new blank Photoshop document, 8 ½ “ x 11”, at 300 dpi, RGB color.
2. In one part of the document, begin a drawing using the Photoshop drawing tools.  The drawing can be representational or abstract; it will be the starting point for the rest of the image.
3. Save the file onto your flash drive.  Name it “<yourlastname>_01.psd”.   Pass it to the person sitting to your right.
4. Receive a file from the person sitting to your left.
5. Open the new file.  Add a new layer.
6. Make your own additions, using any combination of drawing tools, collage, filters, and effects.  You can use any found source material you want.  Add more layers if needed.
7. Save your new version of the file, as “<so-and-so>_02.psd”.   Increment the number with each version.  Pass it on to the person sitting to your right.
8. Repeat, until your original file comes back to you.

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