Our last mini project for the year was to spend time using Lightroom for organizing and editing photos. Unlike Photoshop, which is a general purpose graphics editing tool, Lightroom is specifically designed for photo editing. Students found it much easier to edit there images, but missed some of the more advanced features of Photoshop which allowed them to blend layers, mix effects and distort portions of the image.
Here’s a nice sample from Kathryn:
Our last project for the school year is to work on advertising ideas (slogans and images) that promote a specific and compelling message. Students worked in pairs and were asked to develop ideas for one of two campaigns:
Go Menlo! - promoting the use of alternative transportation (walk, bus, train, bike, etc)
Fresh Oranges - Health benefits of eating fresh oranges
They were asked to produce 3 images and related slogans:
Since this is a commercial project, small cash awards were offered to the best student entries, which were judged based on the following criteria:
So here are the winners:
Niles, Annie, Katelyn, Kathryn for: “Anyway you go, Go Menlo!”
Rachel & Shane for: “Go Together, Go Menlo!”
Ojan & Rustin for their Orange ads:
As students work on their independent projects, we’ve been covering some smaller, but important topics using demonstrations and short lectures. So far, we have touched on:
DIY Sensor Cleaning on Your Digital SLR
Image Quality
Polaroid Cameras and Impossible Project films
Additional Composition Guidelines:
Now that our exhibit is finished, students are working on another round of personal projects for the next two weeks. As always, there are some interesting ideas and great photos to look at already. Here are just a few:
Rachel: Macro Patterns
Riley: Double Exposure
Conor: Found Alphabet
Talie: Wrapped Portraits
Eric: Timelapse Video
We started personal project two this week, and im really excited about my project for this week/next week. Timelapse will take the spotlight for these next two weeks and while this is just the start, im super excited to try this out at night and during more crowded times of the day. What i just uploaded is the menlo quad during break, and its really interesting to see people come and go. A hidden gem in this timelapse is actually the clock in the top righthand corner of the video, as you can see it pass while the video goes on.
It’s time to show off all the great work menlo School photo students have been doing this semester! We’re hosting a big exhibit, reception and sale starting Thursday, April 26, from 6-9pm. Please stop by the Menlo School Student Center before May 2nd to see the show.
You’ll see 200+ matted prints from about 50 students. Students will be around during the reception to meet visitors and to talk about their work. Food and drinks will be provided for guests and visitors.
Small matted prints will be sold for $20 each, larger prints for $40. In addition, we’ll have printed versions the 2012 Viewfinder available for purchase.
Congratulations to Zoe for winning the Founders Award at the exhibit!
Students are now in the middle of producing a personal photo project. Their goal is to produce 5-10 edited images on a single theme, idea or coherent subject. Some are exploring new ground, while others are revisiting something they enjoyed doing previously. As you can imagine, there is a lot of variety when you have more than 40 students. Here is a sampling of the kind of work they are doing.
Niles - GIF Animation
Ritij - Science & Engineering Projects (Levitating Disc)
Adam - Exotic Cars
Kathryn - Portraiture
Shane - Rephotography
Avery - Face Composites
Rachel - Land Art
Will P - Composite Landscape
More great examples coming next week!
Each year, we publish a high quality, hard-bound photo book of student work. We call it Viewfinder, like the eyepiece on a camera. Each student designs a 2 page layout for their favorite images produced in class. The book is printed and sold through Blurb.com. Parents often buy copies, and it is archived in the school library. I love having one as a reminder of my students and the work they produced.
This year’s book cover image is by junior Nick d’Alencon.
We’ve been working with mobile phone photography (or iphonography as some call it) in the last two weeks. Students have been shooting, editing and posting their images using their smart phones.
Here are some samples of the work that is being produced in class:
Eric:
Nick:
Looking for a daily dose of iPhonography inspiration? Here’s a short list of Instagram users to follow:
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Shooting with the iPhone is a different experience than shooting with any other camera. Here’s why…
I suggest you start with the bold apps first and then try the others as needed.
Shooting:
Editing:
Sharing:
Optional Specialty Apps:
“Stuff Instagramers Say”
Directed by rycar; Starring jodyjohnston, rjzimont, fosteraddington, davidjcarl, & studiojohnny.
Koci Hernandez, a Berkeley Photojournalism professor, inspired me to shoot creative photographs with my iPhone camera. Hopefully you’ll find him inspiring too. Check out this short video on how to shoot with iPhone.
This week, students learned to shoot and stitch together panoramic images by using Photoshop. From there, they also learned to make planetoids and simple collages from their panoramic images. Here are some examples of each:
