Use Photoshop and Picasa to compose perfect digital photos. You’ll learn:
* Three tips to great-looking photos
* Optimal web image sizing
* What separates an OK photograph from a great one, whether online or in print
* The difference between RAW, JPG, GIF and PNG
* The main types of news photos
Tips
- Rule of Thirds (and Golden Mean)
- Perspective (change yours! and get close)
- Backgrounds (avoid clutter)
Types of Photos
- Informational – visual record of person, event, place. Little in the way of storytelling elements. “Grip-n-grins” (and their clones)
- Active – real people in real time; the storytelling image
- Personality Portrait – provides an insight into the individual
Elements For Analysis
- Emotion/Mood – real people, real emotion; mood is usually related to overall feeling of the image
- Graphic – is there an aesthetically pleasing relationship between the lines and shapes of the image
- Juxtaposition – irony
- Layering – dominant foreground, informational background
- Light – whether natural or artificial, does it enhance the storytelling?
- Perspective – change for drama, includes focal length
- Point of entry – what draws you into the photo?
- Rule of thirds – a visual rule for composition
- Sense of place – can you immediately understand the setting?
- Surprise – the unexpected; can provide humor
Images For Lab
Software
- iPhoto (offline)
- Photoshop (offline)
- Photoshop Express (new)
- Picasa
- Picnik (w/Flickr)
- SplashUp
Hosting
Flickr Photos
- Lee – Bird (surprise)
- Lee – Seattle (sense of place)
- Sandro – Chevy emblem (perspective, contrast)
- Sandro – Jag emblem (perspective)
- Sandro – Lilies (symmetry, background)
- Sandro – Lily (movement, background)
- Sandro – NWA (light)
- Sandro – Seagulls (perspective, rule of thirds)
- Sandro – Window Seat (composition, color)
RESOURCES
Digital Camera Magazine
- Change Perspective
- Colour Temperature
- Composition: Top 10 Tips
- Cut The Clutter
- Fill The Frame
- Fixing Underexposed Shots
- Focal Point
- Lines & Shapes
- The Rule of Thirds
Inspiration!
- AFP
- BBC
- E&P
- Getty Images
- iStockPhoto
- Library of Congress on Flickr
- Life (under reconstruction)
- MSNBC
- Magnum Photos
- SJ Mercury News
- National Geographic
- National Press Photographers Association
- NY Times
- Pictures of the Year International
- Photo of the Week
- Reuters
- Seattle PI
- Seattle Times
- Time
- VII Photos
- Visual Edge
- Wa Post Camera Works
- Yahoo!
- Zone Zero
Organizations, Blogs, Etc.
- Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar
- Digital Journalist
- Mastering MultiMedia (blog)
- NPPA
- Photgraphy @ About.com
- SportsShooter (community)
Tips&Tricks – Photography
- 5 Tips For Taking Professional Looking Pix With Your Digital Camera
- 6 Practical Tips For Successful Photography
- Basic Tips For Beginning Shooters
- Blurring Backgrounds In Photoshop
- Composition Shortcourse
- Cropping Photos – Rule of Thirds
- Decoding Visual Messages In News Content (epaper)
- Easy Guide For Composition
- NewsU Tutorial
- Photo Tampering Through History
- The Photographer’s Eye In A Digital World
- Poynter Bibliography
- Re-sizing v Re-sampling
- The Rule of Thirds
- Seeing Photographs and Basic Composition *
- What They Don’t Tell You (Starting Out)
Tips&Tricks – Photoshop/Software
- Digital Camera File Formats
- Digital Post-Processing (ethical implications for news images)
- File Formats & Why They Matter
- MCDM Photoshop Tutorial
- Monitor Calibration
- Unsharp Mask Revealed
UW Digital Journalism Workshops:
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