1. Studio photo shoot in class – 6 black and white edits showing a range of facial features and camera angles

2. Home photo shoot set for homework – the same as above

This means you should have 12 edited images in total which show your experimentation in camera angle, focus, lighting, mood and atmosphere. Make each edit count as these are going on your weebly!

TASK 1: COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING STEPS TO A MINIMUM OF 6 IMAGES PER PORTRAIT PHOTO SHOOT

Choosing the right image to editSometimes it can be difficult to choose what image to invest in from your contact sheet. You are marked on your ability to select the correct image, so spend some time thinking about it. Below are some tips to help you:

An obvious reject – the focus is off and so the intention of the photo to show details is lost

A better image, however for the intentions of this shoot it isn’t right as there is too much of the face – but could it be cropped down? Detailed, in focus where it

should be and shows the use of aperture, interesting, well-lit (and obviously edited)

Once your have chosen your image to edit, right click on it (hold down ctrl and click on a mouse key) and select open in Photoshop CS5

This is what the image looks like after opening in black and white. At this point it is not dynamic enough – there is not enough contrast (difference) between the darkest and lightest points and most of it is a dull grey tone – this is why you need to adjust the colour bars.

This has been changed too much. Although the freckles have come out

more, the ear and background look fake and poorly edited – it is too harsh.

This shows more attention to detail (the freckles and ear, eye) but still looks reasonably realistic. Make sure your edits compliment your image and show it’s strengths.

Click back onto “layers” and select the “levels” adjustment layer. You can use this to make some final edits to the range of tones you have in your image. This allows you more control over the highlights and shadows in your image to help create something which is dynamic and sophisticated.

This is called the histogram. It shows the amount of black, mid and white tones in your image – notice how at the moment there is almost no whites and almost no pure black tones.

I have dragged the sliders on the bottom of the histogram to create more whites and more blacks, increasing the contrast and making the image bolder

TASK 2: Crop your images to improve the COMPOSITION

• Apply the following editing technique to all of your black and white images to show your strength in layout, framing and composition.

Central framing – the focal point is in the middle of the frame

Rule of thirds – the nose and lips are all along one of the vertical lines – see next slide

Use “the rule of thirds” for cropping This is the rule regarding where to position key bits of information in your frame so that it feels balanced and well composed.

This image isn’t actually too bad in terms of composition, but the chin feels like it is taking up too much room. By using the crop tool, you can plan so that your key focal points sit on one or more of the corners of the rectangle in the middle of your guide.

Notice how the crack in the lips have been placed on this cross, a scientific way to organise the composition of your images

The final image may only seem slightly different, but it feels more considered and

evenly spread and you will be marked on how well you recognise these key

compositional details!

SAVING YOUR WORK….When saving in Photoshop you can do this 2 ways:

1. If you have not finished editing and want to be able to access your layers again, save it as a Photoshop file (PSD) – WARNING – this makes the file size considerably large so only do this when you need to (do this today)

2. If you are finished and are sure you do not need to make anymore changes, or are ready to upload to weebly, save your image as a JPEG (JPG) – WARNING – although smaller in size this will compress your layers and so you will not be able to access them again