Photo lecture slides here.

Supplemental slides for magazine

Magazine Assignment

25 points • Due: Wednesday 9/28 end of class

This assignment is made up of two basic components:

• Cover photo, and

• Magazine text, including the masthead (magazine name) and descriptions of stories inside (cover lines -- see bottom of assignment for cover line ideas)

First step: Edit your photo in Photoshop/Camera Raw. What to fix:

• Color balance (make it look natural!)

• Exposure/brightness

• Contrast

• Saturation/vibrance

• Sharpness (Remember "Unsharpen Mask" in Photoshop, Clarity & Sharpening in Camera Raw)

• Save full size resolution before bringing into InDesign

Tools you'll use in InDesign will include (but not limited to):

• Image placement (make sure it "bleeds" over the edges a little -- and when you resize, be SURE to keep the proper aspect ratio -- check with Andy if needed)

• Text frames

• Drop shadow

• Kerning and leading adjustments

• Creating swatches 

As you create your magazine cover, keep in mind three key ideas:

• Creating a bold, tight, strong, eye-catching masthead with appropriate font

• Creating a collection of interesting, well-spaced cutlines

• Creating an overall design that will help sell the magazine

Document Setup:

Number of Pages: 1

Page Size: Letter

Columns: 1

Bleed: 1p6 (Top, Bottom, Left, Right)

When you create your Drop Shadow (with a new Object Style), try these settings (you can play around of course but try starting here):

Distance: 0p2

Angle: 135 degrees

Size: 0p2 

Use this drop shadow to add contrast and legibility to your type.

To adjust Kerning (distance between letters): put the cursor between two letters and hold Option and either the left arrow or right arrow. (You can also choose the "Character" sidebar menu to see the numerical values).

Fonts: For the most part, you'll probably want a sans serif font, with a mix of thick and thin weights. A good serif / slab serif font might be appropriate for contrast, though. You can also mix in italics, sometimes just a single word if you want.

Graded:

CRAP (good placement of cover lines, good repetition and contrast): 10 points

Typography (appropriate font families, good leading/kerning): 10 points

Color (use colors that compliment your photo and stand out): 5 points

Export as LastnameMagazine.jpg and copy to 59Langager folder.


COVER LINE IDEAS - trying to sell the content inside the magazine
"Tips" or secrets relating to your subject
Interview with (someone)
Photos of (something)
Reviews of (something)
Investigative story
"Survival guide"
Top 10 (or 25 or 100) (something)
10 Ways to (something)
10 Reasons we love (something)

Hi folks,

Monday we'll do a photography lecture and practice a little more with Photoshop with some photos I will provide.

Wednesday we'll work on a magazine cover -- each person will create their own, so you will need to bring a photo that you've taken. 

The magazine itself can be something you come up with -- it can have to do with Drake or just something you are interested in.

What I would recommend is having a person on the cover -- perhaps a closeup or a waist-up shot. Have them doing something related to what your magazine is about. Look for "good light" when you shoot it, and avoid using the camera flash inside. Even if you don't have the best camera, if you find nice, bright light (outside!), usually the photo will look pretty good. (also make sure your camera is set to the largest file size possible)

Leave some room for the magazine title at the top -- and shoot multiple versions so you have some choices when you go to create the cover. I'd say shoot 10 or more and it will give you some good options. 

We'll edit the photos in Photoshop and then bring them into InDesign to add the type.

Andy

Movie poster for 9-21

Poster Assignment

25 points • Due: Start of class Monday 9-26

We'll practice these principles of design:

• Contrasting, dynamic typography

• Harmony of between your elements of design

• Strong visuals through alignment and color selection

• Reinforcing the power and implications of proximity of and between elements

For this assignment you'll create a movie poster for The Twilight Sage: New Moon

1. Sketch the design out on a sheet of paper first. Use multiple drafts if needed. Then, recreate your design in InDesign on a U.S. Paper sized document (8.5" by 11").

2. You may work with a partner. You need to take turns "driving" in InDesign, though.

3. When you're all done, export as a .JPG and save as [LastnameLastnameNewMoon.jpg] and save in the class folder as usual. 

Elements you'll need to include (be as creative as you want with these):

• A moon

• Title: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

• Tagline: The saga continues…

• It stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson

• That it is based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer and directed by Chris Weitz

• It opens 11-20-09 (yes we'll pretend it's not out yet)

• You can use other shapes (circles, squares, lines, etc.) if you want, but no photos. 

• Use three colors besides black and white. (Gradient counts as two colors)

• Use at least one gradient

• Adjust the kerning and horizontal/vertical scale of your text as needed to make it "tight" and clean.

To create a circle:

1. Click and hold the mouse button down on the "Rectangle Tool" on the left side toolbar

2. Select Ellipse

3. Click and drag to make an ellipse. Hold the shift key down to constrain it to a circle.

4. Resize it by clicking and dragging on an corner of your object's blue box.

5. To fill your shape in with a color, make sure your object is selected (it will have a blue box around it) and click on a swatch.

To create a gradient/gradient swatch:

1. Open your swatches palette.

2. Create your two colors that will make up each end of the gradient.

3. Click on the Gradient pop-up window (on the right side, near Colors and Effects)

4. You'll see two small boxes at either end of your gradient slider. Simply drag a swatch into one of these boxes. If you miss and create a third box, simply click and drag the new box out of the gradient pop-up to delete it.

5. In the top left, you'll see a larger box with sort of a preview of what your gradient looks like. Drag this box to your swatches pop-up window to create a gradient swatch. Now you have it saved (or right click and select Add to Swatches). You can double click on your new gradient swatch to edit it.

6. To see your gradient swatches, go to your swatch pop-up window and click the third small icon from the left on the bottom (it looks like a gradient).

Note: Whenever you create a new swatch or gradient, be aware if you have any object selected. It will create a new swatch or gradient based on whatever you have selected.

** Also note the angle option in the gradient pop-up. Don't just stick to the default!

Grading:

C.R.A.P., balance, heirarchy: 10 points

Use of harmonious colors: 10

Use of typography, fonts, leading, kerning: 5 points

Photo Story Photoshop Assignment

Photo Story Assignment

20 points • Due before start of class Monday 9-19

We're going to first edit the images in Photoshop, then put them in a simple, almost comic-book style layout to tell our visual story. I'm pretty open to how you want to lay them out in InDesign as long as it looks "clean" and can easily be followed. (Maybe you want to put a stroke around each photo or round the corners? Let me know and I can show you how.)

PHOTOSHOP: 

Step 1: Edit in Photoshop

We'll be concerned with (in proper order): 

Exposure
Contrast

Color

Saturation

Cropping

Sharpening (Optional)

The EASY way to do contrast is

Image -> Auto Tone 

Image -> Auto Contrast

The EASY way to do color is

Image -> Auto Color

The more manual way is through the "Adjustment" window. Here is where we will adjust the saturation. But instead of the actual saturation adjustment, let's do vibrance, which is sort of "smart saturation."

Cropping: Note about cropping... you might not want to crop much in Photoshop. We'll be able to crop in InDesign using the frame tool. It's good to have extra image to work with. But if you know you want to leave something out, go ahead and crop.
The crop tool is on the tool bar, the fifth icon down. Select the tool, then click and drag to crop. Hit "Enter" after you've made the crop selection to apply the crop. Note that if you need to undo something you'll need to go to the "History" window (Window -> History).

Sharpening: Some images need to be sharpened to make them "pop." Make sure the background layer is selected, then go Filter -> Sharpen -> Unsharpen Mask. Play with the "amount" slider to increase the sharpening.

FYI, the "radius" slider changes how large the sharpening effect is, and the "Threshold" slider changes what lines are sharpened (the lower the Threshold, the more lines are sharpened, the higher the Threshold, fewer lines are sharpened).

Finally, saving so we can bring them into InDesign. We'll save these as a JPEG. 

File -> Save As....

Under the drop-down menu, change from Photoshop Document to JPEG. 

I recommend saving all your edited images in a separate folder so you can find them easily when you move on to InDesign.

INDESIGN: 

We've brought images into InDesign before. Same deal here. 

We'll just create a simple layout on a 20" by 20" size page. When you create the document, you can type 20" into the box for the height and width. InDesign will convert it to picas. The orientation can either be portrait (default) or landscape (sideways). 

With your layout of your story images, you'll want to make sure the reader knows where to start and where to go next. Left to right, then down is the natural progression. 

Make sure you have more space between photos that aren't next. For example, more space between row 1 and row 2 than photo 1 and photo 2.
To help keep your spacing between photos on a row consistent, you can create a small rectangular guide and move it around, making sure each photo is the same distance from the photo next to it with this little guide box. Just remember to delete it or hide it before you export.

If you want to, you can add small arrows to help guide the reader. You can vary the size of the images as you go along, to emphasize some over others.

Lay the images out in a clean fashion: a consistent amount of space between each one (and each row), keeping the right proportions of each photo (remember to resize with COMMAND+SHIFT).

SAVING
Export as a .JPEG and save in our class turn in folder. Name the file LastnameSTORY.jpeg. Remember, due before class next Monday.

GRADING:
5 points: Photo editing (good color, contrast, exposure)
5 points: Design layout
5 points: Pleasing alignment
5 points: Attention to detail

Photo Story Assignment

For Wednesday 9-14:

This assignment is to get you to think about how to tell a story purely through images. How can you convey information and narration without the use of sound or text? 

Tell a short story through 12 images. (12 finished images -- you can take more than that as you work on it)

Brainstorm something fun with a friend. It could be an original story or a re-telling of a classic fairy tale. 

The story should have a beginning, middle and end. And any good story has conflict. Come up with a protagonist and antagonist. (The antagonist doesn't even have to be a person).

Be sure to use a mixture of wide shots, medium shots, and close-ups. Try to get a variety of angles so each shot is much different than the previous. Put yourself in the shoes of a movie director, only with a camera. You might need to "direct" your actors.

Remember that if you don't have enough light, your photos might come out blurry. You can fix a lot of things in Photoshop, but not a blurry or out of focus photo.

You can help out a classmate but you should have your own story -- your own photos -- to work on when we get to class on Thursday.

You'll be graded on.....

Creativity

Variety of angles and distances

Making sure shots aren't blurry

Does it make sense?

Are the images visually strong? (Strong central focus of action, getting close when appropriate, leaving things out of the frame when they shouldn't be there)

Wednesday, we'll edit them in Photoshop and put them together in InDesign (almost like a comic book) to tell your story on a page.

Typography lecture one slides.

Assignment for Wednesday 9/7

The purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking about the "voice" of different fonts, and to let you become familiar with different font families. It will also help you develop your own typographic "style."

Design a tabloid size page (11"x17") filled with 6-12 great movie quotes.
The quotes will be styled in appropriate fonts.
Make one quote the largest (remember "dominance").
You can use multiple sizes for some words within each quote for emphasis if you want.
It's easier to use multiple text boxes when using multiple sizes of type, even if it's all one quote (you can move words around more easily).
Have fun with the type -- but keep it clean and simple.
Keep it to two font families per quote (plus bold/italics).
Stick to black and white. (You can make the background black and text white if you want)
Plan accordingly -- make the type bigger than you'd think to help fill the page.
Remember to include the character name.

Find AFI's top 100 quotes here.

Find 400 quotes here (PDF).

Due end of class
InDesign Document: height: 11" width 17" (TABLOID)
Export as: LastnameQUOTES.JPG (remember to use export... renaming your .indd file to .jpg is not enough)

15 points:
Effective use of font families: 5 points
Design of quote placement, size, italics, bold: 5 points
Overall gestalt: 5 points