image

This semester my students have a wide array of talents and interests to bring to the classroom. When reviewing the results of my Google Drive Form /survey I learned that about a third of students are juniors or seniors, and many have experience with Adobe Design suite, a few more have already worked with non-linear, time-based media and motion graphics. Walking into the class, I jokingly commented that they could probably teach me a thing or two.

Anyway, one student with a stronger design background (but little based in Photoshop) submitted her first project, the narrative graphic collage. The first design, below is quite good for Photoshop newbie--her attention to detail is evidenced by the careful cutout/isolation of the air balloons that were taken from multiple sources). But then she took my minimalist design notes and created an improved final version


(I’ll chalk that up to excellent teaching and critique):

Version one uses the image elements, color balance, and even the text to create a feeling of movement.

Updated version moves the text to a more traditional location with a more traditional baseline. Too many indicators or movement are overkill.

• Flickr: Must check search options boxes for “Find Content to Modify, Adapt, and Build Upon”
• Wikimedia Commons: Thousands of worldwide images licensed under Creative Commons.
• stock.xchng: More than 350,000 free photo images, searchable.
• dreamstime: Free section of a very large photo images archive. Excellent quality images.
• morgueFile: More than 200,000 free photo images, searchable in several ways, including by color and topic.
• WorldImages: About 75,000 international images, well-organized by content areas and searchable.
• U.S. Government Images: Photos produced by U.S. Government employees are copyright-free. This site has a selection of links to different government agencies’ collections.

http://publicdomainpictures.net

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://photos-public-domain.com

http://www.sxc.hu

Washington Post just tweeted this and I had to share. The Animated GIF has gone from unsophisticated cartoons meant to distract on early websites to  an art form.  The winner of the Inagural Motion Picture prize is shown at the top of the WP Style Blog article. However, these runner ups are my favorite:

Finalist, night category (Matthew Clarke/Image courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery, London)

Finalist, action category (Micaël Reynaud/Image courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery, London)

I've gotten a few requests for an easy tutorial on increasing blur in portraits. Here's a super easy how-to using a selection and a filter. For this sample, I used a low-res portrait of myself snatched from a social site.

Here is an easy-peasy way to vignette a photo by darkening it's corners using a simple mask. For this tutorial, I'm using a photo of two of my friends--both MICA grads--who attended the 2012 MICA graduation carrying inspirational signs to encourage the new grads.
Open your image in photoshop. In the layers panel double-click the image to unlock it

This is just a quick note to let you know that if you’re still using Google to search Creative Commons on the Web, there’s a better way. COMPFIGHT.COM

Here is photo search engine that allows you to view images with “any license”, “Creative Commons”, and “Commercial” licenses. Use freely, however—if you find images with CCSA licenses—please give proper credit.

In a recent blog redesign, I came upon a problem of finding the right image to place. I needed an afro-centric, woman-centric graphic and could find nothing suitable. Eventually, I took some existing photography and created an illustration that was suitable.

I snapped some pics of different Batik fabrics and have themavailable for download on Flickr.  The set has medium to hi-res images for ya!

Download the full set at Flickr

On a recent project, I was hard-pressed to find –in my photographic archive, istock, and wiki searches—images of Baltimore.
I  ran outside with a camera, but still couldn't find the perfect shot. Eventually I ended up hitting the mother load of creative commons on Flickr and All-silhouettes. Here are a few of the pics I found and the artist link.
spike55151 has taken nearly 20,000 photographs in his travels in Baltimore and parts beyond.Here are bits of the Baltimroe skyline, as seen by spike 55151:
-Here's Baltimore's famous Skyline
-Mt. Royal Station and Meyerhoff
-Bromo Seltzer tower
-Aquarium and Power Plant

Well, not just photographers--visual artists too.

I stumbled upon a great wall paper sharing site called Open Wall (www.owall.net). I was looking for creative commons and clicked on the unfamiliar link and got floored. People are sharing their work, rating others, and downloading like crazy.
Well, obviously, this image wasn't posted by the photographer, but it likely began life as one of the gorgeous, royalty-free images of space available on the NASA website.  Good deal.

I've come to use Open Wall as a resource for fun images, wall papers and even as inspiration for compositing in photoshop. Take a look and enjoy.

AND Speaking of NASAs royalty-free space shuttle/Hubble images...
Be sure to read the Image Usage Guidelines