Visual Rhetoric, October 23rd, 2013

TODAY

1) Working with photos: why we have Photoshop2) Finding Photos3) Taking some photos (as needed) 4) Thinking realistically about what we have time

for5) Homework

Working with Photos

There are a few key things to know about photographs. The first, which I bet you’ve been exposed to before, is the rule of thirds.

Rule of Thirds

Basically, the rule of thirds states that everything exists on a nine x nine grid. You want your important elements on, or close to, lines of the grid with the most important thing at an intersection between two of the lines.

Let me show you.

A bad picture.

This is some poor guy I found on Google.Well, not poor guy, but poorly framed. See how he’s in the middle of the frame?

Look at all this wasted space

Look at all this wasted space

Look at all this wasted space

Look at all this wasted space

A good picture.

Why?

Because our eyes

go to the intersections

and grid lines

I bet that girl

is glad she tagged

her photo with

Rule of Thirds

Also key…

We talked about this briefly a while back, but now is a good time to remind you: for a print project, your photos need to be 300 dpi and set to CYMK and not RGB color.

Photoshop…

… is your friend for that.

But, of course, this means that not every single photo you locate will work. If it’s too small, we cannot gain/add resolution. Always aim/go bigger. You can size down.

Also remember…

… Adobe made their software to work as a suite.

Don’t resize photos in InDesign. It will let you, but it does weird, weird stuff to the compression and the resolution. Size your photos in Photoshop.

A quick resource for photos:

http://webdam.miamioh.edu/

Web? DAM! Dot MiamiOH! dot edu

I also invite you to take some of your own photos. If you can’t do that and are to the point that you need them, use placeholders.

Next week I will bring in a decent camera– I couldn’t locate any classes to visit on short notice.

Next week, in addition to some work time on Monday, we will start to talk just a bit about wire-framing (you have some readings I moved around that cover it– check the schedule).

On Wednesday, we will status-report and do some quick peer review.

The next Monday, we pitch!

Keep on workin’ in the free world!

Email or check in with questions.