ASSIGNMENT: Long, Medium and Close-up, Clips

By Friday, October 3 at 4:30 p.m., you need to shoot (and edit, caption and upload) a three photo package from one newsworthy event, situation or story. You need an opening image - a long shot that shows a sense of place and scale. A medium shot that moves in tighter, gives us a sense of who is involved, has good light and a great moment. The third shot is to be a close-up or detail shot - show the reader something the casual viewer might not have seen if they had been there.

For Wednesday, October 1, please bring in three clips from one story that show a long, medium and close-up. 

"Error Mimicking" ... or Lens Compression

One of the things I want you to see in your next assignment is the effect of lens compression and expansion - particularly how using telephoto lenses will appear to compress the world into a smaller, flatter realm. 

Over on Mike Johnston's The Online Photographer blog, he has a great post that talks about the illusion of "error mimicking" - in this case, when lens compression leads people to believe an image has been altered through Photoshop. 

Lab Hours Adjustment

There will be a slight adjustment to lab hours, as the lab is needed between 12:30 and 1:30 on Thursday for a meeting.

The lab will be open from 11:30 to 12:30, then again from 1:30 to 4:30 on Thursday. Lab will open an hour earlier (11:30) on Friday to give another opportunity to work.

Flying Short Course Registration

Somebody broke the interwebs ... but the fine folks at NPPA's headquarters put up an emergency registration page for the Flying Short Course. 

ASSIGNMENT: Environmental Portraits, Reading & Clips

Up next is an environmental portrait. We'll review this in class on Sept. 22, so you'll need to have it on the server by Sept. 19 at 4:30 p.m. (when lab closes). 

You need to choose a news-worthy person and tell us their story in a single image. You get to control everything - location, pose, composition. You're responsible for everything in that frame - make smart choices. Do not be afraid of controlling this image.

Here's what your basic workflow should look like after the shoot:

1. Head to the lab
   
2. Download your cards through Photo Mechanic, renaming them and putting a generic caption on them
   
3. Burn CDs
   
4. Make your selection through Photo Mechanic and send it to Photoshop
   
5. Crop and tone the image. Use layers for control.
   
6. Rewrite/refine the caption
   
7. Save As ... to a Photoshop file, with the layers intact
   
8. Flatten the image
   
9. Resize the image to 10 inches on the long dimension at 200 dpi
   
10. Save As ... to a JPEG file
    
11. Move the JPEG file to the server
    
12. Move the Photoshop (PSD) file to your thumb drive
    
13. Relax and wait to bask in the compliments of your classmates on the 22nd ...
    

For Monday, Sept. 15, please read pages 174-229.

For Wednesday, Sept. 17, please bring in three clips of portraits - a good one, a weak one and one you have a question about.