California Career and Technical Education Standards

• AME.A.A1.2.2.3 Proficient - Develop and refine skill in the manipulation of digital imagery (ei...
• AME.A.A2.1 Analyze the way in which technical design (e.g., color theory, lighting, graphic...
• AME.A.A2.2 Know the component steps and skills required to design, edit, and produce a prod...
• AME.A.A2.3 Use technology to create a variety of audio, visual, written, and electronic pro...
• AME.C.C1.4 Know the elements involved in creating a media or performing arts production for...
• AME.FS.10.10 Use technical applications in the creative process, where appropriate.
• AME.FS.4.2 Understand the use of technological resources to access, manipulate, and produce...
• AME.FS.4.4 Understand digital applications appropriate to specific media and projects.
• AME.FS.4.6 Know how technology and the arts are interrelated in the development of presenta...
• AME.FS.4.7 Understand how technology can reinforce, enhance, or alter products and performa...
• AME.FS.8.4 Adhere to the copyright and intellectual property laws and regulations, and use ...
• AME.FS.9.3 Understand how to organize and structure work individually and in teams for effe...

California Academic Content Standards (Reinforced)

• ELA.9-10.R.CAGT.2.6 Demonstrate use of sophisticated learning tools by following technical direction...2

• Activity #1-Cool Photos - Hooks / Set

  Images should tell a story.

  Have this PowerPoint self-running as students are entering the class and taking a seat.

  Give students a handout of thumbnails and encourage students to work in pairs.  Have students answer the following questions: 

  What is the story or impact that you are feeling?

  Is it a photograph or could it be a digital composite?

  Close this activity by going through each image and having a whole class discussion with students giving their opinions. 

  Note: Students shouldn't hesitate to participate because they are cool pictures and not their work.

  • Images Presentation [ Download ] Are these Composites or Photographs?
• Activity #2-Where do we start? - Lecture

  The art of combining images is a composite.  During the design process we need to answer these questions:

  1. What is are theme?
  2. What will be the background layer?
  3. What are we creating?
  4. Who is our audience?
  5. What kind of images are we using?
  6. Where are we getting our images from?
  7. Are we complying with copyright laws?
  8. What is the image size that we are creating?
  9. What is the resolution we need?
  10. What is the image size of the images that we are combining?
  11. What is the resolution of the images that we are combining?
• Vocabulary - Check Understanding

  Audience-A group of admirers.

  Background-The layer that is always on the bottom.

  Clipboard-The temporary storage area provided by your operating system.

  Compositing-Combining images from different sources.

  Copyright-Protection extended to an author or creator of an original work, which gives them the exclusive right to copy, distribute and modify. 

  Digital image-A picture in electronic format.

  Image resolution-The number of pixels per inch (ppi) that are printed on a page. The greater number of pixels the better clarity and quality of the image.

  Image size-A combination of printed dimension and pixel resolution.

  Pixels-Very small squares, each pixel represents a color or shade. 

  Selection-The two basic methods you can use to make selections are using a tool or using color.

  Theme- A subject of artistic representation.
• Activity #3-Video Combining Images - Demo / Modeling

  Watch the video with your class.

  It is 15 minutes long, so you need to decide how much of it that you want to show depending on if you you have a 50 minute period or are on block schedule.

  • Combining Images [ Watch Video ] [ Download Original Video ] Video on Combining Images
• Activity #4-Chose a Theme - Guided Practice

  Have students chose a theme for their composite:

  Beach/Ocean

  Desert

  River

  Farm/Ranch

  Ski Resort

   

  Have students answer the following questions:

  1.      What is their theme?

  2.      What will be your background?

  3.      What elements will you need to include in your picture to make it look realistic?

  4.      What kind of buildings?

  5.      What kind of equipment or vehicles?

  6.      What kind of animals?

  7.      What kind of people?

  8.      What kind of other items?
• Activity #5-Create your own Composite - Guided Practice

  Many of our images come from other sources (whether they are our own creations or not). We need to make sure we are always complying with copyright laws and the importance of having permission to use someone else’s work.

  We will be using http://www.morguefile.com/ which has high quality free images for use in creative works either commercial or not.

  Have students go to http://www.morguefile.com and download their background for their chosen themed composite. Help students as needed and check for understanding.

  • Public Image Archive [ Go to Site ] Free images for your inspiration, reference and use in your creative work, be it commercial or not!
• Activity #6-Download Images - Independent Practice

  Have students work independently download ing images they will need for their composite. 

  Check to see that they have an assortment of:

  -Backgrounds

  -Buildings

  -Equipment or vehicles

  -Animals

  -People

  -Other items
• Activity #7-Image Size and Resolution - Guided Practice
  1. Have students create a new folder for the images they plan to use.
  2. Open the image they are planning on using for the background.
  3. Save as recognizable name and in the .psd format. For example Hills or Ocean
  4. Go to image size and look at the document size.  Change the document width to 10 inches and resolution to 300 pixels (this is minimum for a printed image). Note: Let the height auto adjust.
  5. Save as file name 10X8.psd. For example Hills 10x8.psd.
  6. Access Page Setup in the File Menu and set to Landscape.
  7. This the image file we will be moving images to in future lessons in this unit.
  8. Open all other images you are planning on using and save as a recognizable file name in the .psd format.