Photoshop:
Describe how the following selection tools work
and the differences between them:
marquee, magic wand, magnetic lasso, lasso.
marquee: allows you to draw rectangular and elliptical
selections by clicking and dragging the mouse.
magic wand: selects similar pixels based on tone and color.
magnetic lasso: creates selections, automatically clinging to
edges of contrast objects
lasso: allows you to create a freehand selection around the
object or area you want to select
What are the quick keys for
the selection (move), marquee and crop tools?
marquee: M
crop: C
Selection (move): V
How do you scale and rotate an image
in Photoshop and constrain its proportions?
You can scale and rotate an image using
the transform function
Edit - Transform, OR command + T (mac)
Click on a corner and drag to resize
Click outside of a corner and drag to rotate
Press and hold Shift to constrain
What is a .psd file and how is it different from a .jpg?
A .psd file is a Photoshop file. This file automatically opens in
Photoshop, and preserves all photoshop elements such as
layers, masks, and non-destructive editing techniques.
Because they retain so much information, .psd files
are often fairly large.
A jpeg is a (lossy) compressed image file, used in instances
when a small file size is ideal (i.e. for the web).
All Photoshop editing capabilities are lost when
an image is saved to jpeg.
What does DPI mean and what is the ideal DPI number
for exporting your work to be shown on the web (screen)
and what is the best DPI setting for printing your work
on a printer?
DPI = Dots Per Inch
(also known as pixels per inch)
This is used to describe an image’s resolution
web resolution: 72 DPI
print resolution: 300 DPI
Web:
Explain folder structure when making websites and its
importance.
Folder structure is used to organize the files on your web site.
This makes files easy to find, and easy to link to.
Your folder structure directly translates to the URL
of a given page or image:
i.e.
medp150/index.html
or
images/myimage.jpg
Name and describe the following HTML tags:
<p>, <a href>, <img src=" “>, <h1>, <br>
<p> paragraph tag - separates text into paragraphs
<a href=""> anchor tag - with hypertext (link) reference
<img src=""> image tag, linking to an image source
<h1> heading tag - formats text as a heading
<br> break - line break - separates text to different lines
How can you change the size of an image with HTML code?
With the width and height attributes in the image tag
<img src=“images/myimage.gif" width="120" height="90">
The Internet
What does HTML stand for and what is its current version?
HyperText Mark-up Language
(5)
Describe the following terms:
CSS, JavaScript, URL and the ARPANET
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets - formats and styles HTML tags
JavaScript
The programming language of HTML and the Web.
Includes audio and visual libraries.
URL
Uniform Resource Locator
a reference (an address) to a resource on the Internet
i.e http://www.sarawentworth.com/150/
ARPANET
A project started in 1968 as a nuclear war proof network
Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
the first nationwide interconnected computer network
What impact did the Russian satellite Sputnik have in the
development of the Internet?
The response to this event creates DARPA
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
of which Joseph C.R. Licklider was a part of
Describe the differences and advantages of a distributed
network over centralized network.
A distributed network has no one central ‘hub.’
One of the benefits of a distributed network is that it
provides redundancy for information delivery in case
one node goes down
What does packet switching do?
Packet switching - breaking up data into smaller
“electronic packets” that could be dispersed across the
network. The packets of data could be text, images,
sound and video.
What are the shared tendencies of the early developers of
the Internet from individuals like Marc Andreesen, Ray
Tomlinson, the inventors of USENET, the Xmodem, Tom
Jennings and research labs like Bell Labs and CERN?
They wanted to create accessible, free, and open
information systems
Photography
Explain aperture, focal length, ISO, and depth of field
Aperture:
how much light is admitted through an iris, measured in terms of f-stop
Focal Length:
The focal length of the lens is the distance between the lens and the
image sensor when the subject is in focus, usually stated in millimeters.
In the case of zoom lenses, both the minimum and maximum focal
lengths are stated,
for example 18–55 mm.
ISO:
is a measure of photographic film’s sensitivity to light.
Depth of Field:
Depth of field is the amount of distance between the nearest and
farthest objects that appear in acceptably sharp focus in a photograph
Depth of Field: area in which objects are in focus
Your aperture and focal length
determine the depth of field
More DOF:
small focal length (wide angle lens) and small aperture # (like f/16) opening
Less (shallow) DOF:
long focal length (telephoto lens) and open aperture
The more open your aperture is, the shorter your shutter speed or the or the higher
your ISO you will need to compensate, in order to get the same exposure.
Describe the rule of thirds and how it
relates to your shot composition.
The Rule of Thirds divides an image’s composition into thirds
horizontally and vertically.
Using the rule of thirds, you would place your image’s
important focal points using these lines as guidelines.
Centered = stability
Off center = tension
What is a camera obscura?
A precursor to the modern camera, consisting of a
darkened enclosure having an aperture usually provided
with a lens through which light from external objects enters
to form an image of the objects on the opposite surface
in Latin it literally means dark chamber
Compare and contrast the aesthetic goals and technical
approaches of the pictorialism movement,the f.64 group and
the NYC street photographers
Pictorialism - artistic expression and atmosphere are
emphasized over clear depiction… ‘painterly’ photos.
f.64 group - sharp focus from the foreground to background
based on precisely exposed images of natural forms and
found objects
f.64 group formed in opposition of pictorials, to promote a new
modernist aesthetic
NYC Street Photographers: Candid Camera:
capturing moments of real life (as opposed to still life, like f.64)
Design
What are the elements of art?
Line
shape
color
value
texture
composition
form
space
Color
What are the differences between
color used for light (aka screens)
and color used for paint?
When we mix colors using paint, or through the printing process,
we are using the subtractive color method. Subtractive color
mixing means that one begins with white and ends with black; as
one adds color, the result gets darker and tends to black.
If we are working on a computer, the colors we see on the
screen are created with light using the additive color method.
Additive color mixing begins with black and ends with white; as
more color is added, the result is lighter and tends to white.
http://www.worqx.com/color/color_systems.htm
What are the primary colors for paint, and
what are the primary colors for light?
primary colors for paint: Red, Yellow, Blue
primary colors for light: Red, Green, Blue
What is a color harmony?
Name two.
complimentary - opposite
split complimentary - either side of opposite
analogous - either side of reference color
monochrome - tints, tones, shades of one hue
Hue = pure form of the color.
Tint = hue with some quantity of white added.
Shade = hue with some quantity of black added.
Tone = hue with some quantity of both white and black added.
How do you know which color has the highest contrast
to another when you use color wheel?
It’s the color on the opposite side of the color wheel e.g. red
and green on the painting color wheel
What are some of the cultural associations many
Westerners make with the color white?
purity, innocence, cleanliness, peace, serenity
Typography
What are the two fundamental font families?
Which of the two is generally recommended for
use in print as opposed to screen based media.
Serif and sans-serif
Serif for print, sans-serif for screens.
Has to do with the optics of light and how legible
characters are when reflected vs radiated light
is involved in seeing the shapes of the letters.
Why is Helvetica so popular with large institutions?
It is very legible
Is inexpressive to the point where it can express anything
It has lots of variations
Is Helvetica serif or sans-serif?
Sans-serif
(Times would be serif)
Is Helvetica primarily an expressive font or a legible font?
Legible
Animation
What older technologies can be seen as
precursors to modern animation?
Magic Lantern
Zoetrope
What are some of the key contributors to early film
animation?
First Animated Films:
Enchanted Drawing (1900)
Haunted House (1907)
Steamboat Willie (1928)
First Feature Length Film:
Snow White - 1937
Briefly explain the following four principles of animation:
squash & stretch, straight ahead & pose to pose,
slow in & slow out, and timing.
Squash & stretch - Squash and Stretch gives a sense of weight, volume and
flexibility (physics) to animated objects.
Straight ahead - draw each frame one after the other
Pose to pose - the use of key frames to designate starting and stopping
points for the rest to be interpolated by the computer. This is a common way
of moving/scaling text and images in video editing programs like Adobe
Premiere or motion graphics programs like Adobe After Effects. Flash would
call this process “tweening” - automatically writing the in-between frames.
Slow in & slow out - objects in the real world tend to slowly accelerate
and slowly decelerate. In motion graphics and video editing programs
this is sometimes referred to as “ease in”, “ease out”.
Timing - more frames will make the animation move slower, less frames
will make the animation seem to move faster.
Using the Billy Collins poem and the documentary
Living Conditions as examples describe why
media makers may choose to work with animation,
what kind of alternatives can it provide to live action?
Animation can extend the creative possibilities for media
makers to incorporate the psychological experience of an
event, memory or relationship in addition to the
objective, real-world perspective.
It allows us to create fantastic or otherworldly depictions that
communicate alternative spaces, places and objects.
Animation allows us to explore the possibilities of worlds that
don’t exist and the subjective experience of the world. For
Living Conditions, animation provides anonymity to the
subjects but also can communicate the psychological
states of the subjects – the confusion and turmoil the death
sentence has caused in their lives.
Briefly describe stop motion, cutout animation
and rotoscoping.
Stop motion - take a shot, slight movement or modification of the subject then take
another shot, when images are viewed in sequence it creates the illusion of motion.
Rotoscoping - the tracing of an image from a film one frame at a time to create an
animation. Initially animators used a rotoscope to project the image onto a frosted
glass panel. The process has been replaced by digital techniques but the concept of
using video or film footage to trace the subject is the same. (Waking Life)
Cutout animation - a type of stop-motion animation that uses flat materials cut from
different sources like magazines, photography, cards or fabric. Contemporary
cutouts are often done digitally. (South Park)
Animated GIFS
What do the letters in the acronym GIF stands for?
Graphics Interface Format
What are some of the technical and cultural reasons
why GIFs are popular?
Technical
• they can be put into comments
• format is widely compatible
• they are easy to make (and getting easier)
• Flash has been sidelined by Apples refusal to use it on their mobile devices
• They load quickly
Cultural:
• they can be put into comments
• in our time starved life, they are no time commitment
• they are conversational, a short-hand
(we are communicating with symbols)
• participatory (re-mix others)
• the technical limitations of size and time spurs endless creativity
(sometimes the endless possibility of our digital tools becomes
overwhelming and to limit the framework provides a creative opportunity)
• you can play them at your office because there is no sound
How does is the example of “What tripped Hadji Diouf?”
fall into the participatory aspect of GIFS?
It created a ‘conversation’ via response GIFs
When GIFs are used in a conversation, we are participating
in a dense dialog in symbolic systems.