District News

Digital photography students hone Photoshop skills

 

Nov. 7, 2011

 

Canajoharie High School junior Chelsea Diamond has only used Photoshop about five times, but she's already learned enough to create an image she plans to give as a Christmas gift. Using a picture of two of her neighbors, Chelsea created a festive scene featuring them amid bubbles and fish. She created one image using about five or six and blending certain elements together.

"This is a lot of fun. I think I want Photoshop for Christmas," she said. "I love taking pictures and I found this to be very easy to use."

Chelsea and nine other digital photography students in grades 10-12 learned all about Photoshop – a photo editing program – in early November during a project taught by professional photographer Philip Scalia. Art teacher Kathy Van Loan brought Mr. Scalia to the high school thanks to an Arts in Education grant through HFM BOCES.

This is the second year her students are using the program during the half-year course. It's also the second year she has brought in Mr. Scalia.

"This fills a void and it's different from what we normally teach," Mrs. Van Loan said. "During our digital photography class, we start learning the history of photography and every week or two, we learn one aspect of Photoshop."

In college, virtually any student who takes photography, graphic design or web design uses Photoshop. The software can be used for everything from creating postcards and posters to cropping images.

During the project, Senior Cody Hotaling took a picture of a model, put a robot arm on her and placed her in a tunnel. He said he wanted to better his Photoshop abilities and thinks the class helps a lot.

"I definitely think this can help me in my career," he said.

Mr. Scalia - who often uses Photoshop in his work - taught the students different facets of the program such as learning how to work in layers, making clean selections, and image blending.

"It's more about imagining and how to connect what they're thinking. I'm always trying to bring out topics or subjects that are bigger like arts and literature," he said. "I tell them it's OK to bring their opinions into what they do - that's what art is."