Photo Story 3: A Portfolio Slideshow

Today we're going to begin using a free program (you can download it here) called Photo Story 3.  Photo Story 3 is a free presentation tool for creating digital stories with photos, text, transitions, audio narration and background music. It is a modern day version of show and tell or story telling.

You can select numerous photographs [in order if you prefer], add background music, narrate your slideshow, etc.  If you don't have music of your own, Photo Story has a build in "music creator" which will fit a variety of "moods".

Today we are going to create a slideshow using pictures of our projects from our portfolio's.  These include Photoshop, Bryce, Rhino, Sweet Home 3D, etc.  You can also include screen shots of HTML or Flash, or even your other creations (welding, woodwork, paintings, etc.).

To create a Photo Story 3 project:

• Launch the Photo Story 3 application
• Check "Begin a new story" and click "Next"
• Click "Import Pictures"
• Select the pictures you would like to use in your project and click "Ok"
• Click "Next"
• If you don't wish to add titles/comments to your pictures, click "Next"
• If you don't want to record narration, click "Next"
• Click "Select Music" and choose the MP3 file you want to use for your background music
• Click "Next"
• Select the folder you want to save your work to (I suggest Thawspace) and click "Next"
• Photo Story 3 will now build your movie file

Virtual Makeover / Photo Retouching

Today we are going to explore doing a virtual makeover.  In a previous assignment we took a face with scratches or pimples and retouched it to make it look a little more natural.  Today we are going to go a little further by beautifying someone.  In short, we are going to take a photo of someones face and smooth wrinkles, remove blemishes, adjust colors, brighten teeth and eyes, etc.  We can even try some "virtual makeup".  


Remember that we aren't trying to make anybody into a super model, we're simply trying to bring out their natural beauty.


You can search for "no makeup" on Google Images for some examples.  Click here to see a few:  http://tinyurl.com/3727dqn.  


Here are some celebrities [mostly] without makeup: http://www.funzug.com/index.php/celebrities/celebs-without-makeup-portraits.html


Here are some examples of Virtual Makeovers:

If you would like to follow along with a video tutorial, you can check these out:

Homework Reminder: Upcoming Projects

We have a couple assignments coming up that will require a little planning.  Your homework assignments are as follows:

• 3D Photography:  Your assignment is to find some areas where you can see depth (something in the foreground, middle, and background) and take some pictures.  We will then use those pictures to create 3D anaglyph (red & blue) images.
1. Stand as still as possible and aim your camera at a subject that doesn't move (i.e. a sleeping animal).
2. Note where the center of the viewfinder is at and take your first (left) picture.
3. Move the camera about 2.5 - 3 inches to the right (about the distance between the center of your eyes).
4. Aim your camera at the same point (as noted in step 2) and take your second (right) picture.
5. Repeat with a variety of subjects/locations.
• Logo Concepts:  Begin playing with (sketching) a series of logos which represents you in some way. 

• If you were a company right now, what would your company name be?  I might do "AskGriff" or "Griffith Enterprises" or even something more generic like "Obsidian" or "Konocti Education Technology".  
• I might choose to focus my logo on a computer or a camera or a silhouette of Mt. Konocti.   I might even opt to simplify my AskGriff cartoon character and build that into a logo.
• Begin thinking about color schemes for your company.  KHS is orange and black... Pepsi is red, white and blue... McDonalds is yellow and red.  We're going to START with black & white, but color is important and will be incorporated later.
• I'm not looking for a finished product, here -- just rough sketches for logo concepts.

Design and Composition Basics: The Rule of Thirds

The most basic principle in photography, layout or design is The Rule of Thirds.  The basic idea is that you can divide your photo into an equally divided 3x3 grid.

The idea is that the human eye focuses most on the areas where the lines intersect.  So if we put the focal point of the photo in one of the intersections, the image becomes more attractive or interesting.

Another use of the Rule of Thirds is to place the subjects eyes on the horizontal line.  Ideally one of the eyes would be on one of the interesctions, while the eyes would be looking to the opposite side into the empty space.  This image of a cat is fairly close.

If you are taking (or cropping an existing) landscape photograph, the Rule of Thirds can be used to help add interest to the shot.  Sometimes the horizon line is on [or close to] one of the two horizontal lines.  Sometimes the picture can be divided into three areas -- the foreground, the focal point, and the background.  In the example below, the horizon line follows the bottom line while the subject of the photo is exactly on the interesection.

Here are a few more examples demonstrating the Rule of Thirds:

Now look at the following photographs and see if they follow the Rule of Thirds -- and if so, in what ways:

The Rule of Thirds is utilized in movies as well as photographs.  This is an example of a commercial with the Composition Lines overlayed on the movie.

This guy did a music video about the Rule of Thirds:

A more advanced explanation about the Rule of Thirds can be seen in the video below:

http://blog.muddyboots.org/2007/07/rule-of-thirds.html

http://www.everydayhdr.com/?p=1367