Meeting 1

Impara l'arte e mettila da parte

Handouts: Syllabus, Quattro file of different file formats and Photoshop Tools handout. (See Handouts and Instructional Materials section for online copies of these handouts)

Books (optional) - There are many texts concerning Photoshop beside my web site, so if you need to, select one. For retouching, Ctein, and Katrin Eismann & Wayne Palmer are authors with good books. For photographers, Martin Evening is a reputable author. For retouching video in Photoshop, Gary David Bouton's book is a good choice.

Introduction

Introduce class w/ policy sheet, take attendance.

You will need some means to store large assignment files - a firewire hard drive like the FireLite drives from MacConnection,  USB ZIP drives, USB Flash memory drives (sometimes called "memory keys" - get 1GB or more and specify USB 2 or 3 instead of USB 1), an iPod, or even blank DVD+R or CD-R disks on which to store your scans and assignments.

With any storage device, it is wise to have duplicate or triplicate copies on a different medium. For example, you might use a USB flash memory key to transfer work to and from the lab, and that gets backed up occasionally to an external hard drive.

You will be issued a color print card for $15 worth of credit. Be sure to follow VisCom procedure when using the cards for printing. Ask the computer lab manager if you don't know how the system works.

Introduction to Computer Artwork:
On blackboard: Illustration of computer with inputs/outputs listed below --

ARTWORK
Digital photographs
Scans (photos, sketches, real objects)
Hand drawn w mouse

INTANGIBLES
Skill
Imagination (a biggie!)
Ethics

OUTPUT
Screen
Desktop printers
Page layout ->printing press
Tape, film, or electronic movie

Ethics discussion using slides of Judy Perani w/ African Masks. Show examples of past student work and the work of other professionals. A great deal of additional student artwork is available online on my website. Look for the link on the Digital Imaging Start Page.

File Mode Examples (data types):

Bitmap mode ("Line Art")	Grayscale	Indexed Color	RGB	CMYK for print
two colors - B or W	256 shades of gray	256 colors max, adaptable palette	16.7 million colors	<16.7 million colors
[21 or 1-bit]	[28 or 8-bit grayscale]	[8-bits total]	[in typical 8-bits/channel picture]	[limited by actual ink/paper properties]
Illustrations © 2012 William R Schneider - All Rights Reserved

File Types:  Discuss types of files (bitmap vs. Vector) and how bitmaps are grids of pixels. Bit-depths (1- bit=b/w only, 24-bit=16 million colors, 8-bit grayscale = 256 shades of gray, etc). Printouts of Bitmap, Grayscale, 24-bit color samples. Different file formats (EPS, TIF, JPEG, GIF, etc.) available in the Save As menu item in Photoshop and their advantages and disadvantages. The  handout summarizes advantages and disadvantages of each file format.