Editing Images

Visual support is vital in any teaching situation. As English teachers, we use pictures of objects to teach vocabulary, photos of situations to stimulate communication, authentic visual materials to teach realia and culture...

What characteristics of an image influence its effect on remembering the vocabulary?

• context or the absence of context
• vivid colours
• contrast
• golden ratio
• the size of the target object

 WHAT ARE THE KEY SKILLS IN THE FIELD OF PHOTOGRAPHY FOR THE ENGLISH TEACHER TO MASTER?

My suggestion:
1. Basic knowledge of the electronic image formats and their specifics.
2. Basic editing abilities: crop, contrast, colour adjustment
3. Basic photo-making skills and knowledge (to be able to prepare original materials, and to document school events, projects, students'activities and products).

4. Advanced editing abilities - collage (to create more original materials, and to be resistant to hoax), inserting text to the image...

Typical Viral :D

Any other suggestions?

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HOMEWORK

1. Finish the collage and put it into your web.

2. Make several photos  expressing the school atmosphere, choose the best one, edit if necessary. Insert the photo into your Homepage (index.html) and publish online.

3. Prepare 10 images which you will use in your vocabulary teaching HotPot project. Keep them in the original size + make the same set in web version (max size 40kb per image).

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The basic skills you should master:


1. Compressing, saving in various formats (with different extensions) and size
2. Crop (ořez)
3. Changing brightness, sharpness, hue and other basic features, and applying Nick filters.
4. Making a part of the image transparent
5. Creating a collage
6. Inserting text into a picture
7. Mastering basic hotkeys in Photoshop

Tasks:
1. Open your image in Photoshop. Work with Crop first (C). Remember - the main part of the image should be taken by the main object (or idea, or situation)
2.  Use LEVELS to set the Lightning (Photoshop: Ctrl+L, or Obraz - přizpůsobení; Menu in Gimp: Enhance - Adjust Lightning - Levels)
3. Adjust sharpness. play with blur :)

4. Working with layers and masks in Photoshop:
Open the image
Duplicate the layer (Ctrl+J)
Choose the type of layers combination (Měkké světlo, závoj...)
CZ: Přidejte masku vrstvy (možnosti - odkrýt vše nebo skrýt vše)
Malujeme do masky!


5. Use GIMP: Find two images and combine them into one, applying transparency (e.g. Donald Duck walking through Usti nad Labem :) )
6. Advanced: Try to do the same in Photoshop: make a collage of two photos!
tutorial in Czech

7. List of  Photoshop Hotkeys - EN
List of  Photoshop Hotkeys - CZ

B - Brush
C - Crop
H - Hand
J - Healing brush
L - Lasso
S - Stamp
W - Wand

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TIPS
How to make images transparent in GIMP:
Layers – Transparency – Add alpha channel
Choose the background using the magic wand.
The simplest method is to use Edit → Clear

You can also test transparency in Word - add the image into text and choose Formát obrázku - pozice - před textem.

How to make images transparent in Photoshop:
New Image - Background transparent
Import the image into a new layer
Magic wand - choose parts which should be transparent
Layer - Mask - Hide the choice (Vrstvy - maska - skrýt výběr)


Want a top quality image legally?
Visit Getty.
Fotolia
FreeDigitalPhotos
AdobeStock
Pixabay

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More information on image formats (in Czech) - HERE
How to make a good photography?

Roman Pihan - a whole web on photography, including tutorials, tips and galleries
Ondřej Neff - practiacal tips for all

Jednoduše na kompozici

GIMP online help (in English)