Diigiitall IImagiing IImagiing
An Adobe Photoshop Course
Left: Justin Chambers creates a surrealistic effect by putting himself into an unrealistic situation.
Right: Personal collage by Jessica Beckstrom, titled Goldens.
Kristine Cobb
Digital imaging is a course
taught at Shrewsbury
High School, in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
Adobe Photoshop is the program
that is mainly used in the course.
Students are able to earn art credits
to graduate by successfully completing the course. Digital Imaging must
cover art criteria as well as technical
skills.
The course begins with tutorials
created by the instructor and other
exercises from reference books. Art
elements and principles of design are
integrated into the curriculum. One
of the first assignments is to create an Andy Warhol-style portrait.
Students are to repeat their digital
portrait nine times and then create a
different color harmony in each.
Optimum Instruction
It is helpful if there are enough computers for each person in the class. It
is also helpful if there is a computer
hooked up to a
projector for the
instructor. I have
found that after
I demonstrate a
technique, I spend
the rest of the time walking around
the class helping students individually. Since the students come to
class with a wide range of experience, some individual instruction is
necessary to help them all progress
through the assignments.
and various palettes. Students learn
how to select portions of a photo or
a scanned image. The options they
are given are the lasso tool, the mar-
quee tools, the
Art elements and principles magic wand, or
the extract tool.
of design are integrated They learn ways
into the curriculum. to mask areas
with the mask-
ing layer. Students learn that layers
are the magic of Photoshop. Every
item brought into a document is
automatically on its own layer. This
makes it possible for each element
to be moved and manipulated inde-
pendently from one another.
Photoshop Basics
Students must first learn some
Photoshop basics. They begin by
getting familiar with the tool bar
Focus on Originality
As the course progresses, students
are required to take all of their
own photos. The school has digital
