For the last about 2 classes we have been working on creating a digital painting from scratch in Photoshop Elements. Well so far i did a picture of this sunset but i don't want to hand that one in. I'm still thinking whether or not i will do another one instead. Hmmm....

Well I liked class today^-^. Mr.case decided to make a community for all of us called wiki. It is basically a site that is a community for just the two grad.9 computer classes. The purpose of this site is to create a database of information about the things learned in the grade.9 computer course, so that it can also be used as a study tool for tests, exams, etc. However this site has a LOT of features like forums, galleries, posts, you can even have a personal blog and there is even WEB CHAT!!!

We will be marked and get credit for how much and how we use this site. Although on the first day that we got this site about 90% of the class just went to web chat...the bad thing is...you don't get credit for web chat.

Today we just talked about more features in photo shop elements. We learned about filters which allows you to transform your picture to the way that it pleases you.
For example, the picture changes a bit more each time you put it under the filter therefore you can change it to be blurry, sharp, and pixilated (when the picture is focused more on.)

We also learned about automate-picture package, automate- contact sheet, and automate-batch. Here is how they work:

Automate-Picture Package: changes the pictures into the sizes you need.

Automate- Contact Sheet: This feature orders all your pictures into one page based on how many rows and columns there should be.

Automate- Batch: This feature converts the extension of the picture. (Jpeg, gif's, etc.)

Today is just a catch up day to finish any incomplete work. The only thing I have to complete is my computer essay that is due on tuesday. Other then that, today was grad pics day and let me tell you, today was defiantly one of those days that are, a day to remember.

Today was pixy day, i mean pixel day. A pixel is one bit of information on a computer page. Since a picture is made up thousands of pixel, each pixel has its own hexadecimal code. Since this is a code if you change the number of pixels, you obviously change that bit of the image.

According to Mr.Case the good number of pixels for printing out a picture is 1800 by 1600. However a good number of pixels for posting something in the Internet is 72. The reason for this is because when you reduce the number of pixels, you're reducing the megabytes, therefor the pictures load faster and they become cheaper to send from one computer to another. When you have more pixels you picture would have more detail.

Another thing about pixels is even though you can change the number of pixels in a image, it can sometimes have a negative effect. The reason for this is because the computer can only work with the number of pixels present. Therefore it would think of what codes it would need to make for the picture in order for it to have more pixels. In reality the computer doesn't know the difference between nice and ugly therefore it would just do this calculation and the image could turn out to be blurry.

We also learned about cropping which is taking a part of the picture that you want and making that the whole picture, taking away all the other parts that you didn't want. This ties in with the levels of the colors red, green, or blue because in a picture you can change the levels of the picture to the way that you want it to look. So you can make the picture brighter, darker, anything you want.

Yay!! Today we started learning about Photoshop Elements. My friend Kamini and I have been waiting to start this. Well at least finally we did.

So first of all there are basic rules that you need to know when it comes to photo composition (we're learning about graphics.)

The first rule (perhaps the most important) is called 'Rule of Thirds'. This rule just basically says make sure the focus of the picture is not directly in the center of the image. The reason for this is it's more interesting to look at it that way then something that's just starting back from the middle of the page. The horizon line can be two thirds on the top or bottom of the page.

Another rule is about contrast. This is when you put the interesting object in the background so that it contrasts its colour therefor the picture is brought out more. For example, blurring the background is a great way because it focuses the audience attention on what you want them to see. In this rule, if the horizontal lines are straight you should probably bend them; in other words making then on an angle. This helps because it takes something and makes it more appealing to the eye just because it is seen in a different point of view (such as vertical or horizontal)

Today we talked about the hexadecimal system. It resembles the binary code that we learned about previously. So here's how it works,

In the hexadecimal system the place value is by 16. For example, you would start at 1,16, 255. A computer can show 255 levels for the colors red, blue or green and therefore by using the numbers 1 and 16 you can show all the 255 colours that a computer has. So since the computer can show 255 levels for the colors blue,green or red, you only use the place values 1 and 16 because 266 is one more than 255.

Another thing is since the numbers can go just up until 9 before having a place value added, you can use letters instead of numbers. The letters would be like this,

A= 10
B= 11
C=12
D=13
E=14
F=15

There are 255 different combinations for the three colours using only the 1&16 numbers and the six letters above.