One of The Design Shadow’s goals is finding effective ways of going green in the classroom, by cutting down on the amount of paper used by teachers and students, and placing a lot of that information online. I was surfing the web the other day, and came across this website: rethinkdesign.org. It began as a students Thesis project at New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University. In addition to all of the responsibilities placed on a Graphic Designer, we should be aware of the fast-changing world around us in relation to sustainable design. Rethink Design gathers all the information you need to know about sustainable design and places them at the designers disposal.
July 18th, 2009
Tutorial: Soften Your Photos
Sometimes you just want to give your photos a soft look around the edges. This is an easy 4 step tutorial that shows you how to quickly soften a photo in Photoshop.
1. Open your photo in Photoshop.
2. Duplicate the layer: Layer > Duplicate Layer.
3. Blur the top layer with a Gaussian Blur: Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the Radius to the desired pixels (depending on the photo and how soft you want it to look, I usually stay between 10-20px.
4. Adjust the Opacity for the top layer between 60-70 percent.
It’s as easy as that! Enjoy!
July 16th, 2009
What am I reading right now?
“We were taught that the most important thing a young photographer can do is learn how to see. It wasn’t about the equipment, a camera was only a box that recorded an image. We learned to compose, to frame, to fill the negative, to fit everything we saw into the camera’s rectangle.” – Annie Leibovitz
I received this book for Christmas last year from my girlfriend’s Aunt who lives in San Francisco and had it autographed by the author, none other than the magnificent Annie Leibovitz. Needless to say I read it in two days over the break, and decided that I should read it again. The book is mostly short stories about her experiences starting out in photography at the San Francisco Art Institute followed by experiences while shooting for Rolling Stone when it was still a small magazine. As an aspiring photographer, this is a great read about someone who has worked in the industry for over 25 years, and has documented some of the most memorable moments. Though seen as a photographer for ‘celebrities’, reading about the thought process behind her photos is intriguing, exciting and helpful to anyone interested in photography.