Thursday, March 6, 2014

Thing 16: Photo Editing Tools


 

It just so happens that we run our Parents As Reading Partners (PARP) program at Gardner Dickinson during the month of March, and one of my goals was to make READ posters of our faculty using the ALA Graphics software.  What a perfect time to learn about photo editing!!

This project was time consuming and a lot of work, but the results have been worth it.  After familiarizing myself with the software, I created a plan for action.  My first goal was to photograph each of our K-5 faculty holding their favorite books.  I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this part of the project went!  I had teachers come to the Library for a few minutes during their prep period, and was delighted when many showed up not only with their favorite book, but with an assortment of fun props to boot!

Once the photos were taken, they needed to be edited using PhotoShop.  Having never used PhotoShop, this was the big challenge for me.

Once the backgrounds were erased from the photos, it was just a matter of matching up backgrounds from the READ software to particular pictures.  The results were beyond my expectations!!  I saved all the poster images on a disk and took it to Staples where they made 11X18 prints for just $0.98 each - a bargain at twice the price :-)

Yesterday I had the posters laminated and hung outside each teacher's door - and the fun began!  I saw classes actually being walked through the hallways with the sole purpose of checking out everyone's poster.  What a great way to motivate our budding readers and to show them that we're all readers together!

3 comments:

  1. What a wonderful project! Well done!!

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  2. This is AWESOME! We have wanted to do this-just have to find the time!

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  3. Pixlr is a cloud-based set of image tools and utilities, including a number of photo editors, a screen grabber browser extension, and a photo sharing service. The suite was intended for non-professionals, however the apps range from simple to advanced photo editing.
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