The "Photo of a Family Member" Assignment

Mr. Michael Delahunt

Graphic Design 1 & 2
Alter a Photo of a Family Member

Find or take a photograph of one or more of your relatives, and bring it to school, so that you can digitize it with our scanner, and then make improvements / changes to it.

Such improvements might include:

removing unwanted picture elements -- people, things, blemishes, scratches, spots, stains, etc.
adjusting color, especially in a faded old photo
cropping
replacing a background with another

making it more respectful, or funny, etc.

The photo might be of a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, great-uncle, great-aunt, great-great-great-great-great-great grandparent, or?

Be sure to get the cooperation / permission of any family members who might be interested in your use of the photo of your choice. This means asking for an "okay" from your mother to borrow a photo of her mother, even though she's your grandmother!

Don't bring the only photo, or a fragile photo, or an irreplaceable photo to school. Instead, bring a copy of any really precious photo, even if it's a Xerox copy.

Consider taking a picture of a picture, if it's large enough to allow you to get close enough to make it fill the viewfinder of your camera.

For a grade: Along with a printed copy of the original photo (as digitized), hand in one version that is a conservatively improved version of the photo, and a second version that is a wild or wierd one (funny, bizarre, or otherwise strange).

Deadlines:

Having it in the classroom: Tuesday, November 6th.

Scanning it in the classroom: Friday, November 16th.

Making the final two versions and submitting them as prints, along with a print of the original photo to the teacher: Tuesday, November 27th.

Return to Graphic Design Course

ArtPage has thousands of articles about art terms used in art production, art criticism, art history, aesthetics, and art education. I created ArtPage for my students, to help them increase their understanding of art concepts, readings, writings, and conversations. Some of the hyperlinks found on the pages about my elementary art program will take you to ArtPage articles about terms on these pages.

I have taught art at three elementary schools in the Paradise Valley Unified School district (northeastern Phoenix and north Scottsdale) from 1986-. I began publishing information about my classes on the Web in 1995. I taught at Pinnacle High School during the 2001-2002 school year, and posted these lessons that year. I will maintain them as time permits.

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