Favorite Websites

I really liked all the websites in our class. They are really good! I especially like Shelby's because it has a great layout and is easy to navigate. I also really like Katie's website. It has a ton of information and a really pretty layout without being too overwhelming. Amanda Chan's website was also really cool. I loved the thumbnails on her page about her China trip and the pretty layout of the site.

Advice to Students

Don't miss class unless you absolutely have to, and do your homework ahead of time, especially the excel work.

My Website

Please visit my website.
Making my website was harder than I anticipated. I used Expression web, which was pretty straightforward and easy to use, but formatting pictures and text in the tables was very limiting. Also, resizing the pictures in photoshop was difficult. Overall it wasn't too hard but was very time consuming. My favorite page is very hard to pick. I really like the pictures in the Horse section, but I also really like the layout of the homepage, so its a tossup. I plan to go through my website and put a lot of the text into tables with sold backgrounds so it is easier to read. My biggest technical challenge was definitely getting all the pictures and text to line up correctly, and using photoshop to resize pictures, since it became a lot about guess and check. It was very frustrating and time consuming. I will probably show this sight to friends and family, since it is just a website about myself. I don't know of any specific classes I might make a website for, but I  have made them in the past for my senior project in high school and it was very helpful.

Hechler's Hardware

Thursday in class, Larry Hechler came to talk to us about computer hardware. I learned a lot of valuable information from this lecture. First, I learned I should never touch my computer's LCD, which I definitely do all the time. Now I know that I should not touch it or clean it with anything other than techspray specifically for computers. I also learned a lot of good information for purchasing computers. The Dell warranty, which I didn't know about before, sounds like a great deal, and although I currently have a Mac, if I ever need another computer I know to look around at other brands to compare warranties now. The most important part of the lecture was the advice on backing up computers. I heard a lot of horror stories about lost information due to some kind of accident, and I am now in the process of backing up all my photos, homework, etc. You can never be to careful, especially for me with my pictures, since they only exist on my computer and I would be really sad if I lost them! Thank, Mr. Hechler, for warning me before I lost all my information!

New Love for PowerPoint

I had a great time making my powerpoint presentation. I took a while to narrow down my topic, but once I had a topic that I really cared about it was easy to work with. The best part for me was that my topic was very visual, so I got to show a lot of pictures and talk instead of needing text and numbers. I think the best part of my powerpoint was the visuals and the way I could talk over them. If I could do it again I would have planned what I was going to say exactly, instead of improvising so much, but overall I think it went well. I really enjoyed showing my video and getting to share a sport that I enjoy so much. I really enjoyed Shelby's presentation on improv - her powerpoint was very well designed and she had enthusiasm for her topic. Her colors and visuals went well with her topic. I also really enjoyed Sarah's presentation about levitation photography. I liked the way she used her own levitation photos to show the process and the powerpoint design was well done overall.

Picture That Lies

For my Pic that Lies assignment, I chose a picture of the actress America Ferrera on the red carpet. I chose this picture because I wanted to alter the appearance of a person, and to make the alterations more noticeable and dramatic I chose an actress most people have seen before. I found the picture on Stock Exchange.
            To begin, I used the magic wand to select the hair and then changed the saturation and brightness, and hue to make it a different color. I then went back and used the stamp tool to fix any color changes to the rest of the picture. I repeated this process for the dress. I then used the liquidation filter to change the shape of the eyes, nose, mouth, and jaw line. I broadened the hairline with the liquidation filter and changed the hair style slightly. I changed the shape of the dress, and used the clone tool to get rid of frizzy hair.
            I manipulated this picture to show how easily a person’s appearance can be touched up, and how the slightest photo touch-ups can change a person’s appearance to something unrealistic. I think it is important for people to see how harmful these edits can be to the viewer, who will interpret an unrealistic photo as the standard for everyone.
            This manipulation was harmful, because it was a dishonest representation of the actress. Whether the changes were good or bad, they make the viewer believe something that is not true. I think this is very harmful to girls especially who try to measure up to the false representation.
            This is similar to my articles because it addressses the ethics of photo editing and the harm that false images can cause. Even though it is not a written lie, publishing a photo that has been harmfully edited is equally harmful and can give the wrong impression. Whether it is a political message or a picture in People magazine, my article's authors believed that all photos should be held to a standard of ethics.

Works Cited

Ricchiardi, Sherry. "DISTORTED PICTURE." American Journalism Review 29.4 (2007): 36-43. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 5 Apr. 2011.