Digital photography students utilize Photoshop for projects

Fort Plain Jr./Sr. High School senior Tiffany Smith wants to go to college for fine arts and recognizes she will likely utilize Photoshop in some of her classes. During a recent project in her digital photography class, she took a picture of herself and turned it into a zombie (just in time for Halloween).

“Photoshop is something I’ve always wanted to learn how to use. There’s quite a nice spectrum of things you can do with it,” she said.

Tiffany and 11 other digital photography students in grades 9-12 learned all about Photoshop – a photo editing program – in October during their class taught by art teacher Geoff Snyder. Click here to see their projects.

“I fell in love with Photoshop and the students are really into it,” Mr. Snyder said. “I’ve always dabbled in it and have come to realize it’s a very powerful tool that the kids will use in college and beyond.”

In college, virtually any student who takes photography, graphic design or web design uses Photoshop. The software can be used for everything from creating postcards and posters to cropping images.

In the classes’ latest project, Mr. Snyder broke the students into groups and charged them with picking a character, turning themselves into that character, and then photographing it. The students used props of their choice and when they took the picture, they used Photoshop to enhance it.

“I was going to be a boxer, but ended up picking a clown,” said freshman Aiden Van Loan. “I loved using Photoshop for it. It’s a great program and I learn something new every day. If I go to college for something in the arts, I know it will help a lot.”