Session 8 - Making a Calendar

Today's session is mostly about how to make a calendar in Publisher as well as some other ideas on how you can present your photos.

Assessment Task

You might think it strange to start with an assessment task - this is not to put you off, but so that you can do today's activity taking into account that it will be assessed. Our first photo editing assessment task is to create a calendar or Photo Book.

See separate assessment cover sheet with details

Creating a Calendar with Microsoft Publisher

Using a Template

When you open Publisher, or when clicking the file tab > new, you are shown a catalog of templates to choose from to create a new publication. The catalog is divided by categories; one of theses categories is calendars. Choose a calendar from the list of installed templates.

These templates can be easily configured for the desired year or specific months within the year. It is important to choose the correct year and the correct months when choosing your template.

Click on Set Calendar Dates.

When you have set your dates and other details, click on the Create Button.

Editing Your Calendar

After choosing your preferred dates, you can replace the image for each month with one of your own.

Things to consider:

    A theme that compliments your imagery
    Fonts that compliment your theme/imagery
    Titles and/or descriptions that will assist the reader in understanding your calendar

Creating a calendar from a blank page

Personally, when creating a Calendar, I prefer to start from scratch!! I like the idea of a traditional calendar like you might buy from a newsagent - a full size picture and a full size calendar.

Use the following steps to create your own Calendar.


Start with a Blank page - I used A4 Landscape.

File / New

Make this first page your cover page - I placed an image and a title on mine as well as a background colour.

Next step is to add your new page. I set mine up as a 2 page spread and so when I insert a page, it adds a double.

This is what mine looks like

I gave mine new page the same background as the front cover - just for consistency!

Add your images to the left hand side and your "calendar" to the right hand side.

To add an image, use Insert / Picture and select the image that you want on the page. Add any other enhancements such as frame or shadow if you want.

To add the Calendar part, use Insert / Calendar and Browse for more calendars so that you get more choices.

 Move the calendar onto the right hand page and increase the size so it takes up the full page to the margins.

This is what mine looks like:

You can now create the rest of your calendar. You can insert Blank Pages and add the elements - i.e. Image on left and calendar on right, or you can add Duplicate Pages and delete/edit the elements.

When you have added all of the months, add a single page at the end. This page will contain thumbnails of your original photos/images.

Creating your Image Page

Create your thumbnail page by adding each image, resize as appropriate, and move into position. For 12 months, a 4 X 3 grid would work well. You could also create a collage in Pixlr and add your grid as 1 image.

Printing your Calendar

Finish off by printing your calendar in colour. Print it double sided as you want the picture and calendar to be displayed when you open it up. Think about the flip - do you flip it on the long side or the short side?

You can staple it or be fancy and buy a set of covers and coil binder from the library.

ENJOY!!

Other Publications for Photos

In Publisher 2016, there are heaps of different layouts to suit lots of projects. There are a couple of templates that can be used for Photo Books.

Links for some other Ideas

http://mashable.com/2016/04/23/smartphone-photos-products/#_

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mikespohr/33-incredible-things-you-can-do-with-your-family-photos?utm_term=.fxbWveopY#.uuZ5gW6dm

http://www.momento.com.au/

http://www.photobookaustralia.com.au/

Session 7 - Tri - Fold Brochures

Brochure Tips.

These tips are not too dissimilar to those that we last week for flyers/posters.

http://www.businessknowhow.com/directmail/ideas/brochures.htm

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjpVsUM2MPQ

OR

Create your brochure.

Today we will look at how to create a simple tri-fold brochure - the tool we will use is of course WORD!! You could also use Publisher to create a tri-fold brochure, but like Access, it is not part of the student version that you would buy at a computer store. If you download the Chisholm 2016 suite, you will get Publisher.

Before you start, I suggest getting an A4 piece of paper and decide how you might want to fold your brochure. Once you have decided how you will fold it, you can write Front, Back etc. Then unfold it so you can see which panel relates back to your document. You could also use this piece of paper to "sketch out" your brochure.

Start by loading Word with a Blank Document.

Change your Page layout to Landscape

In Page Layout, set your Margins to be Narrow and set your document to be 3 columns.

Insert Column breaks at the top of each column so that you can see your 6columns (3 columns each side of your page).

Put the information that you want on the relevant panels and the all you have to do is print it double-sided, which is the default within Chisholm.



With double sided printing, you can flip on the long edge or the short edge - which do you thing is relevant for this task??????


You could also get a template from office online http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/tri-fold-business-brochure-TC006206299.aspx

Class Activity

Your library will be running some special activities during the school holidays aimed at Primary School age children. Create a tri-fold brochure for the library to advertise the programs that will be running. Print your brochure and share with your class mates.

Session 6 - Using Pixlr Web based editor

The Pixlr Editor Tools

The Toolbar is located on the left hand side of the screen.

This is a bit messy, but the following image explains what each of the tools do. It kinda grew as I was going.

Here is the Pixlr Tutorial on the Tools

The best way to see what these tools do is to play with them!!  BUT Before we do, the first thing we need to understand about Pixlr (and similar photo editing tools) is that they work with layers.

Layers

Here is a quick Pixlr Tutorial on Layers.


I will start with some of the Selection tools and go from there. For this exercise, I have loaded an image from my computer.

Marquee, Lasso and Wand

The Magic Wand tool allows you to select pixels within a colour range. You can increase the tolerance to select a larger variation from the selection. If you hold the Shift key down, you can add to your selection.

Once you are happy with the selection, you can apply a variety of tools or you can copy and paste it onto another image. The magic wand works best when there are solid colours. To see how well this worked on my image, I will invert the selection and cut the selection.

Not perfect, but not too bad.

The Lasso tool allows you to draw around the edge of the item you want to select. There are 2 different lasso tools that you can select from the options. The freehand lasso and the polygonal lasso. The freehand lasso is where you can use the mouse to trace over the selection. The polygonal tool allows you to click the mouse and place markers along the way. Shift key adds and the Alt (option) key subtracts points.

A simple Cut and Paste onto another image will show how well my selection went.

Online Tutorial from Pixlr - Cutting things out with magic wand and lasso

Drawing tools

For this exercise, I have started an image from scratch using the default size

You can start by adding a plain or gradient background colour, or create colours using shapes. All of the tools have separate options so make sure that you look at what is available.

When you use the gradient tool, you can use one of the predefined styles or create your own.

Lots of different brushes available. Use the More button to add them to your pallette.

So my masterpiece......

Text

The Text tool allows you to add text to your image. You can change font, size and text colour.

Activity 1

Use the tools you have just learnt, create a simple Meme (photo plus funny text) and post in the Facebook Group

Photo Editing Tools

Colour Replacement

You can use the Colour Replacement tool to change a colour within your image. The colour replacement tool keeps the original shadings of your selection and colours it to your main coour.

From Girlie Pink to fluoro green.

Pixlr Tutorial on using the Colour Replacement Tool

Clone Tool

You can use the Clone tool to remove items from your image.

Take a sample from somewhere near that can replace the area you are removing, and then just paint away.

For more information on the Clone tool https://support.pixlr.com/hc/en-us/articles/209350178-How-to-use-the-clone-stamp-tool-in-Pixlr-Editor

Layer Masks

https://ww2.kqed.org/learning/2015/04/16/using-layer-masks-in-pixlr-editor/

https://support.pixlr.com/hc/en-us/articles/210065757-Rounding-off-the-corners-of-an-image-in-Pixlr-Editor



You can even use Pixlr to create a fancy timeline banner for Facebook.