Manipulating images in Art and Design Nicola Gardiner Prospect College 2004

Manipulating images in Art and Design Ideally students will be working on images that they have captured themselves using either a scanner or a digital camera. However, it is not the purpose of these materials to provide training on image capture due to the wide range of specific training and technical help needed to capture digital images. Some general notes are provided with hints and tips on how to capture and manipulate digital images

Step one Using Microsoft Photo Editor – Open the image that you want to work on.

Step two – posterising the image Using Microsoft Photo Editor From the Effects menu choose Posterize In the dialogue box that comes up choose 3 bit. Click OK

Step two – posterising the image Note how the picture has changed. This is important as it makes the image easier to render in paint if this is a desired outcome for the student

Step three – changing the colours Using Microsoft Photo Editor From the tools menu select ‘negative’. Uncheck the blue tick box and click OK

Step three – changing the colours This is but one example. You might want to experiment with the variety of other effects that are available in any photo editing software application

Step four – cropping the image Using Microsoft Photo Editor From the Image menu select Crop Select a section of the image When the dialogue box show appears click OK Select tool

Step four – cropping the image

Step five – making multiple cropped images Using Microsoft Photo Editor Use Save As… to save the cropped image with a different name. Repeat this process as many times as you wish.

Step six – inserting and manipulating the images in Microsoft Word Insert the cropped pictures into Microsoft Word by choosing Picture from the Insert menu and then selecting the From File… option. You will be prompted to browse for the files that you have created.

Step seven – Making the images all the same size Working in Microsoft Word Right click on each image and choose the Format Picture… option. Select the Size tab Set the size of each picture – in this case 7cm height and width. Uncheck the Lock aspect ratio dialogue box

Step eight – Making the pictures ‘float’ on the page Working in Microsoft Word At the moment all of your pictures will behave as if they were characters of text (In line with text is the default format) You need to be able to make the pictures float around the page so that you can manipulate them further. Select the Layout tab and choose the Behind text option

Step eight – Making the pictures ‘float’ on the page

Step nine – rotating the images Working in Microsoft Word – Select the image that you wish to rotate Right click and choose the Format Picture option Select the Size tab

Step ten – grouping the objects You should be able to select and move around all the images. In the diagram these have been arranged to create a larger shape. Use the selection tool to select and move the images Evoke the Drawing menu using the button on the standard tool bar

Step eleven – Grouping the images Working in Microsoft Word Use the selection tool to draw around and select all of the images. From the drawing menu choose Group (you might have to wait a moment whilst this option appears)

Step eleven – Grouping the images Once you have grouped the images they can be moved resized and copied as if they were a single object

Step twelve – Gridding up If students are to take this image into painted media then they will need to be able to ‘grid up’ the image created and transfer it to a larger sheet. It is possible to easily draw a table in Microsoft Word that will allow this process.

Step twelve – Gridding up Choose the Distribute Rows Evenly feature from the Tables and Borders toolbar Draw a table using the table button in the Standard tool bar. Stretch the bottom line of table to the desired position. Select the whole table Choose the Distribute Rows Evenly feature from the Tables and Borders toolbar The Distribute Rows Evenly feature on the Tables and Borders toolbar Adjust the position of your composed image so that it conveniently fits the table that you have drawn

Step twelve – Gridding up