As High School students explore post-graduation options, more and more are looking at careers as creators. Boosted by the rise in popularity of generative AI image options like DALL-E, photo editing as a career enjoys a resurgence among those preparing to enter the work force. It is fulfilling and potentially lucrative and relies heavily on individual passion and preparation. The Ask a Tech Teacher team has ideas on how to prepare for this career if it is your future.

Dive into the world of photo editing with our comprehensive guide tailored for high school students. Discover essential skills, artistic techniques, and practical steps for building a standout portfolio. Learn about color theory, composition, and the latest software to kickstart your journey in digital art and prepare for a successful career in photo editing.

How High School Students Can Prepare for a Career in Photo Editing

Photo editing has become a crucial skill in the digital age for professional photographers and anyone aspiring to a creative career. Our article aims to guide high school students like you who are interested in this field, highlighting the essential skills and artistic insights needed for success. 

We will explore how mastering photo editing goes beyond learning software, emphasizing the importance of visual storytelling, artistic expression, and technical proficiency. No more words, let’s get it started! (more…)

Before teaching students Photoshop (or GIMP), acclimate them to photo editing with a program they are likely comfortable with: MS Word. For basic image editing, Word’s pallet of tools do a pretty good job (Note: Depending upon your version of Word, some of these tools may not be available; adapt to your version):

• Open a blank document in MS Word. Insert a picture with multiple focal points (see samples). (more…)

I’ve posted this before but it’s worth repeating. Then share it with friends, colleagues, parents, even older students.

When I teach professional development classes, by far the topic that surprises teachers the most is the legal use of online images. And they’re not alone. On my blog, in educator forums, and in the virtual meetings I moderate, there’s lots of confusion about what can be grabbed for free from online sites and what must be cited with a linkback, credit, author’s name, public domain reference, or even as little as an email from the creator giving you permission. When I receive guest posts that include pictures, many contributors tell me the photo can be used because they include the linkback.

Not always true. In fact, the answer to the question…

“What online images can I use?”

typically starts with…

It depends…

Luckily, teaching it to K-8 students is simpler because most of them haven’t yet established the bad habits or misinformation we as adults operate under. But, to try to teach this topic in a thirty-minute set-aside dug out of the daily class inquiry is a prescription for failure. The only way to communicate the proper use of online images is exactly the way you teach kids not to take items from a store shelves just because they think they can get away with it: Say it often, in different ways, with the buy-in of stakeholders, and with logical consequence. Discuss online images with students every time it comes up in their online activities.

There are five topics to be reviewed when exploring the use of online images:

• digital privacy
• copyrights
• digital law and plagiarism
• hoaxes
• writing with graphics

Here are suggestions on how to teach these to your students.

Plagiarism

Discuss plagiarism. What are the repercussions of ‘plagiarism’? When must you credit material found online? In general terms, you must cite sources for:

• facts not commonly known or accepted
• exact words and/or unique phrase
• reprints of diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials
• opinions that support research

Digital privacy

Have a discussion about privacy on the Internet—how rare it is in a world where people post everything they do onto Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Expand your discussion by watching and then discussing this video on Online Reputations.

Discuss the use of avatars to protect online privacy. If students have online accounts (through blogs, Twitter, or a class website), have them create an avatar for their profile. Here’s a list of great avatar-creation sites.

Wrap up with a discussion on the impact of hacking on privacy. Talk with students about how kids ‘hack’ game codes. Should they do it? Is it a victimless crime? What issues should they consider?  What is the difference between ‘hacking’ and ‘cracking’?

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In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.

Today’s tip: Find Public Domain Images

Category: Images

Sub-category: Internet, Security, Search/Research, MS Office, Google Apps

Q: I know ‘fair use’ allows students to use most online images for educational purposes, but I want them to know how to find public domain pictures for everyday, non-school use. What’s the easiest way to do that?

A: Google Docs makes it easy by attaching the citation to any picture added through the program. Photos for Class does this also (see Tech Tip #52).

But that only works if the student is working through those two programs. To find only legal images available for free for all types of projects, you have to edit the Google search settings to reflect only images that can be used and re-edited:

• search for image through Images.Google.com (for example: puppies)
• when the thumbnails come up, go to Search tools
• using the radial button, select Labeled for reuse

Sign up for a new tip each week or buy the entire 169 Real-world Ways to Put Tech into Your Classroom.

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In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.

Today’s tip: #116–How to Take Screenshots

Category: CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Sub-category: Keyboarding, PC, Mac, iPad, Chromebook

Here are the screenshot shortkeys for five platforms:

• Windows: a tool included in Windows called the Snipping Tool
• Chromebooks: Ctrl+Window Switcher key
• Mac: Command Shift 3 for a full screenshot; Command Shift 4 for a partial screenshot
• Surface tablet: hold down volume and Windowsbutton
• iPad: hold Home button and power button simultaneously

There are also screenshot programs you can download like Jing and Printkey (the latter uses your keyboard’s Print Scr key) or use from your browser (like Nimbus or Snagit). Each has a different selection of annotation tools. You may find this works better for your needs.

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Here are ten of the top image tips according to Ask a Tech Teacher readers:

• Photos For Class–Robust, Student-safe with built in citations
• Quick Search for Plagiarized Images
• What Online Images are Free?
• Where Can I Find Kid-safe Images?
• 5 Image Apps for your Classroom
• My Picture’s a TIFF and the Program Needs a JPG
• Wrap Text Around an Image
• How to Move Pics Around in Documents
• Easy Photo Editing in MS Word
• Images (curated list by category)

Click for a lesson plan on Image Copyright Do’s and Don’ts.

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When I teach professional development classes, by far the topic that surprises teachers the most is the legal use of online images. And they’re not alone. On my blog, in educator forums, and in the virtual meetings I moderate, there’s lots of confusion about what can be grabbed for free from online sites and what must be cited with a linkback, credit, author’s name, public domain reference, or even as little as an email from the creator giving you permission. When I receive guest posts that include pictures, many contributors tell me the photo can be used because they include the linkback.

Not always true. In fact, the answer to the question…

“What online images can I use?”

typically starts with…

It depends…

Luckily, teaching it to K-8 students is simpler because most of them haven’t yet established the bad habits or misinformation we as adults operate under. But, to try to teach this topic in a thirty-minute set-aside dug out of the daily class inquiry is a prescription for failure. The only way to communicate the proper use of online images is exactly the way you teach kids not to take items from a store shelves just because they think they can get away with it: Say it often, in different ways, with the buy-in of stakeholders, and with logical consequence. Discuss online images with students every time it comes up in their online activities.

There are five topics to be reviewed when exploring the use of online images:

• digital privacy
• copyrights
• digital law and plagiarism
• hoaxes
• writing with graphics

Here are suggestions on how to teach these to your students.

(more…)

A question I get a lot from readers is where to go for free, classroom-safe images. Photo sites are either too sparse or poorly vetted. And–while we’re on the subject of online images–it needs to be easier to add citations because otherwise, students will just skip that step.

Photos for Class, brought to you by the folks at Storyboard That (a premier digital storytelling site that quickly and easily enables students to mix avatars, backgrounds, and talk bubbles to tell a story) does all of these. It uses proprietary filters to search millions of Creative Commons-licensed photos from the Library of Congress, the British Royal Archives, and Flikr’s safe-search setting to curate a classroom-safe collection of topical photos in seconds.  There is no log-in, no registration, no fee or premium plan, and a zero learning curve. All students need to know is how to use a search bar and a download button.

Here’s how it works: Go to the Photos for Class website (no registration or log-in required), search your topic:

…and then download the selected photo. Each downloaded photo includes an attribution and license detail.

There is no charge, no delay, and lots of choices.

In addition to photos, the site offers suggestions on citing and filtering photos, and a list of the top 250 searches.

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Here’s an excellent collection of great apps for your classroom — to cover writing, research, and assessment. You can even use all three on one project:

Storyboard That

Free; fee for education accounts 

Storyboard That is a leader among online digital storytelling tools thanks to its comic-based themes, clean layout, vast collection of story pieces, varied strip layouts, and intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Students map out ideas using a huge library of backgrounds, characters, text boxes, shapes, and images (with over 325 characters, 225 scenes, and 45,000 images).  With an education account, teachers also get teacher guides and lesson plans. 

Here’s how it works: Log into your account and Storyboard That automatically adapts to your device (whether it’s a desktop, Chromebook, or iPad). Select the layout you’d like, then add a background, characters, one or more props, and speech bubbles from Storyboard That’s collections. Each element can be resized, rotated, and repositioned to exactly suit your needs. Characters can also be adjusted for appearance, emotion, and action. You can even upload images and record a voice overlay (premium only) to narrate the story. Once finished, storyboards can be saved as PDFs, PowerPoints, and/or emailed out.

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As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: I’m teaching a class on internet forensics–to drive home the point that the internet is a scary place for the uninformed. I know people who use facial recognition tools to search FB, Instagram and those sorts of picture curatators. Most of the programs I’ve found are expensive and complicated. Is there an easy one to share with my students:

There sure is–Google’s Image Search. Go to:

http://image.google.com

Upload an image you want to search for (or drag-drop it into the field), like this one:

Google will find all the places it appears:

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