Q3 Digital Self Portrait
Introduction
Selfies are a popular way to express yourself. Many people snap a selfie and send it out through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat as well as via SMS in their texts. Selfies can capture your emotion of the moment, express support or disapproval, or be intended to give your friends a chuckle. What story do you want to tell when posting a selfie? In this Quest, you will use a selfie or photo of yourself to create a digital media self portrait (a "selfie poster").
Internet Safety and Selfies Keep in mind that selfies are just like any other internet content. Once it is posted, it can be forwarded and remains out on the internet (practically) forever. When you post a selfie, you need to think about safety and reputation before you click the "send" button. For more information, review the Cyber Safety quest Six Clicks.
- Avoid posting selfies with location identification on social media. (You may need to disable GPS options on your apps to do this).
- Consider whether or not you would want this image to come up in a search before posting to social media sites, or whether or not you would be comfortable with your friends forwarding this image.
Key Vocabulary:
Opacity: transparency of an image; how easy it is to see through the image
Overlay: to cover an image (or add to the background) with another image, text, etc.
Selfie: a photo of someone (often taken by the subject of the photo) taken with the intention of sending it digitally or posting it online
Steps:
1. In this Quest, you will create an appropriate digital media self portrait (selfie poster) using a photo editing program to express yourself and create a unique selfie. For examples of teens who have created these posters, visit this website.
2. Upload a picture of yourself for this project to a space designated by your teacher for work on this project. You might save it in a personal folder, save it on your desktop, or in a shared workspace. Choose a picture that makes you look good and has a quiet (plain) background.
3. Locate a few images that represent you, favorites things, your beliefs, your hobbies, etc. (as assigned by your teacher). Use Pixabay , Photos for Class, or one of the other sites mentioned in Quest 1 to help you locate online images and background scenes that are copyright-free.
4. Use a photo editor (iPiccy, PicMonkey or FotoFlexer) to crop or edit these images as needed to prepare them for your media self-portrait.
5. Try changing the opacity (transparency) using the Exposure feature in iPiccy, or "Layers" feature in FotoFlexer. Experiment with the different effects and filters. Apply and save your images as you work.
6. When ready, upload your images to iPiccy choosing the option to Create a collage, or to FotoFlexer (by selecting the "load another photo" option) and arrange your different images. Use the features of the photo editing program to over lap the images, to add textures, words, frames, stamps, etc. that will enhance your digital self portrait. Save it when done.
Completing this Quest
Follow your teacher's directions for downloading your final product and uploading it into your File Space or posting on your digital portfolio.