Anne Ladyem McDivitt Posts

Even though I’m pretty familiar with Photoshop, I have discovered in my work for this class that Photoshop is not a cure all. To create a good project, you have to have decent source material. Some of my images that I’ve worked on so far, I’m very pleased with. Others came from very, very terrible newspapers scans that honestly, I’ve worked so hard on and they still look pretty bad. I’m trying to create things that I feel will be acceptable for the project with what I have, and I really was trying to attempt works that would have some connection to my overall research work and final project.

It’s been pretty frustrating, but I find that that is something that helps me grow in terms of learning more digital tools. (And although I came in with some experience, I’ve also been pretty happy to learn some new tricks of which I previously was unaware.) I’m going to keep working on this assignment, good and bad, and hopefully I will have items that you guys and myself will find acceptable.

Side note, I posted my version of the cat and man photo, since everyone else already had. It’s on my blog here. I commented on Beth’s blog this week.

As a completely different side note, it is very rough to get super sick at the end of the semester in graduate school.

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So, I figured I would return to my earlier dilemma of what images to use for my photoshop assignment. I’ve done quite a bit of work on the hand coloring one using an old newspaper image of a boy playing space invaders. I enjoy it because it allowed me to make the cabinet pop. The issue that I have is that a lot of these are so poorly scanned/from microfilm. I’ll work with what I’ve got and use some more magazines I’ve got to come up with ideas.

It’s cool, though. I learned a lot from last week, and I will continue to learn via this assignment. I’m hoping that my illness clears up by tomorrow so that I’ll be good to go for class and learning more skills!

This week, I commented on Kirk’s blog.

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Oh man, was I excited this week when I started reading “The Case of the Inappropriate Alarm Clock.” I love stuff like this!! First, we had the article about FSA’s photography fakery during FDR’s campaign. My first thought when reading this was the famous manipulation of photographs by the Soviet Union, namely the removal of Nikolai Yezhov from photographs with Stalin.

Here today, gone tomorrow!

Clearly, the situation with the cow skull being faked is slightly different than removing a human being after his execution from a photograph, but historical manipulation is something that is interesting to think about, especially regarding historical sources. Obviously, both of these photographs are primary sources-as are the photographs that were taken by FSA-despite, or because of, their manipulation. In both cases, it was political propaganda that inspired the manipulations.

Luckily, the series of articles regarding photo fakery continued to include the controversy of an alarm clock and a young boy covering his eyes! To me, the mystery of Walker Evans’s photographs of the mantel and the alarm clock in juxtaposition with James Agee’s writings was amazing to read.The arguments back and forth on what is genuine and true documentary photography was interesting. To read opinions from the photographers, their supporters, and their detractors made for a real, thought-provoking “think session” for myself on documenting the past through photography and text.

One element that I found most interesting for historians is this:

The lesson to be learned is that a photographer must be aware of and concerned about the words that accompany a picture. These words should be considered as carefully as the lighting, exposure and composition of the photograph.- Arthur Rothstein

I believe that this advice is relevant to historians working with images as well, especially as we manipulate (although that is not always a dirty word) images for our own work.

I just felt that I had to blog on this subject, as this type of history and controversy really interests me. We hear all the time about the dangers of photo manipulation, but the controversy of that has long been present, as we see in “The Case of the Inappropriate Alarm Clock.” We have to find ways to be transparent about the images, as well as properly label with captions.

Speaking of photos and captions, did any of you happen to see this? I found it quite interesting considering we’re reading about images and the controversies surrounding their captions this week.

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So, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve seen you all, and it’s been bizarre, really! Luckily, we’re back in for tomorrow, it seems.

As for me, I’ve spent our time off mainly fiddling with Photoshop and trying to figure out what images I am going to use for my Image project. I’ve worked a bit on some of the images for my thesis, which are all pretty recent advertisements (1970s/1980s) for, of course, video games. However, I’m not really sure that they really work well for this assignment, as it seems to be driven toward older photographs…based on the readings we’ve had and the assignment at hand. So, now comes the fun part of figuring out what else I should work on, while also keeping in mind that ever looming final project and how to make that work. 

The good news is that I’m fairly familiar with Photoshop as a whole, which is making this a little (emphasis on little!) easier. It’s sad that my biggest hurdle is finding the proper images for it. I will keep looking and thinking!!

This week, I commented on Sara’s and Kirk’s blogs.

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If you ask anyone who has known me for a decent amount of time, they can tell you my go-to color–blue. I usually incorporate blue into everything that I do: clothes, decor, design, etc. I admit I was nervous going in this week and knowing that the readings were about colors. Although from White Space is Not Your Enemy, I did get a huge takeaway! “Choose one main color and add an accent color or two for interest.” (127) This idea sounds great to me. This will allow me to have some type of color and brightness somewhere in my digital works! Basically, I plan on using the color tools pretty extensively in my future digital works so that I don’t end up with a bright and colorful mess. I also really loved the idea of pulling from the image, which we’ve encountered in class. I believe I now have tools in my belt to keep myself from creating a pastel or blue mess of anything that I try to create in a digital form, which will be incredibly helpful moving forward.

Otherwise, I’m really excited by some of the information and techniques that were relayed in Williams’s The Non-Designer’s Photoshop Book. There are a lot of helpful things that I had no idea how to do, even though I think I am fairly versed in Photoshop, and they might come in handy for both photographs I have for personal use or even my thesis research. Mainly, I look forward to utilizing some of these for our upcoming image project!

So far, I commented on Kirk’s blog.

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I have been steadily working on my type assignment, which has been a fun and interesting experience for me. What I decided to do is take a small (very small) portion of my thesis and try and adapt that into a workable piece for the assignment. This, as always, has not been without struggle. I am still fighting with footnotes so that they are not placed in paragraph form rather than list. (Yes, I’ve tried ul, li multiple times. No dice.) –Note, I may have finally figured out the problem, but now I’m working on making those link up!

I had to think carefully about which fonts to use where, what was appropriate, and what would stick out or be obnoxious (which I tend to fear while writing for the web.) I wanted to have highlights, small photos, and a very readable font, so I made my text font larger but a normal font (Courier) so that the display font would pop.

It’s very interesting to think for the web, rather than for a written manuscript like I am used to. I had to think of what works, what doesn’t, and how much spacing should be between everything. I had to think of what I am and am not willing to read on the internet. Ultimately, I ended up cutting a lot of what I originally thought that I would have in there. If you’re interested in seeing it, it is here. (I hope that works this time. It tends to not want to. The url is anneladyem.org/type.html if it is not working.)

This week, I commented on Ben and Kirk’s blogs.

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For those of you that need the information, the DH Fellows hold support hours on Mondays from 12-5. You’re more than welcome to come in with questions during those times.

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As you all know, I had a crazy flub with my website last week. I blogged about that through the week here. Luckily, I have a  website that I think is workable now (although, as we all know, it still needs improvement. I’ll take any suggestions in the comments!)Link is being fussy with me for some reason, but the URL is anneladyem.org.

This week, we had to read more about design, which I felt was immensely helpful. One thing that I had to consider when I was remaking my website was, “What kind of theme do I want? How can I demonstrate what I’m about?” That concept is how I came to decide on a classic gaming theme. However, I stuck to the idea that the reversal text is a no-no.

Since that scratched out the idea of an old computer game, such as Mystery House‘s black background and white text, I decided that the classic Nintendo theme was a better idea. That allowed for a grey text/background, as well as a pop of red for the title. I also switched out the photo of myself for a cover from an issue of Electronic Games, which was a big source of mine throughout my thesis. I also liked this idea, as it tied in the theme of the display fonts. Everything that is put on the web MUST be readable, and so I used the Courier fonts for the actual text, as it reflects an older style of writing, but it is still very legible on the web.

I am trying to think of my website as a grid now after doing the readings this week, and so going forward, that will be the concept that I consider while adding more to this.

See my comment on Beth’s blog this week.

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Well, after the minor disaster that was me trying to mess around with my website, I scrapped the entire thing and started over. Right now, it’s very bare bones and does not have all of the text added (or links for that matter on the menu, which I’m still working on the spacing and coloring). However, I feel like the color scheme (Classic Nintendo) and the image work better for what I’m trying to go for, and I hope that it is going to be an overall better website for me. If you want to check it out and see the new progress and redemption from the disaster that was me trying to fix my template, feel free. Link is still the same– anneladyem.org.

Moral of the story–Don’t mess with things right before class. They can, and most likely will, break.

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