About the Book
If you’ve dabbled in digital photography but want to do more with your pictures, here is a comprehensive but nontechnical handbook that shows you how to take better photos and use your images more creatively. Mediapedia is a friendly, full-color resource that gives everyone an understanding of the creative power they’ve already got at hand, with the equipment they already own.
Like an encyclopedia, Mediapedia is a classic desktop resource. Chapters on digital photography, image editing, type & layout, illustration, slide shows, and distribution are organized as a sequence of terms referring to the tools and techniques you can use to achieve particular effects. Author Kit Laybourne, an accomplished filmmaker and animator, describes scores of ways you can work with photos, fonts, Photoshop, Powerpoint, and illustration programs to enhance any personal media project—or create a new one.
Laybourne writes in a friendly style that is as much about helping you figure out what looks good as it is about conveying the technical know-how you need. He includes more than 800 illustrations—photos, hand-drawn sketches, and screen grabs—that depict ideas for everything from improving your photography skills to cropping and altering pictures, creating entertaining slide shows, and adding illustration and type to cards and flyers. You’ll learn how to share your creative media in paper form as well as via the Internet.
With Mediapedia in your library, you’ll have the tools, instruction, and inspiration to make your personal media projects creative and impressive.
Creative tips and explanations include:
Tools and techniques that are immediately usable by anyone who downloads photos onto a computer
Terms, definitions, explanations, illustrations, and captions are all self-contained units, with related information on the same page
Provides examples of good photography and design to help you take your own “personal media” projects to the next level
Everything you’ve wanted to know about your digital photos but were afraid to ask
Table of Contents:
Mediapedia: Table of Contents
Introduction
CREATIVITY & COMPUTER
Part I
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE
Chapter 1: Digital Photography
the camera
kinds of photography
pixels
light
point of view
lens choice
exposure
framing
composition
focus & depth of field
blur
color vs. b&w
lighting set-ups
apps & file formats
playing around: Portraiture
Chapter 2: Image Editing
photoshopping as a verb
compositing images
resolution & resizing
selecting parts of pictures
global manipulations
color & brightness
layers
edge treatments
cloning, blending & transforming
filters
compression
apps & file formats
playing around: Photoshop Make-Overs
Part II
THE PAGE
Chapter 3: Type & Layout
text
letters
typography
structure
composition
layout
apps & file formats
playing around: A Garish Screen Saver
Chapter 4: Illustration
bitmaps vs vector
kinds of illustration
drawing conventions
inputting
vector-based illustration
anchors, handles, paths & strokes
when to use pen, pencil or brush
tracing with Illustrator
fills
scaling & manipulations
special effects
type & text
apps & file formats
playing around: Alter Ego Avatars
Part III
SHARING YOUR WORK
Chapter 5: Slide Shows
kinds of slide shows
screen structure
timing
in-frame movement
transitions
screen graphics
audio
apps & file formats
playing around: A Park in 4 modes
Chapter 6: Display & Distribution
desktop printing
outside the home services
online storge, display & publishing
websites, networks, wikis & blogs
CD’s, CD-ROM’s & DVD’s
two protocols that save tears
apps & file formats
playing around: Time Capsule
Chapter 7: Project Idea
Rogues Gallery
Design-a-Font
Gone But Not Forgotten
Binding Relationships
Pattern in Space
Landscape Tweaks
Blogging
Collaborative Cookbook
Comix Webisodes
Digital Storytelling
Index
About the Author :
Kit Laybourne teaches media design at The New School in New York City. He is an accomplished animator, producer, media executive, and author. His down-to-earth but comprehensive guide, The Animation Book, has sold more than 75,000 copies in multiple editions from Three Rivers Press. Kit lives in New York City.
Review :
Praise for Kit Laybourne's previous book, The Animation Book:
"I read one chapter and then went and made a little film with my seven-year-old son. When he finally saw the thing moving and come to life, he giggled for a solid half hour. I love this book." --Peter Hastings, writer/producer of Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain and creator of Disney's One Saturday Morning.
"This is a great book! The Animation Book is the perfect starter kit for anyone interested in entering the animation business or learning about the art of animation." -- Terry Thoren, CEO/President, Klasky Csupo Inc.
"The Animation Book is a classic. If you can afford to buy only one book on animation, this is the one to buy--it has it all." --Gunnar Wille, head of the animation department, The National Film School of Denmark
“Kit Laybourne is a leading voice in new media; this book brings his knowledge and insight to everyone.”
—Ellen Lupton, curator of contemporary design, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum;
author, Thinking with Type and Graphic Design: The New Basics
“In a world of customization and social networking, Kit Laybourne defines a new preoccupation: ‘personal media.’ This is a digital ‘do-it-yourself’ for all of us with a computer, a camera, and a desire to do more.”
—Paul Warwick Thompson, director, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
“Kit Laybourne has created a vital and fun-reading ‘do it yourself’ guide to communicating in the twenty-first century, with valuable insights, design tips, and creative activities for nondesigners (i.e., most of us).”
—Colleen Macklin, associate professor and former chair, Communication Design & Technology Department, Parsons The New School For Design
“At last, a book that humanizes the technologies we use to tell stories. With a calm bedside manner,
Laybourne empowers anyone inclined to self-expression to champion their voice, vision, and talent.”
—Chee Pearlman, principle, Chee Company and former editor in chief, I.D. Magazine
