Make a photographic artwork in which a person’s shadow is the only clue they were there. You will take a digital photo and then erase your subject, leaving behind their shadow.
Choose a class member to be the subject for your artwork. Ask them to do an activity such as:
-
playing tennis
-
jumping
-
skateboarding
-
skipping with a rope.
Decide where to take the photographs. Take several photos of your subject doing their activity. Make sure you:
-
capture their shadow. Look for interesting shadow shapes. Shadows created by sunlight change with the time of day and cloud cover. Shadows created with artificial lighting vary with the strength and angle of the light.
-
photograph your subject against a simple background such as a blank wall, concrete, grass or bushes or a clear blue sky. This will make it easier to erase the person from the photo later.
-
experiment with the angle you are taking the photographs from and the position of your subject.
Choose the photograph you want to develop.
Open your photograph in a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop Elements.
-
Select the Clone tool (or rubber stamp tool).
Go to the program’s Help pages to learn how to use the tool.
-
Begin to ‘paint over’ your subject with a suitable area of the background. Don’t paint over the person’s shadow.
-
Use the Undo command if you make a mistake.
-
Save your photographic artwork with a new filename. Save often.
Look at photographs taken by other class members.
Discuss:
-
what activity the person might have been doing
-
what they might have been wearing
-
things you notice when the person is not in the photo.
Sample artwork