I can't believe it's the last day of Pixel This! Something about sitting in front of a computer all week—it's so easy to lose track of the time. Especially when you have an assignment to finish...
After singing and devotions this morning, we dove into our final project. We'd suddenly become art editors for a day, preparing images for publication in a posing guide. After cataloging and rating the images in Portfolio we chose five images to use and got to work. Each needed color correction, removal of blemishes and distractions, and formatting for printing at a specific size and quality. For one image, the person had to be cut out from the background. With so many new techniques at our disposal from this week's sessions, we hit the ground running!
Time screamed by as we worked to improve each image as much as possible. Healing Brush...Clone Stamp tool...masks...Levels and Hue & Saturation layers...endless small tweaks in a Curves layer...hmm, just how much can I do in the time alotted? The frustrating thing was that each of these images could have been edited a lot more, but we only had so much time. Heh, welcome to the real world of art editing! Time constraints are just as much a part of the job as the tools in Photoshop!
After lunch we went on an outing. Our instructors didn't tell us where we were going; we all just piled into the van and drove *somewhere*...to Fry's! Here was a new assignment: we each had a fictional $1,500 to spend in order to set ourselves up as art editors. We had to find everything we'd need there at Fry's and report back in an hour. Hey, it's fun spending imaginary money! I got some great stuff...but then...it all disappeared when the assignment was finished. Sigh. (Now I know how Cinderella felt.) But it was a good learning experience. How often do you get to discuss your editing setup with experts like Peter and Mandy?! It's a privilege to be around such walking encyclopedias!
Then back to our dark little bat cave at the Training Center...computer screens glowed an eerie blue...mice clicked incessantly...things were coming together. I thought I was done, and hit the print button. Hah, that opened a whole new can of worms. More adjusting, more test prints. Finally after dinner the nine bleary-eyed Photoshoppers finished their projects...and hallelujah, was that ever a good feeling!
After one last short session we had ice cream sundaes, and then Rowan gave us a final charge to use the tools we've learned for God's kingdom. Just that afternoon he'd run across another situation where his photographic skills could be used to confront society with important issues and have an impact on public policy. It was inspiring—God's given us these interests and skills to go use for Him!
It's a little sad to come to the end of a course like this. You've made new friends, learned new skills, gotten valuable experience and critique, and it's hard to say goodbye. But the exciting part is that now we get to go home and use what we've learned. As we all stood and sang together, a sudden thought rushed into my mind. Someday in heaven it'll be like this—and we won't have to stop, ever. We can sing God's praises together, without end, shoulder to shoulder with millions of other Christians who loved and served Him throughout the ages. We'll be face to face with our Savior Himself!
Digital imaging skills are a powerful tool. We've learned a ton this week. And as we head out, I'm praying that we'll each take to heart the central focus of this class: to use these skills to impact others for Christ, and bring His truth to a world that He loves.
—Pixel This Student Kelsey Schweickert
