Portrait
Directions
Send an email to posterous and in the body of the email, describe your idea for your photo. Be sure to describe your clothing, environment, lighting, etc (shown below). Be specific.
Overview
You have your unique identity name and logo but often employers can relate to you if they see a photo of yourself. You will use this photo on your homepage of your blog and as your avatar on web 2.0 sites (e.g. twitter). It is important to take a professional-looking photograph with the following:
Clothing
Dress the part. In most cases you will dress professional. If your career is in international marketing, you should wear a suit. A scientist will often wear a lab coat. An actor would wear more casual stylish clothes. Choose the best garb that best relates to your career for your photo.
Environment
Choosing your background is very important to the photo. The most important is that it is contrasting color to yourself to make you stand out. A great way to do this is to take a photo with a solid color so that your background is easily changeable in Photoshop. You may find a good background color or texture (e.g. brick wall) outside that you may want to pose against.
A challenging option is taking your photograph with your career environment in the background is a plus. For example, if your a teacher, use a whiteboard or blackboard as your background. A chemist would have experimental equipment around them and a musician would have their instrument.
Lighting
Having the right lighting for your photo is crucial. At all costs, avoid using a flash. Instead, use indirect ambient light from the sun (e.g. near a window) or soft room lighting.
Size
You will want to crop your photo so that it is a closeup shot of you since avatar box sizes are very small.
Example
The Bad
PART II
Have someone take a few photos according to your planning just for this assignment (you may not use a previously taken photo). Then, change the your clothing, environment, and lighting to take a series of photos as a backup. Attach a few photos from each of the two shoots to the same email and post to posterous and submit the link.
Upload your two original photos to MF Picasa and the final edited photo. You can upload in class the day it is due.