Filter Friendly

Activity 1: The Feel of a Photo

(15 minutes)

Do you think the colors of a photo influence your thoughts and feelings about it? Talk about it with someone or write down your thoughts. Take a look at this photo gallery from the Smithsonian Learning Lab. Do you think these photos are recent? What feelings do they conjure in you? Do you think you would feel differently about the photos if they were in color?

Now check out this photo gallery from National Geographic. What are some adjectives you would use to describe the mood or tone of the photos?

Lastly, look at the two versions of this photo. Compare the versions. Apart from the obvious, how are they different? Go back to the first question in this activity. What new thoughts can you add to your initial response?

Activity 2: What are filters?

(10 minutes)

Apart from black and white, do you think other color variations affect how you interpret photos? Here is a series of the same photo in many different filters from Instagram. What do you think about the subtle changes in color and contrast? Filters are super popular on social media. Check out the article How Instagram Filters Work, And Can You Tell The Difference? Which filters are your favorites?

Activity 3: Snap some photos

(15 minutes)

If you’re using a smartphone, download the app Instagram. Take a few photos and play around with adding different filters. Experiment by taking some photos of people and other photos of objects. Then trying different filters. Do you like some filters better for people, and others for objects? What about nature? And how about if the photo is particularly dark, or light?

If Instagram isn’t for you, you adjust the saturation, lighting, contrast, shadows, or brightness to create your own “filter” effects.

If you’re not using a smartphone, take photos on a digital camera, upload them to a computer, and then use an online photo editor like PicMonkey or Canva.

Activity 4: Create a filter photo project

(10 minutes)

Take a photo and save it three times, each time with a different filter. Choose filters that are drastically different and give a different mood or lend a different perspective to the photo. How do the filters affect how you feel about the photo? If you want, you could create a collage of your photo with various filters.

Activity 5: Submit your work!

(5 minutes)

Want to earn a few digital badges in photography? Email the digital media you created to BGCAmediamaking@gmail.com or send it through instagram to @BGCAmediamaking

Still Interested? Take a look at these resources: