(All the images below have been modified by students to varying extents)
We started off our “Image Manipulation” topic by taking a closer look at images, especially digital images – how they are created using cameras, scanners and software.
We also considered how they are stored and encoded by doing an experiment on graph paper creating and encoding an image into a string of numbers, swapping this data with a partner and trying to recreate their image and seeing how accurate we were. We experienced some of the common problems faced with computers when we didn’t understand the data format and the resultant image was nothing like the original or when the data got corrupted and even when the decoding instructions were followed precisely the image was lost.
This experiment also let us investigate simple data compression techniques both lossless and lossy (we looked at the relationship between the amount of lossy compression and image quality – and we even got to see what one of our staff members looked like a few decades ago!).
It was a good time to learn about versioning our digital work to make it easier to go back and try different things without starting from scratch.
Then we got logged into our computers and explored our image manipulation program looking at the various tools/effects, experimenting with them on some real images.
We learnt more about how we “…are fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps 139:14) as we discovered how our eyes have vastly better resolution and design than the most expensive creations of man and our brains can process and categorise this information better than the most powerful computers – even when we were standing on one foot, having a conversation and breathing!
After witnessing how easy it was to change images we discussed some of the moral issues around this and how quick we are to accept what we see as true by looking at some famous examples of modified images – some produced long before computers were commonplace.
Finally, we undertook an assignment to come up with an idea based on pictures given out as Sunday school prizes. We chose our target audience, decided on the verse and theme and you can see some of our work throughout this article.
