04.04 Crop and Thirds Composition Exercise

Exercise Deliverables

1. Minimum 4 images with rule of thirds overlay
   • Label files YYYY-MM-DD Lastname Firstname Rule of Thirds Composition (.png, .jpg)

Exercise Overview

Select Video Content and Take Screenshots

1. Find a video clip of a television program, movie, animation, video game cut scene, etc.
2. Watch the content in full screen mode.
3. Take screenshots when the scene changes and the composition is different
4. To take a screenshot on a Mac press Shift + Command + 3. To take a screenshot on a PC press Windows Key + Print Screen. Or pres Windows Key + Shift + S.
5. Select a minimum of 4 screenshots that demonstrate different compositions.

Add Rule of Thirds Grid in Photoshop

1. In Photoshop, in the top menu bar:
   • On Windows: Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grids & Slices > change Grid preferences to Gridline every 100% and 3 Subdivisions.
   • On Mac: Photoshop > Settings > Guides, Grids & Slices > change Grid preferences to Gridline every 100% and 3 Subdivisions.
2. To be able to see the grid, in the menu bar go to View > Show > Grid or (Command + ‘) (Control + ‘)
3. Select the Line Tool.
4. Change the height and width to a suitable size and select a stroke and fill color.
5. Now you should see the grid lines and are ready to begin the Photoshop Actions to draw colored lines on the screenshots.
6. In the menu bar go to, Window > Actions > New Action
7. Type a name for your new action
8. Click the Record button (Now Photoshop is recording your actions so it can repeat them over and over again.)
9. Crop the top and bottom of the screenshot so it only shows the video content.
10. Draw 4 lines on the grid to show the rule of thirds guides.
11. Save the file as a JPG or PNG copy in the location of your choice.
12. Close the file in Photoshop.
13. Click Do not save.
14. Stop recording the action.
15. Scroll up to the name of the action.
16. Now you can click the play button and it will repeat the recorded action on the other screenshots.