Colourize a Photograph
Start by displaying or distributing the photo in the student chapter Colorize a Picture Together. (You can also download the photo here.)
Ask students:
What are we seeing here? (A sinking ship that is on fire. Smoke is rising into the air.)
How does the photo make you feel? (It might be scary, or it might be exciting.)
How could we use colour to make what’s happening in the photo more clear? (For instance, you could colour the fire red.)
How could we use colour to help other people feel the same way we do about the picture?
- If you wanted to make it scary, you could use lots of dark reds and oranges. You could colour the water dark blue to make it seem deeper and more dangerous.
- If you wanted to make it exciting, you could use lighter reds and oranges, and colour the sky light blue to make it feel safer.
Ask students if they have ever done a similar exercise, in class or elsewhere. If so, ask them to reflect on what has changed since the last time they did.
Now distribute the black-and-white photographs. (More than one student will get the same original photo, but make sure there should be enough copies that each student can get one.)
Tell students to look closely at their photograph.
Ask them to think about:
What do you think when you look at your photo?
What colours would help other people think that?
What do you feel when you look at your photo?
What colours would help other people feel that way?
Tell students that they are going to colourize their photo, but they are not going to colour every part of it.
They are going to choose just the parts where adding colour will help people understand what’s happening in their photo and how you feel about it.
Distribute crayons or coloured pencils. (Do not use markers or paints.)
- You may want to have each student choose just three or four colours, so they will make colour choices more carefully.
When students have finished, have them pair with another student who coloured the same photo.
Did they make the same choices?
Is there anything they would change about their photo now that they’ve seen someone else’s version?
You can evaluate students’ work over the lesson using the Assessment Rubric.
