For students

Spend some time finding a good place to set up where you will take pictures throughout the semester.

Things to think about when finding a spot to photograph your work:

Is it easy to get to?
How is the lighting? Do you need to add light?
Where will you place it while you photograph it? If you don’t have a tripod, consider hanging your work on a wall, leaning it vertically, or placing it on an easel. Avoid taking the photo from above, as your body can often cause small but bothersome shadows.
Use a tripod. (if possible) If you are documenting a piece of paper, take a picture of your work while still attached to a board or a flat surface to keep your image as accurate as possible.

Use a tripod. (if possible) If you are documenting a piece of paper, take a picture of your work while still attached to a board or a flat surface to keep your image as accurate as possible.

Why did I decide on this? Why is it important?

Distance teaching and learning means adapting to what’s available for you to use. I want my students to focus on the specific topics of the course I’m teaching and right now that’s painting and drawing. But walking around the classroom and sharing the works in progress was always a big part of these classes and I want to keep it that way with our online classes.

I don’t want my students to focus on documenting their work and editing the photos, as this can take a lot of time. However, taking photos and documenting properly is important. Poor lighting, bad perspective, and incorrect cropping can incorrectly reflect the actual work created. This video shows users of Microsoft Teams a quick, easy solution to simplify this process as much as possible in order to produce the best results in the shortest amount of time.

What’s Needed

If your school or business has a SharePoint Online license, then One Drive is available for free through Microsoft 365 or Office 365. The University of Houston offers this!

Tips For Teachers

If you don’t use Microsoft Teams, find another ‘scan’ app that is free to use, that uses a cloud service and this basic cropping feature. (Adobe scan is good one)

Put it Together

You could make this entire thing with just three items if you had the board cut for you. if you were limited with supplies. Duct tape, masonite board and clips. But you can also make whatever way you choose. In the video I show multiple ways you could put it together.

Duct tape small roll $2.50- $3.50
1/8 in. x 2 ft. x 4 ft. Tempered Hardboard (Actual: 0.115 in. x 23.75 in. x 47.75 in.) $3.50 Choose something similar that’s lightweight and smooth, at least on one side.
Ruler or tape measure

Cut It

Some hardware stores will cut the masonite board for you if you ask. If you don’t have that option, you’ll need a few additional items for cutting the board. Including:

Utility Knife
Metal Ruler
Cutting Board (Or thick flat surface you can cut on)

If you have not ever scored a piece of material before, please watch the next video for tips. *Video Coming soon

Hang It

2” Clips. $0.99 each (or make some holes)
Drill Bit & Drill

Other Tips:

You can always add two giant rubber bands (as seen in image) to keep your board together.
Use sandpaper to sand down any rough edges of the board where it was cut.

***UPDATE: University of Houston Students! You can now check out some supplies at the university library, including a drawing board! Ask me about it if for some reason you didn’t know.