Hawthorne High School’s Media Arts 3 Honors class and Digital Media Club went on a field trip to RY Associates in Passaic, New Jersey, on March 18, 2014.

 Under the supervision of teacher John Di Lonardo, the class traveled to a photography studio run by two partners: Steve Young, the creative drive; and Pete Russo, the business man.  The two men formed their own company–RY Associates.

The day began with an introduction to the partners and an overview of the types of projects they work on.  The class took pictures of each other, positioned in front of a white background.  Then they watched as the photographers went through the process of editing the photos, altering small things like the color of a dress or changing a person’s eyes from closed to open, in order to improve the picture.

The photographers demonstrated to the class one example of how they altered photos. This was done by taking a picture of a student with closed eyes and then editing open eyes onto the original poor photo, making it seem as if the subject’s eyes were actually open.  This greatly improved the overall appearance and reception of the photo.

Senior Anthony Pinos commented, “I thought that it was very interesting how they make the photos and the editing process.”

The class saw firsthand how nearly every image in media, be it on the Internet, in a magazine, on television, etc., is altered using media technology.  Additionally, the group learned that the equipment used in class, such as Adobe Photoshop, is actually used by real-world workers.