DIGITAL IMAGING

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DIGITAL IMAGING

• From Camera to Computerand Beyond

• Jamie Bishop, FDI Instructor
• cjbishop_at_vt.edu
• http//www.fdi.vt.edu/fall/2005/Digital_Imaging.ht
  ml

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Agenda

• Introduction to digital cameras, resolution,
  buying tips, storage media, card readers, etc.
• Hands on activities with your cameras, photos,
  some FDI sample images, and Photoshop Elements.
• Advice for storing/archiving/printing your
  digital photos as well as some thoughts regarding
  the purchase and use of Photo Inkjet Printers.
• Digital Sandbox and QA (time permitting)

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Digital Cameras

• Consumer Point n Shoot (-)
• Prosumer PnS and SLR-wannabes ()
• Entry-level SLRs ()
• Professional SLRs ()

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Consumer Point n Shoots
Canon Powershot s410 4 Megapixels Ultra-compact
239-349
Kodak EasyShare CX430 4 Megapixels 123-139 No
card/batteries
Olympus C-770 10x optical zoom 4 Megapixels 289
- 449
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Prosumer PnS Wannabe SLRs
Canon PowerShot S2 IS 5 MP, 12x Optical 36-432mm
Zoom 439-506
Fuji Finepix S20 Pro 6.2 Megapixels 35-210 mm
Zoom Good RAW, bad JPEG 489 - 679
Sony Cybershot DSCF717, 5MP 5x Optical Zoom Sony
MemoryStick 730
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Entry-level Digital SLRs(Single Lens
Reflex)Nikon D70
Canon Digital Rebel XT
900 without lens (6.1MP)
950 with lens (8MP)
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Professional SLRs2000 - 50008 14 Megapixels
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Whats right for me?

• Intended Use
• Camera Size
• Quality of Lens and/or Lens Selection
• Zoom (Optical vs. Digital)
• Battery Life
• Type of Storage Media
• Speed
• Resolution Megapixels
• Movie Mode

http//www.cnet.com
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Types of Digital Film

• Smart Media
• Compact Flash
• IBM Microdrive
• Secure Digital
• Internal Memory

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Card Storage Size

• Bigger is better!
• Highest capacity card you can afford
• Multiple Cards!

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Resolution Set your camera straight!!!
MORE IMAGES LOWER QUALITY

• Basic
• Medium
• Medium (Fine)
• Large
• Large (Fine)
• RAW

FEWER IMAGES HIGHER QUALITY

• RAW A camera raw image file contains the
  unprocessed data from the image sensor of a
  digital camera. (Wikipedia)

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Whats my resolution?
Email/Web ready Unsuitable for print

• Basic
• Medium
• Medium (Fine)
• Large
• Large (Fine)
• RAW

Print-ready Unsuitable for email
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Transferring Images Card Reader vs. Camera?
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The Fun Stuff!
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Adobe Photoshop Elements

• Available on all FDI-issued computers
• Little sibling to Photoshop easy to move up.
• Rich feature set editing tools
• Learning the basics for correcting your snapshots
  is easy

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Working with Images

• Import from Card Reader
• Automatic Correction
• Cropping
• Red-Eye
• Sharpening
• Making an image Email and/or Web-ready
• Saving the File
• Using Layers to Correct Exposure

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Online Printers

• PROS
• Inexpensive
• Extremely convenient
• Archival quality paper and inks
• Continuous tone

• CONS
• Stuck with the results
• Wait for prints
• Not as cost effective when printing large sizes.
  (e.g., SH)

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A Few Online Printers

• Apple iPhoto 5
• Snapfish (12 cent 4x6s, 20 Free Prints, Free
  Online Sharing and Storage)
• Kodak Easy Share Gallery
• Mpix
• Shutterfly
• Wal-Mart
• Pephoto.com (9 cent 4x6s, cheap 8x10s and larger
  sizes, good web interface for PC users.)

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Photo Inkjet Printers

• PROS
• Generally, cheap to start.
• In-home print lab
• More control over image quality
• Convenient

• CONS
• Expensive to continue and maintain
• Equipment wear and tear or failure
• Frequent uneven printing
• Not so convenient

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Epson Stylus Photo 2200

• The Good
• Excellent print quality
• Long-lived prints
• Relatively low ink costs
• Flexible media support and handling
• FireWire interface.
• EXPENSIVE! (500)

• The Bad
• Slower than the folks at CNet would like.

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Storage Archiving

• Laptop/Desktop Hard Drive
• CD/DVD
• External Hard Drive
• Departmental Webspace )
• Filebox (VT employees get 30MB of space)
• Online Storage (pBase, Shutterfly, xDrive)
• Organizing (iPhoto-MAC, iViewMedia-PC)
• Naming Conventions

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Storage Case Study 1The Budget-Minded Amateur

• A casual photographer who takes a relatively
  small number of photos on vacation and special
  occasions, she wants to protect her collection
  but is on a strict budget. Because she rarely
  needs to use archived photos, fast access is not
  crucial.
• SOLUTION Copy photos from harddisk to recordable
  CD. Keep extra backup copy. She also uses a Kodak
  EasyShare Gallery account as a free secondary
  location to store and share photos.

Source MacWorld Magazine, August 2005, pp. 67-70
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Storage Case Study 2The Anxious Parent

• The parent of two young and very photogenic
  children takes lots of snapshots to send to
  friends and family members. Protecting these
  valuable memories is his chief concern, even if
  it costs a bit of money.
• SOLUTION With a few gigabytes of photos, DVD
  recordables are a good storage medium. Burn 2
  DVDs one as working, one as archival copy.
  Since DVDs can go bad after several years, he
  periodically makes extra copies. He also spends
  30 a year for a Smugmug account, so he can keep
  copies of all his photos safely online and easily
  share them with family members.

Source MacWorld Magazine, August 2005, pp. 67-70
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Storage Case Study 3The Professional
Photographer

• For this pro, thousands of high-resolution
  digital photos arent just memories theyre
  business. So locating and accessing archived
  photos rapidly is essential, and bulletproof
  backups are worth some extra expense.
• SOLUTION She uses iView MediaPro, which
  automatically updates its records whenever she
  moves photos around. She uses a pair of external
  hard drives as her backup medium always keeping
  one safely off-site (and swapping them weekly).
  Finally, she periodically archives older projects
  onto Magneto-Optical discs for long-term storage.

Source MacWorld Magazine, August 2005, pp. 67-70