Let's Talk Digital - Part 2
-by-
Larry Perry, Member SANP
I have a 2.1 MB digital camera but the prints up to 8 X 12 don't look quite as sharp as from film scanned into the computer. Any suggestions?
You should be able to get pretty good images at 8 X12 from a 2.1 megabyte file. If the sharpness is a problem, then you might want to check into the nikSharpener program. You can download a demo version from www.technik.com to see if it will help you. I use the nikSharpener Pro in some cases and find it to be great. Also, those of you with Photoshop can use “Unsharp” filter to tweak your sharpness although this isn't as good as the nikSharpener. When you use the nikSharpener with Genuine Fractals 2.0 for printing you can get very large prints from a mediocre resolution image.
When I get my images into the computer, what format should I save them in?
That depends on what you are going to do with them. If you are going to use them on the internet, then save them in JPEG fairly low resolution. (It will show up as .jpg in your directory). If you are going to use them to printout photos, then I suggest that you save them as TIFF files. I have found that the TIFF files lose little or no resolution or color information where as the JPEG files do lose quite a bit the more they are compressed. If you are working in Photoshop with layers, then save as PSD files, but these can get large fast so be careful here.
At the digital meeting back in November at SANP, you gave us some suggestions as to the size of files for different purposes. Can you give those again?
OK. If you are going to send a photo as an attachment to an email or over the internet, then save as a JPEG file with a resolution of about 480 X 640 pixels maximum at 72 ppi or less than a 75K file. If you are going to print the image out using an inkjet printer, then save as a TIFF…the larger the better. An 8 X 12 print will take about 22 megs of file space for a 300 dpi print on your printer. A file that large would take forever to download on the internet normally.
What about the photo CD's made from my negatives at the store? Are they good to work with?
I still like working with the original image on film and then scanning it into the computer for serious work. As the digital cameras get better I will eventually begin the transition over, but for the present time, I will probably stay with film as the base medium. If you don't want to invest in a digital camera or film scanner, you can capture your images on film and then take them to a licensed Kodak CD retailer (Wolf, Walgreen, Thompsons, etc.) for processing. They will give you the prints and in addition will burn you a Picture CD with up to 40 scans of your images from the same roll. However, don't expect a very large blow up from the Photo CD's as their file size is only 1.5 Megapixels. These work great if you want to send the images out on the internet (after you make them smaller in JPEG!). That will probably let you make a pretty good 5 X7. Some labs will make you larger files on the CD's for extra dollars thus allowing you to make the larger prints. I personally don't use them since I have a film scanner, but for those just making the transition to digital, it would be a good inexpensive experiment for you.
How do I avoid the effects of X-Rays Air-Travel with my Digital Camera?
Fortunately, you don't have to leave your digital camera at home or hide it inside a lead-lined bag when you travel by air. Digital cameras and batteries cannot be harmed when passing through airport metal detectors. I do recommend, because of their monetary value and theft-appeal, that you carry your digital camera onboard with you. Do not place digital equipment in your checked luggage. Your camera is safe from the affects of x-rays, but not all types of storage media are. If you carry Compact Flash cards or Smart Media cards, you may run them through the x-ray machine without fear. But if you plan to carry floppy disks, Zip disks, or hard disks, be sure they go with you to your seat. Ask nicely for a manual inspection at the carry-on inspection station. I recommend that you place these types of media in a large clear ‘zip lock' bag (I use the 2 gallon size) with your name and phone number written boldly on the bag. The attendant can easily see what's in the bag and who it belongs to in case you forget it in your haste to reach the plane! Ask for the hand-inspection first, then when it's complete, allow your other items to scoot through the x-ray station.
Remember to be polite. Your attitude may be the key to obtaining this hand-check by busy airport employees in foreign countries!
I have a digital camera and recorded my images in the SQ mode (640 X 480) with standard compression and in the HQ mode (1280 X 960) with standard compression. I downloaded them to my computer and now I am trying to incorporate them to my web page. I don't know how to reduce them to 72 dpi. Can you recommend a simple program that will do that for me? I have Adobe Photo Deluxe can I use that?
Almost every imaging program allows you to resize an object. Use the Help menu and look up resizing or sizing. In PhotoDeluxe, look under the Size menu and select Photo Size. In the pop up window change your dpi to 72 and also make sure that the file size check box is NOT selected. (If the file size check box is selected, changing the dpi will simply increase the image size and you'll be back where you started when you display the image on the web.
Summer is here and we want to take our digital camera on vacation but don't know about the storage devices. What do you recommend?
Let's compare and see. Remember you can reuse a memory card unlike film. Maybe on your vacation last year you shot 10 rolls of film. That would probably cost you about $200-$300 for film and processing. A 64 MB CompactFlash card, for example might cost $125 and can store anywhere from 40 to 80 high quality images. But you say this is less than the 360 photos on the 10 rolls of film. Right. But your card will contain only edited images. How many of those 360 negatives will you keep. With a digital camera and the LCD viewer you will know immediately if you have the shot you want. If not, erase and shoot again. (The LCD image window is also great to show your subject. A great ice breaker!)
CompactFlash Type I and II are available in memories from 4MB to 448 MB and the SmartMedia cards are available in capacities from 4 to 128 Mb at this time. Hey, it's only $$$!!
One company has come up with another solution to taking a lot of flash cards. It is called the Digital Wallet. You might want to check it out at www.mindsatwork.com. I haven't used it, but I think Ron McConathy's wife, Sharon, has looked into it. The concept is simply a 6 gigabyte hard disk that runs on batteries and is about the size of paperback novel. You don't have to have it plugged into a computer and it accepts several different memory cards. You insert a memory card from your camera into the Digital Wallet, copy all of the images to the hard drive, stick the memory card back into your camera, erase all images and start shooting all over again. When you get back home simply download from the Digital Wallet to your computer through USB connection and presto you have your photos in your computer for printing or manipulating. Kinda neat concept. Oh, it will hold about 700 photos in non compressed TIFF files before you run out of room.
