Photography Without a Darkroom:
An Introduction to Digital Photography
Classes
- How
Cameras Work — Film vs. Digital
- Uploading
from Camera to Computer — and some
devices in between
- Introduction
to Digital Processing — Which software? What's
it good for?
- The
Web and Printing — Pixels vs. Ink
- Shooting
Better Pictures
- Student Projects
Books | Links |
Film & Digital Differences |
Students Should Have (but are not required
to — maybe you can borrow some)
- a digital camera
- a computer
- an E-mail account
- software for uploading images from camer to computer
- cables for uploading images
Students may use
ANY digital camera. Emphasis
on using the one you got, whatever its capabilities or features.
But discussion of other possibilities...
Student assignments will be to shoot lots
of photographs. At least ten per class. May be attached to e-mail
at least two days prior to class, so they can be posted on the class web
page.
Learn to talk about your own and other
people's photographs. We'll have a group discussion at every class.
Books
There is no assigned text, but one the
teacher
suggest as a possible reference is David D. Busch's Digital Photography All-in-one Desk
Reference for Dummies - $30, which is
oddly organized (as six separate books in one binding), but it includes
a
lot
of
what
you'll
need
for
the first couple of years about digital and photography.
Other books of note include: Adobe Photoshop 7.0 for Photographers by Martin
Evening from Focal Press, which has
a great CD of audio/visual lessons. This book is for advanced
Photoshop users — it is neither an introductory nor an easy text.I'm
still struggling with it, myself.
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Class One:
How Cameras Work
Objective:
- Learn who are the teacher and students,
what the students know already, and what they want to learn.
- Expand topics for future class meetings
to include as much as possible about what these students want
to
learn about.
- Let students know what to expect.
- Notify students of web page for class,
where class member photographs will be posted.
- Give students my e-mail address.
- Please
no phone calls.
- Students will learn to talk about photographs. First
with photos brought by the teacher. Subsequent classes will discuss
photographs brought by students.
|
Links
How Digital Cameras Work by
Karim Nice and Gerald Jay
Gurevich
How
a Digital Camera Takes a Picture from Sony
Comparing
a Digital Camera to a Film Camera from Sony
Steve's
DigitCams is great site with excellent
and credible reviews — But it sometimes blurs the distinctions
between information and commerce.
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Lecture
Camera
light-tight box
aperture
lens
optical
pinhole
maximum aperture
focal length
wide angle
telephoto
normal
close-up
maco
micro
close-up "filters"
shutter
speed:
B (bulb), 1/x
focus
automatic
manual
parallax
controls
dials then = menus now
photo sensitive
material
film = electronic receptors + storage
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Creating a Digital Photographic Image
Use a digital camera
Scan an object or
Scan a photograph
slide
negative
print
light sensing device / grid / number of
CCD (charge-coupled device) or
CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor).
digital media
No single Standard
CompactFlash (CF)
Type I
Type II - IBM Micro
Drives 512m, 1g - 4g CompactFlash Type II slot or a PC ATA Type
II card slot
– SmartMedia (SM),
Memory Stick (MS),
MultiMediaCard (MMC)
Secure Digital (SD) - adapter allows use on CF-compatible cameras
xD-Picture Card (xD)
Digital
camera back — focal length extension factor of 1.37x
or 1.5x, etc.
floppy disks
CD-ROMs
DVDs
File Formats
TIFF - uncompressed - Tag Information File
Format
JPEG - compressed - Joint Photographic Expert Group
PSD - uncompressed - Photoshop Document
GIF - Graphical Image Format
- for line art and solid colors
resolution: the ability to render fine detail
depends on:
lens quality
film type
Res
Down images in camera
to save storage space
Res Down in processing — can change resolution in processing
camera or subject motion
Exposure Index
megapixels
640 x 480 (standard monitor resolution)
= 1/3 megapixel
600 x 800 = 1/2 mp
5 mp is standard
now
14 mp is now available with some expensive cameras
but eventually 20 may be normal.
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zoom
optical - actual zoom
digital - simply magnifies the
optical image — basically, it's a gimmick.
In general,
the
longer the zoom, the smaller the maximum aperture
The longer
the zoom, the shakier the image, so the faster the shutter
speed needs to be.
controls
automatic
manual
Viewfinder types
optical
viewfinder — parallax
EVF - electronic
view finder — TTL (through the lens)
Digital
Camera Types
point-and-shoot
consumer
prosumer
professional
Differences include
Megapixels
optical quality of lens
widest aperature over zoom
length of zoom — Optical vs. Digital zoom
time between
shots, shots per second burst speed,
ability to use more than one type of storage card or
copy between them
length of battery charge
other features
flash hot-shoe
manual white balance
interchangeable lenses
burst mode
use TV to show images
complexity of menus
magnification of images shot
White
Balance
Automatic
Number of Presets
Manual
LCD screen (liquid
crystal display)
uses a lot of battery
power
great for sharing images
Usually much higher contrast
than actual image file
Contrast sometimes makes out-of-focus images seem in focus,
Unless magnified (? x magnification)
Menu(s)
multiple branches or
multiple trees
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|
Differences
Between Film & Digital
|
| |
Film |
Digital |
hold
shutter
part-way |
engages auto focus
engages exposure control
prepares flash |
engages auto focus
engages exposure control
prepares flash
CCD charges up |
| trip
shutter |
shutter opens
aperture closes
light measured on fillm (some cameras)
image stored on film
|
shutter opens
aperture closes
white balance
light measured on CCD
image information sent to buffer memory
|
| |
advance
film to next frame |
wait
while the image is compressed as a JPEG
or kept as TIF (which takes much longer),
then stored on memory card |
| delay between shutter and exposure |
dependent
upon mechanical linkage, usually about 1/30 second |
dependant
upon a variety of electronic and mechanical variables — takes
longer — sometimes a lot longer, sometimes several
seconds... |
| Stores
on |
film — use
once |
card — reusable |
| image
projected on "film plane" |
covers
24 x 36mm film (1.5 inch circle minimum)
1.4 - 3 times size, means bigger, more expensive lenses |
usually much smaller |
| more
pictures |
can
always load more film (if you have some) |
can
always load another card (if you have one) |
| adjust white balance |
no |
yes (often) |
| |
|
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| preview
image |
on
very few cameras |
on
most cameras |
| delete
bad shots |
no |
yes |
| cost
per exposure |
camera + lens
film
(use once)
processing
cost
printing
physical
storage |
camera + lens (more expensive)
reusable
card + portable storage (use many times)
processing time printing
physical
storage (cheap) |
|
CLASS DISCUSSION: photographs brought by the teacher
CLASS ASSIGNMENT:
Make 5 different photographs,
at least two of which are of a person or persons.
Leave them on
the camera — especially if you do not yet know how to load them on
your computer.
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Class Two: Adjusting Your Camera's Dials & Menus, and Uploading from Camera to Computer
Students should bring laptops, if they have
them, plus all cables and software that either came with your camera
or are recommended by the manual.
|
Objectives
- Students will learn the basic operation
of their digital camera
- How to adjust aperture, shutter speed,
- manual and automatic controls, megapixels,
- + Learn to upload images from camera to
computer
- students will begin to understand the
variety of ways different cameras do the same things.
|
Links:
Steve's
Accessories includes stories about a variety of digital and analog
photography accessories.
Students will:
Bring camera and instruction book
(manual) to class.
Spend most of the class time learning
your camera and those of other students.
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Lecture
Uploading Images
image files from camera
to temporary storage devices
Storage
short-term - on camera, then on computer
longer-term storage - Zip, optical, burn CDs or DVDs
CD, CD-R, CD-RW
DVD: DVD+R, DVD+RW
to computer hard drives
some cameras allow copying
from one card to another - Olympus 10
computers
computers w/PCMCIA cards need a CF
Adapter to read CF cards
newer cameras connect via
USB cable, and are seen by computer CPUs as an external drive
USB 1 is slow
USB 2 is fast
Firewire 400 is fast
Firewire 800 is faster
Card Readers attach to computer, read cards,
allow direct upload to computer hard drive.
Some cameras require opening special software
to upload images from camera.
|
CLASS DISCUSSION: photographs brought by the students
CLASS ASSIGNMENT: Make
10 different photographs.
Links:
An old story about
various "digital film" formats and a
less than up-to-date survey of portable storage devices.
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Class 3: Introduction
to Digital Processing
Lecture
|
Image editing software
in order of value
Photoshop with Image Ready -
$600+
Photoshop Elements - $100
Jac's Paint Shop Pro - $100
Microsoft Publisher -
$160
Ulead's Photo Express - $20
Ulead's PhotoImpact - $100
corel PhotoPaint - $500+
Procreate Painter - $500
contrast
colors & white balance
cropping
masking
adding color or texture
combining & collage,
Storage
short-term - on camera, then on computer
longer-term storage - Zip, optical, burn CDs or DVDs
CD, CD-R, CD-RW
DVD: DVD+R, DVD+RW
+ Basic adjustments w/Photoshop
or Elements (or other software) -- compression, contrast/tonal
range; cropping for emphasis, burn, dodge, elementary masking,
basic color correction,
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CLASS DISCUSSION: photographs brought by the students
CLASS ASSIGNMENT: Make 10 differnt photographs. Upload
3 400-500k images to Class Web Page.
Links
Radio Shack (of all places) has the I/O
Magic Digital
Photo Album for $199.99 (has been
on sale at $20 less. CompUSA had it for $279). I haven't seen it
tested anywhere yet, but it looks pretty nifty, with a 6-in-1 card
reader (MemoryStick, CompactFlash Type I/II,
SmartMedia, SecureDigital, MultiMediaCard and IBM Microdrive).
This 2.5-inch 20 gig portable hard drive connects
to your camera via USB (1.1), and when you slot your card into
it, it sucks up the images.
RadioShack says Windoze, but it
works with Macs (OS 8.6-9, 10.1 and up) too. Approximately 5 x
3 x 1 inch thick, 1 year warranty, Catalog #25-3104, rechargeable battery
give 2.5 hours of sucking or uploading to your computer.
At the above
link, you can download a .pdf manual.
Another
story (half way down the page).
I'm not recommending this thing. It just looks so cool
and cheap. Most portable storage devices are at least twice the cost
for the same or less capacity. And RadioShack is selling it, but it's
not in stock at all stores.
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Class 4: Publishing
On The Web or On Paper
|
Objectives
- Learn to reduce file size without materially
affecting image quality,
- so you can "publish" images on The Web or
- E-mail copies to your friends
- Make quality prints on inexpensive ink-jet printers
- Make quality prints on more expensive printers
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Lecture
print resolution
screen resolution
television resolution
viewing by
transmitted light
slides
pixels
reflected light
prints
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CLASS DISCUSSION: photographs brought by the students
CLASS ASSIGNMENT: Make 10 differnt photographs. Upload
3 400-500k image filess to Class Web Page.
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Class 5: Shooting Better Pictures
|
Objectives
- teach students the basics of taking good
photographs
- and what are the usual culprits when things go wrong
-
Understand some of what photographs can show
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Lecture
+ Learn what photographs can show
- action (blur or stop), depth of field, composition, there's
at least five more...
+ Learn to express Self with photography
— no pshychobabble mumbo-jumbo — just take lots of pictures
of any and everything that interests you. Figure out what turns
you on. Get better at that.
-
Composition
-
Motion
-
Depth
-
Using Flash
-
Macro & Micro
-
Wide Angle & Telephotos
-
Sharpness
-
Holding the Camera Still
composition
low-light shooting
Other Topics
The uses of a tripod
What white balance is all about
battery usage and recharging
flash
digital and optical zoom
stability
more pictures are ruined by camera
movement than any other cause.
wide angle lens makes image smaller, so shake is less noticeable
telephoto lenses magnify movement, so it's more noticeable
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CLASS DISCUSSION: photographs brought by the students
CLASS ASSIGNMENT: Make 10 differnt photographs. Upload
3 400-500k image files to Class Web Page.
Links:
Learning Digital Photography
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Class 6: Student Projects
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Objectives
- show and share final project images
- answer any questions still lingering
- Students may E-mail me
with questions any time in future.
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CLASS ASSIGNMENT: Have
a fun life & tell other photographers about this class.
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