| DIGITAL IMAGING FACILITIES | ||
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Photography and Digital Imaging
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Imaging technology is a fast developing field but here's the current state of play:_ COMPUTER The 150 MHz computer, with 8 Gbytes hard disc space, and 96 Mbyte RAM, readily handles 'layers' in Adobe PhotoShop. Version 5 of PhotoShop is very hungry for scratch disc space. It seems to need about 500 Mbytes when using the 'layers' and the 'history' facilities. SCANNING I photograph exclusively on 35 mm colour slides, and scan them into the computer using a Cannon 2700F 35mm slide scanner At the highest resolution, the Canon scanner produces files of about 28 Mbyte. It takes about takes five minutes to complete such a scan. Some images may not need require such high resolution, but I find it more convenient to follow a standard scanning procedure, then edit the images in PhotoShop CHOICE OF IMAGE RESOLUTION Recently I have been standardising on images of about 2600 X 1700 pixels or about 12 Mbyte for A4 prints. In many cases, they are suitable for enlargement to A3 prints using a high quality laser printer. The prints can optionally be laminated and my tests have shown them to be then tolerant of direct sunlight. I'll get my A3 printer with archival inks soon! It will not be cheaper but it will be more convenient. Using JPEG compression some individual images will fit onto 1.4 Mbyte floppy discs but some will not. It depends on the complexity of the image in terms of detail and colours, and upon the degree of compression that can be tolerated without significant loss of quality. I find that an Iomega Zip disc (100 Mbytes) will typically hold about 40 of my compressed JPEG images VDU The 17 inch VDU can display images of widths up to 1100 pixels, but 35 mm slides need in excess of 3000 X 2000 pixels to match the original resolution. Thus, if retained in the computer memory at this resolution, only a section of the image can be viewed on the screen at full resolution at any one time. However, even simple image editors readily enable one to view parts of the image at high resolution or to view the whole image on the screen at reduced resolutions, which is a minor inconvenience. PRINTER The 720 dpi Epson Photo inkjet printer produces nice A4 images which, if printed on glossy paper are difficult to distinguish from darkroom prints. Some of the images are suitable for enlarging to A3 size. A3 inkjet printers are available, but at present I use the alternative of obtaining laser enlargements. There's a reprographics shop with a high quality laser printer in the area. The cost difference is small. The main benefits of owning an A3 printer are that one can experiment with different types of paper, including textured art papers, and for making single prints, it's more convenient. ZIP DRIVE The Omega Zip Drive (100 Mbyte removable discs) is handy for back-up and image storage although not all local photographic laboratories accept them for producing commercial prints. The future is rather uncertain because of the rapid technological developments. The combined optical and CD ROM drives is an alternative, but they were not available when I purchased the Zip drive. The 'write once only' only CD discs are so cheap, that they are disposable, and costs of read-write discs are competitive with other storage media. SyQuest produce a range of removable discs and the capacious new system. However I intend to leapfrog to the DVD system, once I'm happy that it's a proven system. THE RAPID SPREAD OF THE PC! Such is the rate of progress of digital imaging that over 30% of the members of the local photographic society have digital imaging facilities and the competition rules been amended to eliminate any discrimination between conventional photographic and digital images. A digital imaging sub-group, IMAGinE was started by enthusiasts.. We held three public exhibitions of our prints in 1998, the latest containing 120 mounted and f ramed images produced by 9 members. Watch out for the amount of time and effort it takes to organise a print exhibition if you are thinking of mounting one, but in any event -- HAVE FUN! |