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How To Do Everything with Your Digital Camera

1. 373 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Thanks to all the great folks at Osborne McGraw Hill who are always fun to work with especially folks like Megg Morin Tana Allen and Pamela Woolf My tech editor Dave Huss did a superb job as well Finally let me thank all the selfless models who posed for me as I shot picture after picture for this bbok including Kris Evan and Marin Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use xvii This page intentionally left blank Introduction Welcome to How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camer Second Edition This is not your typical book on digital photography I wrote it to answer all the questions I had about digital cameras and photography techniques when I was starting out I ve been a photographer for about 20 years and in that time I ve read a lot of books and magazines about the art and science of photography I figured that this was a good time to write a book that would hopefully explain it all in the space of a few hundred pages A tall order I know Nonetheless I know what it feels like to have a new digital camera and search fruitlessly for the answers to seemingly obvious questions I ve read too many books that make passing references to control your depth of field with the aperture without explaining what either the aperture or depth of field actually is Or mention that you need a lot of pixels to p
2. HatSyne Manager id Aveilsble only when the Palm Desktop is running C Manual pou start the HotSync Manager poursel bec x Astar S A E R Eliro Micfosott 0 8 Paint Shop Fro E Collage Capture lt EOS Bg 9 24 AM By default the HotSync Manager locks the Right click the HotSync Manager and port even if the cradle isn t plugged in choose Exit to close the program Hehi The HotSync manager is the bane of many computer users It locks the serial port refusing to let your digital camera connect properly from the icon in the System Tray before the camera will work Other software can cause the same kind of trouble in particular fax and modem software can lock the port and may need to be disabled before your camera will work Which COM Is Which Confused by COM ports That s not too surprising especially since they re rarely physically marked on the computer itself to tell you which is which Nonetheless if you need to figure out which serial port corresponds to which COM port you can usually use this little cheat sheet Though exceedingly rare your PC may also have COM3 and COM4 ports 162 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera This Port Is Usually Your computer only has one serial port COM1 If there are two ports one big and one small the small 9 pin serial port COM1 If there are two ports the big 25 pin port You may need an adapter available COM2 at any c
3. 68 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera the subject until after you hear the shutter close again Just like in baseball or golf ensure that you follow through the motion even after the shutter releases That way you don t stop panning in the middle of the exposure You may need to practice this a few times to get the shot right but electronic film is free The farther away the background is the less motion blur effect you ll get For best results get close to the object and its background If the background is too far away the blur will be minimal and it ll just look out of focus Nature and Landscapes Unlike action photography and portraiture that rely on telephoto lenses to compress the action into an intimate experience landscapes typically work best with wide angle lenses that allow you to include huge expansive swaths of land air and sea in a single frame Zoom out for best results most of the time and adjust the camera s exposure in aperture priority mode if possible to get deep or shallow depth of field depending upon what works best for the picture in question Dealing with Shutter Lag The most common complaint I hear about digital cameras is this There s a long pause between when I press the shutter release and when the picture is actually taken The result when trying to take an action shot the subject sometimes moves before you can take the picture Indeed that pause is responsible for m
4. Layer Palette Layer f3 Image 1024 x 768 x 16 Milion 5 2 MBy 8 Now it s time to shrink the new addition down to size Choose Image Resize from the menu In the Resize dialog box remove the check mark from Resize all layers it s near the bottom In the Percent of Original box enter a number that you think will reduce the subject to fit in the jar Try for instance 20 percent 9 Click the subject and drag it on top of the jar If it fits fine If not return to the Resize dialog box and fine tune its size until it fits properly in the jar Once you tweak the size and position of the captured kid your photo is done as you see next CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 293 There are other things you can try though to improve the photo E Try to photograph both pictures with similar lighting to make a more believable picture E Be careful about the angle from which you shoot the jar kid to match the jar s perspective in the first photo E Select the jar copy it to the Clipboard and paste it on top of the jar kid as yet another layer By varying the transparency of the jar see the next section Make a Double Exposure for details on how to do that you can increase the illusion that the subject is indeed inside the jar not just pasted on top of it Make a Double Exposure 13 Now let s return to Earth for an easy trick that mimics double exposure photography In the world of 35mm photogr
5. 2 After the sky is completely selected choose Selections Invert from the menu You should see that the foreground is now selected and the sky is not selected 3 Copy the selected foreground to the clipboard by choosing Edit Copy from the menu 4 Check the image s resolution by choosing Image Image Information from the menu If you need to write it down you ll need that information in a few steps 5 Open the image with the substitute sky in Paint Shop Pro 6 Choose Image Resize from the menu and fill in the proper numbers in the Pixel Size boxes to resize this image to match the original 7 Making sure the new image is still selected choose Edit Paste As New Layer from the menu You should see the foreground from the old picture appear in the new sky photo 8 Drag the image around as needed until it s positioned properly in the frame If you like the results save the new image You re done CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images 269 Let Someone Else Do the Work Sure after reading this book you can do almost any kind of image edit yourself But there may be times when you d like a professional to do it for you instead Or perhaps you think that a professional quality edit might make a good gift for a friend In either case check out the Image Edit and Art Web site www image edit com 12 This site offers professional tweaks and changes to digital photos for a small fee Here s how it works You uplo
6. 3 Draw a rectangle around the part of the image you want to keep Note that you can t move or resize this selection rectangle in the same way that you did with the Crop tool If you don t like the result right click in the image to undo the selection and then try again 4 When your selection is complete choose Edit Copy from the menu This copies the selected region into the Windows clipboard 5 Choose Edit Paste As New Image The selected region should appear in a new image window which you can then save to the hard disk Special Effects with Irregular Cropping Why would you want to use this process instead of the Crop tool For starters as I mentioned not all programs have a convenient cropping tool built in so you may have to copy and paste your way to compositional excellence But there are other reasons You might want to create several new compositions for instance all based on the same original image When you crop an image the original data disappears With the Selection tool though you can keep going back to the original image and copying different even overlapping parts and pasting them into new files It s a way to make an unlimited number of new compositions based on a single photograph Last but not least you can make irregular crops with this technique something that s just not possible with the cropping tool What do I mean Check out Figure 11 3 Here you can see that I created an image by creatin
7. A key fact to remember however is that the focal length of the given lens also affects the camera s angle of view Because a telephoto lens magnifies distant objects it has a very narrow angle of view As you reduce the magnification and zoom out toward smaller focal lengths the angle of view likewise increases You can see this graphically in Figure 3 14 At the extreme end of the scale specifically wide angle lenses the image is actually shrunk with respect to what the human eye can see The angle of view becomes extreme CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials 61 ECLISSE These three views all taken from the same position show the effect of a zoom lens on the magnification of the subject 2X zoom mlcieisi aceae gs The longer the focal length the narrower the region that a lens can see 62 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Maximizing Depth of Field The three ways to maximize the depth of field in your image are E Use a lens with a short focal length such as the normal or wide angle setting on your camera s zoom E Focus on a distant subject If you re trying to get both a nearby tree and a more distant house in focus simultaneously for instance focusing on the house rather than the tree is more likely to deliver both subjects in focus E Use the smallest aperture you can such as f 11 or f 16 Not surprisingly you can minimize the depth of field in a picture by doing exactly
8. Cumerk Script Charge to r Fletize Mex C Move Up Hebo n i a Preview ICAWINDOW S Detktop e10 pics kode low CAWINDUWS Deehtop e10 pesikode Now image __ Beven ICAWINDOWS Desktop e10 pica kods Liter CAWINOUWS Desktop e10 pesikode Image 276 x 187 x 24bpp CAWIND CIWS Deshtog 10 pies hode Selected Command Parameters CAWINDUWS Deshtog e10 grce kode 20e CAWINDODWS Desktopie10 pies hock CAWINDOWS Derktop e 10 pics kode Save As Fie Type TIF gt Teaged Image File Foemat Fie Sub Type LZW Congiessed Dusrat F okher CAMINDOWS Desktop e1D pics CAWINOOWS Deskiop e10 pics hod CAWINOOWS Derktop e10 picstkode CAWINOUWS Deekhop e10 pcs P1 1E ICAWINDOWS Desktop e10 pice PI IE CAWINOUWS Deektog e10 pacetP11E ith Resa z This page intentionally left blank Working with Digital Film Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to Choose a camera based on its memory card format Understand the advantages and disadvantages of various kinds of memory cards Use a serial connection cable to copy images from the camera to the PC Troubleshoot serial port problems Correlate serial ports and COM port numbers Use a USB cable to copy images from the camera to the PC Solve USB port problems Delete images from your memory card Care for memory cards Often you ll hea
9. FreehaF File Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Hel SeTTd OSOS 2 gt BB QO a 12 selec al Ctr R Select None CtrH D he master phaser 1 3 Layer1 E From Mask SHift Ctrl4 s ctor Object Shift CbriHS Shift Ctrl 1 107 PPR Shift CtrHM G r ather 22 Grow Selection H8 Select Similar 16 Promote To Layer Shift CtrP E Load From Disk LE Load From Alpha Channel J Save To Disk EP Save To Alpha Channel ka 4 a a B w gS Y a A Y La i CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 287 4 Now it s time to add an effect to make the subject glow Choose Colors Adjust Brightness Contrast and jack the brightness up to maximum Click OK and you should see a pure white region where the subject used to be S Jasc Paint Shop Pro master phaser Fie Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window He Dens 5 38 OQ mln mm I A Xa master phaser 1 3 Layer1 R Q ey p E ie a B fa w gS Ea a A Y 5 Isl Image 2100 x 1575 x 16 Million 22 577 1 3 5 Next add the copy as a new layer into your image Choose Edit Paste As New Layer The glow should disappear since the copy of the original unretouched image is now on top 288 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 6 In the Layer Palette dialog box reduce the layer s transpa
10. If you click the desktop before you have a chance to rename the new folder just right slick the folder and choose Rename from the menu Then type the new name of the folder You can store your images anywhere but I think the My Pictures folder is a great place It s easy to remember and many graphics applications will automatically look here for pictures Now that you have a main folder for storing your images you might want to create subfolders which are folders inside your main folder like My Pictures that let you organize your pictures more precisely As you can see in Figure 9 2 I organize my images into a myriad of folders that help me find specific images by category event purpose and genre 174 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera My Pictures Jol File Edit View Go Favorites Help EJ e c amp Ba Eeg A Back Up Cut Copy Paste Undo Delete Properties Address L C My Pictures z balloon bydavejohn cirsten colorad E a a e10 pic europe fall Comdex gpk HTDE Digicam letterhead olympus review portfolio salt lake screenshots spring comdex 3 O O O E amp b amp b Web gallery web r wolves yellowstone extras peanut2 peanuts x 36 object s 2 93MB JE My Computer Eeh The more subfolders you use the easier it should be to find the right image in a pinch Renaming Images Now that you have an organizational system for ar
11. Image 412 x 550 x 16 Million 1 7 MBytes B CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 299 5 With the new color layer selected use the Selection tool to trace out the subject you want to keep in color Trace as carefully as possible If you need to create a mask to fine tune the area and convert the mask into a selection 9 Jasc Paint Shop Pro pond 1 1 Layer1 BEE Ne File Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help lal x Denel 8 90 p enw bo v F Py F P lt 2 Pr Xie i rm imme Ao io Tool Options Freeh E3 G A Ba Layer Palette Layer ag g 12 4 IATP PANSER NSOE PRE Sxl 2 200 454 Image 412 x550 x 16 Million 1 7 MBytes 1 3 300 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 6 When you re done choose Selections Invert to select everything except the color subject 7 Choose Edit Cut to cut most of the color image away 8 Choose Selections Select None to finish You should now have a grayscale image with a single element in color Save the image with a new name Colorizing an Image Now let s try the opposite technique instead of taking color away from your picture let s add color or change the colors in your photos Colorizing digital images or even old black and white photos that you ve scanned into your PC is easy though it takes a little artistic skill to do well Some folks use the colorizing technique to se
12. Then turn the image into a 24 bit file by choosing Colors Increase Color Depth 16 Million Colors 3 Rename this image s layer to Grayscale so it s easier to keep track of To do that open the Layer Palette dialog box and right click on the layer name Choose Rename In this illustration you can see the layer has been renamed 3 Jasc Paint Shop Pro pond Eile Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help OS86 2 4H8 90 7 an ah E A Q m a p m 13 P S 2 a gS Layer Palette Grayscale VSOPEANL SE For Help press F1 Image 412 x 550 x 256 444 6 KBytes 298 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 4 Now add the color image on top of this one Select the image and choose Edit Paste As New Layer You can prove it actually worked by sliding the transparency control of the top layer until you can see the grayscale image peeking through Now the second layer sits on top of the grayscale layer as you can see in the Layer Palette dialog box g9 Jasc Paint Shop Pro pond Eile Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help D Su 2 38 G0 anova i Tool Options Mover E E3 2g 2 g 2 Layer Palette Layer al x pa Normal gt amp c E Normal gt Layer Opacity 0 100 E TEVFOPCANZHERVNS VO FAHD 2 162
13. amp SV oH 1 You just make a Bezier curve do a Gaussian blur spherize it a couple times grab the dither drabber then well the whole thing just goes KITTY WAMPUS YOU RE GONNA MISS IT REALLY IMAGE EDIT amp ART custom digital photo editing www image edit com 5 00 OffYour First Photo Rescue By Image Edit amp Art Just Register By December 31 2003 and Use The Following Promo Code JOHNSON2002
14. kodak rikon pics pool pics backetball if e10 pics Al fie fe ie press an aiko kisig P1160024p3 P1160025 pg P1160026ipg description B B B B gt 5 planet saentt tummat tumma2ipg tumma3 pg 43 7MB EJ My Computer Windows may not be configured to show you the complete filename including the extension To turn on the extension view in Windows XP do this 1 Open a folder on the Windows desktop 141 142 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 2 Choose View Folder Options from the folder s menu View Toolbars gt v Status Bar Explorer Bar gt v as Web Page Large Icons Small Icons List Details Customize this Folder Arrange Icons gt Line Up Icons Refresh 3 Click the View tab so that you can see the Advanced settings 4 Find the entry Hide File Extensions for Known File Types and remove the check mark from this selection Folder Options 21x General View Fie Types Folder views You can make all your folders look the same Like Current Folder Reset All Folders Advanced settings Files and Folders O Allow all uppercase names O Display the full path in title bar 4 Hidden files Do not show hidden files Do not show hidden or system files Show all files EJ Remember eac CO Show Map Network Drive button in toolbar E Show pop up description for folder and desktop items Visual Settings x Restore Defaults 5 Click
15. 005 194 Determining the Right Resolution 04 194 Tweaking Your Images 0 0 e eee eee eee eee 197 Slides Negatives or Prints 2 0 0 0 eee eee een eee 200 PART III Editing Images CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 0 000 cece cece ees 203 How Much PC You Need 1 cece eee nena 204 Choose an Image Editor 1 2 0 cee eee ee 205 Change the File Format 0 0 cece eee cece eee 209 Shrink Your Images oiis arse sinetio ea cee eee eee eee 209 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 Contents Change the Color Depth of an Image 212 Save Images in Different File Formats 214 Improve Your Composition 0 cece eee eee eee 216 Crop Your Image sce cece hire Wenge ai ds gael gg Pee ee 216 Rotate Your Perspective 0 0 cee eee eee eee ee 226 Level a Crooked Picture 0 0 0 cece eee eee 227 Improve the Color and Brightness in Your Image 228 Brighten Gloomy Shots 0 0 00 c eee eee eee 228 Add Snap to Your Colors 0 0 cece eee eee 233 Correct the Color Balance 00 0 e eee eee eee 235 Cleaning Up Your Images 0 cece c cece ee eee eens 237 Sharpening Blurry Pictures 0 0 0 ec eee eee eee 238 Using the Sharpen Filter to Enhance Your Picture 239 Blur to Sharpen 0 eee eee eee eee 240 Painting on Your Pictures 0
16. 5 000 and beyond Right now I can find the Canon D30 for 2 000 and the Nikon D1H for 3 000 at www pricegrabber com and the prices will no doubt be even lower in a year Olympus sells the e10 a clever SLR like camera that offers professional controls but doesn t include interchangeable lenses and that camera is available for just 1 300 As digital cameras get ever more popular we ll see more of these SLR style cameras that give photographers all the power and flexibility of SLR cameras with the immediacy of the digital medium and their prices should drop rapidly In the first edition of this book when such cameras were still selling for 5 000 7 8 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera HCG SLR style digital cameras offer a lot of resolution plus plenty of advanced photographic control I predicted that within two years they d sell for 2 000 I was right so prepare for more dramatic price drops in the future In fact this table with data provided by NDP Techworld shows how digital camera prices on average have plummeted in the past few years Under 1 megapixel 1 2 megapixel 2 3 megapixel 3 4megapixel 4 5 megapixel Jan 99 839 23 663 52 Jan 00 716 47 461 20 885 04 Jan 01 141 67 377 68 532 25 815 12 1 733 87 Jan02 85 81 264 61 345 52 556 60 805 56 Features Gadgets and Goodies No two digital cameras are the same Each camera maker is known to some greater or lesser extent
17. A new innovation in photography is a kind of sensor that has been around in 35mm SLR photography for a decade or more Called matrix metering this system is most prevalent in Nikon models all the way from the CoolPix 950 and CoolPix 995 to the high end D1x The matrix meter seen in Figure 2 8 is famous for its ability to properly expose tricky scenes by balancing the lighting needs of five or more discrete regions within a picture Instead of concentrating primarily on the middle matrix meters gauge the light in many parts of the scene at once If your camera has a matrix meter mode you should use it most of the time Spot Meters The last major kind of light meter is called a spot The spot meter is never the only kind of meter in a camera instead it s an option that you can switch to if the center weighted or matrix meter fails you As you can see in Figure 2 9 the spot meter measures light exclusively in the center one percent of the screen ignoring the rest of the frame completely That can come in handy on occasion but a meter that only measured the light in the central one percent of the frame would typically take very poor pictures either highly under or overexposed depending upon the situation So when should you use the spot meter Any time you are trying to photograph a scene in which a small subject must be exposed properly for the picture to work and its lighting is different enough from the rest of the scene that you re
18. Click OK The text appears as a selection in the image 14 Copy the text to the Clipboard by choosing Edit Copy Open the image to which you want to add the text Choose Edit Paste As New Selection from the menu The text should appear in the image Position the text to your liking and choose Selections Select None 312 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Add a Drop Shadow Drop shadows shown here are a cool embellishment that can add a lot to the visual appeal of your text They can even make it more readable particularly on certain kinds of images rlomesrece Some programs come with a drop shadow tool built in making it a snap to add drop shadows to your text But if your program doesn t have a drop shadow feature you can achieve similar results simply by making two copies of the text in different colors and arranging them by hand so they look like text and shadow Try this 1 Inthe color palette set the background color to black This will be the color of our shadow text 2 Click the Text button in the tool palette and click on the image to specify where you want it to appear The Text Entry dialog box should appear CHAPTER 14 Working with Text and Creating Projects 313 Make sure the Stroke and Fill styles are set to solid color that s the paint brush icon and enter the text font and size Select the Vector option in the Create As section at the bottom of the dialog box Size Sample
19. Increas LESKA ES EL 24 bit Tool Options Arrow E3 EG QP OPAL SEWVCVV OGERE _ ___ CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 213 3 The image will be immediately converted into a format that has the space for additional color depth Notice that the image didn t really change visually All this operation does is allow the image to display more colors if possible but it can t add more colors into the image all by itself Suppose you had a four color cartoon panel by adding more color depth you ve created the ability to insert a photo realistic image into the cartoon We ll talk about how to do that kind of thing in Chapter 13 If you convert a 24 bit image to 256 colors you ve stripped away color information that can never be put back even if you later resave it as a 24 bit file Decrease the Colors in an Image Now consider the other possibility Suppose you have an image with 16 million colors such as a JPG If you want to turn the image into a Web graphic like a push button for instance you might want to reduce the number of colors and save it as a GIF image You might also want to reduce the number of colors to achieve an artistic effect or to save disk space a BMP with 256 colors takes less space than one with 16 million for instance The process for decreasing the colors in an image is similar to increasing the colors though there s an extra step Here s how to do it 1 Open a JPG image in Pai
20. It s a two step process and one that is highly subjective When creating prints from negatives photo finishers often tweak the picture to improve its appearance Of course what the corner shop considers an improvement may not be what you were trying to achieve and that explains why your pictures never seem to benefit from filters exposure changes or any of the other corrections you try to make when taking pictures But I digress The other kind of film is simple slide film This is a color positive development process after fixing the slide film in its chemical bath the film becomes slides that can be held up to the light to display images No matter what kind of film you have it eventually needs to be exposed to light When you take a picture you obviously press the shutter release The shutter release instructs the camera to open a diaphragm in the lens for a brief period of time and then close again If all went well that was just long enough to properly expose the film If you want to shoot with 35mm film scan the results and then edit and print the results on your PC you might want to work with slide film Slides are more exacting they require you to nail the exposure fairly precisely as I explain in Chapter 11 but they ll better represent what you actually photographed instead of the local photo shop s vision of what you photographed _____ How and Why Film Varies As you no doubt know by shopping for fi
21. Opacity I Sample merged z 696 ESIZ EST Paint a Gradient 12 While you re here fill the rectangle with a gradient A gradient is a rainbow like spread of colors that range in hue from the foreground to the background Here s how to paint in such a gradient in Paint Shop Pro 1 Select the foreground and background colors that you want to serve as the extreme values in your gradient 2 Click the Flood Fill tool 248 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 3 Set the fill style to gradient To do that click the right arrow on the Styles box in the color palette Choose the second option which looks like a spectrum of colors Gradient fill paint style gt 4 Click in the selection with the Flood Fill tool If you right click in the selection you ll paint it a solid color again the background color To paint freely anywhere in the image as we re about to do in the rest of the chapter you need to get rid of any selections As long as there s a selection in the image you will only be able to paint inside it that s a powerful tool for making sure you only affect specific parts of the image To turn off the current selection choose Selections Select None A faster way to eliminate selections is with the Select tool still active to right click the image Painting More Accurately Yov ve got the basics of painting down selecting colors and clicking in the painti
22. Quick Changes for Your Images 0 e eee neces Cleaning Up Your Images 0 cee cece eee cee eens Creating Special Effects 0 ccc cece ee ee eens Working with Text and Creating Projects 504 Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use vii Vill How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera PART IV Using Your Images CHAPTER 15 Printing Your Pictures 0 ccc cece ccc eee eee e eee 329 CHAPTER 16 Sharing Your Pictures cc cece cc eee cece eee eee 351 For more information about this title click here Contents Acknowledgments 0 0 cece cece eee cette xvii Introduction irene bbe othe hae Eo r E E E xix PART Your Camera CHAPTER 1 Welcome to the Future 2 0 0 cece cece eee eee eee ee 3 A History Lesson cersesc ep ey Saeed eae eRe sh aoh OL eae Aes 4 A Slow Evolution 0 00552 cee ceed bees ees eae eee nie ai 5 The Future of Digital Cameras 0 00000000 6 Features Gadgets and Goodies 0 0 c cee cece eee 8 The Optical System 242s dcsacaryeueesgaedleaads wag cts 9 Power Systems oc ccc cece citata EE ee saeees ease vaeeas 10 Memory Storage 3 0 5 6 cc cciagese teresa eee eae sg needa s 12 Camera Controls fo 2aie deat ceca atemAcden dann bao E ENA 13 Choosing Your Own Digital Camera 00 0000005 15 Resolution errs vatican wes ssa ndeaeteea ease aay age cee eats 15 OPCs seit eas
23. Remember that there are two different axes to keep under control The lens needs to be parallel to the ground and the horizon needs to stay level in each picture That s not easy to do when you re holding the camera in your hand Instead mount the camera on a lightweight tripod You can even find a special panorama head for the tripod This little device makes sure that you rotate the camera the proper amount for each picture in your series If you don t have a panorama head simply keep the camera loosened on top of the tripod so you can spin it slightly for each picture 118 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Get the Right Overlap Perhaps the single most important step in making a panorama is getting the correct overlap The software on your PC will need to know how to combine each image in order to make the finished panorama To do this you should try to get about 25 50 percent of the scene to overlap between each pair of pictures Take a look at the following illustration for instance If you make sure that some of the scene that you photographed in the first image also appears in the second image the stitching software on your PC will be able to match them and combine them into one wide picture How do you ensure the right amount of overlap That s where your camera comes in Some digital cameras have a panorama mode built in that helps you line up each picture using a series of guide marks Switch your camera to p
24. To add a component select the check box or click to clear it if you don t want the component 4 shaded box means that only part of the component will be installed To see what s included in a component click Details Components v Tf Paint Quick View Vv Screen Savers 1 1 MB J A Windows Scripting Host 1 1 MB v y WordPad 17MB v Space used by installed components 30 0 MB Space required 0 0 MB Space available on disk 4630 0 MB Description 9 Previews a document without opening it 2e Cancel 6 Click OK again this time in the Add Remove Programs dialog box Windows may prompt you for the Windows installation CD If it does insert the CD in your CD ROM drive After the installation you should have the Quick View entry in the context menu when you right click icons on the Windows desktop Quick View is a great program for viewing certain images but it only shows a few kinds of images If you want to get more out of Quick View including the ability to see almost any kind of graphic image file you might want to purchase Quick View Plus from Jasc www jasc com Quick View Plus greatly enhances the capabilities of Quick View Locating and Cataloging Images Even with a rigorous set of subfolders it can get difficult to find specific images on your hard disk My hard disk contains a few hundred images for instance and even with descriptive filenames and lots of aptly titled subfolders it can be a chall
25. Why Composition Is Important 0 0 e ee eee eee eee What We See Rules of Composition Isolate the Focal Point 0 0 0 ccc ccc eens Use the Rule of Thirds reee ike nnana r ia a oa a Fill the Frame Move the Horizon sore dide dhna dine EEEE dekh eee AAN Use Lines Symmetry and Patterns 04 Use Foreground to Balance the Background Know When to Break the Rules 2 0 0 0 000 r eee eee Using Depth of Field Applying Depth of Field to Your Pictures Getting the Most Out of Your Zoom Lens 04 Using Your Camera s Exposure Modes 00005 Choosing Exposure Modes and Lenses in Special Situations Nature and Landscapes 000 c cece eee neces Flash and Lighting Basics of Flash Photography 000 cee eee eee eee eee Stay Within the Range of Your Flash Master Your Flash Modes 0 00 0 e eee e eee Improve Your Outdoor Photographs 0 00 00 0 eee eee Beware of the Sun 1 20 eee eee eee Add Fill Flash Reflect Some lightos csee Peas Geil an edu eee Improve Your Indoor Photographs 00 eee eee eee Use Window Light 0 0 00 Avoid Red Eye Correct the Color Balance 0 0 0 0 0c ccc eee Correcting Images with White Balance 0 0 00 cece eee Adjusting White Balance Presets 0 0
26. for instance Making sense of all this can be a pain Worse there s no one formula you can use to convert digital camera focal lengths into 35mm equivalents That s because the focal length of a camera lens is based on the size of the film which in the case of a digital camera is the CCD chip CCDs vary in size and there s no industry wide consensus on standardizing the size of the CCD in all cameras So your best bet is to check out the equivalency figures on the camera box or on the manufacturer s Web site I ve also concocted a formula you can use in a pinch to convert digital camera focal lengths to their 35mm equivalents Since CCD sizes vary this is only an approximation In the following formula AFL is the actual focal length of the digital camera s lens usually a small number like 5mm or 10mm 35mm equivalent focal length AFL 19 So if the camera has a 6 5mm lens for instance you can run it through this handy little equation and determine that it will work like a 35mm lens Choosing a Zoom Of course few digital cameras come with a fixed focal length lens The focal length is a measure of how much the camera magnifies the image and zoom lenses let you zoom in and out of a scene for the perfect composition In general the greater the zoom the better You ll commonly see 2X 3X and perhaps even 5X zooms on digital cameras With some simple finger pressure you can use your camera to go from a normal or wide an
27. perhaps most importantly for us suppose you are in the situation I describe next You want to take a picture of frolicking lions at the zoo near dusk The aperture is wide open at f 2 it won t open any farther Nonetheless your camera needs to use the relatively slow shutter speed of 1 15 second to take the shot You know the image would be a blurry mess at that sluggish shutter speed so what is there to do Take a look at your film speed It s ISO 100 film Well you might be in luck If you re willing to pop the film out of your camera and put in film that s two f stops often just called stops faster you can keep the aperture at f 2 and change the shutter speed to 1 60 That s probably good enough to get the shot Just do it quickly it isn t getting any brighter out and if you dally you might find you need to increase the speed by three stops by the time you get the film loaded and ready to go f stops m You probably don t need to know this but it might come in handy during a trivia game some day Mathematically f stops are the ratio of the focal length of the lens divided by the diameter of the opening of the diaphragm Thus when you divide the focal length of the lens by a very small opening you get a large number while dividing the focal length by a comparatively large diameter gives you a smaller number CHAPTER 2 Understanding Exposure 21 ISO 100 S 1 250 f 4 ISO 200 S 1
28. t work for other users you can always switch back again In Outlook for instance you can find these settings by choosing Tools Options and clicking the Mail Format tab of the Options dialog box shown here From there click the Settings button and change the format Options V2 x Preferences Mail Delivery Mail Format Speling Security Other Message format Choose a Format for outgoing mail and change advanced settings Send in this message format Plain Text bd I Use Microsoft Word to edit e mail messages Settings International Options Stationery and Fonts we Use stationery to change your default font and style change colors and add backgrounds to your messages Use this stationery by default None Y Signature Automatically include your signature or attach an electronic br icinsee card vCard to outgoing messages Plain Text Settings 21x Use this Signature by default PIT EATA IV Don t use when replying or Forwarding Signature Picl C MIME OK Cancel i pee 2 ERRE gt Automatically wrap at 76 characters when sending Shrinking Images for Email A lot of resolution is good for printing but two and three megapixel digital images are cumbersome to send through email You really should resize pictures in your favorite image editor before attaching them to electronic messages I explain how to do that in Chapter 11 In general email bound images should be cropped and
29. 11 Ext ON Fee Browse through images on disk 3 Use the folder tree on the left side of the window to find the folder you want to look in When you click the folder thumbnail images will appear on the right To find C My Pictures a common directory to store images for instance you would click the plus sign next to My Computer to expand that folder Then expand C and click My Pictures 179 180 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera which should be listed under C as shown here In Windows XP it s easier click My Documents My Pictures 3S Paint Shop Pro Browse C My Pictures S x Eile Edk View Find ImageFile Capture Window Help D Hgo t heoo mn u h A amp A My Computer a2 lt 5 3 Floppy amp Ps C ty C Adobe gt O Ati towed Ei Cavedog peanut2 TIF a gt _ cookie C Diamond R 7 Downloads G Z Q au 4 Fisc i L C Kpems BS 4 My Documents a J My Download 2 4 2 My Music SEEI hi Pictures A J animas ya C balloon a H Books CI bydaveijoh Ca car A e casten J CJ colorado oO a e10 pics For Help press F1 Thumbnail 440 x 550 x eien 3 4 To open an image in Paint Shop Pro just double click a thumbnail The image will open ready for editing printing or just viewing at a larger size 5 You can continue opening additional images from the Browse window Close the Browse window when you are done wit
30. 300 MB 400 MB 500 MB 600 MB 4 file s 0 folderfs 3 6 MB Estimated CD Free Space 646 4 MB Data CO JOLIET HPCO Wnter 8100 TAO HOULE CD RW software makes it easy to copy blank images to a CD Pixel Potential If you photograph a plain white background in JPG format it ll take up almost no space at all on your memory card or computer hard disk That s because the JPG format stores information about the change in color information from one pixel to another and if the image is all white there s very little change data to record But what about a TIF The same picture stored as a TIF will be much larger because the file holds a space for all 24 bits of color data in each pixel The TIF format isn t concerned about the colors that are actually in the image instead it is preoccupied with the potential colors that could be in the image Even though every pixel is white the TIF format has enough room to store any color in each and every pixel TIF files compress quite nicely using a Zip program though so you can save a file in TIF format and zip it up to email it to someone CHAPTER 9 Keeping Images onthepc 185 remove the side of the case In either case once the PC is open check to see if there s a spare bay to mount the hard disk You can mount it in one of the drive bays or perhaps on the bottom or side of the case where there are some mounts for exactly that purpose If there s somewhere to put a hard disk it s
31. 300dpi as well Images for inkjets should be scanned at about 200 or 250dpi A more accurate method of printing to laser printers however is to look up the line screen frequency LSF and scan at twice that value If you have a 300dpi printer the LSF is probably about 70 Line art for print Scan at the printer s resolution frequently 300dpi CHAPTER 10 Turning Prints into Digital Images 195 ti DS Elite _ joj x E a GS as 4 9 Index Prescan Image Correction DS Elite Version 1 0 2 SCSI ID 5 ROM Version 2 00 Resolution r Input 705 gt api Output l 300 z dpi Size Inputw E E Map x Outpuwl2 up al Unit piel gt Image Size 248 1 0 KEULILLE The Minolta Dimage software is typical of the software used by many scanners But there are yet other wrinkles Suppose you scan an image but intend to print it larger than the original For instance suppose you have a 3 x 5 inch picture that you want to print at 4 5 x 7 5 inches in a newsletter You need to scan it at a higher resolution in order to keep enough information to make a high quality print Otherwise enlarging the scanned image results in a low res jaggy image Use this formula for figuring out what resolution to scan Scanner resolution final dpi x intended image width original image width So let s say we wanted to print the 3 x 5 inch picture enlarged to 4 5 x 7 5 inches at 300dpi Th
32. C My Pictures portfolio BoE Eile Edit View Find ImageFie Capture Window Help Deis shelo eA All ol p Browse C My Pictures portfolio H My Pictures C animals C balloon C Books 7 C bydavejohr O car 4 casten CJ colorado C e10 pics C europe CJ evan C fall Comde C gp2k CI HTDE Digi CJ kids C kis CJ letterhead C main C me CJ Mise CI New CJ olympus re PROON TAANS 00 streams tit ON Pee For Help press F1 Thumbnail 1548 x 1161 x 16 7 Milbon 1 of 22 ACRES Paint Shop Pro lets you browse your hard disk visually CHAPTER 9 Keeping Images on the PC graphically with each image represented by a thumbnail That means you can use Browse two ways E You want to edit or print an image so you use the Browse tool to find the image you want visually E You just want to review your images so you use the Browse tool to see your image thumbnails Here is how to use Paint Shop Pro s Browse tool 1 Start Paint Shop Pro 2 Choose File Browse from the menu bar shown here The Browse window should appear gt Paint Shop Pro Fie Edt View Capture Help New CtrleN Open CtreO Import eam m h Export gt Batch Conversion Run Image Robot Run Animation Shop Preferences gt 1 Wathion athion ch 3109 05 2 c Windows ch8 i08 02 3 c Windows ch8 i08 12 4 c Windows ch8 i08
33. Choose Image Rotate 3 Specify the direction left or right and enter a number in the Degrees box You can type in a decimal such as 5 which is half of a degree if you want Click OK to see the result 4 Inspect the result If you aren t satisfied choose Edit Undo and try again with a different angle of rotation When you are happy save the file Don t apply rotation on top of rotation or the image quality will suffer Undo the first rotation completely to get back where you started and then apply a different rotation angle to get where you re going all at once 228 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Improve the Color and Brightness in Your Image These edits require the most artistic skill so I saved them for last Fixing elements of your picture like bad color or poor exposure can be done but it ll take some practice before you can make your images really look right But don t worry about that time in your image editor is free and if you stick with it you can fix some badly mangled shots Brighten Gloomy Shots Everyone has a stockpile of too dark images The flash didn t reach the subject or perhaps the camera underexposed the subject because of a bright background In the first part of this book I told you how to avoid those kinds of problems in the lens when you take the picture but you can also repair some of the damage in post processing There are three primary ways of adjust
34. Correct for uneven scan brightness Decide whether to use print or slide film Most of this book is about how to take pictures with a digital camera get those images on the PC and edit manipulate share and print them But it would be a mistake to assume that everyone uses newfangled digital cameras all the time A majority of photographers both professional and casual still use good old 35mm cameras and 35mm chemical film still sells like hotcakes in every grocery store around the world I can vouch for that in Honduras recently ISO 100 film was hanging from clips in every neighborhood shop It goes without saying that they didn t sell memory cards So you might be wondering How can I take my slides or negatives and get them onto my PC That s a great question because you probably have shoeboxes full of pictures that date back years and years and it would be wonderful to turn them into digital images In this chapter we look at bridging the gap between film and digital photography I talk about scanners and how to get the best results from your analog images in the new world of digital So if you have slides or negatives and want to get them into your PC take a look at this chapter If you re already 100 percent digital and don t need any scanner advice feel free to move along to Part III of this book See you there Understanding Scanners A scanner is a device that like a photocopier takes a snapshot of whatever docum
35. Film 157 Behia Relative size of various removable memory cards As for the other memory card formats there s little compelling reason to prefer CompactFlash Memory Stick or SD In my experience CompactFlash cards are a bit cheaper than the alternatives and they re also available in higher capacities right now But history has ahi Most cameras use just one kind of memory although some newer models such as the Olympus e10 and e20n accept both SmartMedia and CompactFlash cards for more flexibility and storage space 158 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera proven that prices drop and capacities go up for most memory cards so don t get too hung up on that Bottom line Buy a camera based on other features and only use the kind of memory card it has as part of your last look criteria You can buy digital cameras that record images directly to a CD R You can store a lot of images on these disc based cameras but I think that memory cards are better storage mediums and I suggest you avoid these cameras Transferring Images to the PC No matter what kind of digital camera or removable media you use eventually you ll need to get your pictures from the camera to a computer see Figure 8 3 It s there that you ll be able to edit print and distribute them Your digital camera comes with software for transferring images and a cable that you can use to connect the camera to your PC For many us
36. Gifts From Pictures Many Web sites and local photo stores can take your digital images and use them to create all sorts of interesting gifts like coffee mugs t shirts refrigerator magnets jigsaw puzzles 14 and even food your picture can be added in edible food dyes to cookies cakes and candies Sites like ClubPhoto com ofoto com and PhotoWorks com offer these basic services If you re shopping for a picture apron or want to eat some vacation shots check out these Web sites This page intentionally left blank Using Your Images Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use This page intentionally left blank Printing Your Pictures ae Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 330 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to Choose the printer that s right for you Distinguish among laser inkjet and dye sublimation printers Shop for a printer Match resolution to print size Choose the right kind of paper for your print job Print an enlargement with Paint Shop Pro Configure your printer for paper and quality Determine what side of the paper to print on Care for prints after they come out of the printer Send your images to someone else for printing A lot of the time it all comes down to this No matter how versatile the digital medium is a digital camera isn t very useful unless you can make prints Great p
37. In this chapter we ll pick up where we left off and talk about how to stitch those together on the PC CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images pb Eoee E INE i Hehi You can connect a number of images to make a wide or tall panoramic shot As I mentioned in Chapter 6 there are two steps to taking a panorama photographing the scene and stitching the images together afterward When shooting the pictures keep these tips in mind You ll need to take a series of pictures that overlap Try to get 30 50 percent of each image to overlap into the next picture to make it easier to stitch them together In order to keep each image s perspective identical you ll need to keep the camera s rotational axis the same In plain English that means you need to take all the pictures from the same location Don t drift a few feet as you photograph and take the shots on a tripod if possible Avoid using a wide angle lens since this can distort the images and make it difficult to line up edges Now it s time to make the panorama There s a hard way and an easy way which way you choose depends upon how much enthusiasm you have for delicate editing and how much money you have to spend on yet another image editing program If you re game for doing it the easy way you need to purchase a panorama program that automates the entire process for you There are several programs around that do the stitching for you If you re
38. Note Infomation e ENE EY 220 Ells Mictosat aes 2l Preview Outlook Ic Original P Te A z 7 F 1648 color My Documents 2 af Contrast 4 a i Brightness IV Always On Top Image Title main Save Fie Pat CAMy Pitures Web galeyami __Send To HotSync I Show Confirmation eek Aela Oe ale yos Mister AS R B Bo Se D7 woe Saa BOLD ABOOD 10an ECRL AlbumToGo lets you change the brightness contrast and cropping of the selected image before it goes to await the next HotSync 367 16 368 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera of the screen shown here There are two links one for the color Palm and another for grayscale Palms After selecting the link choose Open This File from Its Current Location on the File Download dialog box and the image is automatically stored on your Palm at the next HotSync Wolves Microsoft Internet Explorer BEE File Edt View Favorites Toots Help ee 32 a co WES gl sh H Links JPT B MP3 S AvantGo ThrowingMusic GemePower Paedia Address my http imembers3 onic com dave275397 Wolves EE ec Go Return to Alb View Full Image Photo 1 of 10 w a m i Dreamhawk i PRINTS amp GIFTS Order Prints be Send an E Card Run Slide Show Wiembe ces Sign Guest Book Invite Others to i Convert to Palm Grey Seale Color MEMBER ALBU
39. Stick to display both still images and MPEG movies in a small LCD screen that you can place on a tabletop like an ordinary picture frame If you already have a Sony digital camera that uses Memory Stick memory storage the CyberFrame is a good choice because you can simply remove the memory card from the camera and insert it directly in the picture frame to begin displaying images The Digi Frame is a similar product though it uses both CompactFlash and SmartMedia memory cards so you can insert the memory card from most digital cameras to view your images The Ceiva which you can see in Figure 16 10 is unique in two ways In addition to a small cache of internal nonremovable memory it also connects to the Internet via an ordinary telephone jack Using a built in modem it regularly connects to the Internet and downloads images you ve stored on the Ceiva Web site With the ability to rotate among 20 images stored in the Ceiva s memory each day you can have a constant supply of images on display with minimal effort Likewise Ceiva makes it possible to share images from your digital camera with other Ceiva picture frame owners so you can establish a community of friends and family who exchange images among their picture frames via the Ceiva Web site 16 ECV SLAE Digital picture frames put an always changing slide show of your digital images right on a table top 3 0 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Here is a handy
40. Zip disk made on a Mac cannot be read on a PC Instead you ll see an error message saying that the disk isn t formatted CHAPTER 16 Sharing Your Pictures Click this button to attach a file i Untitled Message Plain Text File Edit View Insert Format Tools Actions Help Elsend amp ea age t 4 Y 3 Options tenn Subject z CGE Use the paperclip icon to attach images and other kinds of files to your email Send Email with Outlook 2000 If you re a Microsoft Outlook user here s how to attach a pair of images to an outgoing message 1 Click the New button in the Outlook toolbar to create a new mail message A blank untitled message should appear 2 Address the email by typing the appropriate email address in the To box 3 Add a subject by typing in the Subject box 357 16 358 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 4 Enter some message text It s generally a good idea to write a personal specific note rather than sending a blank message with attachments that way the recipient knows it s not some sort of virus We just got a new cat named Molniya Message Plain Text ioj x File Edit View Insert Format Tools Actions Help Esen H 8 4 Gs O G k t t e Boots Ale A B Zz U 4 ices Rick and Shawna Broida Cor Subject fwe just got a new cat named Molniya Just like the subject line says we got a new cat today She s a 2
41. ___ Adding Extra Hard Drives One other option you might consider is adding another hard disk Hard drives get cheaper and bigger every year and these days 80GB and 100GB drives are not unusual nor are they overly expensive Some people install a second drive and dedicate it for images video music and other multimedia files To see if your PC is a good candidate for a second hard disk shut it down and open it up Many computers have tool free cases that you can open easily other PCs require a small screwdriver to 184 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera ei Untitled Easy CD Creator 21 x Eile Edit View CD Tools Internet Help a ee Bs New Up Create CD Find Files Add Properties Views CD Guide Explorer C gp2k Modified a CI HTDE Digicam E abbey 301KB Corel PHOTO PAINT 8 9 3 989 L kids f bbeyroad 3 245KB Bitmap Image 9 3 98 8 Ga kis abbeyroad 173KB QuickTime Movie 8 31 98 La Ietleshead bigben 77KB QuickTime Movie 8 31 98 5 gh pai 948KB Bitmap Image 8 31 98 C Mise eiffeltower 93KB QuickTime Movie 8 31 98 3 2 New ES buve 114KB QuickTime Movie 8 31 98 C pam EZ pomp 1 858KB Bitmap Image 1127 9 CJ portfolio E popm 212KB QuickTime Movie 8 31 98 CI print zi in CD Layout 001126_1036 pe amp 301KB Corel PHOTO PAINT 8 0 Image 44 eiffel BMP 948KB Bitmap Image Ea pomp 6MP 1 858KB Bitmap Image Nf statue BMP 573KB Bitmap Image iL O butes 100 MB 200 MB
42. and lamp shades though and haven t come up with anything that works nearly as well as the Cloud Dome Perhaps the best inexpensive substitute you can find is a small white umbrella glclesi eeem The Cloud Dome comes with a bracket that fits almost any size digital camera and creates a virtual studio in which you can make the focus and lighting perfect with little effort This page intentionally left blank Pushing Your Camera to Its Limits Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 114 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to E Take pictures in special color modes such as black and white or sepia E Determine when to use special color modes on the camera or wait and process images on the PC Shoot a series of panoramic photos Add wide angle and telephoto lenses to your camera Avoid vignetting when using add on lenses Correct for distortion caused by wide angle lenses Interpret lens magnification numbers Take a series of time lapse photos Turn time lapse photos into a movie Extend the life of your camera s batteries These days cameras are no longer just cameras Take a look at the most common cameras in the local computer or camera shop and you ll find that many models are designed to record movies take panoramic photographs record sound and do a host of other things as well It seems that camera manufacturers think that if you like a camera you
43. be easier if you could always shoot in front of a blue screen too You could simply use the Magic Wand tool to select the whole background with just a few clicks But since you don t live on a sound stage sometimes it s a slightly more convoluted process to get a blue screen effect using Paint Shop Pro CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 215 5 With the second image selected copy the image to the Clipboard by choosing Edit Copy 6 Choose Edit Paste Into Selection You should see the second image pasted or chromakeyed into the first image 68 Jasc Paint Shop Pro bs Tex File Ed yiew Imegs Elecle Colos Layers Dbecie Selections Maske window Help DehG oc se Role Background Pa PRHE n Et TAQCPOPEARSHBrirns 0g 04 634 image 512x 640 x 16 Mion 950 KBytes You can use this technique in all sorts of ways You can make a window look out over an unusual vista You can have a plain board become a famous painting You can use it to create 13 your own news or weather effects Experiment it s fun and very easy to do Suppose you want to place a subject in a completely different scene than the one in which it was photographed In the movies an actor would be filmed in front of a blue screen and then a matte or second video source would be substituted in place of the blue screen in postproduction Here s how you can do it in Paint Shop Pro 1 Open the image of the person or subject that will be
44. by drawing a thin horizontal line under the text and image see Figure 14 4 To do that activate the drawing tools by clicking the Drawing icon on the toolbar Then click the Line tool and drag out a horizontal line holding down the SHIFT key at the same time The line will snap to the horizontal automatically 320 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Tj Document2 Microsoft Word File Edt Yiew Insert Format Tools Table Window Help PalmDocs Wordsmith DSkeal a6anyr amp mA AS o MORE B BT 3 Normal Dave Johnson 1234 Em Street ett cei tari Vail CO 90411 www bydavejohreon com 303 555 1212 Draw G Autoshapes N O oB4A ua AJET ENE Page 1 se i 1 1 At i in9 Coli REC fii 7 Geet Pelee Cuter HCL Images can make your letterhead quite elegant unless it s a picture of me use that at your own risk Create Your Own Greeting Cards There are two ways to make greeting cards using your computer the easy way and the not as easy but still not very hard way The easy way is by using one of the many greeting card software packages on the market see Figure 14 5 Not only can you import your digital camera images into these programs but they also come with a considerable collection of clip art and premade card templates If you don t have one of those programs you can still make your own greeting cards in a page layout program or Microsoft Word Since Word is the low
45. camera Your results will also vary depending upon what camera you own In testing I have found that the Nikon CoolPix 995 works just fine though the Sony DSC P5 suffers from terrible optical degradation Taking Time Lapse Photos If you ve ever been impressed by a time lapse movie of a flower opening or traffic moving on a busy highway you might want to try it yourself It s not hard to do though it s certainly easier if your camera supports time lapse operations to begin with 128 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera First a little theory time lapse photography is just the process of shooting the same subject over and over with a certain time interval between each shot so that when you play the images back later in sequence it s like a movie in which events happen faster than normal time If your camera has a time lapse feature this is a piece of cake The control might be on the camera itself in the menu system or on your PC If it s only on your PC you may need to connect a laptop to the camera to control the time lapse operation If the control is on the camera though you don t need any special equipment All you need to do is configure the camera s interval time which is the interval between photos If your camera doesn t have a time lapse control you can still take a series of photos but you ll have to shoulder more of the work Specifically you ll have to turn the camera on take a
46. chart showing the digital picture frame makers and their Web sites Digital Picture Frames Find It At Ceiva www ceiva com Digi Frame www digi frame com Sony CyberFrame www sel sony com Showing Pictures on TV No one likes to admit it but we all spend the best hours of our lives in the family room within a stone s throw of the television So while the Web and framed enlargements are two good ways to show off your pictures nothing beats watching them on the familiar old television Heck I can even think of a non couch potato reason to show your pictures on a TV it s the biggest screen in the house so everyone can see your photos without craning their necks Thankfully showing your digital images on television is frightfully easy Most digital cameras have video out ports built right in that can directly display the contents of your camera s memory card on a TV screen Don t lose the video cable that comes with your camera though one end is a standard RCA jack for connecting to the video in port of a TV or VCR but the other end is a specialized connector for your camera It s expensive to replace and it s only available from the camera manufacturer Your camera is designed to take any picture on your camera even big 3 megapixel ones and fit them on the TV screen That s fine but it can be slow since the camera has to read a lot of useless data from the memory card pack it down to a smaller image size and finally pu
47. deste A E erates agentes SOSS 289 xiii X V Howto Do Everything with Your Digital Camera CHAPTER 14 PART IV CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 16 Put Your Kid in aYar oo sc scen cake een tipe Cee ee ee ii n 290 Make a Double Exposure 00 ccc eee cee eee eee 293 Paint Like Van Gogh 0 0 eee ee eee ee 295 Decolorizing Your Pictures 0 0 0 0 eee eee eee 296 Colorizing an Imate vessels Gee ae ie Shae ok A ER ee Bo 300 Another Kind of Colorizing 0 0000 c eee eee 302 Working with Text and Creating Projects 06 303 Adding Text to Pictures 2 0 0 eee eee 304 Special Effects with Text 2 2 0 2 eee eee eee eee 307 Create Gradient Filled Text 00 00000 308 Create Picture Filled Text 0 0 0 eee 310 Add a Drop Shadow 0 00 c eee eee eee 312 Combine Image and Drop Shadow 204 314 Projects for Your Digital Images 0 00 00 e eee eee 316 Using Digital Images as Wallpaper 04 316 Adding an Image to Letterhead 0 004 318 Create Your Own Greeting Cards 0 004 320 Create a Newsletter 0 2 ee eee 324 Using Your Images Printing Your Pictures 6 cece eee cece cee eee eee 329 Using the Right Printer 00 0 eee ee eee eee 330 CHOOSING AIPLINTER 5 fash a fosg se E ect edo gue Go aba a 331 What to Look For sis soo
48. disk drive for storage And if you re worried that image transfers with other cameras are too complicated for you just keep reading Later in this chapter Pl talk about really easy ways to get images off your camera s memory card Choosing a Memory Card Format As I ve mentioned memory devices vary dramatically in size In Figure 8 1 you can see the relative sizes of the most common memory formats It s worth noting that in at least a few cases you don t have to choose between different memory storage formats anymore Some camera makers are starting to include both CompactFlash and SmartMedia slots in some of their cameras Not only does that mean you can pick a camera on features and not worry about whether you like SmartMedia or CompactFlash better but you can insert two memory cards in the camera at once and switch from one to the other when one card fills up The Olympus E 10 Figure 8 2 uses just this system eliminating the traditional confusion over competing memory card formats With all that said what kind of memory card should you use In general I d say that choosing a specific kind of memory card is not nearly so important as picking other camera features such as Zoom optical quality and useful exposure modes Of course I would definitely avoid cameras with floppy disk and SmartMedia based storage systems But if I found a truly excellent digital camera with a SmartMedia slot I d probably compromise and get the Sm
49. easy to install yourself If you don t want to mess around inside your PC you can add an external hard disk instead These days USB 2 0 discussed in Chapter 8 and FireWire also known as i Link or IEEE1394 hard disks are fast inexpensive and install in just minutes by doing nothing more than plugging in a cable I highly recommend these sorts of external drives Once you ve found somewhere to put the drive follow these basic steps 1 Ensure the PC is off and you are fully grounded before proceeding You can purchase a static grounding mat or a strap that attaches to your wrist at any local computer shop Alternately you can ground yourself by touching the metal cage surrounding the computer s power supply as long as the computer is plugged into the wall outlet If you leave the computer plugged in for grounding purposes be absolutely sure the computer is turned off before you open it up and start working 2 Remove the new hard disk from its packaging and review the instructions that came with it 9 3 Set the hard disk s jumper to master or slave depending on how you are installing it Essentially if the drive will share the same IDE ribbon cable as the original hard disk there are two places to plug hard disks into each IDE cable follow the hard disk s directions to set it as a slave drive If you plan to install the hard disk with its own IDE cable into the PC s alternative IDE port configure the drive as a mas
50. edge of the photo when shooting at close distances Since the lens is off to the right of the viewfinder you will need to point the camera slightly to the left in order to take the picture you desire In actual operation just recompose the scene so the correction marks help frame the left edge of your picture You might have correction marks at the top or bottom of the viewfinder as well If the lens is below the optical viewfinder as it often is correction marks at the top of the frame show you how to reorient the camera slightly higher than you would otherwise If all this is just a little confusing take a look at Figure 5 4 Here you can see how I have oriented my camera to use the correction marks at close distance Correction marks are a guide to help you frame macro photographs But there are some very important things to remember about correction marks E Correction marks are only approximate They help you adjust for parallax error but they are not perfect This should be obvious when you realize that parallax varies depending upon your distance from the subject E Correction marks work only at close range Parallax by definition diminishes with distance from the subject At ordinary distances you don t need to worry about the marks at all In fact if you use them when shooting a subject that is 10 feet away they will simply introduce composition error in exactly the opposite direction Remember though that they are important whe
51. enlarge the final image In digital photography however we re dealing with pixels not grains of silver halide And it seems like there are rarely enough pixels to go around If you are using a 3 34 megapixel digital camera for instance the best you can hope to do is print your photograph at 11 x 17 inches before the pixels start to become obvious See Chapter 15 for details on printing That s probably enough resolution for most practical applications but consider what happens if you need to crop your image because the subject was just too small the Hehi This shot is almost uncomfortably close and that s why it is so captivating CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials 51 way the photograph was originally taken If you crop out half of the pixels in the photo you ll be lucky to get a good looking 8x10 inch photograph with the resulting crop If your digital camera captures smaller images like 2 megapixel or even 1 megapixel then you can imagine how critical it is to compose the picture properly the first time There really aren t any pixels to spare Move the Horizon This rule is closely related to the rule of thirds If you follow the rule of thirds to the letter you probably won t make this mistake anyway but it is important enough to mention explicitly No doubt you have seen photographs in which the photographer chose to place the horizon right in the middle of the photograph Actually the photographer probably
52. flash You bow 4 might be able to reduce its intensity by 50 percent or more You can use this mode when you are using the flash to fill in shadows or when you are taking a close up and a full flash burst would overexpose your subject CHAPTER 4 Flash and Lighting 77 Slow In the world of 35mm photography this slow setting is sometimes referred to as Siow 4 a rear curtain flash Other cameras such as Nikon digitals call it Slow Sync Of course that name may not help you understand what the slow setting does When you set the camera to slow flash it fires the flash at the tail end of the exposure It s used most often at night when the exposure is long such as a second or more What does it do Suppose you were trying to take a picture of a car driving down the street With an ordinary flash exposure the flash fires right away thus freezing the car at the start of the frame In a long exposure you will then see headlights cut through the car and out of the frame The slow mode however saves the flash for the end In a picture taken with this mode you will see headlights that travel through the frame and then meet up with the rear of a flash frozen car The car is leaving the picture at the end of the exposure just like it should As you can imagine you won t use this mode all the time but it is indispensable when you need to get a certain kind of long exposure photograph Improve Your Outdoor Photographs In my experience peop
53. for a look at how you can use a reflector this way eGA Reflectors can block the wind as well as reflect light 82 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera A common way to use a reflector is to hold it roughly parallel to the ground just under a person s face That throws light upward into the shadowy areas of the face giving you softer more even illumination SS lt _ lt Improve Your Indoor Photographs Indoors we are often much less concerned about harsh sunlight than we are about having enough light and light of the proper color The evil red eye is also the nemesis of many indoor photographs For common snapshots there s probably nothing wrong with simply using your flash and leaving the camera in its fully automatic mode But if you want to get really good at indoor photos there are a few things you can do to shift the odds in your favor Use Window Light The best light is natural light Whenever possible position your subject near a window so that you can take advantage of the natural light pouring into your house If you want to try the window technique here are a few tips E Avoid using windows where the light streams in directly and thus creates harsh shadows Instead pick a window in which you get more diffused indirect light E Position yourself with your back to the window and turn your subject so she faces mostly head on into the window with some light spilling over to the side of her fac
54. format photography an entirely different kind of camera So what s next No major camera makers have yet announced 8 or 10 megapixel cameras but it s probably just a matter of time Actually I suspect that digital camera development may finally be starting to slow down most of us average shooters are reasonably happy with 3 megapixel cameras and even most pros will be satisfied with 6 megapixel models Eventually though specialty digital cameras will no doubt come in resolutions that allow photographers to work with huge prints like those from large format cameras In the meantime we re seeing another trend in digital photography satisfying traditional film photographers Right now the main kind of digicam is the point and shoot model Point and shoot digital cameras appeal to casual and even some advanced photographers They look like 35mm point and shoot models see Figure 1 2 and automate most of the features needed to take pictures SLR digital cameras are getting more popular all the time These cameras are aimed at serious photographers Models like the Nikon D1H and the Canon D30 feature interchangeable lenses powerful flash units and a wealth of manual controls In a nutshell they work and behave just like SLRs from the film world If you have a trusty old SLR and want a digital camera that s just like it this is a good time to be getting into digital Only a year or two ago the price of these pro oriented cameras were
55. image selected choose Edit Paste As New Selection 11 Position the subject in the new scene Voila you re done Shake Hands with Elvis Now the moment you ve been waiting for the opportunity to combine pictures of yourself or friends with famous celebrities and historical figures It s not really all that hard especially now that you know the basic principles from working with blue screens Let s suppose that your friend Kristen has always wanted to meet Elvis It s too late to set up a meeting but you can do the next best thing In the following steps P 11 show you how to combine a picture of her with an old shot from the Nixon administration 1 First you need a suitable picture of Kristen one in which she s more or less the same size as Elvis Load the picture of the King into Paint Shop Pro and choose Image Image Information to find out how tall Elvis is in the selected image Current Image Information x Creator Information Source file File name File type Image Dimensions 602 x 402 Pixels 8 361 x 5 583 Inches Pixels Per Inch 72 Pixel depth colors 8 256 Memory used On disk Image Selection Masks amp alpha channels Undo Total C WINDOWS Desktop ch1 3 fig1 3 03 tif Tagged Image File Format Status Has been modified Has a selection Number of layers Number of alphas In RAM 238K OK OK OK Cancel Help 281 13 282 How to Do
56. image snap to fill most of the page Paper E m Size Letter 81 2 x11 in x Source auto Sheet Feeder x Orientation r Position Portrait F Center on page Landscape Left margin l 39 Top margin fc 15 Print output Options Color Negative Cancel KG Greyscale Back d Printer CMYK separations Background Help ___ 7 8 Select File Print The Print dialog box should appear CHAPTER 15 If the image doesn t fill the page adequately you can click OK on the Page Setup dialog Printing Your Pictures box and crop the image so it better fits the page size you are trying to print to Click OK to close the Page Setup dialog box 9 Click Properties next to your selected printer The Printer Properties dialog box should appear though it will vary depending upon what kind of printer you have 10 Select the correct type of paper If this is going to be framed and hung on your wall for instance you probably want to select a glossy or premium paper ___ 11 12 EPSON Stylus Photo EX Properties Main Paper Layout Utiity Media Type Ink Plain paper 360 dpi Ink Jet Paper Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper Photo Paper Photo Quality Glossy Film Ink Jet Transparencies Se Ink Jet Back Light Film Current Settings ff Letter EPSON Plain paper v ri ie J Speed Normal 360dpi es Portrait Microweave O
57. images on them at all They hold sound files text documents and more Your camera won t know what to do with files like that but you can store anything on a memory card There are differences between memory cards though The principal difference is speed cards are rated at 2X slowest 4X or 8X fastest The faster ones write data faster and are a good choice if you value speed when taking pictures They re also good for high megapixel cameras since large files take longer to record 166 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Caring for Your Memory Cards After you are done transferring images from the memory card to your PC you no longer need those images You can delete them to make room for more pictures There are two ways to do this you can delete them via the PC or use the camera s controls to delete images or reformat the card If your memory card is inserted in the PC via some sort of memory card adapter using the PC doesn t waste camera battery power and that s a good reason to do it that way If you don t have that luxury it s a good idea to plug the camera into its AC adapter so you don t drain your camera s batteries To delete images from your memory card via the PC you can usually just select the files and press DELETE on your keyboard it s just like deleting any kind of file from your PC s floppy or hard disk To delete images using the camera s interface you ll have to navigate
58. in a digital image you will have better luck with the Dropper by zooming in for a close up view of the region before you select a color with the Dropper Applying the Paint Once you ve selected colors to serve as the foreground and background colors it s time to lay down some paint In Paint Shop Pro do this 1 Click the Selection tool and make sure that the Selection style is set to Rectangle in the Tool Options dialog box 246 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 2 Click and drag the Selection tool in the image to create a rectangle Click the Flood Fill tool w 4 Set the fill style to solid color To do that click the right arrow on the Styles box in the Color palette You ll see several options representing color gradient pattern and no style at all Click the first option shaped like a paintbrush 5 Finally click inside the selection with the Flood Fill tool You should see it fill with a solid color the same one you selected in step 4 If you like right click in the selected rectangle as well You should see it change to background color CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images 247 G3 Jasc Paint Shop Pro Image2 File Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help 0684 2 R8 90 Fano a Image2 1 3 Layer1 Tool Options Flood Fill PEQRNSEHBRUNAVG SRE OD Blend mode Normal Match mode 2 None s A Tolerance
59. in close focus mode and you will get good results when shooting within only a few inches of the camera In addition some digital cameras require your zoom lens to be within a certain macro range zoom in too far and it won t be able to focus properly If in doubt check your camera s manual 93 94 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Tulip E 20Nn 5 0 Megapixel mlclelsi eme Follow the tulip on your camera to find the close focus or macro mode Fixed Focus Cameras Though they are increasingly rare fixed focus cameras still exist If you have one of these relics I suggest you upgrade to an autofocus camera as soon as possible Nonetheless even these models usually include a close focus mode though it s harder to use You may need to slide a manual focusing dial or lever to get your picture in the proper focus as in the Canon PowerShot pictured in Figure 5 2 or you might need to position your camera a specific distance from the subject Several Kodak models feature a fixed focus distance when shooting macros around 8 inches As you might surmise it s not easy to capture good sharp photos when you have such a rigid focusing distance When you re done shooting in macro mode be certain to return the camera to its ordinary focusing mode or you ll end up with a memory card full of out of focus images CHAPTER 5 Taking Close Ups Vin a mlclli aeeyag If your camera has a fixed focus
60. in your picture if you set the camera s ISO value to a very high number when you re shooting in bright light but usually the shutter speed is so short that there is little time for the CCD to generate noise in the final image When you are measuring the exposure in seconds however noise can build up quickly Take a look at Figure 4 8 Here you can see how digital noise affects a picture when the shutter speed is more than a few seconds long Some cameras like the Olympus e 10 are designed to minimize this long exposure noise The CCD is built directly onto a heat sink to carry excess energy away during long exposures Many digital cameras don t have that feature however and as a result you ll simply have to live with that noise The two ways to minimize this effect are to keep the shutter speed as short as possible to get the effect you re looking for or to run a noise reduction or despeckle filter on your picture in an image editor after you transfer it to the computer mlcliieeecm CCDs are not always optimized to take long exposures at night 89 90 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Cool Things to Photograph at Night You ll find all kinds of things to photograph when the sun goes down and each one requires a somewhat different technique Here are some suggestions to get you started E Themoon When shooting the moon remember that it is a very bright object The Sunny 16 Rule discussed in Chapter 3 may
61. it s a miracle that anyone used them at all They were strictly for gear headed early adopters that bought them just to try out the nascent field of digital photography They certainly weren t particularly useful since they offered poor image quality limited resolution and substandard optics Early digital cameras generated low resolution images like 320 x 240 pixels not even enough to fill a computer screen when set to the lowest Windows resolution That was if you could figure out how to get the images out of the camera and into your PC Those early digital cameras typically had plastic lenses and the light sensor that captured the image was a component called a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor CMOS chip CMOS chips were popular because they were cheap and required very little power but they created horribly fuzzy pictures Charged coupled devices CCDs cost a small fortune in comparison so CMOS chips found their way into many of the first cameras See Figure 1 1 for an example of the difference between an image taken with a CMOS chip on the left and a CCD on the right CMOS is making a comeback the technology has improved dramatically and some new cameras with CMOS chips work as well as CCDs and they cost less to boot So don t ignore a new digital camera just because it has a CMOS sensor As time went on Video Graphics Array VGA resolution became the first real standard size for digital images Digicams sh
62. lens it may focus at a precise distance or have a manual focus control for close ups Close Up Enemy No 1 Parallax Most digital cameras are of the point and shoot variety as I mentioned in Chapter 1 Point and shoot cameras are models that don t show you the actual scene in the optical viewfinder Instead using the viewfinder is like looking through one window in your house while someone else looks through a nearby window You both see essentially the same scene though they are not identical If the two of you look to the horizon for instance the two scenes are virtually indistinguishable If you re both looking at a person walking toward the house though as the person gets closer and closer your two views become increasingly different And that is what it is like when you look through the optical viewfinder and the camera uses the nearby lens to take the photograph SLR style cameras don t have this problem because the optical viewfinder actually looks through the lens right up until the moment of exposure The problem as you have probably guessed manifests itself when you try to take a close up with such a digital camera Since your subject is only a few inches away the difference in view 95 96 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Ensure Good Focus in Close Up Mode Close focus photography is a bit temperamental For starters the acceptable focusing distance for macro lenses is much shorter than in the nor
63. ll like a camera that washes your dishes and plays music even better Most of this book concentrates on how to use your camera to take good pictures A lot of the extra features that you find on cameras are in my opinion usually just gimmicks On the other hand every once in a while you may find a useful creative application for one of the gizmos built into your camera And that s where this chapter comes in look here for information about all those other things your camera can do And that s not all This chapter is about pushing your camera to its limits That means we ll talk about how to do unusual things with your camera like use it to perform time lapse photography Your camera is no good without batteries so we ll talk about how to get the most battery life out of your camera as well Get Creative Your camera may come with photo modes besides the ones that we have already discussed especially if it s a high end model The most common features you ll encounter in digital cameras are additional color modes By setting your camera to the appropriate mode you might be able to take pictures in black and white or with a sepia tone If your camera does not come with one of these special effects modes you can always convert your images to black and white or sepia on a computer after you ve taken them Refer to Chapter 13 for information on how to do that CHAPTER 6 Pushing Your Camera to Its Limits 115 Using the b
64. megapixel cameras are good enough But if you want larger pictures like 11 x 17 or 13 x 19 well within the ability of some desktop inkjet printers you need more pixels Or you might want to change the composition of a digital image by cropping away a lot of unwanted pixels and then print the resulting image as an 8 x 10 You ll need to start with a larger image such as a 4 5 or 6 megapixel to get good results See The whole issue of resolution can get a bit complicated A few top of the line pro level digicams can generate 6 megapixel images Photographers consider that an important number because that s the resolution generally associated with 35mm cameras It s hard to pin down the exact resolution of 35mm SLRs because it varies depending on the choice of film lens and lighting conditions but 6 megapixels is a good estimate Unlike film cameras digital cameras have no resolution limits All 35mm SLRs use the same size negative but digital camera resolution can go up each time a new model packs more pixels onto the CCD So while it would be great to take a wall sized picture with your 35mm SLR that s simply impossible even if you go out and buy a more expensive camera 35mm slides and negatives are far too small if you enlarge them the grains start to become readily visible once you get past 8 x 10 inch prints The only way to get larger prints is to start with a larger negative and that means switching to medium or large
65. midday when the sun is directly overhead The noon sun creates extremely harsh shadows and casts unflattering light for almost any kind of photographic project People look their worst when you photograph them between about 10 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon when the extremely bright light particularly in the summertime can tend to overwhelm a digital camera The alternative Shoot early or late in the day Photographers traditionally like the warm colors created by the sun in the late afternoon but the morning is almost as good If you are traveling on vacation for instance and want to get really great pictures plan your photo exploits 78 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera for the early morning hours and then again for late in the day Heck it s too hot in the middle of the day to pay too much attention to photography anyway If you make a conscious effort to take your best pictures before or after the high noon sun you re halfway there You also need to think about the position of the sun in the sky In the old days new photographers were taught to take pictures with the sun to their back The reason was simple the sun would best illuminate the subject Unfortunately if you were photographing people the sun would blast that light in the face causing them to squint That made for some mighty ugly pictures A much better solution is to position the sun over your left or right shoulder But no matter where you pu
66. newsletter If you re printing a black and white document such as on a laser printer it often pays to convert your image to grayscale before you insert it into the page layout or word processing program There are two reasons for this First you can see exactly what you re going to be printing and viewing it in shades of gray lets you determine whether the image needs brightness adjustment or other edits Second you re sending less information to the printer and the software should work somewhat faster E Enlargement printing If you want to print digital images at large sizes such as 5 x 7 inches or beyond TIF or JPG is fine but stick with TIF if you are editing and saving the file first E On screen display The JPG format is perfectly adequate for most on screen applications including email slide shows PowerPoint presentations Web photo albums Windows desktop wallpaper and that sort of thing Tweaking JPG The JPG file format is very flexible Just as on the digital camera where you can usually select from several grades of JPG image quality desktop based image editing software usually lets you specify an image quality level as well Remember the trade off with JPG settings the higher the image quality the larger the file size In a program like Paint Shop Pro for instance you can find the JPG controls in the 148 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera e world of handheld securty the emphasis is often
67. o7 a 7 2 A i Match mode RGB Value v Feather I Sample merged 1044 EER D Image 1680 x 2100 x 16 Millon 10 5 MB 249 12 250 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Freehand The Freehand tool is a great choice when you want to select part of the image but it s irregular in shape and hard to select any other way Perhaps the most powerful way to use the Freehand tool is to set it to Smart Edge mode Here s how it works 1 Select the Freehand tool and change the Selection Type to Smart Edge in the Tool Options dialog box Tool Options Freehand PREF h sa z Selection type Smart Edge Feather MV Antialias I Sample merged 2 Find a region that you want to select Ideally it should have a fairly well defined outline since the Smart Edge tool will snap to high contrast changes in the image 3 Click the edge of the region and move the mouse pointer You should see a box extend away from the point you clicked 4 Following the outline of the region click again on the edge some short distance away CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images 251 3 Jasc Paint Shop Pro coins Eile Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help JOSS 0 28 90 7 ain Wh E r A BB coins 1 1 Background Tool Options Freehand Pa Selection type Smart Edge z Feather PIAVON ZERATE rO PEE a 50 0 5 Continue clickin
68. of all but it sometimes takes some tweaking on your part You generally get to set at least three options as you can see here Unsharp Mask x 7 Radius Strength Clipping p 4 z oo a F 4 z Cancel Help Epl Radius This determines how many pixels around the edges are also affected by the filter E Strength This is the intensity of the sharpening effect E Clipping This determines how different the pixels need to be before they re considered an edge Start with 100 for Strength and 1 0 for Radius and watch the way the filter changes as you change Clipping A Clipping of 0 is the most harsh effect beyond about 30 changing Clipping has no real effect on your image Likewise raising Radius beyond 1 5 rarely has an attractive effect on your image _ ____ Blur to Sharpen Using the Sharpening filter is certainly one way to make your image look sharper but there s another more subtle and more artistic way to enhance the apparent sharpness of your image blur the background This process works best when you re photographing something that s quite distinct from the background like a portrait To blur the background of your image you ll need to isolate the subject so the blurring only happens in the rest of the picture Once your subject is selected you need to invert the selection so that the Blur filter applies to everything except the subject Finally you can run the Blur filter on
69. of aperture on depth of field in the optical viewfinder but the LCD display can show you the depth of field To see press the shutter release halfway down That locks in the focus and triggers the aperture to close to the proper position for the impending picture It s now with the shutter halfway depressed that you can see the depth of field in your picture Action Photography Action photography is often considered the most exciting kind of photography but it s also the most demanding for both your technique and your equipment As in all kinds of photography you can no doubt take some great pictures with anything from a wide angle lens all the way up to the photographic equivalent of the Hubble telescope And wide angle lenses do in fact have a role in action photography But the essence of many action shots is a highly magnified immediacy something you can only get with the telephoto lens mlcleisi acetem Portraits tend to work best with a moderate telephoto magnification and low f numbers CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials The shutter priority setting on your digital camera was born for action photography To freeze action you ll need to use a fairly fast shutter speed Luckily this higher shutter speed works to your advantage by opening up the aperture and diminishing the depth of field this focuses the viewer s attention specifically on your subject On the downside of course focusing is more critical
70. of the camera lens and then screw the add on lenses onto the end of the adapter Figure 6 2 for instance shows the Kodak DC 4800 with its lens adapter in place The camera manufacturer typically makes adapters like these since they are such specialized devices designed to affix only to specific cameras CHAPTER 6 Pushing Your Camera to Its Limits 121 Eeh Lens adapters are a common way to add wide angle and telephoto lenses to your camera E Jury rigged Unfortunately not all camera manufacturers include a way to add new lenses That may sound like the end of the line but it is possible to affix additional lenses to your camera using homemade adapters in some cases with an adapter for a different camera some tubing or a judicious amount of tape Sounds like something a fourth grader might do Well lots of professionals resort to this method on occasion so if you try it you are in good company Choosing Lenses Be sure to visit your camera manufacturer s Web site or your local camera shop to see what kinds of lenses are available for your camera Even if your camera manufacturer does not sell lenses for your specific model you can probably get a suitable substitute from a company like Tiffen www tiffen com Tiffen sells a wide variety of lenses and probably has something that would work for you Lenses are typically identified by their X power In other words the lens will be marked as something like 5X 2X or 3X This
71. often call CompactFlash the most versatile memory card format on the market It s quite small comes in a wide range of capacities and is priced affordably to boot CompactFlash is actually the same age as SmartMedia together those two formats are the great grandparents of today s mobile storage gadgets I think that CompactFlash is best for photographers who need to pack a large number of images onto each card As you can see in the following illustration CompactFlash is reasonably small it s about an eighth of an inch thick yet it comes in capacities up to 1GB as much storage space as a small hard disk CompactFlash cards shown here are ideal for high megapixel cameras and situations in which you can t easily swap out memory cards when the first one is full underwater photography is an excellent example A variation on the CompactFlash format is a small device called the Microdrive IBM s Microdrive is a tiny hard disk packed into the CompactFlash format Two Microdrives are available a 340MB card and a 1GB card Not all camera manufacturers certify their cameras to work reliably with the Microdrive even if the camera accepts the slightly thicker Type II CompactFlash cards such as the Microdrive so you should check before investing in one Memory Stick Originally manufactured exclusively by Sony for Sony products Memory Sticks are slowly starting to catch on In fact Lexar a popular maker of SmartMedia and Comp
72. on cting the data on the device to the exclusion of any rn for the handheld tself In many ways this egy is sound the loss of mission critical or sensitive can often cost significantly more than the handheld If But writing off a fleet of 500 Palms seems gious What organization wouldnt want to be able to wer thet hardware investment thaps the reason no one talks about wering lost or stolen Palms is because are few workable recovery solutions labie p all just a matter of time though ops tor instance have been able to modem based recovery services for S Absolute Software s CompuTrace Instance is a hidden application that les a notebook s hard disk When cted to a phone line CompuTrace etly dials home to let you know where it ks if thieves try to check their emai with your p they re exposed to CompuT race s recovery ice The problem No such solution exists for Palm elds y be on its way though Last year federal lation mandated that new cell phones must be Ipped with technology deigned to locate users placing mergency 911 call and Sprint has already released a with an integrated GPS system Analysts believe Ua ee Oe ee ree ee ne ence Handspring Treo and the Kyocera Smartphone should eventually lead to location aware PDAs that can phone home with their exact location when stolen or lost one company is akeady working on just such a product rity is a Company in the midst of launching a suite of ptt location se
73. on a Palm handheld Display images on a digital picture frame Create a video slide show with your camera and a VCR Create a video slide show using PowerPoint on your PC Taking pictures is one thing actually sharing them with friends family and coworkers is something else entirely Of course this is one area where your digital camera has a leg up on 35mm cameras To share traditional prints with someone you need to physically give them a copy That means visiting the photo finisher and having duplicates made Or you could scan the images and distribute them electronically Digital camera images are electronic to begin with though and that makes everything a whole lot easier Want to share your images Email them Or you can post them to the Web or show them off with a digital picture frame or a Palm handheld PC In this final chapter I show you how to easily make your images available to other people Sending Images via Email Email is perhaps the most common way to share digital images with people who live far apart Not only is email good for casually lending images to friends and family it s also the medium of choice for professionals When I create images for print in newspapers magazines and books I typically send the files via email unless they are so large that email is not practical So how do you do it Sending pictures within email is simply a matter of including one or more images as attachments in your mail message Atta
74. panorama that we see with our own eyes and translate it into an attractive photograph using the laws of photographic composition As you can see in Figure 3 1 there s often more than one way to frame a picture it s really your job to decide which works best for the kind of photograph you are trying to achieve In this situation I had an extremely rare opportunity to photograph endangered monk seals so I shot many different compositions Rules of Composition For a few pages now I have been alluding to the rules of composition I hope that you re curious what they might be In truth the rules of composition are no more rigid than rules of etiquette or the rules of Web page design Certainly those rules are important but they re simply guidelines to help us get the job done If you violate any of these rules nothing awful happens unless 46 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera mlcleni smm Changing the composition of a picture by turning the camera 90 degrees can completely change the effect a photograph has on its viewer you re still living at home when you break the rules of etiquette And that s why we ll be able to break these rules later on To begin with however we need to learn the rules and apply them Isolate the Focal Point I know what you re wondering what is the focal point The focal point is the main subject of your picture such as a building or perhaps a person In other words the
75. priority mode discussed in detail in Chapter 3 Do I need to change the shutter speed to depict motion in the picture If yes again try to adjust the aperture shutter or instead use the shutter priority mode discussed in detail in Chapter 3 Is the scene significantly brighter or darker than the camera is designed for If it is under or overexpose the scene Is the subject backlit such as with the sun behind Overexpose the scene Is the subject especially bright such as on fresh bright snow Try underexposing Do I want to expose the scene based on the lighting in a specific part of the scene If so use a spot meter or just lock in the exposure for that part of the picture and recompose the scene Composition Essentials Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 44 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to Use the rules of composition to take compelling photos Take less cluttered snapshots by emphasizing a focal point Take interesting photos with the rule of thirds Avoid cropping out important pixels by filling the frame Use lines and symmetry for artistic images Break the rules for more engaging photos Understand the relationships among shutter aperture and depth of field Employ depth of field for pictures that emphasize the subject Zoom a lens to achieve the right field of view Apply rules of composition to common ph
76. review them instantly while they re still stored in the camera to see if they turned out the way you like From there you can transfer them to a computer and easily crop them to size adjust color and brightness and then print the final result to exactly the size you like for a frame in your living room Then you can take the same picture and email it post it to a Web site or show it to friends from your handheld organizer The beauty of digital imaging is its immediacy and versatility just try to do those things with a 35mm or Advanced Photo System APS camera So if you ve recently bought a digital camera congratulations you ve made the right choice In this chapter we take a quick look at your camera and digital cameras in general And if you re still shopping for your camera flip to the end of this chapter where I tell you what to look for when you head off to make your purchase A History Lesson When I was a kid my dad bought a darkroom kit so he could develop his own photographs I clearly remember that box and how it sat untouched on top of a hall closet for years Why did my dad never get around to setting up his darkroom In a nutshell it was just too much trouble Darkrooms require well darkness You have to have a room that you can dedicate to the task and trust that people won t come barging in while you re developing film or hang their wet bathing suit in there when you re not watching And th
77. scan due to the imprecise motor that pulls the page through While this kind of scanner may be fine for text documents I highly recommend you avoid it for photographic work 189 10 190 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera E Photo scanners Photo scanners are designed to scan just pictures usually 3 x 5 inch or 4 x 6 inch pictures though some also can handle prints as large as 5 x 7 inches If all you need is the ability to convert 35mm prints into digital images this is a decent solution Some photo scanners even fit in an empty drive bay of your PC taking up no room on your desktop at all You insert the print in this kind of internal scanner much as if you were inserting a floppy disk in your PC On the other hand these scanners are completely useless for scanning anything except small pictures E Film scanners This is the choice of serious photographers Film scanners like the one pictured below vary dramatically in price anywhere from about 200 at the low end to several thousand dollars at the high end but they can give you outstanding results Film scanners are designed to accommodate slides and negatives and can usually scan at a very high resolution as much as 8 000dpi which gives you rich detailed digital images that you can print at full enlargement sizes Shopping for a Scanner So you want to convert your slides or prints into digital files and need to purchase a scanner There are a lot of features yo
78. shot and turn the camera off Then you need to wait the appropriate time period and repeat the process When you use automatic time lapse photography the camera does all that on its own The final results can be worth it though Figure 6 6 shows a series of photos that were captured with the time lapse mode of an Olympus e 10 digital camera If you want to try your hand at time lapse photography here are a few pointers to keep in mind E Useatripod This is probably obvious but I once saw someone try to take a time lapse series by hand The effect is ruined if each and every image isn t composed exactly the same way E Choose a subject Most of the time a time lapse photo series works best in other words it looks its best when you find a single subject that is going to change over time and make it the focal point of your photos If too much changes in the frame the image loses its impact In simple terms it looks like a mess E Find the right interval This may take some experimentation but it can make or break your photos Choose an interval between shots that best highlights the changes in your subject If the interval is too long the subject will change too much between shots and the results will look disjointed and confusing If the interval is too short not enough will happen between frames to make a visual difference E Start fresh Make sure that you have plenty of room on your memory card to complete your series You mi
79. similar or nearby part of the image see the before and after in the following illustration Typically smaller and more isolated distractions are easier to airbrush away than larger ones or objects that cut through the main part of your picture but if you re patient you can get great results from a surprising number of photos that you thought you d have to throw away To use the Clone tool in Paint Shop Pro just do this 1 Click the Clone tool in the tool palette It looks like a pair of paintbrushes 2 You ll need to find a region in your image that is similar to the area you want to cover If you want to airbrush away a power line that runs through the air for instance you can look for a nearby patch of sky that s similar enough that you can paint over the power line with this other section of sky 3 Set the source for your cloning operation In Paint Shop Pro just position the mouse pointer over the area you re going to steal color from and either right click or hold the SHIFT key and click 4 Move your mouse over to the area you want to airbrush and start painting Don t try to cover the blemish all at once paint a little pick up the mouse and paint again This reduces the chances that a recognizable pattern will appear as a result of your painting CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images 257 amp Jasc Paint Shop Pro Image030 1 1 Backeround DAR M File Edk view Image Effets Colors Layers Objects Selec
80. since the depth of field is more shallow In general I recommend that you use the fastest shutter speed available to capture action On the other hand you can use a technique called panning to capture the subject in good sharp focus and keep the background as a motion blur See Figure 3 16 for an example of panning that I used to freeze a child s wild ride at a Renaissance festival Panning is convenient both when you want to make a somewhat artistic statement about the subject s motion and when you know the camera can t muster up a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the motion the ordinary way Panning involves some effort on your part To create a good pan you need to twist your body in sync with the motion of the subject as you press the shutter release Here s how 1 Position yourself where you can twist your body to follow the motion of the moving subject without having the camera s line of sight blocked by something else 2 Set the camera s shutter speed for about 1 60 Feel free to experiment with this but if you set the shutter speed too slow you can t capture the subject effectively it blurs And if the shutter is too fast you won t get the pretty blur in the background 3 Twist your body with the motion of the subject and track it through the camera s viewfinder or on the LCD display Press the shutter release and continue tracking CRAE Panning freezes the subject while blurring the background 67
81. soup on the film is loaded with grains of silver halide When exposed to light the silver halide reacts and that is the essence of photography The longer the film is exposed to light the more the silver is affected The Moment of Exposure Depending on the kind of camera the events at the moment of exposure can be complicated In a modern 35mm SLR for instance microprocessor controlled sensors determine the exact amount of light needed to expose a picture at the moment you press the shutter release The lens automatically adjusts the size of its opening to admit the correct amount of light the mirror mechanism that usually lets you look through the viewfinder flips up and out of the way and the aperture opens for the programmed amount of time Point and shoot cameras in contrast don t use mirror mechanisms to let you see through the lens before the shot so there are fewer moving parts at the moment of exposure 24 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera The two kinds of film in common use today are negative and slide film They work a little differently but the end result is similar When you use color negative film also referred to as reversal film the film itself becomes a negative image of the scene you photographed After processing which includes letting the film sit in a chemical bath that coaxes the grains of silver to visually materialize on the film the negative is used to create positive prints of the scene
82. tad soft to begin with Others lose their edge in the scanning process because the scanner s focus isn t razor sharp Again this is often an issue with the scanner s quality Sharpening is a process that your scanner software can use to increase the apparent sharpness of an image as you can see in Figure 10 3 Sharpening filters typically increase the contrast along 198 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera CREE The image on the right has had a sharpening filter applied to increase the apparent sharpness edges in the image making the image seem sharper than it actually is Some sharpening filters leave most of the image alone only mucking with edges Some sharpening filters increase the contrast of the entire image instead These days the most popular sharpening filter is called Unsharp Mask and it s typically built into scanning software as well as image editing programs like Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop Do you need to use sharpening Not always Here s a guide to when to use this feature E Images with lots of edges and detail benefit more from sharpening than images that lack detail Close up pictures of people for instance are less likely to benefit from sharpening than a real estate profile of a house E High resolution images benefit more from sharpening than low resolution images since there s more detail for the sharpening filter to work with E Sharpening is more advantageous in printed im
83. text Keming Leading a 143 Homestead aE fo aa Script westen Auto kem r Styles r Enter text here Stroke gt Fit r Textures Stroke Op Fit Qp m Create as Standard text Vector Selection Floating I Antialias ox Cancel Help Pan Click OK and then position the text precisely where you will want it in the finished image Now go back to the color palette and change the background color to white Click the Text button in the tool palette again and click in the image You don t have to be precise about where the text will go right now since we ll move the text with the mouse in a few steps 14 In the Text Entry dialog box don t change anything You ll want the font size and text to be exactly the same as the shadow text you ve already entered Click OK to paste the text into the image 314 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 9 Position the mouse pointer over the center of the text and then drag the text until it is positioned over the shadow text offset just enough that it looks like a drop shadow re kris carriage1 1 4 Layer1 10 Choose Selections Select None Combine Image and Drop Shadow This last text trick is so simple you re going to say it s hardly a trick at all but I m including it to show you how easy it is to come up with cool effects with very little effort The effect text filled with a picture as we
84. that has been illuminated by a very different temperature of light such as tungsten the resulting image won t reflect the true colors in the scene What should be white will turn out looking somewhat reddish Ordinarily we don t notice this ourselves because as I ve said before the human brain is very good at interpreting what the eyes see Our brain adjusts for different color temperatures so that white almost always looks white no matter what color light we re seeing it in Of course cameras aren t quite that smart And that s why we need a white balance adjustment The white balance setting on your camera allows you to specify exactly what the color temperature of the scene is In most cases your camera can automatically adjust to conditions If need be however you can do it yourself You ll know that you need to adjust the white balance if your pictures routinely come out shifted to the blue or red end of the spectrum If your whites are not white in other words your camera doesn t do a good job of correcting the white balance then you need to do it yourself If you get in the habit of manually adjusting the white balance remember to reset the white balance to auto when you are done with each shoot Otherwise you might forget that your camera is balanced for fluorescent light when you shoot outdoors and you ll get very funky results e Adjusting White Balance Presets Most digital cameras let you choose from a
85. the heck does that mean Essentially all I am saying is that you should minimize the amount of dead CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials 49 CGEA Asa general rule avoid putting your focal point in the dead center of the photograph 50 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera space in a photograph Once you decide what the focal point of your image is remember the first tule there s no reason to relegate it to a small portion of the picture Get close Zoom in Walk over to it Whatever you need to do do it in order to keep your focal point from being a small part of the overall image Take a look at Figure 3 6 for instance When I visited London and took pictures of the changing of the guard I found that the common wide angle shots of the event resulted in rather unimpressive photographs I decided that the real star of the show was the guard s face so I zoomed in for a very tight shot Certainly all your photographs don t need to be this close Getting a tight shot of your subject is not always a natural or intuitive thing to do so you should go out of your way to try this technique whenever you think of it The fill the frame rule certainly applies in the world of 35mm photography but it is absolutely essential in digital photography That s because in 35mm photography it s not difficult to crop and enlarge an image and still retain a reasonable amount of image quality as long as you do not overly
86. the beach standing in the water at sunset The image can be dramatic but only if exposed properly We d like to capture the overall dark tones inherent in a sunset scene with exciting splashes of color to light up the subject in a subtle way Just pointing the camera at the scene might result in the camera averaging the bright and dark bits of the picture generating an image that might as well have been captured at midday That would be quite ordinary and not at all what we want Instead of taking the average picture here s what you should do step by step 1 Frame the scene in your viewfinder so you know what you want to photograph 2 Before actually taking the picture point the camera up into the sky Include the brightest part of the sky that doesn t also include the sun that might be overkill Sounds like guesswork It is a little This is art not science You can take the picture see if you like the result and reshoot as necessary 3 Press the shutter release partway to lock in the exposure information You should sense that the camera has also locked the focus at the same time 4 Recompose your picture When you re happy with the scene in the viewfinder press the shutter release all the way to take the picture Obviously you could also choose the spot meter if your camera has one and lock the exposure with that instead of the default center weighted or matrix meter method in step 2 It s up to you Take a l
87. the camera s menu system Typically you ll have the option of deleting a single image or all the images on the disk at once Be careful this operation cannot be undone es Be a a gt D If you have some very important images on your memory card and don t want them deleted you can usually use your camera to protect them Check your camera s menu system for a feature called protect or lock That way you can delete all the images on your memory card and those specially protected images will remain until you explicitly unprotect them In general though I suggest moving special images to your PC where you will be less likely to accidentally delete them In addition to deleting images from your memory cards you should take other precautions to ensure that your cards live a long and fruitful life After all memory cards can be expensive Keep the following tips in mind E Avoid putting memory cards in direct sunlight E Don t put memory cards in your back pocket or other places where they can get bent or crushed That s particularly true for SmartMedia cards and floppy disks which can break with moderate amounts of force CHAPTER 8 Working with Digital Fim 167 E Keep your cards empty whenever possible All memory cards look alike and the last thing you need is to put a memory card in your camera while on vacation only to discover that it s still full of images you never saved to your PC from l
88. the camera included a video mode or sepia tint Nonetheless these are some of the effects you may see E Panorama mode This feature takes wide screen style images either by automatically cropping the top and bottom off an image or by letting you stitch together several pictures to create one oversized one E Movie mode Some cameras can capture short low resolution video clips as well as still images Don t confuse this with high quality digital video though the results are strictly for Web pages E Tint modes With special settings you can take black and white or sepia tinted stills Remember though that you can achieve the same effect in an image editor on the PC after the picture is taken so you aren t losing anything if your camera lacks this feature In fact I d say it s better to start with a full color image that way you can do whatever you like to it later and always have the high quality original to fall back on Transfer Mechanism Getting images out of your camera is just as important as taking the pictures to begin with If you like to view your freshly shot images on a television or want to record them slide show style directly to a VCR then you should definitely consider a camera with a video out port Using an ordinary RCA style composite video cable you can connect the camera to a TV VCR or some other video display unit CHAPTER 1 Welcome to the Future For computer connection I recommend USB USB capab
89. the menu 4 Next choose Edit Paste As New Layer You can tell that there are two copies of the sky in the picture because you can actually grab the top sky layer and drag it around Position the new sky so that it lines up perfectly with the original sky underneath 5 Now for the magic trick that makes all this effort worthwhile the multiply effect Choose Layers Properties from the menu and you ll see the Layer Properties dialog box Set the Blend Mode to Multiply Click OK 2 Jasc Paint Shop Pro 112 20 DAR Fie Edt View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help Send Tool Options Mover F3 amp jOS8S 2 4A QO sen wno va 15 112 20 1 4 Layer Luminance Screen Dissolve Overlay Hard Light Soft Light Difference Dodge Burn 12 Q Q tt E i Lad L 2 a A 8 GA A A A Z limage 1200 x 1485 x 16 Million 13 7 As soon as the dialog box disappears you should see the colors in your sky immediately deepen If you don t think that was enough of a change to suit you don t worry Here s where your artistic judgment comes in Since the sky is already copied into your Clipboard you can continue to paste new layers of sky into your image until you get the deep and colorful effect you re looking for see the Color Insert Using this technique you can transform an anemic pale blue sky into an angry stormy scene in minutes 268 How to Do Everyth
90. the picture by turning the camera vertically Take a look at the picture in Figure 3 10 I originally took this picture as you see it on the left Afterwards I found that I liked the picture better when I cropped it for a horizontal orientation As it turns out most people prefer the original framing but that s okay experiment and don t be afraid to try something even if no one else thinks it s a good idea Get low to the ground or stand up on a chair or table to get a higher perspective on the same scene You have a lot of options try them Ignore symmetry Sure symmetry is great but just as often as symmetry works well in a photograph I have found you can get an even better image if you intentionally skew the photo to strip out the symmetry When the viewer expects symmetry and doesn t get CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials 55 alclelsi aceiem Experiment with taking your pictures from many different angles orientations and perspectives After all you re not paying for the film anymore it you have introduced tension and drama into an image And that s not bad especially if all you ve done is photograph some road train track or river Surprise the viewer If you ve seen one landscape you ve seen them all That s not really true but it can sometimes seem that way Go for the unusual by framing your picture in a totally unexpected way One of my favorite tricks is shooting landscapes through the side
91. the slider Too red Decrease red by x then increase both green and blue by x 2 Too green Decrease green by x then increase both red and blue by x 2 Too blue Decrease blue by x then increase both red and green by x 2 1 1 Easy Color Correction with Variations A better solution is regrettably not available in Paint Shop Pro but other programs like Adobe Photoshop do offer this feature Let s take a quick look at the Color Variations tool in Photoshop since it s so useful If you have Photoshop open it and load an image Then choose Image AdjustVariations Here s how you use that busy little dialog box 1 Start by tweaking the brightness If you want to make the image darker or lighter click the appropriate thumbnail on the right side of the screen All the images will immediately change to show you the effect of the change The Original thumbnail at the top left will remain the same so you can compare your changes to it 2 Next decide what color channel you want to change If you want more red in the image for instance click the box marked More Red The change will appear immediately 3 Continue tweaking the image until you are satisfied with the result At any time you can revert to the original by clicking the Original thumbnail This page intentionally left blank Cleaning Up Your Images ee __ Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 238 How to Do Every
92. this equation to determine how big your scanned images will be File size resolution x horizontal size x resolution x vertical size x scan mode where size is measured in inches and scan mode refers to the color depth you used in the scan Color Depth Scan Mode Line art 1 8 Grayscale 1 Color 3 Using this equation you can see that scanning a full color 5 x 7 image at 300dpi is about 9MB but scanning that same image at 600dpi is over 36MB If you re trying to carry images on a 100MB Zip disk this formula comes in handy Slides Negatives or Prints I firmly believe that you ll get best results from your scanner if you start with slides That s because the slide format is at its core the most accurate representation of what you tried to photograph to begin with Negatives and prints have been tweaked by the photo shop and they may not reflect what you intended to shoot I do all my 35mm photography in slide format for exactly this reason Given a choice I recommend that you shoot on 35mm slides and scan those Slides have disadvantages though Most importantly they have a fairly narrow exposure range and are less forgiving when used improperly So a photo that might look just fine when over or underexposed on print film might look terrible on slide film If you don t shoot slide film my recommendation would be to go back to the original negative and scan that instead of scanning the print That s because the nega
93. time to improve your photo skills if you re going to print pictures on a budget printer with lousy paper 19 20 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera ss When Tripod Ifyou want to extend your photography into the world of close ups or long range telephoto images a tripod is a necessity It needn t be large or heavy because most digital cameras are significantly lighter than their 35mm counterparts Lenses and filters The time may come when you want to take pictures like extreme close ups wide angle shots or extreme telephotos that are beyond the range of the lens that came with your camera Likewise you might want to reduce glare or add other special effects to your images If that s the case you want lenses and filters for your camera You may not need them right now but consider them an advanced purchase for later on Camera bag Choose a bag that lets you arrange your camera and accessories in a way that they re protected from theft and damage but easy to use when the time comes to shoot a picture Look for bags that don t really look like they re holding camera gear that might make them less of a target for thieves _ Choose a Digital Camera you re shopping for a digital camera make a checklist of the features and capabilities you want based on these criteria Resolution Decide how large your finished images need to be and look for cameras that can take pictures in the appropriate megapixe
94. ve already done but this time the underlying picture is the same as the text How can you see the text at all you wonder if it s filled with the same image as the background The text is bordered on two sides at least by a dark drop shadow Check out this CHAPTER 14 Working with Text and Creating Projects 315 Here s how to do it 1 Change the background color to white using the color palette 2 Click the Text button in the tool palette and click in the image to specify where the text will be pasted 3 Inthe Text Entry dialog box make sure the Stroke and Fill styles are set to solid color and choose Selection in the Create As section of the dialog box Text Entry Size Sample text Kering Leading a 7 z Colorado 5 14 Script westen xl cms e Haa 316 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera o Enter the text and specify a font and size Click OK to paste the text into the image You should see a selection shaped like the text Just grab the text and drag it a short distance In place of the text you should see black lettering that will serve as your drop shadow Don t move the text too far or the image text will get lost in the surrounding image Projects for Your Digital Images Now that you know how to edit manipulate and embellish your images you probably want to apply those skills by using images in projects that go beyond emailing images to your friends One of the ben
95. view mirror of a car you can see it in Figure 3 11 E Use several focal points While most pictures rely on just one or two focal points sometimes you need even more especially when you re shooting a picture like a family portrait If you re taking a picture with several people in it you can often overcome a cluttered look by arranging the subjects into a geometric pattern If the subjects heads form a triangle shape for instance you have introduced order into the photo despite the fact that there are a lot of people in it 56 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera ACREA Successful pictures are often a matter of surprising the viewer Using Depth of Field The last important frontier that you need to understand for proper composition is called depth of field Depth of field refers to the region of proper focus that is available to you in any photographic image When you focus your camera you don t get a paper thin region of proper focus in an image instead there s some distance in front and behind your subject that will also be in focus This entire region of sharp focus is called the depth of field or sometimes the depth of focus What determines depth of field Three factors contribute to the depth of field that is available to you for any picture you plan to take Let s look at these factors one at a time and then combine them E Aperture The aperture of your lens is the first major factor that influen
96. well within the capability of this venerable old camera For my more creative photography I upgraded to the 5 megapixel Olympus e20n last year and I suspect it will make me very happy for the next several years The bottom line Find a camera you like and stick with it Digital cameras are a costly investment and they won t pay for themselves in film savings if you replace them every year or so with a newer model Choosing Your Own Digital Camera If you haven t yet made your digital camera purchase or if you are planning to upgrade you re in luck The field has never been more crowded with excellent choices and as I mentioned earlier technology advances keep making these cameras better each year Even though the camera field is evolving all the time the basics really don t change The next few sections cover the most important elements to consider when shopping for a camera Resolution First and foremost figure out how much resolution you need This should be the first decision you make because it determines what cameras you will be evaluating Use this handy table to decide what megapixel range you need Megapixels Print Size Sub megapixel VGA Onscreen only Web email 1 megapixel 3 x 5 inch prints 2 megapixel 5 x 7 inch prints 3 megapixel 8 x 10 inch prints 6 megapixel 13 x 19 inch prints prints from small crop areas of the original image 16 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Remember
97. with Your Digital Camera Remove Picture Scratches After a particularly bad moving experience a few years ago one of my wedding pictures got a few nasty scratches because of the way the glass broke and slid down the print The image was essentially irreplaceable so I turned to digital editing to make a repaired duplicate There are several approaches you can take to fixing scratches depending upon where they are in the image how prominent the scratches are and their relative size with respect to the rest of the image E In some cases you can select and copy an undamaged area of the picture that is similar in color and overall texture to the damaged portion then paste it over the damaged area with a liberal amount of feathering to smooth the edges This is particularly effective in fairly uniform backgrounds such as the sky E Another alternative and the more common solution actually is to use the Clone tool see the earlier section on airbrushing for more details Select the Clone tool and use a nearby similar but undamaged section of the image to paint over the mar Remember to use short dabbing motions to paint or you ll introduce an undesirable pattern into the image E Finally you can use the automated scratch remover found in many image editors Paint Shop Pro s Scratch Remover it looks like a trowel lets you drag a selection box over a long straight scratch It then removes the scratch by painting over it with nearby
98. worried it won t come out right otherwise Imagine for instance that you are trying to photograph someone who is standing in front of a brightly lit window If you let the camera decide the exposure the bright light from the window will radically underexpose the subject So switch on the spot meter and expose the picture based alclelsi wecm Cameras with a matrix meter are usually more accurate because they accumulate exposure information from several distinct regions of the frame then use a sophisticated algorithm to decide the final exposure for the picture CHAPTER 2 Understanding Exposure 39 Hehi The spot meter is a great tool for reading the proper exposure in one precise point of the image on the subject Yes the window light will be overexposed but that s okay the important part of the picture is the person Varying the metering mode especially the spot meter is best used in conjunction with the third technique exposure lock Using Exposure Lock The exposure lock feature in most digital cameras is borrowed from 35mm camera technology and it is one of the handiest tricks you can learn and master Exposure lock is almost always achieved by applying slight pressure to the shutter release not enough to activate the shutter and take the picture but enough that you feel the button move and the camera itself respond Here s what happens when you take a picture 1 Apply slight pressure to the shutter rele
99. year old Russian Blue and so we re naming her Molniya The name is kind of appropriate actually since she s pretty eccentric Side note to readers I have a special prize for the first person who understands why an eccentric cat might be named Molniya and emails me with the right answer Email me at davefbydavejohnson com Dave Johnson wuw bydavejohnson com davefbydave johnson com Author How To Use Digital Video Digital Photography Answers How To Do Everything With Your Palm Handheld I showed this guy my pictures he said they didn t breathe I said I painted them that way Kristin Hersh 5 If you have a folder with pictures open on the desktop you can drag an image file from that folder over the message window and drop it as shown next You should see an attachment appear in the message CHAPTER 16 Sharing Your Pictures 359 animals OL x Teen File Edt View Go Favorites Help see a ee Sa CAE aN ee gnd HS SA Back Forward Up Cut Copy Paste Undo Delete fs Address C C My Pictures animals T To Bick and Shawna Braida t t to ia t to ia ce pe ooo mysti stair5 mysti stair mysti stars mystistars2 mystistairs3 mysti stairs4 mysti Subject We just got a new cat named M 4 hey ey ie RA Just like the subject line i f wit molniya bi Russian Blue and so we re ni mau aa ne Pee actually since she s prett 1 object s selected 126KB JEJ My Computer Side no
100. you as having a sharp quality print then just print the image smaller Cramming those pixels together on paper in less space will make the print sharper In reality you may still get adequate results printing even a 640 x 480 pixel image at 4 x 6 even though that only works out to 100dpi If you look carefully at the finished print you ll find that you can see jagged edges where there weren t enough pixels to fill in For best results pick a size that lets you print around 200dpi or whatever resolution best matches your particular printer That s what happens when you print too few pixels for the size you re shooting for What about too many pixels Can an image that s too high res ever be a problem The answer is generally not Too many pixels isn t really a problem though it does make your image file bigger than it 15 has to be and it can potentially bog everything down The bottom line is that if you pack more pixels than you need into an image above 200dpi for instance odds are good that you won t improve image quality very much Instead you ll just make the file bigger which takes more storage space on your hard disk and can slow down the printing process Test your own printer by generating prints in high quality mode at 150 200 and 250 dpi Use these to figure out what the resolution threshold of your printer is and strive to use that setting as often as possible _ 340 How to Do Everything with
101. you want it to look like 344 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera E Fabric sheets This unique kind of printing media is actually fabric that gives your prints texture You can print on it just for its own sake or use the print to make cross stitch designs and other craft projects So what should you do If you have a few dollars to spare buy a bunch of different paper packages and try them out Print the same image on different kinds of paper and lay them out side by side in good light Determine which one is best and stick with that brand of paper Making Your Prints Now that you have all the parts in place it s time to print P 11 show you how to make a print of a specific size in Paint Shop Pro other programs use a similar method Say you re going to make a print at 11 x 17 inches Follow these steps 1 Load the picture you want to print in Paint Shop Pro 2 Now we re going to select the paper size and orientation Choose File Page Setup from the main menu You should see the Page Setup dialog box CHAPTER 15 Printing Your Pictures 345 3 Click the Portrait or Landscape button in the Orientation section of the dialog box to get the image oriented properly Page Setup Eg r Paper Size Letter 81 2811 in x Source First Available Tray ac Orientation Pasition Portrait J Center on page Landscape Left margin 2 466 Top margin joier Print output r Options Color I Nega
102. your picture using the LCD display keeping the camera some distance away from your face That leaves you free to interact with your subject without having an intimidating camera obscuring your head What s a Shift Program Some cameras such as the Nikon CoolPix 995 have a shift program mode Your camera has this if you set it to program and then see an asterisk appear next to the P in the LCD display when you turn the camera s settings dial Shift program mode lets you shift the shutter speed up or down while in program mode The camera automatically adjusts the aperture setting so you can tweak the exposure without sacrificing the camera s ability to ensure a properly exposed picture 65 66 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera The best way to capture portraits is typically with the medium telephoto lens in the 35mm world that would be about 100mm For a typical digital camera that s near the maximum magnification for your zoom lens I also suggest that you work in aperture priority mode if that is possible for your camera Aperture priority will allow you to change the depth of field quickly and easily as you frame your images Specifically good portraits have very shallow depth of field You want to draw attention to the subject of your picture and leave the background an indistinct blur Figure 3 15 for instance demonstrates shallow depth of field in a fairly candid portrait You can t see the effect
103. 02 eeeeee Trying Your Hand at Night Photography 0005 CCDs and Noise 32 34 35 35 37 39 41 43 44 45 45 46 47 48 51 52 53 54 56 59 60 64 65 68 71 72 73 76 77 77 78 80 82 82 82 83 83 84 86 89 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 PART II CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 Contents Taking Close Ups 0 00 cece cece cece eee e tence eens 91 Capturing the Microscopic World 0 00 eee eee eee 92 Coaxing a Digital Camera to Take Close Ups 93 Close Up Enemy No 1 Parallax 0 00000 95 Using Add On Lenses 0 0c cece eee eee 98 Close Up Techniques o cercen aonr et eee cece eee ee 101 AuSteady Base sj6 004 peered de debel eons ee eka sy led 102 Keep the Subject Sharp 0 2 eee ee eee eee 104 Mind the Background 0 0 0 2 e eee eee eee ee 105 Beware of the Flash susueuuuuuuuununnnnne eee 106 Shooting Through Glass 0 0 0 e eee eee eee eee 108 Your Own Macro Studio nauna 00 eee cee 109 Pushing Your Camera to Its Limits 00 cee e ee eee 113 Get Creatives oct bs kawhe hs ca a ee EA E cee oad dew alt 114 The Old Fashioned Look 0 0000 e eee eee 115 Make a Panorama eee eee 115 Get the Right Overlap 0 0 E eee eee eee 118 Adding Lenses for Different Perspectives 0000 119 Choosing Lenses se cerre 0 0 00 cece eee eee eee ee 121 Add on L
104. 10 A circular polarizer Discussed in Chapter 5 this add on filter lets you cut reflections from glass and water CHAPTER 6 Pushing Your Camera to Its Limits 127 E A neutral density filter This is a translucent piece of glass that fits over the lens It s designed to reduce the light entering the camera by one or two stops thus letting you slow the shutter to add more blur in action shots such as the one here or increase the depth of field on a bright day If you go shopping for a step ring be sure to get the right size If your camera s lens is larger than 52mm you ll want a step down ring A step up ring will have threads that go the wrong way so the distinction is important Once you screw the LE Adapter onto your camera you then bolt the other end of the adapter onto your telescope binoculars or other optical system and start taking pictures In most cases your digital camera should be able to auto focus right through the new optics The LE Adapter works pretty well as long as you understand that the optics won t be as bright and sharp as you re used to with your ordinary lens A set of binoculars for instance may give you a lot of magnification but the optics aren t designed to take professional caliber photos Personally I ve had a blast photographing the moon through my 6 inch reflector telescope though and it s a way to capture photos that are otherwise absolutely impossible with your digital
105. 100 film in specific lighting conditions say at midday the shutter might need to open for a 250th of a second 1 250 to adequately expose the picture But what happens if we instead try to take the same picture with ISO 200 film The film is exactly twice as sensitive to light as the previous roll of film And that means all other things being equal that we need to leave the shutter open for only half as long a 500th of a second or 1 500 to take the same picture That s not all Suppose you re trying to take a picture in late afternoon when there isn t as much light available You might need to leave the shutter open for 1 30 in that situation to gather enough light That shutter speed is a bit on the slow side though Not only might you jiggle the camera as you re taking the picture it s hard to hold a camera steady for 1 30 but your subject might move as well causing a blurry picture You can probably guess what the solution is stepping up to ISO 200 film will enable you to grab that picture at a much more reasonable 1 60 and ISO 400 would halve the shutter speed yet again to a crisp 1 125 The F stop Ballet So far so good but there s one other aspect to consider and that s the fact that camera lenses can change the diameter of their aperture thus letting in more or less light as needed The size of a camera s aperture at any given moment is called the f stop or sometimes referred to as the f number of the len
106. 27 using 98 99 Adobe Photoshop See Photoshop Adorama photo supply Web site 125 Index AFL actual focal length determining for lenses 16 Airbrush tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 243 Airbrushing applying to images 255 257 Album to Go displaying Palm images on 366 367 Alkaline batteries costs associated with 131 Andromeda Software Web site 123 Animation feature of GIF format 89a explanation of 363 Animation software using with time lapse photos 130 AOL America Online sending email attachments with 353 Aperture in depth of field 56 57 and depth of field in close ups 104 explanation of 24 26 perfecting shots with 30 35 selection of 30 32 and shutter speed settings 34 using priority adjustments with 34 35 varying to change depth of field 59 60 Aperture priority exposure mode explanation of 64 65 using with portraits 66 APS Advanced Photo System role in creating panoramas 116 ArcSoft Panorama Maker program stitching panoramas with 259 375 Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Arrow tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 243 Artistic effects filters description of 296 Asset management software using 180 181 Attachments sending images as 352 353 viewing 356 Auto flash mode explanation of 76 Autofocus avoiding shutter lag with 68 Autofocus cameras taking close ups with 93 Automati
107. 38 for high quality prints 337 importance of 5 6 28 storage in TIFs and JPGs 184 186 Pixer program Web site 368 Plug ins eliminating lens distortion on PCs with 123 purpose of 295 Point and shoot cameras controlling exposure with 32 33 Polarizing filters using with close ups 108 109 Portfolio 6 asset management software Web site 181 Portrait mode creating prints in 345 Portrait photography choosing exposure modes and lenses for 65 66 PostScript printers choosing 336 Power systems of digital cameras dynamics of 10 Powered hubs using with USB ports 163 PowerPoint creating video slide shows with 371 373 Ppm pages per minute measuring printer speed in 335 336 pricegrabber com Web site 7 Print drivers specifying paper for 347 Print publishing choosing file formats for 147 Printer paper brands of 342 344 selecting 340 344 specialty types of 343 344 Printers choosing 19 330 336 dye sublimation type of 334 dye versus pigment used by 336 ease of use of 336 inkjets 331 334 336 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera lasers 331 332 PostScript type of 336 and resolution 337 340 resolution for 337 size and capacity of 336 testing 336 339 using more than one 335 Printing services working with 349 350 Prints applying UV blocking sprays to 349 caring for 348 349 creating 344 347 previewing 346 reducing margins of 346 resisting fading of 349 sca
108. 4 for enlargement printing 147 versus GIFs 364 for onscreen display 147 purpose of 140 result of saving in TIF format 145 saving pictures as 145 versus TIF 144 trade offs associated with 147 148 tweaking 147 149 using 16 million color images with 212 using on Web 362 363 for Web publishing 147 148 K Keywords identifying image features with 181 KnockOut edge detection program Web site 277 278 Koala HTML Web design program site 362 Kodak DC 4800 using add on lenses with 98 120 121 Kodak DC210 Plus battery depletion results 130 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera L Landscape mode creating prints in 345 Laser blast effect creating 289 290 Laser printers choosing 331 332 resolution for 337 338 selecting paper for 340 Layers advisory about pasting of 268 combining with images 265 287 288 290 293 LCD displays disabling to conserve power 10 purpose of 9 viewing depth of field with 66 LE Adapter using with telescopes 126 127 Lens blockage of light avoiding with close ups 107 108 Lens distortion and add on lenses 122 eliminating on PCs 123 124 LensDoc plug in eliminating lens distortion on PCs with 123 125 295 Lenses add on type of 98 99 adding for different perspectives 119 126 choosing 16 20 121 122 choosing in special situations 65 68 determining AFL actual focal length of 16 and threads 120 using adapters with 120 121 LensPlus Web site 126 Letter
109. 500 f 4 ISO 400 u EI 1 1000 mlcleiiewecm Film speed known as ISO also affects shutter speed and aperture 28 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How Digicams Are Different All that talk about f stops shutter speed and ISO settings may seem irrelevant to your digital camera but it s not all cameras use these concepts even though they re sometimes disguised fairly well The main difference between a digital camera and a chemical film camera of course is the fact that digicams don t use film That means you never load anything that has a specific ISO value into the camera So how does the camera actually work Simple When light enters the camera at the moment of exposure it doesn t hit light sensitive silver halides that are fixed in a chemical broth Instead the light hits a computer chip called a charge coupled device CCD The CCD is light sensitive and each of its many pixels register changes in light just like the film s many grains of silver react individually to light see Figure 2 4 In other words the silver grains in film and the pixels in a CCD are essentially the same thing They contribute to your picture in the same way and both are the smallest components that make up your picture The CCD makes a picture by noting the variation in light rays that travel through the camera lens The CCDs pass this information on to the camera s microprocessor in the form of varying electri
110. 8 51 importance of 44 45 improving 216 227 isolating focal point in 46 47 keeping horizons straight in 53 moving horizon in 51 52 rules of 45 54 using foregrounds to balance backgrounds of 53 using lines symmetry and patterns in 52 Compression level choosing for JPG 148 149 Contrast control using with colors 233 234 Contrast correcting images with 228 229 Controls types of 13 14 Correction marks purpose of 96 98 Crooked images leveling 227 See also Images Crop boxes in Paint Shop Pro manipulating 218 Crop dialog box in Paint Shop Pro activating 219 Crop tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 243 Cropping images methods of 216 226 CTRL key using with Paint Shop Pro 222 Cut and Paste tools usage of 220 CyberFrame digital picture frame displaying images with 369 Web site 370 D Damaged images cleaning up 257 258 Darkrooms disadvantages of 5 6 Daylight color temperature for 84 Daytime photos improving 78 Decolorizing images 296 300 Depth of field applying to pictures 59 60 and close up photography 104 106 maximizing with zoom lenses 62 simulating shallowness of 242 using 56 60 viewing with LCD display 66 Dials usage of 13 Diaphragm purpose of 24 25 Digi Frame digital picture frame Web site 370 Digital cameras See also Cameras checklist for selection of 20 choosing 15 20 compensating for lack of video output on 373 connecting to telescopes 126 127 diff
111. 94 95 Flash modes mastering 76 77 Flash photography basics of 72 77 Flashes See also Fill flash adjusting ISO settings for 29 advisory when shooting close ups 106 108 choosing 18 and depth of field in close ups 104 disabling to save batteries 132 external type of 82 83 ranges of 73 74 versus reflectors 80 staying within range of 73 75 usage of telephoto lenses with 74 Flatbed scanners overview of 189 Flood Fill tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 244 246 role in decolorizing images 301 Floppy disks distributing images on 356 359 storing images on 155 156 Fluorescent light color temperature for 84 Focal length determining 16 effect on flashes 73 measuring with diopters 100 role in depth of field 57 58 using add on lenses for 126 127 and zoom lenses 60 Focal point isolation in compositions 46 47 using more than one 55 Focus lock using 70 Focusing composition elements guidelines for 70 Folders expanding with Paint Shop Pro image editing software 179 renaming on PCs 173 storing images in 172 173 Force fill flash feature explanation of 18 Forced flash mode explanation of 76 Foreground color importance of 244 245 Foregrounds balancing backgrounds with 53 Frames filling in compositions 48 51 Freehand tool in Paint Shop Pro 243 improving accuracy of painting with 250 251 using with superimposed celebrity images 283 FrontPage Web design program site 362 FujiFilm MX 500 batter
112. B devices glitches in 163 USB hubs using 163 USB ports transferring images with 162 164 UUENCODE encoding scheme sending email attachments with 354 UV blocking sprays applying to prints 349 V VCRs attaching to digital cameras 371 viewing images on 18 VGA Video Graphics Array resolution importance of 5 versus inkjet resolution 338 Video editing software using with time lapse photos 130 Video output compensating for lack of 373 Video slide shows creating with PowerPoint 371 373 Videotape creating slide shows on 370 373 Viewers surprising 55 56 Viewfinders purpose of 9 Vignetting avoiding with add on lenses 122 123 W Wallpaper using digital images as 316 318 Waterfalls shooting 69 Weather map special effect using 273 274 Web choosing image sizes and file formats for 362 364 sharing images on 364 365 Web design programs examples of 362 Web page images scan resolution for 194 Web pages creating 361 364 Web publishing choosing file formats for 147 148 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Web sites Adobe Photoshop Elements program 259 Andromeda Software 123 ArcSoft Panorama Maker program 259 Ceiva digital picture frames 370 Cloud Dome 109 ClubPhoto com 364 366 368 Composer Web design program 362 Digi Frame digital picture frame 370 Dreamweaver Web design program 362 Easypano Panoweaver program 259 ezprints com printing service 350 Fron
113. Digital Camera Second Edition Take beautiful digital photos Dave Johnson fy OSBORNE Professional Want to learn more We hope you enjoy this McGraw Hill eBook If you d like more information about this book its author or related books and websites please click here Digital Camera This page intentionally left blank Digital Camera Second Edition Dave Johnson McGraw Hill Osborne New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto MecGraw HillOsborne z7 i Divginn of The Mote HN Conta Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976 no part of thais publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means or stored in a data base or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher 0 07 222826 1 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title 0 07 222555 6 All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name we use names in an editorial fashion only and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of the trademark Where such designations appear in this book they have been printed with initial caps Mc
114. Effects in Your Photos p n 1 Start with a piece of solid colored board Hobby stores sell foam boards in a variety of sizes in a number of bright primary colors and I use them frequently for projects like this I have boards in several different colors so I can choose 13 one that is differently colored than my subject that makes the technique easier to apply Tack the board on a wall or have your subject hold it like this 274 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 2 Since the board is a relatively solid color we should be able to select all of it with the Magic Wand tool Choose the wand and click in the board You should see a selection appear around it E Jase Paint Shop Pro bs File Eck View mage Elfecte Cokes Layers Obi swg Selections Macks window Hep Tool Options Magic F3 E3 L340 R q y f a 2 2 EA ry E g Ed A A g Lat oy g If the board isn t selected in its entirety hold down the SHIFT key and click in the region that didn t get selected in the previous step Repeat as necessary until the entire board is selected Open a second image in Paint Shop Pro This will be the image that we insert into the first image as a sort of weather map effect Blue Screen Without a Screen As I ve mentioned in the movies they need to film in front of a special color matte in order to know which pixels to eliminate from the final scene Your life would
115. Everything with Your Digital Camera 2 Armed with knowledge about Elvis load the picture of Kristen and crop her so that she s only seen from the waist up like Elvis and resize the image using the Image Resize menu until she s about the right height S Jasc Paint Shop Pro kris2 File Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help DSHS 2 38 C0 SeiwWhoI va fa PRED amp 2 5 a W g a A A Y B For Help press F1 Image 700 x 469 x 16 Million 961 8 KE 3 Now for a little housecleaning You need to erase as much of Nixon as you reasonably can using the Clone tool and techniques covered in Chapter 12 In this case I copied the flag to Elvis s immediate left over the flag that was immediately behind Nixon then copied the surrounding wall to get rid of as much of the former president as possible I don t have to erase all of him because we re going to position Kristen over part of this image This is what it looked like when the image was getting close to good enough to paste in Kris CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 283 4 Now for the tricky part You need to use a selection tool to copy Kristen but avoid including any of the background You can use the Magic Wand Freehand tool whichever you re most comfortable with Try the Smart Edge tool which often gives fairly good results in situations like this 5 Once she s selected it becom
116. Graw Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales pro motions or for use in corporate training programs For more information please contact George Hoare Special Sales at george_hoare mcgraw hill com or 212 904 4069 TERMS OF USE This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw Hill Companies Inc McGraw Hill and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work Use of this work is subject to these terms Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work you may not decompile disassemble reverse engineer reproduce modify create derivative works based upon transmit distribute disseminate sell publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw Hill s prior consent You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use any other use of the work is strictly prohibited Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms THE WORK IS PROVIDED AS IS McGRAW HILL AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUAR ANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK INCLUDING ANY INFORMA TION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE McGraw Hill and i
117. KB PE ECV AGS WinZip is a great program for sending a bunch of images at once as a single compressed attachment CHAPTER 16 Sharing Your Pictures 361 E Instead of email mail a Zip disk or CD R Since the Zip disk holds 100MB or 250MB of data depending on which Zip drive model you own you have an awful lot of room to work with It s certainly more efficient than using the Internet I think that the best solution of all is CD If you have a CD RW drive attached to your PC you can use a program like Roxio s Easy CD Creator to copy hundreds of pictures to a CD R that should be readable in virtually any computer Creating Your Own Web Pages The Web is a great place to store and share your digital images Your pictures are probably already in a convenient Web format like JPG and most of your friends and family probably already own a computer with Internet access If you have a Web design program like FrontPage FrontPage Express or Netscape Composer you can drag and drop your way to a nice little Web page with a minimal amount of effort Figure 16 5 shows FrontPage 2000 being used IS Microsoft FrontPage C My Documents My Webs bydj BEE File Edt View Insert Format Tools Table Frames Window Help D BO 6ey sBOdio o BOS BOT Q az litterbox htm Notes From The Litterbox Home Back to Family Family Pictures Letters Newt is here to tell you what is new in the life of 3 the Johnson famil
118. M If you were invited to view an album enter the member s e mail or alias ee Member Login xi E Done E g E Internet If you have a wireless modem connected to your PDA or your handheld is actually a smartphone like the Handspring Treo or Samsung i300 you can wirelessly email pictures to other PDA users and ordinary desktop email accounts as well One way to do that is via a program called Pixer from Electric Pocket www electricpocket com Pixer is a program that mimics the European MMS experience MMS or Multimedia Messaging allows mobile phone users to send digital images hand drawn sketches and written notes between mobile handsets It s quite literally a multimedia alternative to SMS text messaging You might have trouble finding recipients for your Multimedia Messaging on a mobile handset in the United States right now but Pixer lets you send and receive digital images on a Palm via email both between PDAs and the desktop CHAPTER 16 Sharing Your Pictures 369 Showing Off Images in a Digital Picture Frame Another way to display digital images is in a digital picture frame Digital picture frames are inexpensive LCD displays mounted in a picture frame shell Equipped with a memory card the picture frame can show digital images in a slide show format Digital picture frames are readily available Models include the Ceiva the Digi Frame and Sony s Digital CyberFrame Sony s CyberFrame uses Sony s Memory
119. My HP LaserJet 6P for instance is one of just half a dozen or so printers on the market that can print via infrared An emerging feature is Bluetooth printing Bluetooth is a wireless networking standard that cell phones PDAs laptops and other gadgets can use to exchange data Epson is one of the first printer companies to directly support Bluetooth printing and they sell a Bluetooth adapter for a handful of their inkjet printers E Size and capacity Though most major manufacturers like Epson Canon and HP all make good printers that generate excellent results they differ dramatically in terms of what kind of paper they can print on Most printers print up to 8 5 x 11 inches You ll have to buy a wide format printer if you want to create 11 x 17 or 13 x 19 inch prints E Dye versus pigment If you re shopping for an inkjet printer you should know that most models use dye based inks while higher end designs sometimes rely on pigment based inks If you re concerned about generating prints that are highly resistant to fading investigate pigment based printers On average you ll find that run of the mill dye based inkjets can make fade resistant prints last for 10 20 years Pigment based printers generate prints that last for 100 years On the other hand cheaper dye based inks are brighter and more vivid than more expensive but longer life pigment based inks Do You Need a PostScript Printer PostScript is a page definition langua
120. O adjustment in the sense that your camera doesn t have real film Each camera maker has a somewhat different way of implementing this feature but they all use ISO numbers since that s comparable to 35mm film which most people are at least a little familiar with E Don t leave your camera set at the highest ISO all the time Some folks think that by setting their cameras to the highest sensitivity they ll be prepared for anything and won t have to muck with the camera menu when they re on the go trying to take pictures In reality boosting your CCD s sensitivity to light also increases the amount of digital noise you re capturing More ISO means more fringing artifacts and digital detritus Sometimes that s unavoidable but stick with the lowest ISO value you can get away with most of the time Change the ISO Setting If you find yourself in a situation in which the lighting isn t quite right for your picture it s time to bump up the camera s ISO value Remember that not all cameras come with ISO adjustments so review your user manual to see if this applies to your particular model Figure 2 5 shows a typical ISO adjustment you ll probably find it in the onscreen menu system displayed in the LCD screen on the back of your camera Here are some situations in which you might need to increase the ISO E You re shooting in a low light situation such as early evening or indoors Natural light photos have a certain a
121. OK to save this change CHAPTER 7 Conquering File Formats 143 Using File Formats Now that you understand file formats you are probably wondering which one you should use on your own system As in all things it depends upon how you re going to use your images Let s look at your choices and I 1 make a few recommendations about how you might want to work with and save your images On the Camera Let s start with your camera No doubt you realize that your camera saves images in one of these file formats as soon as the images are taken but which format Actually this is the easy part Most digital cameras save their images in the JPG format JPG is a pretty good compromise between quality and file size for most users and in most photographic situations But what you may not realize is that you have a fair degree of control over how aggressively your camera compresses the JPG images Take a look at your camera and you will 7 no doubt find that somewhere whether it is in a menu system or controlled via a button on the camera housing itself there is a setting for image quality Note that image quality is quite different from resolution resolution is a measure of how many pixels are in the image quality determines how much each image will be compressed and consequently how much image quality will be sacrificed Most cameras tend to have several quality settings such as high medium and low I recommend that you stick with eith
122. On the other hand photography is an art not a science By changing the white balance values of your camera you can get some creative results that you might like better than if the white balance were set properly As one example I sometimes like the warmer colors I can get by misadjusting the white balance when shooting portraits By making my subject s face a bit redder I think the photo looks richer and more lifelike Try it yourself and remember that photography is all about trying new things Turn on your camera and set it to the record mode Activate the menu system on your LCD display Find the white balance controls in the menu system ga Pp oN Scroll through the white balance until you find the option to record it yourself Select this option 9 You should now see something on the LCD display directing you to photograph a white object Compose your scene so that the gray card or whatever you are using to set the white balance fills the frame 7 Take the picture and exit the menu system The camera will now expose any pictures you take using this new white balance value Be sure to reset the white balance back to automatic when you re done taking these pictures otherwise you may try taking pictures a day or two later in very different lighting conditions and get bizarre results because the white balance is completely askew Many cameras set white balance in the way described earlier but your camera so may do it
123. Paint Shop Pro moo File Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects S weep shale i me GO Bon TELE zezir am 11 oo x al ts vi a P S a Z A L a g ed a A A 5 TL For Hel E CIZE ET z x 750 x 500 x16 Milion 1 MBytes AChE The Histogram Adjustment tool is a precise way to adjust brightness and contrast 232 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 2 Do the same for the black point if necessary Histogram Adjustment x 4 Zoom1 1 hee Edit Luminosity ad Midtones compress Mire 0 Ds a A A Low ps Gamma fro High m 002 x 1al x 021 x cows ue 3 Now use the gamma slider to adjust the overall brightness level in the image s midtones CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 233 Histogram Adjustment x Zoom 1 1 Edit Luminosity ba Midtones compress A A expand Low 16 Gemma I High 217 Pers ajue pare Cancel Help ppi Add Snap to Your Colors There are a few ways to add life to washed out flat or bland pictures One way is to use the 11 Contrast control Since bland pictures are often a result of low contrast you can increase the contrast in the image and make the scene look much punchier To do that simply find the Contrast control and work the slider In Paint Shop Pro you can find the contrast in Colors Adjust Brightness Contrast Contrast can work the oth
124. USB 2 0 ports you need an operating system that s USB 2 0 aware which means downloading an update for Windows XP and it also means getting a new digital camera that is USB 2 0 compliant If you use a USB hub to attach lots of USB devices to your PC that will have to be USB 2 0 as well If any one of those parts is USB 1 1 your image transfers will happen at the regular 12 Mbps speed On the plus side USB 2 0 is 100 percent compatible with USB 1 1 so you can mix and match gear albeit at the slower USB 1 1 speed USB 2 0 is a big step forward but it ll take some time before we can all take advantage of it CHAPTER 8 Working with Digital Film 163 USB Glitches Though USB is susceptible to fewer problems than serial ports it can occasionally annoy you The main problems A lack of power and bandwidth which can rear its ugly head when you try connecting a lot of USB devices to your computer Consider these tips E Add more ports Most PCs come with only two USB ports If you have two USB devices connected to your PC you re already out of ports Solve that problem by buying a USB hub from the local computer store A USB port typically turns one USB connection into four as you can see in Figure 8 5 E Power the ports While some devices can get power from the USB port itself many USB devices require more power than the USB port can deliver That s why it s a good idea to use a powered hub that s a USB hub that you plug int
125. You can verify this yourself with a simple experiment When you press the shutter release on a 35mm camera you can hear the quick metallic click of the shutter blade opening and closing A digital camera may not make any noise at all Or it might make an obviously fake click sound through the camera s speaker Kodak and Sony cameras tend do this It can in fact be quite difficult to discern whether a picture has been taken at all until you get used to the way digital cameras work When I had my first digital camera I actually had to look at the LCD display on the back of the camera to see if the picture was captured or if for some mysterious reason the camera was still waiting to grab the shot So if there s no shutter blade how is the picture actually taken Often the CCD is simply turned on long enough to expose the picture Since the CCD is an electronic component that acts as the camera s film it can be actuated electronically for whatever exposure time is needed In addition the camera s aperture may close completely to keep light from reaching the CCD prolonged exposure to sunlight can damage this sensitive part of the camera But the aperture needn t spring open and closed as quickly as the shutter blade in a 35mm camera so the sound it makes isn t as dramatic You ll hardly notice it at all CHAPTER 2 Understanding Exposure 33 had a fully automatic 35mm SLR There are two kinds of cameras you may run into with thi
126. Your Digital Camera Of course all this advice is specifically for someone who wants to know how much resolution an image needs to print well at a certain output size If you just want to print an image and don t care how big it turns out just print it Most image editors have an option to let you print the image at full page size or at the image s normal size If you choose normal size the image will print smaller than full page and probably look just fine It s only when you force the image to print at a certain size that the image s original resolution becomes important On the other hand you should set the print size yourself whenever possible If you allow the printer driver to resize the image on its own it ll usually just scale the image and introduce a lot of pixelization in the process Working with Paper Here s a common scenario You see great photo realistic prints in a computer store and think That s the printer for me It s only 150 and it makes outstanding pictures So you buy the printer and bring it home But when you actually get the printer set up and send your first few images to it you re devastated The output is horrible The prints look flat and lifeless The paper curls What went wrong It s the paper What you failed to consider is that the choice of paper is so important to the quality of your prints that it s essentially more important than the printer itself There are a handful of printer
127. a a Paa a E la raa G 2 Newsletter Wizard Design Color Scheme Inside Page Content Number of Columns Insert Page Customer Address One or Two Sided Printing Personal Information z Use the options above to change your answers to the wizard s layout questions TNT Aa Family Newsletter N 1 The Johnsons Lilt ray 1 We Got a New Cat H Tha mary cati N Tmas agir corate gur canny eamhegsa from acenpasy Volume 1 Issue 1 The purpow ofa sewaeme s0 promie apace Red od fottaDod gt x ra k wWatergeetandeae Nemse If youerpiore de Pubi ut serncud bee geatmay wmo laber carlos you 2al Ba yor protuct or smo asdela ad etary pabicass Copy cra cadiskey ast bals your Gar marct te ayk of Spansion ata pow orains OB paste paaa eel gee er Delete Object 1 As you edit your publication you l want to explore Publisher s menus and commands to see what additional formatting options are Nem embi foo avalible to you vassere rae ge aaa TE Clip art siege a Biren ChengeFrane From Scanner or Camera gt d ED whole Page Page Width per ncone an ee sane R Actual Size Mioma crmanberdap hans Yoe Selected Objects Help on Jhs Picture V Hide Wieard Aa t 3 625 1 359 in Mstar gt A S FE Enbor Microso J E 772 14 Mictoso P Unsaved Pu RARI SAAGORA 11 03 PM Create
128. a better view of a picture in the folder you can always just double click it Windows will display it in the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer You can use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out when in the viewer My Network Places Details 2 08 JPEG Image Dimensions 674 x 572 Size 45 1 KB If you are using an older version of Windows you don t get the fancy image preview tools that Windows Me and Windows XP users see Instead you can access the contents of each image as you rename them by using the Quick View tool from the menu Just right click each picture 176 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera and choose Quick View from the menu Then close the Quick View preview of your image and rename the photo Working with Quick View Quick View is a handy tool you can use to determine what s in a file when you re ready to rename it and it s also handy for getting a quick look at pictures in general But what is Quick View It is simply a program found in Windows 95 and 98 that lets you see the contents of certain kinds of files just by right clicking their icon and selecting Quick View from the menu I think that it is a lot easier and faster than opening a special graphics program just to look at a photo If you don t have Quick View in your menu when you right click on an image it isn t installed But fear not Quick View is a utility that s included on the Windows installation disk Quick V
129. a bit complex so a lot people often skip the topic entirely much to the detriment of buying a quality scanner I want you to know how to choose the right scanner though so we ll discuss the topic a bit A scanner s dynamic range is a measure of how well the scanner can record changes in the brightness of the image it s scanning It s measured on 192 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera a logarithmic scale from 0 to 4 where 0 is pure white and 4 is very very black but not pure black since the scale can extend past 4 by convention we just use 4 as the upper end What the heck Well here s where we re going The higher the scanner s stated dynamic range the better it is at discerning shadows and subtle changes in dark colors Since the scale is logarithmic thought I wasn t going to explain that didn t you every whole number change in dynamic range is a ten fold increase or decrease in light intensity so a scanner that has a dynamic range of 4 0 is sensitive to a 10 000 1 range of light intensity in the scanned image You can see what I mean in this graph i g 5 2 EO as e Pa So 3 2 eis 1 2 3 4 Dynamic Range Of course no scanner is fully sensitive through the entire range from 0 to 4 so many scanners especially the more professional expensive models describe their dynamic range in terms of DMin and DMax Subtract the two to find the scanner s dynamic ra
130. achieving with irregular cropping 220 226 blue screen 272 281 creating with text 307 316 determining 18 pros and cons of 115 weather maps 273 274 Speed determining for printers 335 336 Spot meters dynamics of 38 39 and exposure lock feature 40 usage of 70 SQ setting using with file formats 143 Start symbol meaning of 14 Step rings shopping for 127 Streams shooting 69 Strength option of Unsharp Mask feature purpose of 240 Subfolders creating on PCs 173 Subject distance closeness of 73 role in depth of field 58 59 Subjects applying glow effects to 286 287 choosing for time lapse photos 128 composing in close ups 105 disintegrating 284 289 maintaining sharpness of 104 106 Sun accommodating 77 78 Sun behind subjects accommodating 41 42 Sunlight brightness accommodating 41 Sunny 16 Rule explanation of 34 Sunset color temperature for 83 photographing 90 Symmetry ignoring 54 55 using in compositions 52 T T shirt transfer paper usage of 343 Telephoto lenses and action photography 66 advisory about 63 capturing portraits with 66 usage with flashes 74 Telephoto pictures using telescopes with 126 127 Telescopes connecting cameras to 126 127 Tetenal printer paper usage of 342 Text adding drop shadows to 312 314 adding to images 304 307 creating special effects with 307 316 gradient filled special effect of 308 309 picture filled special effect of 310 311 Text to
131. aching one or more images to an email message really isn t hard The basic procedure is this Drag and drop an image file directly into your open email message or use a menu option to insert a file into the message Almost all mail software uses the paperclip icon as a standard symbol to represent an attachment to your message so look for that button and use it to specify files for inclusion in your email see Figure 16 3 If you re sending an image to a Windows 95 98 Me user almost any file format is fair game but JPG is probably best since the files are so small I recommend that you send Mac users files in TIF or JPG format and Windows 3 1 users should get BMP or JPG files Since JPG is a very efficient file format for sending photographic images you re best off sending images in JPG format exclusively Distributing Images on Floppy Disks Since JPG images are so small you can often copy a lot of images to a floppy disk and pass them around that way After all everyone has a floppy disk drive right Even better pretty much everyone can read PC floppy disks even Mac users The Macintosh floppy drive can read PC floppies That means you can copy a few JPG images to a floppy and give it to a Mac user and she or he will be able to read the images just fine One caveat though PCs can t read Macintosh floppies So Mac users need to be sure the disk is formatted for a PC before doing the handoff The same is true of Zip disks A
132. actFlash memory cards is now making Memory Sticks as well Memory Sticks shown here come in a variety of capacities up to 128MB Sony has been great about continuing to expand the capacity of these memory cards so look for larger capacity sticks before too long CHAPTER 8 Working with Digital Film 155 Memory Sticks are smartly engineered They re thin and narrow like a stick of chewing gum and have a self cleaning set of electrical contacts on the end that means the Memory Stick is hard to damage even though the contacts are visible Thanks to the card s unique shape you d have to try very hard to insert it into your digital camera incorrectly The real appeal of Memory Stick equipped digital cameras is that you can remove the Memory Stick and insert it into any other Sony Memory Stick enabled device to access your images Memory Stick products include VAIO laptops digital picture frames and the CLIE handheld PC Secure Digital SD The newest kind of removable memory used in just a handful of digital cameras today is called Secure Digital SD SD is a modern take on the removable memory card and offers your digital camera high memory capacities in a footprint about the size of your thumbnail SD cards one is shown here are similar to MultiMediaCard MMC cards both share the same overall dimensions though SD cards are slightly thicker than MMC cards and most mobile devices are designed to accommodate bo
133. ad nares dead kava dd 4 oath Cade Re he ea 16 MEMmOry segrei a SS a bese eae 17 Fl sh seere sanen e aad R ORERE Deas 18 Special Effects cc dsc20 b cadedtetie tesco nE a aao i 18 Transfer Mechanism ceccrsyrarisrinte t tanas eee eee eee 18 Gear You Ned i se cauciad iid trenini ienee ede Var sa bars 19 CHAPTER 2 Understanding Exposure 0 c ccc c eect e eens 21 How Cameras Take Pictures 0000s ccc eee eens 22 Inside a 35mm Camera 00 0 23 The Moment of Exposure 0 0 0 0 ee cece eee ee 23 How Digicams Are Different 0 00000 28 Use ISO for Exposure Control 0 000000008 29 Change the ISO Setting 00 0 cee eee 29 Perfecting Shots with Aperture and Shutter 0 30 How Cameras Choose Aperture and Shutter Speed 30 Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use iX How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 Adjusting Exposure Manually 0 0c eee eee Use Shutter or Aperture Priority Adjustments Tricky Lighting Situations 0 0 cee eee ee eee ee Using Exposure Compensation 00000 Switching Metering Modes 0 0000 eee eee Using Exposure Lock pasior ieir s Edi oe ena aA a E EOE G When to Take Control 0 0 0 0c cece eee eee Composition Essentials ccc cee cece e eee eens
134. ad the digital image you d like to change and pick from their extensive list of services Red eye removal color adjustment blurred backgrounds restoration wacky caricature filters it s all here Within a day the folks at the site email you a price quote If you choose to pay it takes a few days to get the work done They do nice work but let me be very clear There s almost nothing that they do that you can t do yourself especially if you re armed with this book and a decent image editor That s why I think that buying a gift certificate yes they sell gift certificates as a holiday gift for your digital imaging neophyte is a better use for the site Come to think of it you should give a copy of this book to all of your friends and relatives that own digital cameras for the holidays See that Now I m even giving you handy gift ideas This page intentionally left blank Creating Special Effects ew Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 2712 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to Simulate a Hollywood style blue screen effect Create chromakey effects like a news show weather map Create perfect selections using masks Insert friends and family into pictures of celebrities Take science fiction shots of laser battles Shrink your friends and put them in jars Make double exposures Add artistic and paintlike effects to your photos Decolorize your phot
135. ages on memory cards 167 Megapixel resolution explanation of 5 8 Megapixels cropping considerations for 217 Memory adapters using 164 165 Memory cards capacities of 167 caring for 166 167 choosing 156 158 choosing for TIF file format 144 CompactFlash 154 deleting images from 166 dynamics of 165 glitches of 156 Memory Sticks 154 155 MMC MultiMediaCards 155 selecting 19 SmartMedia 153 storage of images on 152 types of 12 Memory choosing amount of 17 Memory Stick memory cards displaying images with 369 image of 12 using 154 155 Memory storage explanation of 12 Menus usage of 13 14 Metering modes correcting exposures with 35 37 39 MIME encoding scheme sending email attachments with 354 MindStor Web site 167 Minolta Dimage software usage by scanners 195 Mistakes undoing 241 MMC cards MultiMediaCards using 155 MMS Multimedia Messaging mimicking with Pixer program 368 Moir patterns eliminating from scans 198 199 Moon photographing at night 90 385 Index Motion blur correcting 68 Movie mode special effect explanation of 18 Movies making with time lapse photos 130 mp3 file extension 141 My Pictures folder storing images in 171 N Nature and landscapes choosing exposure modes and lenses for 68 70 Negative film explanation of 24 Negatives scanning considerations for 193 200 Neutral density filters using with add on lenses 127 Newsletters cr
136. ages than in screen based images E Ifin doubt scan the image both ways and use the one that looks best Too much sharpening can actually ruin an otherwise good image You might want to disable automatic sharpening in the scanning software and sharpen the scan afterwards in an image editing program instead That way you ll have more control over the process and you can readily compare the before and after images _ ____ Eliminate Moir You may encounter a problem scanning certain pictures Photos that have already been through the scanning process once before such as newspaper and magazine images may suffer from CHAPTER 10 Turning Prints into Digital Images something called a moir pattern A moir pattern is caused by the interference of your scanner s screening overlaid on top of the original screening pattern as the example in Figure 10 4 shows To avoid this ugly moir pattern you can use the descreening tool found in most scanners control software Descreening adds time to the overall scan but it s necessary with these kinds of images Correct for Uneven Brightness Some scanners have a lot of trouble lighting the entire platen evenly and that sometimes creates images that are brighter in the center than at the edges This problem seems to be getting worse in fact as some really cheap scanners hit the market Usually this isn t apparent but it might be obvious with some photographs There are gene
137. amas achieving correct overlap with 118 creating 115 117 making 258 265 Panoramic series taking 119 120 PanVue ImageAssembler program stitching panoramas with 259 Paper brands of 342 344 determining right side of 348 printing on both sides of 348 selecting for printers 340 344 specialty types of 343 344 types of 341 342 Paper type specifying for print drivers 347 Paperclip icon meaning of 357 Parallax effects of 96 Parallel ports using with scanners 194 Patterns using in compositions 52 PCs adding hard disks to 183 184 creating subfolders on 173 174 locating and cataloging images on 177 180 minimum requirements for image editing 205 organizing images on 171 181 reading Mac floppies on 356 renaming folders on 173 renaming images on 174 177 requirements for 19 transferring images to 145 149 158 165 Performance digital cameras explanation of 30 Perspective adding lenses for 119 126 changing 54 rotating 226 227 using add on lenses with 126 127 Photo paper usage of 341 Photo scanners overview of 190 Photos See Images Photoshop Color Variations tool in 235 downside of 206 207 Photoshop Elements program benefits of 206 stitching panoramas with 259 Picture filled text special effect creating 310 311 Picture reviews avoiding to save batteries 132 Picture taking process of 22 30 39 Index 387 Pictures See Images Pixels adjusting resolution of 338 339 determining 1
138. amera s memory card and then insert the card in the camera Also make sure that they re all oriented properly sideways images taken by holding the camera on its side should be removed If your camera has the ability to display transitions between each image during playback turn that mode on now Attach the video out port of the camera to your VCR If you want musical accompaniment connect your CD player to the VCR as well and queue up some music Set the VCR on pause When your tape is ready to record start recording and start the CD player and camera s playback mode simultaneously You should end up with a slide show of images with music recorded on tape Using PowerPoint to Make a Video Slide Show Using the camera to create a slide show is easy but it s fraught with compromises There s usually no way to precisely time the transition from one image to another in your slide show for instance so you can t easily synchronize the images to music Also images tend to roll slowly onto the screen as they are read from memory It might look cheesy particularly if you re used to seeing pictures snap rapidly onto the screen Instead you might want to try the second though obviously more elaborate solution if you have the necessary gear For this approach to work you ll need a PC a program like PowerPoint which you may already have especially if you use Microsoft Office and a video out port on your PC that you ca
139. ameraquestions bydavejohnson com My Web site is located at bydavejohnson com and you re welcome to visit there and check out other books or my photography anytime you like I also write a free weekly email newsletter Introduction XX for PC World magazine called Digital Focus You can subscribe to Digital Focus by visiting pcworld com and clicking the Newsletters link Each week I offer digital photo and editing tips answer reader s questions and award prizes to reader submitted photos Join it s a blast Thanks and enjoy reading the book Your Camera Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use This page intentionally left blank Welcome to the Future Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 4 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to E Navigate around your digital camera Distinguish between point and shoot and professional camera features Pick a camera resolution based on print size Conserve battery power Tell the difference between a digital and optical zoom Shop for a new digital camera Choose gear and accessories for a digicam Welcome to the Future I mean it I m convinced that digital photography is for most people and in most situations the best way to take pictures And the technology just keeps getting better all the time With a digital camera it s possible to take photos and
140. an t shoot at night of course because there s little or no infrared light available to expose your picture You ll find out very quickly that infrared photography is dramatically different than visible light photography The most important difference of course is that an infrared filter blocks nearly all of the visible light coming into the camera 126 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera The lack of visible light means that exposure times are much longer than usual You might find your camera exposing pictures for a quarter second or half second in broad daylight which means that a tripod is essential There s so little light that you may run into another problem it s hard to see through the lens As a result the camera s LCD display is very nearly useless for framing your shot The LCD will be very dark and you ll have to concentrate quite hard while blocking glare on the LCD to see anything at all If your digital camera has a window style optical viewfinder that doesn t get its information from the lens you can use it to frame the scene instead Alternately you can line up your scene with no filter in place then screw the filter onto the lens and take the picture Obviously you ll need to use a tripod Editing Your Pictures When you get the images back to the computer you may find that the infrared shots have a relatively narrow dynamic range Load your images into an image editor like Paint Sho
141. an experiment and create your own I ve got a few you might want to start with though 308 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Create Gradient Filled Text The first thing you ll do is fill the text with something other than a boring solid color You can create gradient text very easily In Paint Shop Pro for instance here s what you do 1 Using the color palette select the foreground and background We colors that you want to make up your gradient 2 Click the Text button in the tool palette and then click in qj the image where you want to position the text The Text Entry dialog box should appear Choose colors 3 In the Styles box change the Fill item to Gradient This here will fill the text with a gradient fill Textures Text Entry x Name Size Sample text Kerning Leading Bauhaus 93 2 z Karate LH 44 p_ 34 Script Westem he T Auto kem Styles Enter text here Stroke ae B 7 uU A Fit Ear ERS F r Create as Standard text Vector Selection Floating I Antialias OK Cancel Help bao Textures Stroke gt 4 Enter your text in the entry box and specify a big fat font so the gradient will be clearly visible 5 Click OK to paste the text into the image You should get a result similar to Figure 14 2 You can do a lot of things to customize this gradient text You can gradient fill the Stroke style instead of
142. and the expensive way Believe it or not you don t need an expensive reflector from your local photo shop in order to move light around you can have a lot of success using a glossy white sheet of poster board Purchase a sheet of poster board from your local art supply store for a dollar or two to try it out The problem with poster board of course is that it is often difficult to carry around For a more compact reflector solution pick up a photo reflector at your local camera store Personally I really like PhotoFlex Litediscs These clever little reflectors fold up so small that you can almost put them in your pocket Take them out of the bag however and they pop open to a variety of handy sizes I use a Litedisc that measures about 24 inches in diameter see Figure 4 5 and I find that s a great size for most of the things that I want to photograph When you re ready to take a picture with your reflector you ll probably need some help It s fiendishly difficult to hold a reflector and take a picture at the same time So instead of trying some feat of photographic gymnastics ask an assistant to hold the reflector such that light reflects from the sky onto your subject Try to hold the reflector to minimize shadows or illuminate the dark side of your subject Ehe Instead of using a flash ask someone to hold a reflector near your subject By holding it level with the ground you can reflect light up into the subject s fac
143. anorama mode and look in the LCD display You should see a set of guide marks like the ones shown here As you take each picture in your panorama the guide marks help you keep part of the previous shot in the next picture you are about to take If your camera does not have a panorama mode just be sure to include some overlap in seach image using your eyes to estimate distance CHAPTER 6 Pushing Your Camera to Its Limits 119 Adding Lenses for Different Perspectives As you ve already seen you can attach additional lenses to many digital cameras to enhance your photographic options In Chapter 5 for instance we added close up lenses to shoot macro photographs Your options don t end there Add on lenses cover the spectrum of photographic possibilities Even if your camera comes with only a 2X zoom you can probably enhance that with a set of telephoto wide angle and close up lenses Take a Panoramic Series 6 Ready It s time to actually take your panoramic series Here s what you should do E Set up your camera on a tripod in front of the scene that you want to photograph Make sure that the camera is level with respect to the horizon E Turn on your camera and set it to the panorama mode Frame the rightmost edge of your panorama and take the picture E Turn your camera on the tripod slightly to the left so that it is framing the next part of the scene Make sure however that the leftmost 25 percent of the first image no
144. any color you like CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 2713 substitute a different scene in place of the blue screen So a scene that looks as if it happened in midair or in France or on the moon actually happened in front of a blue tarp Separate footage is added in place of the tarp and voila That s movie magic We can achieve the same kind of results ourselves It helps to use a real blue screen a solid colored backdrop that you can paint out afterwards with a different image but it s also possible to achieve good results with no preplanning at all Make a Weather Map Let s start with the kind of shot we plan ahead for which makes it a tad easier to get good results First think about the evening news You ve seen the weather forecaster stand in front of a map of the United States and point to cold fronts a million times before but have you ever thought about how that bit of TV magic happens Obviously the forecaster isn t standing in front of a real map Instead it s a blue screen a solid colored rectangle The engineer uses a technique called chromakey to replace the rectangle with video from another source What happens is this The engineer selects the color of the blue screen and identifies it as a key The second video source then overwrites anything in the scene that has the key valued color You can create your own chromakey weather map effect yourself Here s how to try it Use Chromakey
145. aper See Figure 15 1 for a look at a typical toner cartridge The toner sticks to the paper in places where it has an electrostatic charge and the toner is finally permanently melted into the paper by a very hot fusing wire Laser printers have a lot of advantages They can print quickly many personal laser printers can generate as many as eight or ten pages per minute and the toner lasts a long time yielding a very low cost per page My Hewlett Packard HP LaserJet 6P which has served me reliably for many years now prints about 3 000 to 5 000 sheets of paper for each 80 toner cartridge Those advantages add up to a good all around office printer that handles most common print jobs pretty well Personal laser printers can be purchased for between 200 and 500 Unfortunately laser printers tend to be better at printing text than graphics That s mainly because most laser printers are black and white devices able to generate just shades of gray Color laser printers are available but since they tend to cost more than 1 000 they re beyond the reach of most people Even if you could purchase a color laser printer I wouldn t recommend it for printing digital images for framing Color laser printers tend to produce shiny artificial looking prints and they limit you to a print size of 8 x 10 inches Laser printers can certainly be used to print images and they can do it well as long as your 15 needs don t include color You can prin
146. aphy double exposures are fun but hard to do well You can go for far out stuff that combines two completely different kinds of subjects or a simple artistic effort like double exposure The good news is that double exposure shots in digital photography take seconds to do and don t require any of the elaborate planning or in your head exposure calculations you d need to do with film And you can combine any number of photos into your multiple exposure Here s how 1 Load two photos you plan to combine in Paint Shop Pro 2 Make sure that they re both the same pixel size by choosing Image Image Information from the menu If one is larger resize it so they re the same 3 Select one photo and choose Edit Copy to put it in the Clipboard 294 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 4 Select the other photo and choose Edit Paste As New Layer You should see the first photo appear over and completely obscure the selected photo 5 If the Layer Palette toolbar isn t already on the screen open it by choosing View Toolbars and clicking the Layer Palette Click Close to get rid of the Toolbars dialog box 6 In the Layer Palette toolbar drag the transparency slider for Layer 1 back from 100 percent until you can start to see the underlying image Setting the slider at 50 percent will give you equal amounts of both pictures though you may want one of the images to be significantly more prominent If so drag the
147. ariety of additional lenses thanks to a snap on lens adapter You can look online for data on lenses for your camera First check out the camera manufacturer s Web site for compatible accessories including lenses Also visit Tiffen www tiffen com and Raynox www digitaletc com Tiffen is the largest manufacturer of add on lenses for digital cameras and they re likely to have something for your camera while Raynox has a variety of macro lenses as well The most common close up lenses for digital cameras look like the ones shown in Figure 5 6 They are usually made from a single element of glass and are threaded to screw onto the front of the camera lens an adapter or even each other CHAPTER 5 Taking Close Ups 99 mCl li aeeem Many cameras are compatible with snap on or screw on lenses that provide telephoto wide angle and macro capabilities alcielsi eeem A typical set of close up lenses 100 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Understanding Macro Lens Lingo With rare exception close up lenses are not described in terms of focal length like other lenses That s because they re essentially just magnifying glasses that go in front of the camera s normal lens Instead close focus lenses are described using the term diopter A diopter is an indirect measure of focal length It tells you both how close you can get to the subject and what relative magnification the lens provides Close up lens
148. art the exposure you choose is a matter of personal taste Don t trust your camera s exposure meter at night You might want to start with whatever your camera s meter suggests but you can almost always get more interesting _ __ pictures by doubling or tripling the shutter speed that s suggested by the camera EGIA Longer exposure times lead to longer light trails and brighter points of light CHAPTER 4 Flash and Lighting CCDs and Noise Night photography is a little trickier with a digital camera than with a 35mm SLR Don t get me wrong film has its own problems Reciprocity failure for instance is a phenomenon that affects 35mm film What it means is that film reacts somewhat unpredictably during very long exposures such as at night Film is designed to be exposed to light for a fraction of a second if you leave the shutter open for 10 seconds the reliable relationship between the aperture size and shutter speed begins to fail That makes night photography for 35mm photographers something of a guessing game For digital photography we have a completely different problem to contend with When you expose a CCD to light it gets hot This heat manifests itself in the form of noise in your final picture After all the light and heat are forms of energy and the heat energy collecting on the CCD has a negative effect on the picture For short exposures this is rarely if ever an issue You might see some noise
149. artMedia camera Under no circumstances though would I buy a floppy disk based camera today Memory Card Glitches I ve heard from readers who complain that their SmartMedia cards sometimes seem to die If it has stopped working what s the real problem First remember that SmartMedia cards are pretty delicate They re wafer thin and have important electrical contacts exposed right on the surface If you ve damaged the card which isn t altogether out of the question it s now a really really small coaster Throw it away with the knowledge that you can replace it for just a few dollars An engineer from a memory card company has told me that there are other possibilities as well It seems that using the same SmartMedia card in multiple devices can change the formatting or fill the header information on the card with gibberish rendering it unable to store digital pictures So don t use the same SmartMedia card in your MP3 player and digital camera In addition when you get ready to transfer your pictures to your PC don t use the Windows Explorer interface to copy the files use My Computer instead You can try to revive the card by using the Format command in the camera s menu system But if that doesn t work you re probably out of luck And one more thing this problem only seems to affect SmartMedia cards so your CompactFlash SD and Memory Stick collection is probably safe CHAPTER 8 Working with Digital
150. ase button 2 As you feel it depress slightly the camera s autofocus lens locks the current subject into sharp focus 3 At the same time the camera s exposure meter measures the light and locks in an exposure 4 Apply more pressure to the shutter release to press it in all the way The camera then takes the picture and saves it to memory Cameras that use a fixed focus lens often do not include an exposure lock feature or _ they use a separate button to lock the exposure Inexpensive budget cameras may fall into this category Refer to your camera s manual to see if it has exposure lock and how to use it 40 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera The magic of exposure lock is that as long as you continue applying light pressure to the shutter release the camera will use that locked in exposure information regardless of where you later point the camera You can lock in exposure information for the sky and then point the camera at your feet and snap the shutter release all the way You lI take a picture of your feet using the sky s exposure data You probably wouldn t want to do that since the result will be totally underexposed but it gives you an idea of the potential Exposure lock is a great tool for telling the camera that you d like to take a picture with the exposure data from one specific part of the scene Imagine for instance a scene like the one in the Color Insert Here we have a boy at
151. ast time Transfer images to the PC promptly and then format or erase the card E Never write on memory cards or put any kind of sticker on them to track their contents That can damage the card or the camera Planning to Take Lots of Pictures How many images can you fit on a memory card You can use this handy chart to decide what size memory card or how many memory cards to take on your next family vacation This chart assumes you re capturing JPG images in high quality compression 16MB 32MB 64MB 128MB 256MB One megapixel 45 91 182 356 731 8 Two megapixel 17 35 71 142 284 Three megapixel 13 26 58 106 213 Four megapixel 8 16 32 64 128 Five megapixel 6 12 25 51 102 Another option you might consider instead of carrying a dozen 64MB memory cards with you invest in a portable hard disk Several gadgets on the market store your digital images while you re on the road They have slots to accept images from your memory cards beefy hard drives to hold a lot of images batteries for totally mobile operation and USB ports to transfer the pictures to your PC at the end of the trip For example check out the Nixvue Digital Album www nixvue com or the MindStor by Minds Work www mindsatwork net This page intentionally left blank Keeping Images on the PC Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 170 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to Organize your i
152. at need enhancement and brightness tends to wash out dark regions and increase the intensity of the highlights overexposing them The Gamma control on the other hand doesn t affect the brightest and darkest parts of an image so you can t wash out shadows with this tool for instance So as a general rule you should see if gamma gets the job done 230 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera To tweak the gamma just choose Colors Adjust Gamma Correction and move the sliders Unless your image is very poorly exposed you shouldn t need to change the gamma value above 1 5 or below 5 Generally you ll want to change the gamma of all three color channels red green and Dl simultaneously so be sure that the Link box is checked in the Gamma Correction dialog box Fine Tune Images with the Histogram The most precise and powerful way of correcting your images is with the histogram The histogram is a graph that shows the relative amount of information stored in each color channel in your image or in plain English it displays how many pixels are dark and light in your image The left side of the graph represents the darkest part of the image while the right side is the lightest A graph like the one on the left in Figure 11 4 has a lot of midtones while the one on the right is mostly filled with dark pixels You can use that information to tweak the brightness and contrast I use this Histogram adjustment technique o
153. ation of resolution and image quality What do these stars mean Check out 144 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera the user manual It ll take you a while before you memorize the system Until then you may have to revisit the user manual a few times Lossless Image Files It s worth pointing out that many digital cameras have a second file format option TIF Remember that the TIF format unlike JPG can be used to ensure that the image is absolutely pristine without any data loss at all Many cameras have a special setting that you can use to save your images in this lossless TIF format You might want to work in TIF if you are shooting a special photograph that you plan to crop enlarge and print Truly professional work may call for TIF images but even then a high res high quality JPG may be sufficient Remember the TIF format exacts a serious penalty it s so large that you may only be able to fit one or perhaps two images on the memory card that comes with your camera If you want to work in TIF format a lot you should get the largest memory card you can afford Even with a 128MB Compact Flash card you might only be able to store a half dozen images in your camera at one time How significant is the difference between TIF and JPG The differences are typically only apparent when enlarged and even then it isn t always readily apparent It s most noticeable when trying to print an enlargement on a good color pri
154. automatic operation and manual selection Use this mode if you don t want to worry about devising your own exposure values but still want some say over the shutter speed or aperture The program exposure mode is often the best all around setting for your camera In this so mood the camera chooses a good exposure setting but you can turn a dial to tweak the shutter speed The camera will instantly compensate by changing the aperture setting keeping the overall exposure the same E Shutter priority This setting is usually indicated by the letter S on your camera s mode dial or LCD display Using this mode you can dial in whatever shutter speed you like and the camera accommodates by setting the appropriate aperture to match This mode is ideal for locking in a speed fast enough to freeze action scenes or slow enough to intentionally blur motion E Aperture priority This setting is usually indicated by the letter A on your mode dial or LCD display Using this mode you can dial in the aperture setting you like and the CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials camera accommodates by setting the appropriate shutter speed Use this mode if you are trying to achieve a particular depth of field and you don t care about the shutter speed E Manual The manual mode typically indicated with an M is like an old style noncomputerized camera In manual mode you select the aperture and shutter speed on your own sometimes with the help of the
155. ave found that most people don t really know how to take advantage of the flash that is built into their camera so in this chapter I discuss techniques like fill flash red eye reduction and bounce flash Lighting isn t just about using a flash either You can use a reflector to spread light around for a more pleasing effect and play with the white balance built into your camera for better lighting control as well And let s not forget about night photography It s one of my favorite subjects and in the next few pages I will explain how you can try your hand at this as well Taking pictures at night can yield some of the most artistic and beautiful images you ll ever see Basics of Flash Photography These days most digital cameras have an electronic flash unit built right into the camera body The flash is designed to fire for a very short period of time and illuminate your scene in one of two ways E As the main source of light indoors or in the dark E As a secondary source of light to fill in shadows when you re shooting in bright light such as outdoors CHAPTER 4 Flash and Lighting 73 In general your flash will probably know when to fire and can illuminate most pictures without your direct intervention When your camera is set to the fully automatic exposure mode the flash will probably come on as needed and not fire when it is not needed On the other hand you can probably figure out when you need a flash more effectiv
156. be able to find the camera unless it is switched to its PC transfer setting check the camera s manual Is there enough power If you are running on battery power low batteries can make the camera go into low power mode or act erratically sabotaging your efforts to connect to the PC Use fresh batteries or an AC adapter Is the serial cable plugged into the correct port Most but certainly not all computers have two serial ports referred to as COM1 and COM2 If the software can t find the camera experiment by switching ports or setting the software to use the other COM port You may also have communication software running like a fax program that is listening to a different port such as COMS3 but interferes with your camera s COM port anyway As my tech editor David Huss says All forms of serial communication are evil Is some other software hogging the serial port This one isn t always obvious Certain kinds of devices may use special programs that take total control of the serial port and won t let the camera in even when it s connected A good example of this is the HotSync cradle for a Palm handheld organizer If you disconnect the cradle and connect a camera in its place the HotSync Manager software may still be running monitoring the port for a signal from the Palm see Figure 8 4 You ll have to turn off the HotSync Manager CHAPTER 8 Working with Digital Film 161 Gereral Local Modem Network
157. bly to learn that your digital camera takes batteries Most but not all digital cameras rely on four AA batteries just like the ones in the Epson camera seen here Some cameras like the Olympus D 490 also accept a special single use Lithium battery or some other kind of power like rechargeables CHAPTER 1 Welcome tothe Future 11 TIL Viewfinders Not all cameras are rangefinders with parallax inducing viewfinders some have TTL Through the Lens optical systems These TTL viewfinders trace a light path through the lens which means they show you exactly what you re going to photograph as illustrated here They come in especially handy with zoom lenses While SLR style cameras like the Nikon D1 have a TTL viewfinder and a 5 000 price tag to boot more affordable cameras occasionally include this feature as well The Olympus D 620L is one such example viewfinder Power management is discussed in more detail in Chapter 6 but for now heed this sage advice Insert batteries according to the diagram on the camera body make sure you align the battery s positive and negative ends correctly E Don t leave batteries in the camera for an extended period of time Some kinds of batteries can leak and if that happens your camera can be ruined E Don t mix and match fresh and used batteries or batteries of different kinds E When you can run your camera using AC power That last bullet is particularly important Some di
158. but just a few problems tend to surface most frequently Take a look at the trio of images in the Color Insert to see what happens if you base your exposure on the wrong part of the picture These kinds of problems have several solutions and you can experiment to see which works best for you in various situations Here are some ways you can correct your exposures when you see a problem in the viewfinder E Use exposure compensation Use the EV control on your camera to intentionally under or overexpose your pictures beyond what the camera s exposure sensor recommends M Switch metering modes You can use a different kind of exposure meter to account for very contrasty images E Use exposure lock Lock your exposure on a different part of the image and then recompose the picture and shoot To see how to use each of these exposure techniques keep reading Using Exposure Compensation Most digital cameras come equipped with an exposure compensation control usually referred to as the EV adjustment The EV control allows you to lock in and use the camera s recommended automatic exposure setting but then adjust that value up or down based on factors that you re aware of but the camera may not be smart enough to see Each Exposure Value EV corresponds to changing the exposure by one stop such as going from 1 60 to 1 30 this is a change of 1 EV since it doubles the exposure or 1 15 to 1 30 this is 1 EV since it reduces the ex
159. c exposure mode explanation of 64 B Back up batteries traveling with 133 Background color importance of 244 245 Backgrounds balancing with foregrounds 53 blackening in close ups 105 blurring in close ups 106 blurring to sharpen images 240 242 establishing distance for avoiding motion blur 68 making plain in close ups 106 Backlit subjects accommodating 41 42 Batch processing performing 149 Batteries caring for 130 133 carrying spares of 133 maximizing use of 131 132 proper usage of 11 rechargeable versus alkaline type of 131 salvaging 132 selecting 19 types of 10 using in cold weather 132 Battery chargers traveling with 133 Bean bag camera supports usage of 104 Bhphotovideo photo supply Web site 125 Black and white mode using 115 Blue excessiveness correcting 235 Blue screen special effect creating 272 281 using 272 281 using masks with 277 279 Blur filters description of 296 Blurring technique sharpening images with 240 242 Blurry images sharpening 238 242 BMP bit mapped file format purpose of 140 Body controls explanation of 13 Breezes blocking with reflectors 81 Bright sunlight accommodating 41 Brightness correcting uneven amounts of 199 and gamma control 234 improving in images 228 235 Browse tool using with Paint Shop Pro image editing software 178 179 BubbleJet printers choosing 331 334 336 resolution for 337 338 Bulb settings usi
160. cal charges The image is transformed into digital bits and stored on a memory card Your camera s CCD functions like the film in a 35mm camera except that it differs in one important way you can t swap the CCD out of your camera and insert one with more light sensitivity for low light photography The CCD is a permanent part of the camera Camera makers understand that you might need to change the camera s light sensitivity on occasion though and that s why many cameras can have their ISO rating adjusted on the fly whenever 190 200 210 210 200 180 160 100 120 190 160 150 100 153 160 170 160 90 110 110 130 125 90 120 110 125 100 88 120 110 100 90 92 mlcleliawe m A digital camera uses a huge grid of pixels on the CCD in place of chemically reactive grains of silver CHAPTER 2 Understanding Exposure 29 you want In essence what this does is allow you to turn up or turn down your camera s sensitivity to light Use ISO for Exposure Control You can use the ISO control built into your digital camera to vary its sensitivity to light and thus mimic the effect of using different grades of 35mm film This can come in handy in a number of situations such as when you re shooting in particularly high or low light levels Remember a few key facts about your camera s ISO ratings though E It s nota real IS
161. cally you ll just need to access the scanner software from an image editing program like Paint Shop Pro or Adobe PhotoShop set the scanner to preview and then scan the photo in the scanner Figure 10 2 shows a typical scanner program Determining the Right Resolution What resolution should you use to scan your image Your scanner is probably capable of capturing images at a wide variety of resolutions perhaps from under 100dpi all the way up to 3 000dpi or so depending upon what kind of scanner you own Which one should you pick In general scanning resolution is a trade off between file size and image quality On the one hand you might want to scan everything at the scanner s maximum resolution so you re prepared for anything but that has practical limitations The files will be huge and that adds up to a lot of wasted disk space In addition large files slow down your PC sometimes dramatically so The solution is to attempt to match the scanned resolution to the resolution of the required final output So a newsletter that will be printed on a 300dpi printer for instance should incorporate images scanned at 300dpi Use this table as a guideline for choosing the appropriate resolution Document Scan Resolution Fax documents 200dpi line art or grayscale Pictures for Web pages 75dpi Color or grayscale images The easy answer is to scan at the resolution of the intended output for print so a 300dpi printer would require scans at
162. camera s recommendation This mode is best used for long exposures or other special situations when the camera s meter is not reliable Choosing Exposure Modes and Lenses in Special Situations Now that you know what your camera s various exposure modes are for you can think about using them when you encounter unique photographic situations Every situation is a little bit different but here are a few general guidelines that can get you started Portrait Photography Taking pictures of people can be fun but intimidating It s hard to get a natural pose from people when they know they are being photographed The best way to capture good portraits is to work with your subjects so they are a little more at ease If you re trying to capture spontaneous candid moments then back off and try to blend in with the background If you re trying to capture a fairly formal looking portrait you have a little more work cut out for you It s up to you as the photographer to put your subjects at ease Talk to your subjects and get them to respond If you can get them to loosen up they ll exhibit more natural responses and look better on film Take pictures periodically as you pose your subjects to get them used to the shutter going off even if it isn t a picture you intend to keep I should mention that digital cameras have a cool advantage for portraiture that SLRs don t the LCD display lets you put your subject more at ease Try framing
163. camera you cannot shoot any closer than about 3 feet when set on normal zoom but you can shoot to within a single foot if you are zoomed in to telephoto 74 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera mlclelsiee oum A telephoto lens because it processes less light reduces the effective range of your flash As you can see from Figure 4 3 close up photos are easy to overexpose if you leave the flash turned on There are a few ways to work around this problem depending upon what your flash unit is capable of doing ___ Turn the flash off completely and shoot with natural light Bounce the flash off a plain white reflector such as the ceiling or a reflector card You ll probably need an external flash unit to bounce though Reduce the flash s power setting to 50 percent or 25 percent Cover the flash with a tissue or gel available at any camera shop to reduce its intensity For many digital cameras there s an optimum range for your flash photographs Try to stay between about 5 and 14 feet from your subject Avoid using the flash in situations where the subject is more than about 15 feet away or closer than 3 feet CHAPTER 4 Flash and Lighting 75 B p Keha These snapshots demonstrate the falloff in light intensity as you back away from your subject at night mlcleiieeecm Your flash may overexpose close ups if you get too close the image on the left used natural light but the
164. can over time clog your printer affecting its performance and eventually even damaging it CHAPTER 15 Printing Your Pictures 341 recommend for laser printers Of course I m assuming that the majority of what you print is just test prints text and other routine output If every print you make is destined for the Louvre then you might want to skip directly to the section where I talk about photo paper When you re ready to step up to some higher quality printing you have a number of choices on store shelves see Figure 15 5 Here s a general overview of the various grades available E Plain paper As I ve already mentioned this is good for general text and ordinary graphics printing The paper is inexpensive but the ink tends to absorb quickly into the paper and blur the image The paper also curls and distorts Inkjet paper and high quality inkjet paper This is a step up and embeds clay or some other ink fixture into the paper to stop the inks from spreading before they dry For most printing you won t notice a big difference but this paper makes for better draft quality photographic prints E Photo paper A variation of coated paper photo paper is generally bright white coated paper that s designed explicitly for photographs If you re looking for paper in an intermediate price range that can give decent results try this stuff 15 ehia With so many choices on store shelves it pays to experiment wi
165. ccc eect eee 242 Choosing Colors a cho ies cee te Sema oe ee Se 242 Applying the Paint 2 2 caved prense heen eee eee tes 245 Painting More Accurately 0 0000 unnn 248 Repairing the Evil Eye 0 2 cee eee eee 251 Using Automatic Red Eye Removal 00 252 Removing Red Eye the Old Fashioned Way 254 Airbrushing Away Distractions 0 00 0 c ee eee ee eee 255 Clean Up Old and Damaged Pictures 0000 257 Remove Picture Scratches 0 0 0 2 e eee eee eee 258 Remove Dust Dirt and Digital Noise 000 258 Make a Panoramic Photo 0 0 0 cee eee cece eee ee 258 The Resolution Advantage 0 0 0 0 0c ee eae 260 Stitching Photos Together by Hand 4 261 Improving Your Sky 0 eee cece eee 265 Multiply Your Sky nea recia EE eee eee 266 Replace the Sky serari e Seas aii eae ge se es vote 268 Let Someone Else Do the Work 00 004 269 Creating Special Effects 0 cece ccc cee ce eee ees 271 Using a Hollywood Style Blue Screen 00 0000 272 Make a Weather Map 0 0c cee eee eee eee 273 Blue Screen Without a Screen 0000 00 20 0008 274 Shake Hands with Elvis 0 0 eee eee eee 281 Shoot a Sci Fi Firefight 0 0 284 The Disintegrating Subject 000 000000008 285 The Laser Blast z tie erea a
166. ces depth of field We talked about aperture in Chapter 2 it s the size of the lens opening that determines how much light reaches your camera s imaging sensor Aperture is measured in f stops where lower f numbers represent bigger openings and higher f numbers are smaller openings In addition the smaller the aperture s actual opening or in other CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials 57 words the higher the f number the greater the depth of field will be As you can see here the aperture of your lens directly influences how deep the depth of field is in any given picture 7 O OO i OO 000 E Focallength As we discuss in the upcoming section Getting the Most Out of Your Zoom Lens focal length is just a measure of your lens s ability to magnify a scene And while most people focus on a lens s magnification depth of field plays an important role here as well In simple terms the more you magnify your subject the less depth of field you have available When shooting with a normal or wide angle lens you have a lot of depth of field If you zoom out to a telephoto magnification your depth of field drops dramatically Likewise macro photography also known as close up photography has very little depth of field as well since you are greatly 58 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera magnifying a small object See Chapter 5 for details on macro photography This illustration graphically demonstrates the eff
167. change the white balance for every new lighting situation you find yourself in CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials 69 A few special kinds of nature shots warrant special mention here Photographing a Waterfall or Running Stream The two ways to capture running water in a photograph are with a fast freeze framing shot or with a longer exposure that blurs the water into a continuous stream effect Both effects can look good but I have a fondness for the latter The effect looks great and it s easy to do you simply need to take a long exposure of the water Here s how 1 You need to ensure that your camera will give you a long exposure on the order of a half second You can get this by shooting in automatic mode in the early morning or late afternoon or using a manual mode if your camera allows 2 Set your camera on a tripod the long exposure requires a steady support 3 Compose the image and take the shot If you can t get your camera to use a setting that s slow enough to blur the shot try adding a neutral density ND filter to the front of your lens ND filters reduce the light entering the lens without affecting the color they re handy for creative photography when you can t wait for the sun to go down Read more about ND filters in Chapter 13 Shooting Wildlife Wildlife photography is like action photography it typically takes a telephoto lens fast shutter speed and a tripod Try to fill the frame as much as po
168. chments are binary files as opposed to plain text that your mail program can deliver to another person s mail system Most of the time attachments work just fine Occasionally though you ll run into problems sending images as attachments That s because the original Internet wasn t designed to accommodate the sending of binary files like pictures via email and encoding schemes were tacked on after the fact Here are some snags you may run into E Beware of sending files that are too big Most email systems can t deal with a single email file that s bigger than about 2MB Personally I d consider 1MB to be your upper limit on file size If you send a very large file to someone it can get stuck in their mail CHAPTER 16 Sharing Your Pictures 353 server clogging up messages that are trying to come in afterwards Check the file size of your attachments see Figure 16 1 before sending them I strongly recommend resizing images that you plan to email down to about 640 x 480 pixels When you attach a digital image to an email message the attachment usually ends up about 10 percent larger than the original image because of the encoding necessary to send it across the Internet America Online can only receive a single attachment Even though most mail systems can accept multiple attached files in each email message AOL doesn t quite know what to make of that kind of message Usually only one of the attachments will
169. colors automatically This technique doesn t work well for wide scratches or scratches that curve or bend it s off to the Clone tool for those Remove Dust Dirt and Digital Noise Your images can be filled with little specks that come from grainy high speed 35mm film from bad scans or from using a digital camera in very low light Regardless of the reason you get specks on your image most image editors have a Despeckle tool In Paint Shop Pro you can find it at Effects Noise Despeckle Make a Panoramic Photo A panorama is an image that s wider than the ordinary images produced by your camera such as the one in Figure 12 2 Panoramas are typically used to take landscapes since they provide the wide sweeping vistas that look so impressive You can take a panorama of anything though a school play the inside of your home or some other scene The key to making something into a panorama with a digital camera though is that you ll need to take two or more images and stitch them together on your PC That means that the scene shouldn t change much between photographs or you won t be able to match them up So if you re taking a landscape for instance the same cars people and other objects shouldn t move as you rotate your camera and take successive shots I first talked about panoramas back Chapter 6 where I explained how you can use your camera to take the panorama s raw ingredients the individual shots
170. cs f C europe 4 G CF evan 5 r p Q fal Comdex I gp2k C HIDE Digicam PICO0001 JPG PICOO006 JPG PICO0007 JPG PICOO008 JPG l C karate 5 C kids A CJ kris F Lock C letterhead J main R x FPICOO00S JPG a a PICOO0IOJPG PICOOOIIJPG fecooor PG 8 1280 x 1024 x 16 Milion 288 2 KB J New JPEG JFIF Compliant Be CI palm 07 3099 01 14 14 PM C portfolio y a ra C prire Textures z ERNA Vi JE AP a a For Hel LEALES BE Thumbnail 1 LEE A 1 gt CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 209 3 Open the folder with the image you want to open directly on the Windows desktop and drag the image file from the folder to the Paint Shop Pro window If Paint Shop Pro isn t on top you can do this instead Drag the image file out of the folder and hold it over the Paint Shop Pro button in the task bar at the bottom of the Windows desktop Don t let go of the file yet just hold it there for a few moments Paint Shop Pro should pop to the front Finally just move the file up to the Paint Shop Pro window and let go Change the File Format Much of the time yov ll only need to make minor changes to your images to get them into email on the Web or into other documents and applications In the next few sections I show you how to make changes to the file itself like resizing changing the colors and changing the file format of your digital images Shrink Your Images As Jebediah Sp
171. ct and pointing a flashlight directly at the camera walk to the target of the phaser blast trying to keep the flashlight moving in a straight line so it traces what will look like a solid laser beam on the film Outline the target with the flashlight again pointing it at the camera If you want to make the target look as if he or she is disintegrating ask the subject to leave the scene and then flash the rear wall once Stop the exposure That s a lot of work and the results are often hit or miss Against all odds you can sometimes get a half decent one The Disintegrating Subject With a digital camera and a program like Paint Shop Pro you can create this special effect a lot more scientifically Here s an alternate way to create a similar image 1 Take a picture of two people posed to be the aggressor and the target Star Trek clothing is optional 13 286 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 2 Load the image into Paint Shop Pro and immediately store a copy of the image in the Clipboard by choosing Edit Copy 3 Asa first step toward making the target glow carefully create a selection region around the subject and then set it to get bigger To do that choose Selections Modify Expand and select perhaps 10 or 20 pixels Then feather the selection in the same way choose Selections Modify Feather and set the feather to 5 or 10 pixels S Jasc Paint Shop Pro master phaser Tool Options
172. cting with aperture and shutter 30 35 SHQ setting using with file formats 143 Shrinking images 209 211 Shutter blades advisory about 32 Shutter lag dealing with 68 69 Shutter priority exposure mode 64 Shutter release button effect of placing pressure on 70 Shutter speed adjusting for action photography 67 and aperture settings 34 perfecting shots with 30 35 relationship to ISO and aperture 26 27 selection of 30 32 using priority adjustments with 34 35 varying for night photography 88 shutterfly com Web site 364 Shutters dynamics of 32 Sight versus cameras 45 77 Silhouettes shooting 79 Single fold greeting cards creating with Word 321 324 Sky in images fixing bleached effect of 266 improving 265 268 multiplying 266 267 replacing 268 Slide film explanation of 24 Slide shows creating on videotape 370 373 Slides scanning considerations for 193 200 Slow flash mode explanation of 77 Slow Sync flash mode explanation of 77 SLR digital cameras controlling exposures with 33 34 price ranges of 7 8 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera shopping for 7 usage of 7 8 Smaller Image Web site 355 Smart Edge tool in Paint Shop Pro using with superimposed celebrity images 283 SmartMedia memory cards 153 image of 12 price ranges of 17 SmartMedia readers using 165 Sony DSC P1 ability to resize images with 209 Sony DSC P5 advisory about using telescopes with 127 Special effects
173. d to account for the reduced light Use Shutter or Aperture Priority Adjustments Instead of relying on an all automatic or all manual exposure system you can compromise and use your camera s shutter or aperture bias if it has one The idea with these controls is that you select either an aperture or a shutter speed and the camera automatically selects the other half of the exposure for you CHAPTER 2 Understanding Exposure 35 Aperture and shutter priority modes are discussed in more detail in Chapter 3 These settings are usually used to find the right balance between freezing or blurring motion in a picture and focusing attention on the subject by sharpening or blurring the background of an image e e e e e Tricky Lighting Situations Not all lighting situations are easy to shoot that s why photography is both an art and a science Specifically it s fairly easy for real life scenes to trick your camera s exposure sensor and consequently under or overexpose a picture You can fix that tendency to some degree on the PC afterward and we talk about how to do that in Chapter 12 but it s much better to expose the picture correctly to begin with That s because an over or underexposed image is missing information about colors texture and detail that can never be restored afterward only the moment of exposure can ensure that all the information will be in your image What are some examples of tricky photos There are many
174. dependent ink color cartridges to create more realistic photo prints but four cartridges black plus three colors is the absolute minimum you should accept E Speed You should pay attention to the printer s speed measured in pages per minute or ppm and resolution Slow laser printers run at 8ppm the fastest are around 24ppm Remember that inkjets print much more slowly color is their selling point not speed 336 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera E Eyeball the prints No matter what the specs say a printer is only as good as the prints Try out printers in the store before you buy Most computer stores have demo models set up that spit out prints when you press a test button And as I mention later in the chapter remember that the paper is just as important to print quality as the ink and printer itself E Ease of use Once you get the basic specs down you might want to consider some less tangible factors like ease of use Specifically I think the easiest printers to use and maintain connect with a USB cable instead of a parallel port connector Most good printers also come with status monitor software that lets you get important information about your printer like how much ink is left right from the Windows desktop If you have a notebook PC or handheld computer you might want to print directly to your printer via the wireless infrared port Few printers have infrared support however so you ll have to shop around
175. der a program like Portfolio 6 from Extensis www extensis com This is a visual database application that takes Paint Shop Pro s Browser to the next level Using a program like Portfolio you can search for images by eye by keyword or by filename You can drag and drop images directly into your editor for modification or printing and you can generate Web pages based on your digital image thumbnails automatically with very little effort Estimating File Size So you save a lot of images on your hard disk How many can you pack in before you need more storage space That isn t necessarily an easy question to answer That s because the most common file formats like JPG don t always save an image to the same file size The size that any particular image takes up on your hard disk will vary depending upon how much color information is stored in the image A single color image such as a graphic that s plain solid blue will compress dramatically to 182 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera a miniscule size while a complex image with thousands or millions of colors will not compress as efficiently Nonetheless we can make some ballpark estimates that will help you keep track of storage space if you want to Calculating TIFs Let s start with the easy file formats There are file formats out there that are considered lossless Recall from Chapter 7 lossless means no matter how many times you open and resave the file
176. des etare eena ang eee eee 334 Printing Your Images 0 ie erie ni i E eee 337 The Right Resolution 0 0 0 0 cee eee eee eee eee 337 Working with Paper 2 0 eee eee eee 340 Other Specialty Papers 0 0 0 0 cee eee eee ee 343 Making Your Prints 0 0 cee eee eee ee 344 Which Side Is the Right Side 0 00 000 0000 348 Caring for Your Prints 2 2 2 eee eee eee 348 Working with Printing Services 0 eee eee eee ee 349 Sharing Your Pictures 0 ccc cece cece eee eee eens 351 Sending Images via Email 0 0 0 0 c cece ee eee eee 352 Shrinking Images for Email 00 00000 354 Attaching Pictures in Email 0 00000000 356 Distributing Images on Floppy Disks 0 00005 356 Strategies for Sharing Lots of Images 005 360 Creating Your Own Web Pages 2 0 0 0 cece eee eee 361 Choosing an Image Size and File Format for the Web 362 Contents XV Sharing Images on the Web Without Designing a Web Site 364 Whichils Best eirio imin Hace i eRe as eee es ack 364 Showing Off Images ona Palm 0 0 0 0 0 0c e eee eee 366 Showing Off Images in a Digital Picture Frame 369 Showing Pictures on TV 0 cee cee ee eee 370 Creating a Slide Show on Videotape 04 370 If Your Camera Has No Video Output
177. designation tells you what the new focal length will be once the lens is attached to your camera If it is a 2X lens for instance the lens will double the focal length of your camera Obviously a 2X lens is a telephoto and attaching it to a typical digital camera should yield a focal length in the vicinity of 200mm If you are looking for a wide angle lens shoot for one that has an X power of less than 1 Suppose you purchase a 6X lens When you attach it to your digital camera it will reduce the focal length by 40 percent Zoomed out at a focal length of 40mm your camera will actually provide a focal length of 24mm which is quite wide If you zoom in to your camera s telephoto position the add on lens will still work Now your usual 100mm will be only 60mm You can sometimes purchase add on lenses in a complete set such as the one in Figure 6 3 122 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera gehig A collection of add on lenses that all fit common digital cameras Add on Lens Precautions While add on lenses are a powerful tool for expanding your photographic options you need to take some care to avoid an effect known as vignetting Vignetting is what happens when the lens barrel itself gets into the picture causing the frame to lose its square shape Subtle vignetting might simply cause the corners of your pictures to be dark blurry or rounded off Extreme vignetting like the example in Figure 6 4 can feature a perf
178. did not make a conscious decision to do this if he or she had the horizon probably would have ended up somewhere else Running the horizon right through the middle of a photograph is akin to putting the subject smack dab in the middle It s boring because it violates the rule of thirds Instead try putting the horizon along a rule of thirds line As you can well imagine that actually gives you two choices for where to put the horizon in any given picture You can put the horizon in the top third or the bottom third of your composition How do you decide which It s easy if you want to emphasize the distant landscape and sky put the horizon on the bottom third line If you are taking a seascape where you want to emphasize the foreground such as in Figure 3 7 the horizon belongs in the glcleisieaceyas The horizon usually works best well above or below the center of the picture 52 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera upper third of the picture Of course these are guidelines Digital film is cheap it s basically free Experiment Use Lines Symmetry and Patterns Photographs are two dimensional representations of three dimensional scenes The question then is how to best lead viewers through a picture so they get a sense of the real depth that the image is trying to depict The answer to that question is simpler than you might think When you compose an image in the viewfinder look for natural or artificia
179. disappointed with the reflections from the flash If you are excited about macro photography and expect to do a lot of it you might want to invest in a product called the Cloud Dome available from www clouddome com This clever little gadget is a plastic dome it looks like an upside down salad bowl that covers your subject 110 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Polarized has no effect Polarized has maximum effect KCUGHEAPA By turning a polarizing filter on the end of your lens you can minimize the reflections caused by light and glass CHAPTER 5 Taking Close Ups 111 and has a hole at the top for mounting your camera The dome itself diffuses light from the outside illuminating the macro subject evenly and professionally I swear by this gadget When using the Cloud Dome you re shooting in a controlled environment The dome takes care of the lighting and it even blocks wind if you use it outdoors The dome even securely holds the camera in place acting like a tripod All you need to worry about is framing your subject and getting the focus sharp If you need more light than what is getting through the dome just shine a table lamp or some other sort of light at the dome You can see the Cloud Dome ready to shoot in Figure 5 13 On the downside the Cloud Dome is not inexpensive in fact at about 200 it costs an awful lot of money I ve experimented with household items like oversized plastic food containers
180. e CHAPTER 4 Flash and Lighting 81 You Can Bounce Light m If your digital camera has a hot shoe or an input for a flash sync cable you can attach external flash units for additional light and control over your images I love using flash units designed for 35mm SLRs because the flash head tilts That means you can tilt the flash so that it reflects light off the ceiling or a wall thus diffusing the light and creating a softer effect Be sure that you re not reflecting light off colored walls though or the reflected light might paint your subject some horrible shade of yellow You may also want to disable the built in flash in your camera if you use an external flash Check the camera s menu system for flash controls Try it both ways though since some pictures can benefit from dual flash units arriving on the scene from different directions Reflectors serve a second important purpose as well When you re out in the field trying to take a picture the wind can sometimes get in the way You ll notice this most often when you re trying to take a close up of a light bendable subject like a flower As I talk about in Chapter 5 just a little breeze can create an out of focus and blurry macrophoto The solution Compose your picture so that you can use the reflector not only to add light to the scene but also to serve as a wind break That s right reflectors can block the breeze and give you a more stable picture See Figure 4 6
181. e E If necessary fill in the side of the subject s face with a reflector to eliminate shadows You can also use your camera s flash as a fill flash Avoid Red Eye As I mentioned earlier in the chapter the dreaded red eye is the effect that happens when the flash reflects off your subject s pupils You can get this effect with any living subject though remember the Omen movies it looks particularly creepy on dogs Red eye happens most frequently indoors because everyone s pupils are wide open to see better in dim indoor light Once you understand what causes red eye it s easy to prevent Here are the most common ways of avoiding red eye E Use the red eye reduction mode on your digital camera This is the easiest solution most of the time When you turn on the red eye reduction mode your camera triggers the flash several times rapidly right before the picture is taken When you use this mode remember the delay between the time you press the shutter release and when the picture is actually taken often about a second That doesn t sound like much but it s enough to make you move the camera and ruin the picture if you re not paying attention E Use an external flash off camera If you have a digital camera with a hot shoe for an external flash or one that includes a flash sync cable port you can connect external flash units The Nikon CoolPix 995 for instance lets you connect as many as five CHAPTER 4 Flash and Lig
182. e GIF format that supports three important features E Transparency Transparency allows you to specify a color in the image that will be treated as transparent That way you can make the image s background or border transparent If you have an irregularly shaped image like a diamond or oval this feature can look really cool as you can see here CHAPTER 16 Sharing Your Pictures 363 YNo matter what kind of background you use a picture with a transparent background will blend in E Interlacing An interlaced image downloads to a Web browser first as a chunky low resolution image then it increases in quality as more information is retrieved Otherwise the image would normally load a few lines at a time so you d see the top of the image display before the bottom Interlacing isn t faster than the alternative but it gives the viewer something to look at and so it can seem faster This is a good option to use when you know that people with slow Internet connections will be viewing your images E Animation An animated GIF is really just a sequence of individual images played one after the other Not really fast enough to give a sense of cinematic motion with large images animated GIFs are usually used to slowly display one image after another like a slide show The JPG format was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group to be a scalable file format that could be compressed to yield low file size or be left uncompress
183. e a few choices E Delete nonessential images from your hard disk E Archive the images on another storage device like CD ROM E Add another hard disk for additional storage space Deleting images is the easiest route but it has the least potential You probably want to save many of your images forever so there may not be that many images to get rid of Instead consider 9 archiving your images to another device If you have a CD RW drive you can copy dozens or hundreds of images to a CD depending upon the file size that will last more or less forever CDs do degrade over time but they will last for a hundred years or so longer than the ink on many kinds of photographs A CD RW drive is a kind of CD ROM drive that can write to blank discs Most CD RW drives come with software like Adaptec s Easy CD Creator seen in Figure 9 4 This software lets you simply drag and drop image files from the hard disk to the CD and then burn the disk a process that takes a few minutes to copy all the data to the CD After it s done the CD R is playable in any computer with a CD ROM drive When you archive your images be sure to use CD R discs not CD RW discs The two media are quite different and CD RWs are generally not readable on other PCs In addition data copied to CD Rs can be deleted so it s possible to accidentally overwrite your images later on To be safe always use CD R media which are a lot cheaper anyway
184. e precisely Masks are significantly more powerful than ordinary selections though They have three attributes that selections don t offer in most imaging programs E A mask is actually a 256 level grayscale image that sits on top of your picture A selection area is either on or off but you can use a mask to select the degree to which an effect will occur Black parts of the mask block all edits white parts allow changes to occur at 100 percent strength and gray areas are something in between It s as if you were spray painting a model in your basement and using some sort of mask to block unwanted paint In this case though the mask is made of a porous material like gauze that lets you control how much paint gets through E You can fine tune the mask with ordinary paint tools A selection area is only as accurate as your ability to draw with the mouse but you can create a mask zoom in paint pixel by pixel and make sure it looks exactly the way you need it to CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 219 E You can create a mask and save it to disk meaning that you can reuse it in many different images That said let s talk about how to actually use a mask Usually unless your selection area is well defined with a narrow range of colors conducive to using the Magic Wand such as if you re trying to enclose a solitary object against a high contrast background a selection is only as accurate as your ability to draw with the mou
185. e printer s paper source to Manual 6p on LPT1 Properties 21x Paper Graphics Fonts Device Options Paper size Letter 81 2 x11 in 10 ba A Legal Executive Ad Envelope Envelo 2 Orientation J Portrait C Landscape Paper source First Available Tray First Available Tray Upper tra Manual feed Lower tray Media choice About Restore Defaults Cancel If you re printing on an inkjet printer make sure you wait for the first side to dry before turning the paper over and printing the second side See Chapter 15 for more information on printing ____ Create a Newsletter Equipped with Microsoft Publisher or a similar page layout program you can create professional and attractive newsletters for the office family or your club or organization Publisher comes in most versions of Microsoft Office and I highly recommend it for generating your own newsletters as well as business cards and other projects Publisher is a wizard based program All you have to do is follow the directions to set up the overall look and feel of your document and then fill in the text and replace the placeholder images with your own pictures CHAPTER 14 Working with Text and Creating Projects 325 fj Unsaved Publication Microsoft Publisher BEE File Edt Yiew Insert Format Tools Table Arrange MailMerge Help SESBen naO T B gt sEjS ta A E a a
186. e program draws a perfectly straight line between the two points To make it look like a beam of light make the color a bright white red or yellow and add a touch of feathering to the effect 290 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Ehi Its fiendishly difficult to draw a straight line through the air with a flashlight doing this the old fashioned way Put Your Kid in a Jar Have you ever been impressed by the fanciful digital art in magazine ads that depict the impossible or the far far fetched I can t promise that you will soon be able to photograph a cow driving your car or aliens posing with your dog while it plays the piano but let me show you how easy it is to do something both cute and clever you can trap your kid in an old mayonnaise jar Hopefully when you see how easy it is to pull this stunt off you ll want to make up a few clever gags of your own Actually this is going to be easy Take a few pictures and combine them in layers within Paint Shop Pro resizing them to achieve the effect you want Follow these steps 1 Start by finding a nice big jar when I tried this shot I used a clear plastic peanut butter jar but a mayo jar or any large clear container is ideal Photograph someone peering inquisitively into it CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 291 2 Next take the person who will be trapped inside the jar and pose him or her in front of a 3 4 big backdrop This is w
187. e resolution would be 300 x 4 5 3 450dpi You would set the scanner s control panel to 450dpi before scanning the image Likewise suppose you want to crop a scanned image and only include a smaller detail of it in the finished product If you end up choosing to enlarge the detail you need to consider the 196 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Scan an Image with a Typical Scanner 1 Start the scanner software In Paint Shop Pro choose File Import TWAIN Acquire from the menu as shown here The scanner software should appear Paint Shop Pro File Edit View Capture Help New Ctrl N Open Ctri O Browse Ctrl B Export Kodak Digital Camera gt Select Source Batch Conversion Preferences gt 1 c My Documents leaf 2 leaves pine creek 3 Computer akc peanut2 4 Computer a c pond Exit 2 Make sure the photo is properly positioned in the scanner and then click the Preview button After a few seconds you should see the image onscreen It has been quickly scanned in low resolution so you can adjust the image before the final scan 3 Crop the image if you don t want to scan the photo in its entirety ae OS Elte oix Emm w Slide Fim z z Click and crag tha borders to change the crop area it Om E Jas 3 6 dex Prescan image Corecion A166 B 36735 Dalat Alevohtion gt Irpa 05 Quip H00 v dpi Size I
188. e scenario In real life you ll take some time composing your picture zooming in and out reviewing pictures you ve already taken and so on In other words ordinarily the batteries will run out a whole lot sooner in half that number of shots or less Rechargeable Versus Alkaline Unless you use your digital camera very infrequently I recommend that you avoid alkaline batteries Instead invest in one or two sets of NiMH rechargeable batteries Yes they re initially more expensive But they quickly pay for themselves since you can use rechargeables over a hundred times on average Do the math Let s say that you use your camera every weekend for a year and you have to replace the batteries about once a month Here s how the cost stacks up over the course of a year 6 AA Alkaline Energizer Titanium NiMH Rechargeables Charger and One High Performance Batteries Set of Batteries 12 x 8 96 25 The more you use your camera the more obvious the cost savings become Once you ve bought your first set of rechargeable batteries additional sets are less expensive usually under 10 because you don t have to buy another charger So I think you can see how useful rechargeables actually are Get the Most out of Your Batteries With so many demands on your camera batteries it s not all that surprising that they don t last very long But there are certainly things you can do to extend the life of your batteries
189. e them The process for changing brightness in an image is similar regardless of software but we ll use Paint Shop Pro as usual for this example Here s the general procedure 1 Load the offending image into Paint Shop Pro 2 Choose Colors Adjust Brightness Contrast The Brightness Contrast dialog box appears CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 229 3 Use the Brightness slider to adjust the image You can see the effect of the change in your image immediately by clicking the Proof button which is shaped like an eye in the middle of the dialog box amp Jase Paint Shop Pro P2190200 File Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Object OsHS 2 BB8 Q0 Brightness Contrast x Brightness Contrast 3 2i z 1 ok __Cancei Hep 2 i 11 S CPOPLCAALZEWVUVNV VG tao ML Tool Options Crop E E3 For Hel Layer Palette Backdks Ei Tmage 1340x 1710 x 16 Milion 6 5 MBytes 4 Typically you ll need to change the contrast in proportion to the brightness to keep the image from getting washed out Experiment until you see the result you want 5 When you re satisfied with the results click OK Your image will be updated with the new brightness value Better Corrections with Gamma As I mentioned gamma is often a better remedy for fixing an overly dark or overly bright image Personally I tend to reach for the Gamma control first I ve found it s often the midtones in a picture th
190. e what their car or basement walls would look like painted another color while others want to enhance old photos they found tucked away in a family photo album Whatever your motivation the mechanics of colorizing your photos is easy Try this CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 301 Start by loading a picture into Paint Shop Pro and selecting just the part of the image that you want to colorize If you re trying a new paint scheme on your car use the Magic Wand tool to select the car s body without also capturing the windshield chrome or surrounding background If you want to paint the basement select the walls As usual you should fine tune the Magic Wand s Tolerance setting and use the SHIFT key to select the entire region Now click the Flood Fill tool and in the Tool Options dialog box change the Blend Mode from Normal to Color S Jasc Paint Shop Pro if13 09 Fie Edt View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks D SmS 2 R8 90 can amo R Q a y Es Y a B a w 8 g oO A ro A v 5 Is Be if13 09 1 4 Background 13 Image 2000 x 1019 x 16 Milion 6 61 7 Left click in the color palette to select the color you d like to paint Click anywhere in your selected region and you should see the color change without losing any of the underlying texture in the selected region In other words you ve changed the color of your subject 302 How to Do Everything
191. e where the lens got in the way of the flash Ordinarily your camera may not suffer from this problem but may become prone to light blockage if you add snap on lenses 108 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera m ClUls aeeame Some cameras block the flash when the subject is too close if yours does this use only natural light to illuminate your subject Shooting Through Glass Sometimes you might want to take a close up of something that is under a sheet of glass jewelry in a display case for example There s a common problem with this kind of subject though light from the sun or overhead lamps can reflect off the glass and cause unwanted glare in your picture Not only is glare like this ugly it can actually make it difficult to see what it is you were trying to photograph under the glass The solution Use a polarizing filter A polarizer does a few nifty things for your photograph but the most important one is that it eliminates reflections caused by glass and water by blocking polarized light Polarizing filters are sold in many sizes and for many digital cameras It s not a bad idea to carry one in your camera bag for those occasions when it might come in handy Polarizers are usually two piece devices that rotate on the end of your camera you turn the outer layer until the reflections are minimized You want a circular polarizing filter You probably won t have trouble on that count since most photographe
192. eapfrog when it comes to price so you might want to shop around for memory cards before you commit to a specific camera But the two newest memory formats Secure Digital and Memory Stick typically cost a little more than CompactFlash and SmartMedia 18 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Flash Almost all digital cameras come with a built in flash The real issue is how well the flash works Check to see what the maximum range of the flash is and if it works when the camera is in macro or close focus mode You might also want a flash with special features like these E Redeye reduction This mode preflashes the subject to try to minimize reflected light from the pupil known as red eye E Force fill Force or fill flash is used to reduce shadows outdoors or in otherwise adequate lighting when the flash might not fire E Rear curtain flash This mode fires at the end of a long exposure It comes in handy at night so that light trails precede the main subject illuminated by the flash Some cameras also come with sync ports or hot shoes that allow you to connect more powerful external flash units Special Effects Since digital cameras are part computer they can be programmed to do some neat tricks that were inconceivable with traditional 35mm cameras Few of these effects are necessary in fact Td choose a camera based on solid features like the zoom lens quality and overall handling before I looked too hard at whether
193. eating 324 Night photography adjusting ISO settings for 29 30 experimenting with 86 89 subjects for 90 Nikon CoolPix 995 shift program mode of 65 shooting in low light with 30 using telescopes with 127 Nikon D1 SLR style cameras features of 7 price ranges of 11 NiMH rechargeable batteries recommendation of 131 133 Nixvue Digital Album Web site 167 Noise minimizing in night photography 89 removing from images 258 Noise filters description of 296 O Off flash mode explanation of 76 ofoto com Web site 364 365 Old fashioned look achieving 115 Old images cleaning up 257 258 Olympus C 4040 shooting in low light with 30 Olympus Camedia E 10 taking zoomed pictures with 62 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Olympus D 340R battery depletion results 130 Olympus D 620L SLR style camera advantages and disadvantages of 15 TTL viewfinder feature of 11 Olympus E 10 minimizing long exposure noise with 89 using memory cards with 156 157 Onscreen display choosing file formats for 147 Onscreen menus usage of 13 14 Optical systems explanation of 9 10 Optical viewfinders maximizing battery usage with 131 purpose of 9 10 Optics determining 16 17 Outdoor photographs improving 77 82 Outdoor portraits shooting effectively 41 42 Outlook 2000 sending email attachments with 357 359 Outlook program using MIME and UUENCODE schemes with 354 Oval shaped images creating
194. ect of focal length on depth of field M Subject distance Last but not least your distance from the subject determines how much depth of field you can get in your scene If you photograph a subject that is far away the depth of field will be much greater than it is for a subject that is close to the camera In practical terms that means the region of sharp focus for a macro shot where the subject is only a few inches from the camera is extremely narrow and you need to focus very very precisely If you re photographing something very far away like a distant horizon a vast region in front of and behind the image will be in sharp focus Here is what this looks like graphically CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials 59 Applying Depth of Field to Your Pictures As you can imagine these three factors aperture depth of field and subject distance work together in any shooting situation Specifically suppose you try to take a picture with an aperture of f 5 6 At a given distance from your subject and at a given focal length that f stop will yield a certain depth of field But what happens if you change the other two factors If you get closer to the subject such as if you walk toward it or if you increase the focal length by zooming in the depth of field decreases So what is the point of all this Why do you care about depth of field at all The answer is that depth of field is an extremely important element in the overa
195. ectly round vignette in this case the edge of the lens itself is included in the photo You can avoid unwanted vignetting by keeping an eye on the camera s LCD display If your add on lens is prone to vignetting effects zooming farther into the telephoto range will usually eliminate the problem You can also crop the darkened corners out of your picture or paint over the edges with nearby bits of the picture Distortion is another potential effect of adding lenses to your camera All lenses have some small amount of distortion after all no piece of glass or group of optical elements is perfect But you ll rarely notice any distortion from your camera s principal lens by itself When you add the equivalent of a big magnifying glass on the front though you can start to see some effects Most of the time itl be either pincushion or barrel distortion vertical lines will bend in or out of the frame instead of being perfectly straight CHAPTER 6 Pushing Your Camera to Its Limits 123 Eei This image suffers from a particularly serious case of vignetting thanks to an add on telephoto lens Reducing the zoom setting will reduce the vignetting effect Eliminating Lens Distortion on the PC Obviously if you can clearly detect distortion in your photos when using an add on lens you may want to avoid using that lens On the other hand it s possible to remove this sort of distortion from your pictures once they re on the PC Utilit
196. ed for higher quality Unlike GIF JPG images can display a full 16 million color palette Depending on how much 16 you compress a JPG image however the image quality can vary from nearly identical to the original all the way down to unrecognizable As we talked about in Part III of the book you can specify the level of compression to use when saving a JPG file Most programs default to a fairly low compression level preserving image quality In reality though you can often compress the image much more aggressively than the default and still get adequate quality for a Web page 364 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Which Is Best You can use whichever file format GIF or JPG that best suits your needs It s perfectly all right to mix JPG and GIF images in a Web site even on the same page This chart should help you decide which is the appropriate file format Use JPG to Use GIF to Display full color photographs Use a transparent background compressed to very small file size Interlace the display of an image Display an image with just a few colors Sharing Images on the Web Without Designing a Web Site Certainly you can design a Web site that shows off your pictures to friends and family and as I just mentioned there are quite a few tools around to help you do just that If you re not really thrilled by the idea of learning how to manipulate a Web design program though there s an easier solution one
197. ee a gt raves 5 TT ooo OSHS O 4H OO Bry oo E Ey Noma B Normal gt s Noma BC e Background 1 Image4 1 3 Background 2 a Background LE Layer 2 8 8 8 HAVPOPERLSBRVVVIF BOD Tool Options Mover E3 E3 2 DirectX i 803 576 l limage 3000 x 1200x 16 Milion 16 7 MByte Astn gt A E FR Glinbox Music sase fachz EZAN OJI ADO 1 24AM Drag the second image to line up with the first 5 Repeat this process until all your images are inserted and lined up 6 When you re done be sure that you reset all the layers to 100 percent or they will look transparent in the final image 7 Use the Crop tool to crop the new panorama so that any irregular tops and bottoms aren t in the image 8 Save your file CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images 265 Combining Images with Layers More sophisticated editing tasks like combining multiple images in a panorama benefit from the Layers feature found in Paint Shop Pro and other image editors Here s the basic idea Your picture can be made up of many different images and selections each occupying a different layer Each layer has its own unique characteristics including transparency So you can add a ghost to an image by using the image of a person in a layer with a high level of transparency There are two ways to add images to a picture in layers E Drag images directly to an image window from the Browse wind
198. eed for about 1 4 second You ll need that much time to slide the zoom lens during exposure Then just as you press the shutter release start zooming with a firm steady and consistent motion Just as in golf be sure that you follow through the zoom motion even after the shutter releases That way you won t stop moving the zoom in CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials 63 the middle of the exposure You may need to practice this a few times to get the shot right remember electronic film is free The telephoto end of your zoom lens is great for capturing distant subjects but the additional magnification can create blurry pictures Especially if you are photographing in low light where your camera might choose a slow shutter speed I highly recommend that you take telephoto images with a tripod ____ 64 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Using Your Camera s Exposure Modes Almost every digital camera on the market makes it easy to take quick and dirty snapshots using an automatic exposure mode Automatic exposure is great much of the time but I hope that you will sometimes want to get a little more creative And when that happens you may need to adjust the exposure of your photographs as we talked about both in this chapter and in Chapter 2 Not all cameras provide manual exposure settings if yours does not then you might want to think about upgrading at some point in the future to a more full featured camera In m
199. efits of digital images of course is the ease with which you can incorporate them into projects like posters greeting cards newsletters and business cards Let s take a look at how you can get started doing this yourself Using Digital Images as Wallpaper Let s start with something that s not only easy but will make your PC a bit more fun Your Windows desktop can display any kind of image as long as it has been saved in a JPG GIF or BMP format If your desktop still has that same old blue background you can use an image from your digital camera to brighten things up To display your image on your desktop follow these steps 1 Make sure your image is in JPG BMP or GIF format As you know by now most digital images save images in JPG format so you re probably ready to go If you are using Windows 98 or later you can select a JPG or a GIF image If you have an older version of Windows you can only use a BMP file Right click on the desktop and choose Properties from the context menu The Display Properties dialog box appears On the Background tab click the Browse button to choose the image if you have Windows XP that button is actually on the Desktop tab CHAPTER 14 Working with Text and Creating Projects 317 Display Properties Themes Desktop Screen Saver Appearance Settings Background N Coffee Bean A G Crystal N FeatherTexture Position 9 Follow Stretch Bum ET A Gone Fish
200. ely than your camera can There will be situations when you may want your flash to fire when it would probably stay off and vice versa That s why your camera has several flash modes to choose from We ll talk about those later in this chapter Stay Within the Range of Your Flash How far will the light from your flash travel That s something you need to know if you expect to get the most out of your flash The flash built into most digital cameras is not extremely powerful at best you can expect to get a range of about 20 feet To find the range of your camera s flash refer to the owner s manual that came with your camera You can almost always find the flash range listed in the specifications section of the manual If you cannot find the range of your flash listed there assume it is no more than about 15 feet The range of your flash also depends upon two other factors the current ISO light sensitivity setting on your camera and the focal length setting of the zoom lens The first factor ISO is pretty obvious The more sensitive the CCD is made to light the more effective the flash will be To understand the relationship between focal length and flash range though take a look at Figure 4 1 It is an unfortunate side effect of zoom lens technology that when you increase the focal length to telephoto you typically process less light than when you are using a wide angle or normal focal lengths Since there s less light getting
201. en there are the chemicals Film processing is all about using nasty toxic chemicals that if you were running a business would get the attention of OSHA When I worked in the space launch business I m sure that some of the rocket fuels we used weren t as frightening as the chemicals that home darkroomers routinely expose themselves to Who wants to muck around with that stuff Oh yeah and it isn t all that easy either Black and white processing isn t really brain surgery but working with color film is tough It s not a hobby you can master in a few weeks CHAPTER 1 Welcome to the Future to be sure And the whole point of having your own darkroom is so that you can get better results than the corner store delivers right No wonder my dad never got too far with his darkroom kit These days digital photography gives you the same flexibility as a chemical darkroom that is a working one Digital photography offers the ability to brighten or darken an image crop it down to generate a better composition and print enlargements in a variety of sizes but without the chemicals the steep learning curve and dedicating a part of your house to nothing but photography How did we get here A Slow Evolution These days some digital cameras can compete with the best 35mm SLR Single Lens Reflex cameras in terms of resolution and image quality Obviously it hasn t always been this way When you consider the first digital cameras
202. enge to locate that picture of the two wolves frolicking in the fallen leaves that I took two years ago It s akin to finding a needle within a stack of other needles 178 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Filenames and folders are great but there s no substitute for actually looking at your images That s why I m going to show you how you can catalog your images with a visual tool software that lets you view your pictures directly all at once and open the one you need without delay Viewing Your Images with Paint Shop Pro One of the best image editors around is called Paint Shop Pro from Jasc www jasc com If you re not already using Paint Shop Pro you can try an older version of the program by downloading a free trial at the Jasc Web site I d say that it has about 75 percent of the features found in a heavyweight image editor like Adobe Photoshop at a much lower price and a much easier learning curve Other options include Adobe s Photoshop Elements another outstanding program as well as Ulead s PhotoImpact I m a creature of habit and continue to use Paint Shop Pro since I ve used it for years though I admit I m slowly starting to gravitate toward Elements on occasion One great reason to use these programs is the ability to browse your images visually Paint Shop Pro s Browse tool is shown in Figure 9 3 Browse lets you see the images on your hard disk 3 Paint Shop Pro Browse
203. ens Precautions 0 0 0 0 c eee ee eee 122 Infrared Photography 0 00 ec cee eee eee eee 125 Connecting Your Camera to a Telescope 00005 126 Taking Time Lapse Photos 0 0 c eee e cece eee eens 127 Making Movies 0 00sec cece A eee eee 130 Taking Care of Batteries 00 0 eee eee eee 130 Rechargeable Versus Alkaline 0 000 0000 131 Get the Most out of Your Batteries 0 04 131 Using Batteries in the Cold 0 0 000000000 132 Transferring Images Conquering File Formats 1 0 0 0 cece cece eee eee eens 137 What Are File Formats and Why Do I Care 0 138 The Most Common File Formats 0 0 0 0 eee eee ee 139 Using File Formiats sonaia fates a ee ee a aes See A 143 On the Camera 263 seek Fa E Chest Le ae bate 143 On the PC Coi seg Sy onsen paren Mansi E E E ge nag dae es Oats EAA 145 Working with Digital Film 0 cece cece eee eee eee 151 Storing Your Images Lerter ensi eee een eee te ee EEE EEOAE ees 152 Internal Memory 0 0 eee 152 xi xii How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera SmartMedia pasg wales Hike edie Capes eet ih gered 153 CompactFlash 2 0 cece eee ee bee ee te eee e eee 154 Memory Stick 0 0 cece eee eee eee eeeee 154 Secure Digital SD 2 0 2 0 cece cee eee 155 Floppy DISK teree Stele Ge A eR ets SE 155 Choosing a Memor
204. ent you lay on the platen also called a scanning bed A scanner doesn t just make a copy and print that document though it converts the data into bits and bytes and stores it on your PC in a digital image file just as if it came from a digital camera In fact a scanner is kind of like a digital camera that needs to remain stationary Instead of a digital camera s rectangular gridlike CCD that captures an entire image at once as explained in Chapter 1 a scanner uses a CCD with a single row of light sensitive pixels This linear CCD registers the light value of the image one line or row at a time and that information is sent to the computer immediately and is flushed so that the next line can be read CHAPTER 10 Turning Prints into Digital Images The resolution of the scanner is partially dependent on the speed and accuracy of the motor that steps the CCD past the document or the document past the CCD depending upon the kind of scanner you have There are actually several different kinds of scanners around You re probably already familiar with the most common kind of scanner the flatbed It s a good all around scanner for most kinds of scanning jobs but it isn t necessarily the best choice for photo scanning Here s an overview of the kinds of scanners that are around E Flatbed scanner A flatbed is typically a long narrow tray usually either 8 5 x 11 inches or 8 5 x 14 inches on which you place your documen
205. er the highest or medium setting for your JPG images the low quality setting tends to make for some pretty unsatisfactory images Take a look at Color Insert tiger eye figure for a depiction of the difference in image quality between the high and low settings on a typical digital camera The image on the right the lower quality JPG has more boundaries visible from one color to another and overall the image has a softer look There s a trade off to be made here the higher the quality the fewer the images you can fit on a camera s memory card On the other hand the difference may not be highly significant It s all a matter of personal choice Be sure to check your camera menu for details on setting image quality and resolution That s because every camera is a little bit different Some cameras make it easy to distinguish between resolution and image quality because they are set with two different controls Other cameras offer these two controls in a single somewhat confusing menu selection You may be forced to work with a camera menu that gives you a choice of SHQ HQ and SQ for instance where both SHQ and HQ are the same high resolution but with different amounts of JPG compression The SQ setting may represent a smaller pixel count The moral Read your camera manual to see how to set the resolution and image quality Some cameras particularly Epson models use a series of graphical stars in its LCD display to indicate a combin
206. er way to good effect as well Want to create some artificial fog Just reduce the contrast in a picture by about 50 percent and the image seems obscured by a dense fog 234 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Another way to improve your image is with the Saturation tool Saturation increases or decreases the intensity of colors in an image much like the saturation control on your television Too much saturation can make the picture look as if it was taken on Mars but it can add life to an otherwise bland picture In Paint Shop Pro the Saturation control is found in Colors Adjust Brightness Hue Saturation Lightness Experiment with the Saturation tool it s fun You can bleach all the color out of your picture by reducing the saturation to zero for instance or hyperactivate the colors by going in the other direction Hue Saturation Lightness x Zoom 1 1 Edit Master g Saturation Lightness Cancel Help pa Brightness Only Goes So Far You need to know the ugly little secret of brightness and gamma control You can only take it so far because you can t add detail to an image that wasn t there when you originally took the picture A black shadow for instance will only become gray as you continue to increase brightness you ll never see the authentic Bigfoot creature that was hiding in the thicket of trees That s why it s important to start with the best exposure you can although
207. erences between 28 29 evolution of 5 6 versus film cameras 7 functionality of 28 29 future of 6 8 maximum megapixels available for 338 memory storage in 12 optical systems of 9 10 performance type of 30 power systems of 10 recording video to directly 371 taking close ups with 93 95 TTL through the lens viewfinders in 11 upgrading 15 Digital film storing images on 152 158 Digital images See Images Digital noise minimizing in night photography 89 removing from images 258 Digital picture frames displaying images in 369 370 Digital video editing resources for 207 Digital viewfinders purpose of 9 10 Diopters purpose of 100 Dirt removing from images 258 Disintegrating subjects creating 284 289 Distance adjusting ISO settings for 29 Distance of subjects role in depth of field 58 59 104 Distortion and add on lenses precautions about 122 Distractions airbrushing 255 257 DMin and DMax dynamic ranges for scanners explanation of 192 doc file extension explanation of 141 Double exposures making 293 295 Dpi dots per inch measuring printer resolution as 335 337 Draw tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 244 Dreamweaver Web design program site 362 Drop shadows adding to text 312 316 Dropper tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 243 Dual fold greeting cards dimensions and example of 321 322 Dusk photographing 90 Dust removing from images 258 Dye sublima
208. ers this in the box solution is all they 1l ever need The two common kinds of transfer cables are serial and USB Hehi Transferring images to your PC usually means connecting your camera with a connection cable of some kind Your camera comes with either a USB or serial cable for this task CHAPTER 8 Working with Digital Film 159 Transferring Images with a Serial Cable In the old days most cameras used a serial connection cable to transfer pictures from the camera s memory to the computer That s because most computers both PC and Macintosh have serial ports and so camera makers were assured that their camera would work with your computer no matter what kind you have On the downside your PC s serial port is slow meaning that it can take a long time to copy images from the camera to the computer The serial port is also kind of stupid it doesn t know when something is plugged in to it so you have to manually start the software needed to copy images If you ve already got something in the serial port you might also have to remove that device and disable its software Most computer manufacturers recommend that you shut off your PC before you insert and remove cables from the serial port so that also entails a lot of rebooting If you re in the market for a new camera today you ll find that they re almost all USB based You can discover a lot of used cameras with serial connections though like on eBa
209. es obvious that the transition from Kristen to the background is too sharp to be believable That means it won t look realistic in the final picture Use the Feather tool to smooth out the edges of the selected region Choose Selections Modify Feather and choose a value of about 4 pixels Jasc Paint Shop Pro kris File Edt View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help oSend OD S6HS 2 amp BBlQDO x li soet al Chea i B Select None CtrHD Sh kris2 1 3 Background EE a onn e r J Ps Seles id Invert Farnell 1 3 Shift Chr m a Convert to Seamless Pattern I Promote To Layer Shift Ctri P E Load From Disk A E Load From Alpha Channel ou Textures E Save To Disk D gt H Saye To Alpha Channel E F Lock Eba R Q t P 2 z p X 8 g y Gi A Y J 4 s 3 j 4 i A 4 z 284 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 6 Copy Kristen to the Clipboard and then switch to the other image Choose Paste As New Layer She ll appear onstage next to Elvis 7 Position her in the new image arranging her so their hands meet 8 There s something a bit squirrelly about their handshake If you arrange the image so that Elvis s arm appears over Kristen you can mask her badly cropped appendage with a bit of Nixon s leftover hand and create a slightly three dimensional effect she s in front of his left
210. es typically come in a variety of strengths from 1 to 10 That s right you can actually combine close up lenses by threading them together Adding a 10 lens to a 7 lens yields an impressive 17 magnification For that reason I suggest getting close up lenses as a set instead of one at a time That way you can combine them however you see fit to get the magnification you need for a given picture Check out Figure 5 7 This picture shows the effect of three different magnifications the camera s built in macro capability 10 and 17 The images were taken with the Kodak DC 4800 alclUlsi ea These images were taken from the same distance but each with different combinations of macro filters CHAPTER 5 Taking Close Ups 101 When combining close up lenses put the highest magnification on first closest to the camera lens That way you can remove them in smaller increments to achieve just the right magnification Also you may find that some lens combinations cause your images to curve unnaturally thanks to something called barrel distortion which is discussed in Chapter 6 Close Up Techniques As we ve already talked about taking close up pictures is a very different experience from taking images at ordinary focal lengths Though it s not particularly difficult to get really good macro 5 photos it does take a little more care and a slightly different approach First of all you ll find that your subjects a
211. est common denominator almost everyone has it let s create a card in that Before we get started though it s worth CHAPTER 14 Working with Text and Creating Projects 321 o Nathan a today caught myself 4 smiling for no reason To personalize a message You can replace the text by selecting what you want to change and typing over it Just click where you want to enter your own words and start typing X i The box will grow to fityour text To personalize the outside message type directly in the selected text box Click Continue when you ve finished Here s what s on the inside Then I realized I was thinking of you Choose a different message KOULS Programs like Microsoft Greetings Workshop let you import your own digital images into their greeting card templates pointing out that there are two common methods for making a greeting card on the PC the single fold and the dual fold Single fold cards are simply made from 8 5 x 11 inch paper or cardstock and folded once down the middle so that the card measures 5 5 x 8 5 inches This is a slightly oversized card but 1 4 it s a good size and the one I usually use The alternative is a dual fold card that is folded once lengthwise and again widthwise for a card that measures 5 5 x 4 25 inches The disadvantage to this kind of card is that it s a bit small and it has a potentially amateurish double fold along one edge see Figu
212. et it to its transfer mode Connect the camera to AC power if you can 3 The computer should automatically recognize the camera and start the transfer software Now you can drag the images from the camera to a folder on the computer Transfer Shortcuts Using Memory Adapters Just because your camera comes with a serial or USB cable that doesn t mean you have to use it Memory adapters which are gadgets that let you insert a memory card and read images from it like a floppy disk let you easily transfer images to the computer without messing with any cables at all Memory adapters have several advantages E You can conserve camera battery power since the camera isn t used in the transfer You don t have to get to the back of your computer to connect or disconnect cables Transfers may be faster with an adapter You can avoid confusing transfer software since adapters let you drag and drop images directly to a folder on your hard disk The kind of memory adapter you choose depends largely upon the kind of removable memory that your camera uses In general they re all more efficient than connecting your camera with a cable E CompactFlash readers CompactFlash cards are too thick to fit in a floppy disk drive so vendors instead make readers for these memory cards that connect to the USB parallel or serial ports CompactFlash readers like the one shown here are available from several companies including Lexar SanDisk and even
213. facturers had new incentives to make their products work better By the late 1990s most mainstream printers could create passable prints from computer images and the top of the line printers made prints that were essentially photo realistic CHAPTER 15 Printing Your Pictures 331 In the last few years not a lot has changed dramatically For most practical applications it s not possible to make prints look any better to the casual viewer so printer manufacturers have turned their attention to other aspects of digital printing like making the prints last longer before they fade I discuss this area in more detail a little later in this chapter Choosing a Printer Before you start printing let s talk about the printers themselves and how to choose the right one Buying a printer isn t an easy decision because not only are there many different brands of printers competing for your attention and lots of different models from each manufacturer but you also have to figure out what kind of printer you want If you re serious about printing digital images I suspect you ll want an inkjet printer But to be sure let me tell you about the variety of printers you can choose from Laser Printers Laser printers are like specialized photocopiers Using the digital image in the computer s memory as a template they electrically charge a piece of paper The printer then allows toner a fine ink like powder to come into contact with the p
214. fects the feel of the photograph Try to be as careful as possible while photographing an expansive horizon But if you goof remember that it s a digital photo You can always correct for an angled horizon on the computer see Chapter 12 with a sense of symmetry When you employ symmetry you are balancing both sides of the photograph That can also help lead the eye through your image Use Foreground to Balance the Background If you re trying to photograph a distant subject a landscape or cityscape for example a common trick is to place something of interest in the foreground to provide a sense of balance When done well the viewer s eyes are drawn immediately to the foreground object and then they ll wander to the background This is an effective technique for adding a sense of depth and perspective to a photograph as well as giving the foreground a sense of scale Figure 3 9 for instance demonstrates this technique HCG The fence post in the foreground of this picture is the anchor that gives the image a sense of perspective 54 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Every Picture Tells a Story Throughout this chapter and in fact throughout the book you II notice references to leading the viewer through a picture What do I mean by that Well when you ve done your job as a photographer you ve created an image with depth motion and some sort of story When you look at a good photog
215. flash was enabled for the image on the right 76 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Master Your Flash Modes In this digital age on and off are just too easy Instead your camera s flash has three or more modes each intended for a specific photographic situation Here s the rundown of your options Your camera may not include all of these features so you might want to check out your camera manual before you get your heart set on trying all of them out Your camera should have some if not all of these modes Off This one is easy When you set your camera to this mode no matter how strongly Ei your camera believes that you need extra light the flash will not fire This is handy for situations where you are not allowed to fire a flash such as in a church or a museum or when you re too close to the subject and think you might overexpose it You may also want to turn off the flash in many night photography situations We talk about that later in this chapter Auto This is the standard mode that you ll probably want to leave your flash in most Auto 4 of the time When set to auto the flash determines whether it needs to fire based on the amount of light in the scene This is a good mode to use when you don t want to think about whether the flash needs to fire For typical snapshot photography just set your flash to auto Forced This mode goes by many different names depending upon the camera you are b usin
216. flitted around somewhat randomly Instead the tripod gave me the support I needed and I left the head unit loose so I could move the camera around to catch the bee at just the right moment mlclesi seeesm A loose tripod head comes in handy when you re taking pictures of moving insects 104 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Bean Bag Camera Supports I heartily recommend getting a tripod The problem with tripods though is that they re bulky a pain to carry around What s one to do Well you can carry a bean bag instead I m not suggesting bean bags as the ultimate full time replacement for tripods but I have run into situations when they can steady your camera in a pinch If you have something you d like to place the camera on top of such as a fence post a boulder or even the ground try putting a bean bag under the camera It 1l conform to the shape of the camera as well as to the shape of whatever you re placing the camera on and the dense clump of beans in the bag will help steady the camera as you press the shutter release And if you don t have a bean bag improvise As a scuba diver for instance I always have bags of soft weights when I go on dive trips They re filled with small beads of lead shot and aside from being heavier act a lot like bean bags Finally if you want a bean bag that has been designed especially for photographers check out The Pod a bean bag style camera supp
217. focal point is the main point of interest that the viewer s eye is drawn to when looking at your picture You should always strive to consider what the focal point of your picture actually is and then plan your photos accordingly In my experience the single biggest problem with photographs taken by new photographers is that they fail to consider what their subject actually is When you don t know what you re taking a picture of it s hard to emphasize that element in the final composition That leads to muddy confused arrangements in which there is nothing specific for the viewer to look at Take a look at Figure 3 2 for instance In this image there is no real focal point and thus there is nothing for the viewer to concentrate on The photographer should have decided what the subject was and then rearranged the image to emphasize that Indeed all I would ask of this picture is why did the photographer take it When your subject is simply too expansive to be considered a focal point in and of itself try to contrive a focal point that adds some relief for your viewer You might try an approach like CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials 4 mlcleiieaceyag Without a focal point your eyes wander the picture aimlessly looking for something of interest this when you are photographing a mountainous landscape for instance In fact landscapes really benefit from this approach A tractor a mountain cabin or a gaggle of hikers
218. for implement specific kinds of features like interchangeable lenses swivel bodies and movie recording features If you cut through all those goodies though you ll find that most cameras share many of the same fundamentals Let s start at the top and cover your camera s fundamentals CHAPTER 1 Welcome to the Future The Optical System At the heart of every camera no matter how it stores its images is an optical system As you can see in Figure 1 3 most digital cameras have two distinct viewfinders an optical one and a digital one In most cases the optical viewfinder is composed of a glass or plastic lens that shows you your subject directly it s just a plain window that lets you see through the camera to the other side The digital viewfinder is an LCD display that reproduces what the camera s CCDs are actually seeing Which one should you use Whichever one you like You ll get better results though if you understand the difference between the two The majority of digital cameras are point and shoot designs With a point and shoot you do not actually see what the camera sees when you look through the optical viewfinder The optical viewfinder is a parallax inducing viewfinder a popular low cost mechanism that dates back almost all the way to the invention of the camera itself No doubt you have a point and shoot camera lying around the house with just such a viewfinder When taking pictures from a distance the optical
219. formally known as pkZip to shrink the images down to a smaller size You can see several images compressed into a single Zip file in Figure 16 4 If your image files are already compressed such as if you use the JPG or compressed TIF formats Zip won t do much for your total file size But if you are trying to send uncompressed images via floppy or email this compression program can be a lifesaver I suggest you get a version of the Zip compressor that has a friendly Windows interface like WinZip which you can download from www winzip com E Break the image collection into several email messages with each message weighing in at less than a megabyte or so E Use the compression feature in the JPG format to reduce file size With many images you can compress the image significantly before you start to see any obvious degradation due to compression This is great if you re just passing images around among friends though I d be more careful about images you are planning to print WinZip Unregistered marin pics zip Ea File Actions Options Help Ea 29 GeveacFs New Open Favorites Add Extract View CheckOut Wizard Type Modified __Size Ratio Packed Path 3 1 99 2 15 PM 836 728 834 525 Corel 6 11 99 9 45 AM 236 669 0 235 126 Corel 7 25 99 8 43 PM 91 873 1 90 693 Corel 6 11 99 9 47 AM 162 514 0 162 095 Corel 7 25 99 8 44 PM 100 207 1 98 876 Selected 0 files 0 bytes Total 5 files 1 395
220. g Compression a Lowest compression best quality Highest compression lowest quality Cancel Help Most people stick with a compression level in the range of 10 to 15 Beyond 15 the compression artifacts start to become quite noticeable though the file size shrinks dramatically Check out Figure 7 4 for instance Here you can see a conservative compression of 10 on the left and an aggressive compression of 50 on the right The difference is dramatic especially in the image s background CHAPTER 7 Conquering File Formats 149 ehig When you save JPG images use as little compression as possible to avoid this 7 kind of degradation Batch Processing Some people like to convert their images to TIF or some other file format as soon as the images make their way from the camera to the PC It can be slow and boring to do that by hand how would you like to access the File Save As menu item 50 times in a row to save each of your images as TIFs Instead there are various ways to automate the process One of my favorites is a program called Image Robot from Jasc This software makes it a snap to automatically convert any number of JPG images into TIFs while you go grab some lunch or do another task on the computer If you work with hundreds of images at once and frequently need to convert them to another format investigate this program Jase T Robot UNTITLED Bee oleja xele wf 2
221. g Sometimes called forced flash fill flash or just on forced flash is probably the most appropriate name When you set your camera s flash to this mode it will fire regardless of how much light is available Why would you want to use this mode It s most useful as a fill flash when you re shooting outdoors in natural light the fill flash can erase shadows that would appear based on the way the sun hits your subject Fill flash or forced flash is great for portraits 4 Redeye Red eye reduction mode has become extremely popular in all sorts of cameras both digital and analog By preflashing the camera flash several times quickly right before the picture is taken the red eye reduction mode forces your subject s pupils to close down to a smaller size thus decreasing the chances that they will reflect the light of the flash When you use this mode remember that it will take a fraction of a second longer for the picture to be taken don t pull the camera away as soon as you press the shutter release or you ll blur the picture If you re photographing people in a dark room however this mode is probably worth the extra time You do not need to use red eye reduction outdoors or in bright light The Red eye mode can help reduce the red eye effect in people who have been drinking since alcohol can cause the pupils to dilate as well Low power Some digital cameras let you control the power output of the
222. g a crop of connected geometric shapes How does this work It s easy just try this out 1 Load an image into Paint Shop Pro and choose the Selection tool 2 Draw a rectangular selection in the image CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images AChE The selection tools let you work with irregular shapes 3 Hold down the SHIFT key and add another selection to the image The SHIFT key is a modifier that combines selections in the image 221 11 222 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 4 Hold down the CTRL key and drag another rectangle in the image this one intersecting at least part of one of the selections already in the image The CTRL key is a modifier that removes overlapping selections from the image You can use the CTRL key to take the edge off a rectangle or even to turn a selection into a donut by giving it a hole 8 Jasc Paint Shop Pro moofinall Eile Edt View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help OsHS 2 338 990 cenainod A 8 GPVLOSCPEARLZECACVNS DGR r 6 BA moofinall 1 4 Background Selection type Rectangle Feather Be I Antialias 672 1 Layer Palette Backg Ea J1 x 16 Milion 12 2 MByt Keep adding and removing selections until you re happy with the result Choose Copy Edit from the main menu Now you need to create a new home for this image Choo
223. g resolution for 194 195 displaying in digital picture frames 369 370 displaying in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer 175 displaying on Palm devices 366 368 displaying with Paint Shop Pro 217 displaying with Quick View feature 176 177 distributing on floppy disks 356 359 framing with LCD display 65 identifying with keywords 181 improving color and brightness in 228 235 locating and cataloging on PCs 177 180 managing 170 171 opening in Paint Shop Pro image editing software 180 208 209 organizing on PCs 171 181 painting on 242 251 printing 337 348 recording on CD R discs 158 removing dust dirt and digital noise from 258 removing scratches from 258 renaming on PCs 174 177 resizing 209 resizing as wallpaper 317 saving in different file formats 214 216 saving in file formats 145 scanning 196 197 scanning and correcting 194 200 sending via email 352 356 sharing on Web without designing sites 364 365 sharpening 238 242 sharpening with scanners 197 198 showing on TV 370 shrinking 209 211 shrinking for email 354 356 stitching together by hand 261 265 storage on memory cards 152 storing on digital film 152 158 straightening 227 strategies for sharing of 360 361 superimposing with celebrity photos 281 284 telling stories with 54 transferring to PCs 145 149 158 165 transferring with USB ports 162 164 tweaking with scanners 197 200 using chromakey effects
224. g with the Smart Edge tool as you work your way around the region 12 When you reach your starting point double click to close the region into a complete selection Repairing the Evil Eye In Chapter 4 we talked about how to avoid getting red eye into your pictures Red eye of course is the phenomenon that occurs when the camera flash reflects off the subject s retina since the pupils are wide open in a dark room If your picture has red eye either because you didn t take the necessary precautions or because you ve just scanned an old picture that has red eye you can correct it on the PC fairly easily 252 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Using Automatic Red Eye Removal First check to see if your image editing software has an automatic red eye removal feature Some red eye removal software is completely automated Just draw a box around the eyes and the software does the rest Paint Shop Pro for instance has a great semiautomated process for eliminating red eye 1 Open a photo that includes someone with a case of evil eye 2 From the menu choose Effects Enhance Photo Red eye Removal You ll see the Red eye Removal dialog box 3 Move the image on the right around by dragging it with the mouse pointer until you see a red eye in the middle of the frame Don t try dragging the left side around since that s where you draw eyes Once you can see the eye zoom in until it fills much of the fra
225. ge and stylish fonts for this card Microsoft s WordArt is a cool way to dress up a greeting card in Word Choose Insert Picture WordArt to insert WordArt into your project WordArt lets you turn plain text into a fancy 3 D piece of art as seen in Figure 14 7 CHAPTER 14 Working with Text and Creating Projects 323 T Document Microsoft Word File Edit Yiew Insert Format Tools Table Window Help BalmDocs Wordsmith l PEARCE EAC E fe lt Draw G Autoshapes DOB 4 o 4 A Page 1 Sec 1 1 1 Ai ni Cal Rec firk Ext Pwr Os lelesi cova Word can be used to make quick and dirty greeting cards though a dedicated graphics or card program is a better bet 8 The inside of the card is on the second page The left inside panel is the left column and the right inside panel is the right column Enter text and images as necessary to lay out the card you want to create 14 9 When you re done you ll need to print your card manually so that it doesn t print the second page of the document on a second sheet of paper To do that you have two choices E Only load a single sheet of paper in the printer When the first page is printed turn the paper over and load it back in for the second pass or 324 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera E Change the printer settings In Word choose File Print Choose Properties to open the Printer Properties dialog box and change th
226. ge that is popular with users of the Macintosh and some high end page layout and graphics programs If you re a graphics professional or if you want to work in Mac PC hybrid workgroups over a network then you should consider PostScript In general however you won t need PostScript and can save money by buying a printer that doesn t include it Bottom line don t let a salesperson talk you into buying a PostScript printer CHAPTER 15 Printing Your Pictures 33 7 Printing Your Images So you re all ready to print You ve downloaded your pictures from your camera to your PC You have a printer connected to the computer All you need to do is print Let s talk about the things you need to ensure great prints The Right Resolution The resolution of your image is one of the two most important factors that determine how good your pictures look when printed Printers do vary but in general you can use this rule of thumb Type of Printer Resolution in dpi Laser 300 or 600 Inkjet 150 250 Experimentation is key though Choose a high quality image and sample it at several different sizes Print each one and compare them to see where the quality threshold lies with your printer In other words what minimum resolution do you need to eliminate obvious pixels and jaggedness from your prints Let s assume that 200dpi is about right for your printer Suppose you want to print an image on an inkjet printer To determine how big your
227. generate the best final result 5 Finally enter the new dimensions for your image You only need to enter the height or the width and since the aspect ratio isn t changing Paint Shop Pro will fill in the other number for you automatically Assuming we started with a 1 024 x 768 pixel image enter 500 for the width and you ll see the height change to 375 pixels 6 Click OK to resize the image 7 You should see the image shrink on the screen You can now save your image over the original destroying the original or save it as a new file so you retain the original s larger pixel size To save it as the old filename choose File Save from the main menu Otherwise choose File Save As and give the image a new name You may have noticed that you can make images bigger using this procedure as well Avoid increasing the size of your images though because all you can really do is stretch and manipulate the pixels already in the images The result is generally unattractive especially if you enlarge the image too much 211 11 212 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Change the Color Depth of an Image Sometimes you ll want to change the number of colors in an image Every file format supports a specific number of colors JPG images for instance can display 16 million colors the number needed for photo realism GIF on the other hand supports just 256 colors Suppose you have a GIF image that you want to combi
228. get to the recipient and the others will simply disappear Send AOL users one attachment at a time Not all mail programs are completely compatible You can send a plain text message between virtually any two Internet mail programs in the world but if you want to send an attachment sometimes it won t work quite right The solution Your mail program may allow you to change the way your attachment is encoded If that s the case you marin matrix Properties 21x General Dea Marin matrix Type Corel PHOTO PAINT 8 0 Image Location C My Pictures karate Size 2 58MB 2 716 620 bytes 2 719 744 bytes used MS DOS name MARIN 1 TIF Created Saturday December 09 2000 10 49 14 AM Modified Saturday December 09 2000 10 49 38 AM Accessed Sunday December 31 2000 Attributes T Hidden 1 6 r KCRG This 2 7MB file is simply too large to email effectively Resize it or change it into another file format so that it s under a megabyte 354 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera may be able to experiment and send the file to the recipient anyway The most common encoding schemes are called MIME and UUENCODE If your recipient claims that an attachment came in all garbled it looks like page after page of meaningless text instead of a picture switch from MIME to UUENCODE or vice versa Attachments should be icons you can actually click on to view such as the one in Figure 16 2 If that doesn
229. ght want to start with a blank card and reduce the resolution of each image to a manageable 640 x 480 pixels If you plan to take a lot of pictures be sure the camera batteries are fresh so you don t run out of gas halfway through the series and perhaps start with a large memory card E Use automatic exposure Most of the time make sure that the camera is set to automatic exposure That way it can react to changing light conditions throughout the day The exception if you re taking a series of night shots configure the camera for the desired manual settings like f 5 6 for 8 seconds each CHAPTER 6 Pushing Your Camera to Its Limits 129 EGRA Time lapse photography lets you see changes over a long or short period of time 130 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Making Movies Once your time lapse series is complete you might want to turn it into a film There are several ways to do this Using video editing software If you have a camcorder and make your own home movies this is a great solution Just open your favorite video editing program and import all the still time lapse frames Arrange them in the filmstrip or timeline so they each play for some small fraction of a second and then render the movie Using this technique you can save your movie so it plays full screen on the PC or a television directly from the PC or from videotape Using animation software Using a program like Jasc s GIF Animato
230. gital cameras come with their own AC adapters while for others it s an optional accessory Check the camera body for an AC adapter connector If you can connect the camera to a wall outlet especially during image transfers to the PC you can significantly extend the length of your battery s life 12 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Memory Storage Think of the memory in your camera like film Memory cards store your digital images for you The more memory your camera has the more images it can store Chapter 8 includes an in depth discussion of the various memory formats available but for now suffice it to say that your camera includes a memory card with some memory capacity such as 8MB or 16MB that when inserted in the camera stores images When it s full you can remove this card and insert another card for additional storage You can use the connection cable that came with your camera to transfer images to the PC or use a memory card see Figure 1 5 to insert the memory into your PC as if it were a floppy disk The four kinds of memory cards in use today are E Smart Media Compact Flash Memory Stick Secure Digital How many images you can fit on a memory card has nothing to do with the kind of memory card All that matters is the resolution of the images and the memory card capacity ChE Four main kinds of memory cards are in use today and your digital camera is designed to accommodate one of
231. gle view to telephoto The effect of a 4X zoom is apparent in Figure 1 9 taken with the Olympus e 10 at both ends of its zoom range CHAPTER 1 Welcome to the Future 17 mtcle mecem Zoom lenses are popular because of their flexibility when composing pictures Beware though of a camera s digital zoom While optical zooms move the lenses around to actually magnify the image a digital zoom simply grabs a block of pixels in the middle of the scene and processes them to make the image look enlarged Since the result is pixely I suggest you ignore digital zoom ratings when evaluating a camera and just look at the optical zoom ratings Memory The more memory your camera holds the more pictures you can take It sounds simple but don t forget that cameras come with all different kinds of memory solutions In general I d say it doesn t matter a lot whether your camera uses Compact Flash SmartMedia Memory Stick or Secure Digital memory the only things to consider are cost and capacity E Capacity If you only want to carry a single memory card on a long trip and store a huge number of images a CompactFlash digital camera is your best choice You can get CompactFlash cards in capacities as high as 1GB that s about a thousand 2 megapixel images Most of the other memory formats top out around 128MB or 256MB Of course you can also buy several memory cards and carry spares E Cost The four memory card formats play a lot of l
232. h it The first time you browse within a folder the browse display may update slowly When you return to that folder later though the display will update significantly faster since Paint Shop Pro saves a small catalog file in that folder that helps it display the images more quickly If you add or delete images in that folder later Paint Shop Pro always updates the catalog file so it displays the most up to date thumbnails Using Asset Management Software If your collection of digital images is large enough you may feel constrained by the file browsers in programs like Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop Elements If you have a few thousand images in CHAPTER 9 Keeping Images on the PC 181 Keywords A keyword is a term that you can use to identify the contents theme or style of an image Suppose you have this witty picture for instance May contain peanuts You might want to associate the following keywords with this image peanut funny macro When you search for all your pictures that have the word funny or peanut in their description this image should appear in the list Keywords are a manual operation though You need to decide what keywords to use and enter them all by hand in whatever program you use that supports this feature If your cataloging software supports keywords a little effort up front can make it easy to find that proverbial needle in the haystack your library consi
233. hapter 14 Draw Use this tool to draw straight and curved lines in your image AnA Highlights from the Paint Tools Palette in Paint Shop Pro continued There are actually two important colors in any imaging program the foreground color and the background color These are usually displayed prominently on the screen as in Figure 12 1 for easy access and reference A Color Palette Foreground color lt q tL hi Background color Image None mClON myeem The Color Palette is an important feature in most image editors because it lets you select colors for painting and editing CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images 245 The foreground color is the color you ll paint with when you use the left mouse button The background color can often be used by painting with the right mouse button The Eraser is one of many tools that uses the background color Note that the Eraser doesn t really erase anything it just paints the background color which can sometimes look as if you re erasing In Paint Shop Pro you can choose a color directly from the color palette by moving the mouse over the palette and clicking on the color you like A left click selects the foreground color a right click sets the background You can also set these colors directly from an image to do that select the Dropper and click with it on the part of the image you want to grab the color from 12 Since colors can change from pixel to pixel
234. hat as great as digital imaging is you can never add detail or information into a picture that wasn t there to begin with That s why I m always amused when I see a movie in which the spy takes a surveillance videotape and enlarges the image enough to read the phone number on a piece of paper across the room No matter how much they enlarge images in the movies those Hollywood computers can always seem to sharpen the focus perfectly With that said there is some hope for your slightly blurry images There are two ways to sharpen an image a direct way using the Sharpen tool in your image editing program and an indirect way which amounts to blurring the background so your subject doesn t look quite so bad I ll show you how to do both As you may have guessed you can combine those two techniques by doing both CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images 239 Using the Sharpen Filter to Enhance Your Picture The easiest way to sharpen an image is with the Sharpen tool What this tool does is increase the contrast between pixels making the image seem sharper as you can see by flipping to the middle of the book and checking out the ducks in the Color Insert If the camera jittered madly while you took the picture though no amount of sharpening will hide the result Tech editor David Huss says that he sometimes adds a little noise to a slightly blurry _ picture to make it look sharper and indeed it has roughly the same effect as the Sharpe
235. he Text Entry dialog box appears choose a font and font size and type your text into the space provided Name Size Sample text Keming Leading Bauhaus 33 e z AaBb La L Script Westem I Auto ken 2 gen lise DAMAT ru in Kristin Hersh m Textures Stroke Or Fit Op Standard text C Vector Selection C Fating I Antialiss CHAPTER 14 Working with Text and Creating Projects 307 5 Click OK The text should appear in the image at the place where you positioned it in step 3 6 For the moment the text is treated as an object that you can edit You can resize the text by dragging the small boxes in the sides of the text box You can reposition the text by dragging the box that s in the very center of the text box J Jasc Paint Shop Pro sc3 ile Edt View Image Elfects Coles Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help G mN tal 1 A 1 1 Layer Toot Options Text EEI Layer Palette Layer 3 E3 HAVDE ENTERA NSDI PREDNA Image 300 x 458 x 16 Milion 1002 6 KByte Drag this box to reposition the text 14 7 When you re satisfied with your text choose Selections Select None Special Effects with Text There s a lot you can do with text in an image so much more than just pasting letters down in some primary color Attractive text in fact is what makes or breaks documents like posters and greeting cards A lot of text tricks are so easy to do that you c
236. head adding images to 318 320 Light bouncing 81 and depth of field in close ups 104 reflecting 80 82 Light reduction accommodating 42 Light sources color temperatures for 83 84 Lightfastness of prints explanation of 348 Lighting situations accommodating tricky types of 35 42 Line art for print scan resolution for 194 Linear versus circular polarizing filters 108 Lines using in compositions 52 Lock feature usage of 166 Lossless file format BMP as 182 TIF as 140 182 Lossless image files working with 144 Lossy file format JPG as 140 Low light accommodating 42 adjusting ISO settings for 29 Low power flash mode explanation of 76 M M mode explanation of 65 Mac floppies reading on PCs 356 Mac users sending email attachments of images to 356 Macro lens terminology understanding 100 Macro mode 93 returning to ordinary focusing mode from 94 Macro photography See Close ups Magic Wand tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 243 fixing bleached skies with 266 improving accuracy of painting with 249 removing red eye with 254 using with superimposed celebrity images 283 Manual exposure mode explanation of 64 65 and night photography 87 Masks creating for use with blue screen effects 277 279 inserting levels of transparency in 280 uses for 279 281 using with superimposed images of celebrities 283 Matrix meters dynamics of 38 Megapixel ranges determining 15 16 for storing im
237. her option is ofoto com This site has a clever image editing tool built in to the Web page You can crop rotate and even remove red eye from your pictures right from an ophoto com upload assistant program that you can download and use to store images on the Web site And there s shutterfly com a nicely organized site that works with both digital and film pictures CHAPTER 16 Sharing Your Pictures 365 2 Lansdcape Microsoft Internet Explorer File Edt View Favorites Tools Help 2 9 9054 Aala g Links EPT E MP3 S AvantGo E ThrowingMusic GanePower B Paedia Address http members3 clubphoto com dave275397 Lansdcape x Go as My ALBUMS Home Prints amp Girts Gauery E caros Toots Firm PROCESSING Dave Johnson You are currently Grand Tetons Run Slide Show Member Service Sign Guest Book ma Invite Others to View Albu si j Dew MEMBER ALBUM Eyan Berries X Raed a w b fal G Intemet mClOlN miieeem ClubPhoto automatically arranges your uploaded digital images in an elegant manner The bottom line is that you can t expect sites like these to stay in business on advertising or good thoughts If you find one that you like I highly encourage you to pay the subscription fee and keep them in business That s what I ve done with ClubPhoto since I d really like my digital images to still be online six months a year and even two years from now Even
238. here a blue screen style background which I talked about in the beginning of the chapter comes in really handy but you can also use a basement wall or some other background of uniform color Don t have anything like that Just shoot the picture outdoors and we ll deal with it 13 Load the two images into Paint Shop Pro but bring the trapped kid to the front you ll work with this picture first If you managed to photograph the subject in front of a blue screen style background it Il be easier Use the Magic Wand tool until the entire background is selected leaving just the kid Using a subtle feathering in the Tool Options dialog box will help you out later 292 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 5 When the background is entirely selected choose Selections Invert from the menu If you have an irregular background to contend with you might want to use the SmartEdge selection tool instead of the Magic Wand 6 Once the subject is selected copy it to the Clipboard by choosing Edit Copy from the menu 7 Bring the jar photograph to the front and choose Edit Paste As New Layer from the menu Your kid should appear onscreen in the photo Jasc Paint Shop Pro 113 17 rer Fie Edt View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Maske Window HelDmaamehiyasaauadaan Dem 2e tee OO penn ve i 193 17 1 2 Layert EE O 77 bad L 2 Be Ww a g Ed a amp A Y Di
239. hly recommended by computer and photography store salespeople After being disappointed with all of those other brands I tried Epson s own Premium Glossy paper and was blown away the results were dramatically better I ve had similar experiences with other printers though I have to admit that they weren t as dramatic as with the Epson printer which was clearly engineered with specialty paper in mind CHAPTER 15 Printing Your Pictures 343 Other Specialty Papers In addition to ordinary plain coated and photo paper printer manufacturers and paper vendors sell a variety of other specialty papers You might want to investigate these papers since they can be a lot of fun and enable you to do all sorts of things with your printer that you never imagined possible E Greeting card paper Greeting card paper and matching envelopes allow you to make your own greeting cards with your printer and some greeting card software Canon Greeting Cards E Transparency paper This clear film media is perfect for printing color overhead slides for business meetings You can use this to print PowerPoint slides or any other kind of image or document T shirt transfer paper This special paper is really an iron on transfer that you can 15 run through your printer then apply to clothing When you print on t shirt paper be sure to use special t shirt transfer software or just reverse your image before you print Create a mirror image of what
240. hting 83 separate flash units to the camera The cool thing about using a separate flash is that you can hold it away from the camera The farther you get the flash away from the camera lens to the left or right of the camera the less susceptible your picture will be to red eye since the light won t reflect directly back to the camera E Photograph people outdoors or near windows If you can arrange your subjects near a bright source of natural light you can avoid the red eye problem entirely since their pupils will already be closed due to the strong light source Correct the Color Balance The color of artificial light is dramatically different from natural outdoor light In fact every kind of artificial light has its own unique properties And that means that different kinds of artificial light have subtly different colors It is because of these variations in color that many indoor photographs simply don t look natural Your camera has a way to adjust for these different light sources Called white balance it will help you to make sure that you get natural colors in your pictures regardless of what kind of artificial light you use If you find that the automatic white balance setting in your camera gives you unpredictable results then be sure to read the next section and manually adjust your camera s white balance before every indoor photographic session Correcting Images with White Balance As I mentioned earlier many digi
241. icture or a negative and then print it larger than its original dimensions E You can scan an image at high resolution and then crop it The cropped and edited result will still have enough information to enlarge On the other hand if you scanned the image at just 200dpi initially you would have to print the entire image without cropping Why go with lower resolution scanners That s easy they re less expensive Not everyone needs 2 400dpi or even 600dpi If your main goal is to scan images for Web pages for instance a 300dpi scanner may be as much as you need 10 actual resolution of the optics is more important You should use that number to compare scanners when you shop Color Depth Most inexpensive scanners are 24 bit scanners meaning they can digitize as many as 16 7 million colors which also happens to be about as many colors as the human eye can see More sophisticated scanners work at 30 36 or even 42 bits per pixel meaning they can distinguish among billions of colors Those scanners with more than 24 bit accuracy have more colors to choose from when resolving dark regions and images with lots of rapid color changes This adds up to a high quality image If you are serious about scanning your photos keep an eye on color depth and choose your scanner accordingly If you re scanning snapshots or posting images on a Web site color depth isn t as important to you Dynamic Range The concept of dynamic range is
242. ide Continue this process until you ve created a complete slide show To add a common transition to every slide in your presentation choose Slide Show Slide Transition and select a transition from the transition drop down menu The Dissolve transition is a good choice To apply this transition to every slide in your slide show choose Apply To All CHAPTER 16 Sharing Your Pictures 373 Effect Apply to All Cancel C Slow C Medium Fast Advance Sound IV On mouse click No Sound X I Automatically after r f You can apply transitions to a particular slide or apply to all the slides at once In my opinion slide shows that use a different effect for every transition however have a decidedly unprofessional look I suggest you stick with a subdued single transition approach throughout the entire presentation 10 Save your presentation by choosing File Save As 11 When your slide show is complete you can plug your PC into a VCR or camcorder and record the show to tape using your own mouse clicks as timing for when to change slides You can also add a CD audio source to the VCR to add a soundtrack as you record the show If Your Camera Has No Video Output Not all digital cameras have video outputs and if you have one of those video deprived models it can be difficult to show your pictures on the big screen If that sounds like you consider getting a stand alone device that displays digital images on a TV withou
243. ies designed to straighten such images are available My favorite utility is actually a plug in filter for Adobe PhotoShop Plug ins are small programs that extend and enhance PhotoShop with additional capabilities This one is called LensDoc and it s sold by Andromeda Software www andromeda com It works in PhotoShop or any other program that can use PhotoShop plug ins like Paint Shop Pro If you have a picture with obvious lens distortion here s how to use LensDoc to fix the problem 1 Load the distorted picture into a graphics program such as Paint Shop Pro 2 Start LensDoc by choosing it from the Filter menu In Paint Shop Pro choose Image Plug In Filters Andromeda LensDoc The LensDoc program should start 3 Turn off the three green squares by clicking the second button onscreen in step 2 the button with three connected green circles 124 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 4 One at a time grab the three yellow squares in the image and position them along a line that should be straight but isn t Avoid positioning the squares too close to each other Fix DISTORTION GENERIC LENS FIX PERSPECTIVE O SPECIFICLENS FIX ROTATION no generic conection 1 is Paint to any item to get help on how to use it Novice Mone D va O EXPERT MODE 5 When you re ready click the Correct button Your image should be straightened See Figure 6 5 for a before and after look at lens dist
244. iew is not included in Windows Me or XP since those operating systems have much better image viewing tools Here s how to install Quick View on Windows 95 98 1 Choose Start Settings Control Panel from the Windows Start menu You should see the Control Panel window appear 2 Double click the Add Remove Programs icon 3 Click the Windows Setup tab This contains a list of all optional software on the Windows installation disk Add Remove Programs Properties x Install Uninstall Windows Setup Startup Disk To add or remove a component select or clear the check box If the check box is shaded only part of the component will be installed To see what s included in a component click Details Components Accessibility M UsjAccessories 16 3 MB V By Address Book 1 5 MB M ED Communications 1 4 MB Ki Desktop Themes 0 0 MB xl Space used by installed components 30 0 MB Space required 0 0 MB Space available on disk 4630 1 MB Description oe standard Accessibility Options and new Accessibility ools 1 of 2 components selected Details Have Disk tot Er CHAPTER 9 Keeping Images on the PC 177 4 Click the entry for Accessories and click the Details button You should see the Accessories dialog box appear This contains a list of all the accessory programs in Windows 5 Scroll down until you find Quick View and click it putting a check mark next to the entry Then click OK Accessories xi
245. if you maintain your own personal Web site you can save yourself the time and trouble of arranging digital images on a photo page by linking from your own Web site 16 directly to your album on a photo sharing site That s what I do to see it in action go to www bydavejohnson com and click the Photography link to see how I connect to the ClubPhoto site 366 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Showing Off Images on a Palm A popular way to show off traditional 35mm pictures is by carrying them in your wallet Wallet photos and digital imaging don t really mix that well or at least they didn t until recently Now you can transfer images from your hard disk and store them on your Palm OS handheld like the Palm III Palm V or Handspring Visor Color handheld devices like the Palm m515 Sony Clie and Visor Prism work best A typical Palm device can store dozens of images though the limited memory in these devices means your images compete for space with other kinds of data Applications abound for storing and displaying images on a Palm device A popular image viewer is called Fire Viewer and it is compatible with a conversion utility for transferring images from the PC to the Palm In Figure 16 7 the image on the left shows Fire Viewer s main screen with a list of all the images stored on the Palm The image on the right is a FireViewer image complete with the pop up menu for managing your images You can also
246. igation control controls Macro mode Optical viewfinder LCD display digital viewfinder OLYMPUS Jehe Most of these controls are common to all digital cameras 14 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 01 01 1999 00 25 FullAuto HCULGEEA Digital cameras use a series of menus in the LCD display to operate the more advanced or less frequently used features ChE The star symbol is commonly used to indicate a resolution control CHAPTER 1 Welcome to the Future 15 The Upgrade Race Do you need to get a new camera next year just because the megapixel bar has been raised or some other cool new features have surfaced No you don t Just like your desktop computer a digital camera isn t obsolete just because a new model came out with more memory or horsepower It s only obsolete when it no longer does what you want it to do Consider my main digital camera Although I get to see and play with a large number of cameras every year I ve stuck with what you ll surely consider to be an ancient model the several year old Olympus D 620L I like this camera because it has a TTL viewfinder and an excellent macro or close focus mode The downside It s a mere 1 4 megapixels That s so Twentieth Century That s okay though I use the camera to take screenshots for books magazines and Web sites I rarely need a resolution much beyond 1 024 x 768 for those applications and that s
247. illion 1 9 MBytes f St Fine Tuning the Selection The technique I just described works fine a lot of the time but it s just not accurate enough to create a truly convincing special effect There are two other ways to get even better results 13 First of all you can invest in a professional edge detection program that largely automates the process of creating accurate selections for this kind of special effect work One of the best is a program called KnockOut from procreate www procreate com You can see KnockOut in Figure 13 1 This program can isolate individual hairs on a person s head so it s great for this kind of image transplant Alternately you can make your own masks A mask is similar to a selection just like the regular Selection tool masks isolate the area that you want to change or protect from change when you apply color filters or other effects to an image 218 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera ha Corel KnockOut 1 5 alpha E File Edit View Selection Window Help TE lel xl OORNXETAGSE Transition Complexity MedHigh Size 28 98MB Scale 25 Be 2244 Y 1276 A 104 G 095 B 080 Use Alt to subtract Shift to add CTRL for Tweezers tool Cir Shit for straight ine mode L for Loupe mode Start a GY D BHyperSnap Ox Pro Coret KnockOut 1 5 lt BA EHD 4PM HCULEESE KnockOut is a masking program that allows you to cut a subject out of a scen
248. ilters can add or remove noise in an image Noise manifests itself in digital images as specks of high contrast color like snow in a TV transmission Geometric effects These tools let you distort and skew parts of an image They re good for displaying an image in a different perspective You can change the orientation of an image in three dimensions or perhaps distort images within circles cylinders and other shapes Artistic effects This is the general name for a slew of filters that do everything from add base relief watercolor charcoal mosaic and more to your images This is where you should go when you want to make your image look as if it was hand painted or give it a unique non photo realistic look UAn KSE Common Filter Types CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 297 originally took the shot Best of all it s not very hard to do It s particularly easy if your image editor supports layers The basic idea is this E Stack two copies of the image in separate layers E Convert one to grayscale E Select most of the image in the color version E Delete the selection leaving a small color subject on top of the grayscale image Specifically here s how to do it in Paint Shop Pro 1 Open the image you want to use and make a copy of it by choosing Edit Copy Don t paste it anywhere yet just let it stay in the Clipboard 2 Select the image and convert it to a grayscale picture by choosing Colors Grayscale
249. image should be before you print it just multiply the output size in inches by 200 The following chart illustrates the minimum dimensions of your image for a variety of common print sizes with an inkjet printer Print Size in inches File Size in pixels Camera Resolution Needed 4x6 800 x 1 200 1 megapixel 8 x 10 1 600 x 2 000 3 megapixel 11x17 2 200 x 3 400 6 megapixel 13x 19 2 600 x 3 800 10 megapixel 15 Wow Surprised It takes a lot of pixels to make high quality prints So what does that chart mean that you need a 10 megapixel camera to make a 13 x 19 inch print with a wide format inkjet printer Well yeah that s exactly what it s saying But there s good news You can cheat Many printers will still give you great results even if you feed them an image that s under pixeled In other words suppose you have a 1 600 x 1 200 pixel image You might still get quite decent results by printing it at 11 x 17 inches or perhaps even 13 x 19 Try it out and see 338 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera The Real Resolution of an Inkjet Confused I said earlier that inkjet printers come in resolutions up to 2 880dpi yet now I claim that they print at 150 or 250dpi Which is it How can one number be so different from the other I agree It is confusing The simplest answer is that printer companies aren t being entirely honest with you The resolution they advertise on the box isn t a measure of how many p
250. in 273 274 using Saturation tool with 234 viewing as email attachments 356 viewing on VCRs 18 viewing with Paint Shop Pro 178 180 as wallpaper 316 318 Images for Web pages scan resolution for 194 Indoor photographs improving 82 83 Infrared photography best times of day for 125 126 editing pictures with 126 effects of 124 gear required for 125 Inkjet paper usage of 341 Inkjet printers choosing 331 334 336 creating prints resistant to fading with 349 resolution for 337 338 Inkjet versus VGA resolution 338 Instant Power back up batteries recommendation of 133 Interlace mode display of GIF images in 140 Interlacing feature of GIF format 89a explanation of 363 Internal memory storing images on 152 153 Intervals choosing for time lapse photos 128 Invert option in Paint Shop Pro using 226 Irregular cropping creating special effects with 220 226 ISO 100 using Sunny 16 Rule with 34 383 Index ISO International Organization for Standardization numbers controlling exposures with 29 effect on flashes 73 explanation of 24 25 27 ISO settings changing 29 30 J Jar placing subject in 290 293 JPG format using compression feature in 360 JPG quality compression required for 182 183 JPGs Joint Photographic Experts Group benefits of 143 calculating size of 182 183 compressing 184 compression levels for 148 149 converting to TIF with Image Robot program 149 converting to TIFs 21
251. in Paint Shop Pro and other image editing applications Here are a few other tricks you can try out E Create a vignette crop Have you ever seen oval shaped images It s easy to do with the Selection tool Just choose Ellipse from the Tool Options dialog box after you choose the Selection tool When you make your selection in the image it will be in the form of an ellipse that you can customize depending on how you drag your mouse CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images Jasc Paint Shop Pro marin kitchen BEE Eie Edit Yiew mage Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help DHS 2 e OO 20mh wmi Ye R B marin kitchen 1 3 Background Q 14 p 2 4 Oy a Textures KA a t ed O 7 ajg g ay Selection type A Ens y hed Feather E A F SEJ Y B M Antiatas 177 9 ET o Image 0k 1230 x 16 Millon 3 5 MBytes Ol Inbox FB Music S3 Jasc ych aes ID EOOX 3 26 AM stat AER E Feather the edges When you paste an image into another image you can smooth the transition from the selection to the background using the Feather tool in the Tool Options dialog box The larger the number the more feathering you ll get Be sure to select the Feather option before you select your region though or it won t have any effect 225 11 226 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera E Invert your selection One cool trick you can try is to create a selection in
252. ince pictures from inkjets look so good just about as good as from a dye sub there s hardly a reason to choose otherwise What to Look For Okay so now you know you want to buy an inkjet printer At least that s the assumption I m making If you don t agree with me you re shopping on your own Actually I talk about laser printers as well I hope you re happy CHAPTER 15 Printing Your Pictures 335 Do You Need Two Printers I have two printers I use an HP LaserJet 6P for routine text printing I do a lot of that and an Epson Stylus Photo 1270 for all of my image printing Do you need two printers It might seem a bit decadent at first but it s really not depending on how much printing you actually do Both inkjets and lasers are reasonably affordable these days but an inkjet alone will lead to slow and comparatively expensive routine printing That s why I have one of each If you do have two printers you can alternate between them by using a bidirectional switch box Parallel port switch boxes are available at most computer stores Also make sure that your printer will work with a switch box not all do If your printers connect via the USB port you don t need to use a switch box since you can connect each printer to its own USB port Or if you have two PCs in your home you can connect one printer to each PC and then network the PCs together with a home networking kit That allows you to print to either p
253. individual camera manufacturers such as Kodak e CHAPTER 8 Working with Digital Film 165 E SmartMedia readers A common way to read the data from a SmartMedia card is by inserting it into a FlashPath adapter shown here This device slides into a floppy disk drive and lets you read the images off SmartMedia as if it were a floppy FlashPath adapters are available from a large number of manufacturers including SmartDisk and many camera vendors E All in one readers Just like cameras that are starting to accommodate more than one kind of memory card readers are becoming more flexible as well Universal readers can accommodate two three or even four kinds of memory cards making it easy to read and 8 write to cards for your digital camera MP3 player and PDA all from the same device I use my universal card reader a lot id MSF Pi qy i Memory Card Fact and Fiction I ve met people with some interesting misconceptions about digital film so let me try to dispel some myths Removable memory cards are nothing more than digital storage for your camera That means that memory cards aren t designed to store images of a certain size Some people mistakenly believe that if they want to store images of a larger or smaller pixel size they need a different memory card Memory cards are completely standardized and interchangeable and they don t particularly care what you store on them In fact you don t even have to put digital
254. ing ok SL Crenetans Customize Desktop 4 If you want the image to be centered in your display choose Center in the Display drop down menu If you d prefer the image to repeat itself all across the display choose Tile instead 5 Click OK to close the dialog box You might want to resize the image in a program like Paint Shop Pro to match the screen resolution you run on your PC That way the image will take up the entire screen The original resolution of the image should be close to your desktop size 14 or bigger if you start with a small image the result will often be quite ugly If your image is too small for the display it ll either be tiled to fill the screen or centered in the display with a lot of blank desktop around it For photographs I think centering looks good tiling photographs just looks busy and annoys me see Figure 14 3 Of course you can experiment and arrange your display any way you like 318 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Binet DSH rte mee Mean Pee Dan pete BPRSDIAODA iw Muaj 14 5 prte sm serene pons PPRENDIACHA on Bet 6 R lesen seers penne Bama RES IOACDA raw mCleli meecm The same image shown centered tiled and stretched Adding an Image to Letterhead If you use Microsoft Word and send a lot of letters you might want to try this next project creating your own personal letterhead with an embedded digital i
255. ing the brightness in an image E You can use the Brightness control in some programs it s called luminance Brightness raises or lowers the entire image s luminance value indiscriminately whether all areas need it or not On the other hand if just one portion of an image needs to be brightened you can select it using the Selection tool and then add brightness When part of an image is selected operations you perform on the image occur in the selected region Use the Selection tool to add or remove brightness only where it s needed E Alternatively you can use the Gamma control Gamma affects the midtones of an image more than the extreme bright and dark regions that means you can brighten a dark skin tone without washing out a dark shadow nearby Gamma affects a limited range of brightness in the image so you can better target your changes E Finally and the best way to tweak the brightness of an image is with the histogram This is an intimidating looking tool that tells you the distribution of lights and darks in an image and it s a powerful way to correct your shots as long as you re willing to invest a little time to learn how to use it Correcting with Brightness and Contrast Let s start with the brightness and contrast controls though I suggest that you don t rely on this technique often Play with it certainly but I recommend that you get familiar with the other two techniques gamma and the histogram and us
256. ing with Your Digital Camera Every time you paste in a new layer be sure to set the blend for that new layer _ to Multiply or the added layers will have no effect on the color of the sky Eee Replace the Sky The multiply technique is not the only way to punch up a lame sky You can also steal the sky from another photo as I ll show you how to do now For starters though you re going to need a great photo of the sky When I see a pretty blue sky a swirling cloudy day a stormy afternoon or a beautiful sunset I grab my camera and start shooting Use the Exposure Lock feature on your camera to set the exposure based on the sky or simply fill the entire frame with sky either way you ll capture all the color and intensity that you see through the viewfinder in the final image Shoot your sky shots with your camera s highest resolution since you never know what resolution you ll eventually need You might also want to take some pictures in landscape mode and others in portrait mode so you have a selection of skies for any situation Store your collection of sky images in a special folder and you ll always have options available when you want to replace a bland sky Evicting the Old Sky Ready to try this technique Load a picture with a weak sky in Paint Shop Pro Then follow these steps 1 Just like last time use the Magic Wand with the Tolerance set at a moderate level like 20 to select the sky in the photo
257. interested check out any of these Ulead Photo Express www ulead com ArcSoft Panorama Maker www arcsoft com PanVue ImageAssembler www panvue com Easypano Panoweaver www easypano com Adobe Photoshop Elements www adobe com 259 12 260 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera New Project Wizard Step 2 of 3 _ Frames Size Modified Preview funobj 49KB 2 8 1999 2 27 _ PATTERN 45KB 2 8 1999 2 28 plugin 40KB 2 8 1999 2 28 HO Project Ce 2 8 1999 2 46 Add All Remove All Acquire lt gt xpos a mlcleli mpecm Automatic panorama software is a convenient way to stitch images together Using those programs all you need to do is drag and drop the individual images in the proper order see Figure 12 3 The software matches the edges all by itself and does a good job even with low quality digital cameras wide angle lenses and other technical difficulties The Resolution Advantage Not all panoramas are photographed just to take wide scenic landscapes Sometimes you might want to photograph a subject in sections so you can get more pixels for a high res print What am I talking about Consider a situation in which you want to make a 20 x 30 inch poster sized print but your 2 megapixel camera doesn t have remotely enough resolution to make a large picture You can still get the shot as long as you re trying to photograph a stationary object Shoot it in sections then sti
258. is E Light The more light available the more you can close the aperture You can use the camera s built in flash use an external flash if your camera allows it or just shoot in situations where there is a lot of natural light CHAPTER 5 Taking Close Ups 105 mClUli aemcm It s easy to blur the background in a close up the hard part is getting everything that you want to be in focus actually in focus Be careful when you compose your picture so that the subject is parallel not perpendicular to the lens If your subject has depth with respect to the axis of your lens part of it will be in focus and part of it will not be When you can turn the subject or the camera so that the entire length of the object is in sharp focus Mind the Background The background is an important part of your photograph In general you probably want your background to be fairly indistinct As luck would have it that is not too hard to do in a close up photograph After all there s precious little depth of field to begin with so the background will probably be blurry Here are a few tips for tweaking the background of your photograph E Turnit black If you use your flash you ll throw so much light onto the primary subject that the background especially if it is more than a few inches away from the subject will be black This is a good effect in certain situations but it doesn t look particularly natural That s why many professi
259. iting and as the wallpaper on your Windows desktop but it isn t generally readable by Macintosh computers Nor are BMP files used on the Internet That makes this a relatively unpopular format Another reason that BMP files aren t particularly popular is that they tend to be quite large since the BMP format makes no effort to compress the data at all In general the only reason you will tend to use this file format is if you want to display a digital image as the wallpaper on the Windows desktop GIF Short for Graphics Interchange Format pronounced either giff or jiff depending on who is doing the talking this format was originally developed by CompuServe and is commonly used on the Web along with the JPG format GIF has a few advantages over JPG on the Web You can make the background of GIF images transparent which comes in handy if you want the area surrounding an irregularly shaped image to be the same as the background of the Web page You can also make GIF images display in interlace mode that is in chunks so that you can get an overall impression of the picture even before it has fully downloaded That is a valuable feature on the Internet since many people have slow modem connections You can also save a GIF image with fewer than 16 7 million colors If you save a GIF image with just 256 colors for instance the file will be dramatically smaller and may not look dramatically different from the original full color ver
260. ivate the shutter without shaking the camera If you don t have a remote then you might want to trigger the camera with the self timer feature Take Your First Night Shots So you re ready to take your first pictures at night I recommend that you choose an interesting locale to begin with Go downtown where there are lots of neon store lights and cars with headlights on Alternately try a local carnival or fairground The idea is to find a location that has lots of interesting lights and motion To take your first nighttime pictures follow these steps 1 Mount your camera on a tripod Your exposure times will be a half second or longer there is absolutely no way you can hold the camera for that amount of time without introducing an incredible amount of blur 2 Switch your camera to its manual exposure mode if it has one Set the aperture to a medium setting such as f 5 6 Set the shutter speed to 1 2 3 Point the camera at something interesting If this is the first time you are trying night photography I suggest you go to a fairly busy intersection downtown and frame the street and a store or two in your viewfinder 4 When a car is about to enter your viewfinder take the picture You should be able to get fairly instant feedback on how your picture came out by looking at it in the camera s LCD display No matter how good or bad the picture came out do not delete it 5 Now double the shutter speed Try an exposure of o
261. ixels in Figure 7 1 and you Il end up with a picture of something So far so good The problem comes in when you want to save all this data to the memory card How do you do it Essentially you need to save the data in some standardized format so the information will be understandable to software and devices other than the digital camera itself In the old days of computing every word processing program stored its documents in a unique file format that was understandable only to that program a real hassle if you needed to open a documents on someone else s PC using a strange word processing program Likewise if CHAPTER 7 Conquering File Formats 139 Pixel mcllsi weem A digital image is little more than a grid of colored pixels your camera stored information about the color value of each one of those pixels however it felt like it odds are good that only the camera would ever be able to understand that information again And that is a somewhat long winded explanation of why we have file formats By writing the color information about each of those pixels in a standard and predictable way each picture that the digital camera saves can be read by your computer s software even if the software didn t come from the same company that made the camera There s more than one file format used by digital cameras and graphics programs many more In fact there are well over a hundred file formats in use by image software on comp
262. ixels per inch ppi the printer can accurately lay down on paper If it were 2 880dpi inkjets would be capable of printing photos around professional magazine quality and that s clearly not the case So something else must be going on Indeed Here s the deal The advertised resolution of an inkjet printer is a measure of the accuracy of the step motor that drives the print head around on the page Certainly you want that motor to be as accurate as possible but keep in mind that it takes several steps for the print head to make even a single dot on the paper and it s the dots in the end that really limit the printer s maximum resolution So an ink jet with a resolution of 2 880dpi is not necessarily a whole lot better than an ink jet with a resolution of 1 440dpi Visually prints made with one printer will look better than the other but certainly not twice as good It s like buying a 3GHz computer It s faster than a 1 5GHz PC but it s not twice as fast Put another way a printer with a lousy step motor can visibly degrade the quality of a print But buying a printer that has a 10 000dpi resolution via the way that companies like Epson measure that sort of thing today will only result in more perfectly formed pixels But the pixels themselves will be limited by other factors The printer s top resolution is indeed important but other factors play an important role as well using the sharpening filter on your image and choosing
263. king with Text and Creating Projects 305 Text outline Size and style Kerning AaBb Ca Leading Script T Auto kem Styles Stroke oy E Your Text Here Enter text here Textures Stroke On A Fit Kp Create as Standard text i C Selection C Floating I Antialias OK Cancel Help iGo Text fill Type here mclei aeowme The Text Entry dialog box lets you specify the style color and size of text you add to a digital image There are exceptions to this unusual text handling of course PhotoShop Elements has an outstanding text entry system that lets you type directly onto the image and edit it afterward as well In Paint Shop Pro here s how to add text to a picture 14 Add Text to a Picture 1 Change the foreground color to whatever you want the text to be 2 Click the Text button in the tool palette The mouse pointer will change to the letter A 306 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Text S a Ed 3 GB Jase Paint Shop Pro 3c3 Bie Eck View mage Eltects Cokes Levers Deaete sc 1 1 8 CUTE PRIZ e a e a aa Et ae Create o edit text Click in the image where you want the text to be positioned The point that you click will be the lower left corner of the text box Note that the timing of this step varies in different programs In Adobe Photoshop for instance you don t position the text until the end When t
264. l range Optics Consider the lens quality optical zoom range and the possibility of adding lenses or filters for more capabilities Flash Consider the flash range and special features like red eye reduction For serious flash photography look for cameras that accept external flash units Special effects If you want goodies like movie modes or panoramic capture worry about that after the essentials are out of the way Transfer mechanism One last issue to consider is how the camera transfers images to the PC this is a convenience issue Understanding Exposure Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 22 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to Tell the difference between analog and digital camera operation Distinguish between slide and negative photography Pick ISO settings for a digital and film camera Match aperture and shutter speed settings for correct exposure Use the Sunny 16 Rule Modify the Sunny 16 Rule based on ISO and lighting conditions Adjust exposure manually Tweak exposure with your camera s EV settings Choose metering modes for better pictures Use exposure lock to optimize exposure Tell when to ignore the camera and make your own exposure decisions Some people think that photography is akin to magic They turn on the camera snap a picture and a day or two later they ve got a mystical re creation of the scene the
265. l lines that might lead the viewer s eyes through the photo These lines can create a sense of depth and perspective that is often lost in the two dimensional photograph Lines can be formed in almost any situation you might see a row of trees the shape of a skyscraper from the ground or the route of the backyard fence Personally I enjoy using the natural flow of a stream or road to lead the eye from one end of the picture to the other Figure 3 8 is one example of this technique While lines like these can fit in with any kind of lens or composition you may find that this works best when seen through wide angle lenses That s because telephoto lenses compress your scene and make it harder to see long sweeping lines Another trick of the trade is to look for repetition and patterns and incorporate those into your image Patterns like those that you see in nature or man made objects can create interesting effects Like lines they can add a sense of depth to your images Try combining these patterns CLEES A long straight road is a powerful tool for creating a sense of implied motion in a photograph CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials 53 Keep the Horizon Straight This may seem obvious but how many times have you seen a photo in which the horizon was a little cockeyed Vertically oriented pictures can get by with a slightly off kilter horizon but if you take a horizontally oriented image and the horizon is not straight it af
266. lack and white or sepia mode on your camera allows you to capture images that have a somewhat old fashioned look Very old photographs of course have a brownish tint that is called sepia You might also want to use the black and white mode if your final output is going to be in print like a newsletter Black and white images take up less space on a memory card so you can typically take more black and white images than color images Black and white images also make a strong artistic statement people use this mode to be creative So if your pictures will be black and white in the end anyway you might consider taking them in black and white to begin with The downside If you might want some of those images in color for a different application it s simply not possible to put the color back in later If you re not sure how your images might be used I recommend that you start with ordinary color and save them to your computer s hard disk in that format Later you can convert the images to black and white in an image processing program if necessary 6 In summary here are the pros and cons of using the special effect modes on your camera Pros Cons Images typically take up less space If you later need the original color image you a i won t have it You get a specific effect immediately without the need to process it on a computer If you forget to switch out of the selected mode you may find a whole memory card full of sepia to
267. ld end up with a real mess in and around your printer if the ink runs everywhere Can you print on both sides of the paper I get that question a lot And the answer is that it depends Don t ever try to print on the back of glossy premium paper but you can usually print on both sides of inkjet and high quality inkjet paper without any trouble If I am printing a newsletter or greeting card I might print the pictures on one side and use a laser printer to add text to the back Caring for Your Prints All picture colors tend to fade over time but inkjet photos tend to fade somewhat faster In fact inkjet inks are sensitive to ultraviolet light and your images will fade faster if exposed to direct sunlight for extended periods If you plan to frame pictures and leave them exposed to sunlight consider using UV shielded glass available at some framing shops Keep original image files on your hard disk or archived on CD ROM so you can reprint them when the fading becomes noticeable Some newer printers are marketed specifically as models that create prints with more lightfastness than older printers You can probably guess that lightfastness is a print s ability to resist fading when exposed to light A number of Epson models in particular offer a lightfastness of 10 or more years check out this chart of Epson photo papers for instance Epson Photo Paper 6 years Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper 10 years Epson Matter Paper Heavy
268. le are more disappointed with their outdoor photography than any other kind of images They complain about the washed out sky it was very blue when they took the picture as well as ugly shadows on people s faces bad exposure and highly contrasting harsh shadows that go through their pictures Why do all these problems occur At the most basic level it s because your digital camera works differently from the way your eyes do When you look around outside your pupils the apertures of your eyes change diameter constantly to adjust for varying light conditions throughout the scene When you look toward the sky your pupils close so you see rich blue colors Look under a tree and your pupils immediately open to help you see in the deep shadows that are down there And then there s the fact that your eyes have a much wider range of exposure values than a camera does When you press the shutter release on your camera it has to choose a single exposure level and try to depict the entire scene with that one reading regardless of how dramatically the light changes throughout the picture As I mention in Chapter 3 it is a miracle that we can get good pictures at all That said there are many strategies we can employ to get great pictures outdoors Beware of the Sun When you take pictures outdoors always check your watch By that I mean that there are better and worse times during the day to take pictures Perhaps the worst time of all is
269. le digital cameras let you transfer images painlessly especially compared to the more traditional and now virtually obsolete serial cable Some cameras include even more convenient solutions like adapters that accept the removable media card and connect to the computer directly The advantage with these devices is that you can transfer images without draining the camera batteries and transfers are often easier to do since you avoid using arcane transfer software and instead just drag and drop images from a folder on the Windows desktop Gear You Need Every hobby has its accessories I sometimes joke that my dive buddy only became interested in scuba diving after she discovered that scuba gear was a whole new way to spend money While there s no doubt some truth to that it s also true that there are some things you really need to buy to accompany any activity and digital photography is no exception Here s a short shopping list of things you might consider buying as you get more into shooting digitally E A camera It goes without saying that you need a camera but don t rush into the purchase You can even use a 35mm camera to begin with and scan the images into the PC for editing and printing If you ve read the previous sections of this chapter and decided what features are important to you you can shop like a pro E An adequate PC Crunching data to process digital images takes a bit more horsepower than you might be used to
270. ll composition of your photographs Using depth of field you can isolate your subject by making sure it is the only sharply focused person or object in the frame Alternately you can increase depth of field to make the entire image from foreground to background as sharp as possible Figure 3 12 60 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera mlclUli aceayag Varying the aperture changes the depth of field shows the effect of depth of field on a simple portrait on the left the child in the background is in sharp focus thanks to a deep depth of field On the right nothing has changed except the f stop By decreasing the f number and thus increasing the size of the lens opening the background child is now blurry and indistinct Side by side I think these two pictures would make a great album cover for some psychedelic band But I digress Getting the Most Out of Your Zoom Lens As discussed in Chapters 1 and 2 your digital camera probably comes with a zoom lens that allows you to vary the focal length from a wide angle or normal perspective all the way through some moderate telephoto length As you probably recall focal length is just a measure of the magnification that the lens provides A larger focal length produces greater magnification hence long focal length lenses are great for capturing fast action or enlarging objects that are moderately far away You can see the effect of a zoom lens on magnification in Figure 3 13
271. lm not all canisters of 35mm film are alike Film is differentiated principally by its speed or ISO number A film s ISO number refers to how sensitive it is to light The lower the number the less sensitive requiring long exposures or very bright scenes The International Organization for Standardization ISO is the group that helped establish how the number scheme works Film around the world uses ISO numbers so you can buy it anywhere and it ll all work the same In the United States photographers used to call this system ASA which stood for the American Standards Association That term was essentially abandoned about 20 years ago so if you want to be considered a gristled old geezer you can refer to ISO numbers as ASA A fairly typical ISO number for ordinary daylight photography is ISO 100 Increasing the ISO to 200 doubles the sensitivity of the film dropping back to an ISO of 50 halves the sensitivity of the film This film sensitivity has a tangible effect on the mechanics of photography To see why look at Figure 2 1 this diagram shows a typical camera body as a picture is taken The lens is equipped with a diaphragm called an aperture that has a certain diameter and consequently CHAPTER 2 Understanding Exposure 25 eho Every camera no matter what it uses for film controls the exposure with some sort of aperture is designed to allow a specific amount of light through to the film With ISO
272. ls around the more CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 205 fun you ll have A slow PC might frustrate you since it ll take a long time to perform editing operations and even take a while to redraw the screen Here s what I think you should have to do image editing without getting an ulcer E Pentium II processor I used to do image editing on a 200MHz Pentium now known as a Pentium Classic so it can obviously be done But it s slow E 128MB of RAM Here s where spending just a little extra can really pay off though If you upgrade to 256MB of RAM which costs under 100 and you can install it yourself image editing will seem much faster even on a slower processor That s because high megapixel images occupy lots of room in memory and if they can t fit there Windows stores parts of them on the hard disk That can make something as simple as a screen redraw drag on forever E 40GB hard drive They re really cheap now so you should have lots of room to store your images An external hard disk or a CD ROM drive for archiving old images can come in handy as well Choose an Image Editor Before you can get started editing images you need an image editing program Any one will do at least at first For the most part all image editors give you the ability to do certain things such as E Resize your images Apply paint to your image using a set of brushes and other paint tools 11 Add text and other graphics Delete
273. ly easier with digital cameras I wrote this book so that you could sit down and read it through like a novel if you d like to but I realize few people will actually do that If you re looking for specific information I ve organized the book so topics should be easy to find Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use XIX XX How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Part I kicks things off with the basics of using your camera I begin by explaining how to shop for a digital camera and how to operate the most common controls on digital cameras From there I delve into stuff you need to know no matter what kind of camera you have stuff like composition lighting close ups and how to take advantage of the special features on your camera Part II of the book is all about getting the images from the camera into your PC I talk about how to use file formats like JPG and TIF and how to care for the memory cards that come with your camera For those of you who want to scan traditional film prints into your PC I ve dedicated a chapter to selecting and using a scanner I m guessing that most of you will be keenly interested in Part I1 at least that s one of the most exciting parts for me This is where you can learn how to edit digital images as if your PC were a sort of digital darkroom Sure there are simple techniques in here like how to crop and resize images but I also write about c
274. ly reorient the camera to get a good solid focus lock Also when you do get a lock make sure that you re actually focused on the right subject The depth of field is quite shallow at this close distance to your subject and it s easy to get an out of focus image between the viewfinder and the lens means that you re not even looking at what the lens is about to take a picture of That s why most digital cameras have indicators in the optical viewfinder Called close focus parallax or correction marks these lines show you how to line up the photograph when you are shooting a close up See Figure 5 3 for instance Here you can see the effect of parallax on a photo The image on the left represents what I saw in the viewfinder the image on the right represents what the lens actually photographed CHAPTER 5 Taking Close Ups 97 mClUN eeecm You can t trust your window style viewfinder when taking close ups since it sees a slightly different scene than your lens does Framing a Close Up So now you understand the principle behind parallax and close up photography Let s apply this so you can see how to take a close up photo Look through your camera s optical viewfinder Hopefully you can see some correction marks If the lens is located to the right of the optical viewfinder as it is in most cameras you should see correction marks on the left side of the viewfinder Why is that Well these marks represent the left
275. m is a picture in which the image has been cropped to make the film seem wide In other words APS cameras simply throw away information to give you the impression that you have taken a panoramic photograph Here s an illustration that demonstrates the various ways in which an APS negative can be printed Classic frame same proportion as 35mm film Super wide Full frame panorama image image The other traditional way to make a panorama is to take a series of photographs and connect them sort of like a collage This collage technique allows you to make very very wide panoramas Unfortunately you can often see the seams between each photograph since each print is simply layered one on top of the other Digital photography allows us to make panoramas in an entirely new way Using a still camera it is a piece of cake to take a high resolution photograph that spans your entire field of view from left to right including your peripheral vision like the one in Figure 6 1 Heck you can keep going around and take a 360 degree photograph I can t easily show such a picture on the pages of this book though because squeezing a very long image onto the page makes it so narrow that you wouldn t be able to see what was in the picture Some cameras boast right on the box that they have this capability Some cameras don t Either way you can make a panorama so don t despair if it appears that your camera does not CHAPTER 6 Pushing Your Came
276. mage Here s what to do 1 Open Microsoft Word If you don t already have a new blank document open click the New Document icon on the toolbar 2 Design the letterhead any way you like You should set your formatting to single space and try to keep your text smaller than about 11 points 3 To insert an image from your digital camera choose Insert Picture From File and locate the image you want to include The image will appear in your document CHAPTER 14 Working with Text and Creating Projects 319 4 To make the image easier to move around and position on the page you ll need to put a frame around the picture Right click the image and choose Format Picture 5 Click the Layout tab and choose Tight aj Document2 Microsoft Word a x File Edit yew Insert Format Tools Table Window Help PalmDocs WordSmith x AACA E E K CRT 3 TELEN SE E TAIETE Dave Johnson Format Picture 1234 Bm Street Vail CO 80411 Colors and tines Size Layout picture TextBox web 303 556 1212 hal Wrapping style im e E e e Inline withtext Square Tight Behind text In front of text Horizontal alignment C Left C Center C Right Other Page 1 Sec 1 yi fat 1 In9 Col 1 Rec MRE fext fove oy 6 Click OK 14 7 Position the image in the letterhead region of your document such as to the left of your name Notice how the text moves to accommodate the image 8 Finish the letterhead off
277. mage on disk and provide you with a very high quality image And modern print shops aren t nearly as intimidating as they used to be since local copy centers have started offering similar services 350 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera If you want a print shop to make prints for you shop around and find out a few important things before you decide which one you want to use E What are their rates E How does the volume affect the cost If you want 50 copies it may begin to get a lot cheaper on a per image basis E What format do they require the image in E How can you submit files on floppy Zip or email E What kind of paper do they use Most importantly some local photo shops have started offering digital image printing Visit your local photo finisher and see if they can make prints from digital images for you Another alternative Some Web sites have begun offering this service as well One site that I ve tried and like is www ezprints com This site can create prints as small as wallets or as large as 20 x 24 posters from digital images that you upload to the site 2 http www_ezprints com Microsoft Internet Explorer File Edt View Favorites Toots Help gt 3AA ag lt 3 aby H Links PIT MP3 S AvantGio Throwing Music GanePower Paedia Address J hip ezpints com _ A Eeo Search x Saturday December 24 amp New GO Next Customize Choose a category for yo
278. mages in Windows Transfer rename and categorize your images to reduce clutter Use the My Pictures folder in Windows 98 Use the special My Pictures folder in Windows Me Browse images visually with Paint Shop Pro and Image Expert Search images by keyword with Image Expert Use Quick View to see pictures without opening an image editing program Install Quick View from the Windows 98 installation CD Estimate file size for TIF and JPG images Archive your pictures on CD ROM Install a new hard disk for additional storage In the previous chapter we talked about how to get images from your camera or its memory card onto your PC That s a good start but if you re anything like me you need some help getting it all under control Digital images proliferate like bunnies and can be hard to organize After just a few months in fact you might discover that your computer s hard disk is essentially full and the unorganized mess within is largely a ton of poorly named hard to decipher digital images that don t do anyone any good In this chapter we talk about the essentials of getting your stockpile of digital images under control There are a lot of things to consider naming and arranging your images using special software to better arrange and organize your pictures and understanding the relationship between image size and file size so you can predict how much space you ll need And because you might eventually need to add to your PC s s
279. making them last longer between charges or replacements Just follow some of these commonsense tips E Use the optical viewfinder If your camera lets you turn off the LCD display and look through the optical finder instead The LCD screen is one of the biggest energy hogs on your camera and you can significantly extend the value of your batteries by not using it Rechargeable Batteries Rechargeable batteries lose a little life every time you charge them Most rechargeables last for about 1 000 charges after which they stop holding a meaningful charge and you need to throw them away You can extend the life of these batteries by recharging them only when they re actually run down topping them off is like a regular recharge in that it heats the chemicals in the battery casing which slowly reduces the battery s life 132 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera E Don t review your pictures Likewise avoid gawking at your pictures on the camera s LCD display Review them briefly if you need to select images for deletion to free some room on the camera s memory card or to see if you need to reshoot a particular picture But save the slow careful replays for your computer screen E Disable the flash when you don t need it Sure there are excellent reasons to use it even outdoors we talk about fill flash to improve portraits in Chapter 4 but if you are shooting subjects that are 40 feet away and the flash can t pos
280. mal photo world You should check your camera manual to discover what the minimum and maximum focus distances are for your camera s lens Typically you might be able to get as close as 5 inches or as far away as three feet These numbers vary though Here s what you should do when you re trying to take a close up photo E Verify the close focusing range of your camera Press the macro button on your camera to enter the close focus mode Position your camera in front of the subject somewhere inside the range Press the shutter release down half way to lock in exposure and focus Look for the camera s visual focus indicator Most cameras use a light near the viewfinder to indicate that the image is in focus If you re having trouble getting the image in focus point the camera at an edge or some sharply defined region of the subject without changing the distance to the subject This may help the camera lock onto the subject Or you can carry a small card with sharply defined black and white stripes on it a business card and a magic marker is all you need Then if you re having trouble getting good focus hold the card right next to the subject and get the camera to focus lock on that instead E When you re ready take the picture by pressing the rest of the way down on the shutter release That s it in a nutshell the point is that you need to be very sensitive to focus when shooting close ups and you may need to slight
281. me Red eye Removal Method PMC E AS Zoom1 1 Feather i 4 z Hue Green z H n aj al upil 25 z Glint 60 E z lightness z lightness z s Blur 0 lt j z Color peie or r Glint size 24 Gans F Center glint CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images 253 4 Make sure that the Method is Auto Human Eye and select the proper hue for the person you re correcting Then pick an eye color Once everything is ready click in the dead center of a red eye and drag the mouse away from the center until you ve covered the red with the new eye You can resize and reposition the eye if needed Red eye Removal Method Auto Human Eye Zoom3 1 Feather 11 aja al Pupil 5 a Gint DEE aE lightness z lightness 7 s Blur jo Color Refine Glint size 24 z E 2 ae z ris size 12 I Center glint Cancel Undo Eye Help E 5 Repeat the process for the other eye When both eyes are finished click OK to close the Red eye Removal dialog box and keep your changes Check out the color insert for a look at how dramatically you can improve an image with this tool Take a look at the Color Insert to see another example of removing red eye 254 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Removing Red Eye the Old Fashioned Way If you re using an image editor that doesn t have red eye removal built in you ll have to take the red out yourself It s easy actually and it doesn t even take a
282. mp it to the TV If you want to make a faster slide show use your PC to convert the images to 640 x 480 pixel images and then copy them back to a memory card Insert the card in your camera and you re ready to rock and roll You re not limited to showing pictures that you took with the digital camera on the TV Most cameras will output any image on the card to the television That means you can convert PowerPoint slides graphics and other images to JPEG images store them on a memory card and display them on a TV That makes your camera a portable general purpose projector system Creating a Slide Show on Videotape Another way to show your images on TV is by making a videotape slide show that people can pop into their VCRs This is a convenient solution for folks who may not own a computer For years photography stores have offered video slide show services for a fee They d copy your old prints slides and negatives to videotape with a musical soundtrack Now you can do it yourself CHAPTER 16 Sharing Your Pictures Recording Video Directly from the Camera There are two ways to make your own video slide show If your camera has a video out jack you can do it quickly and easily without even using your PC Here s what you can do 1 Start by arranging the images you want to show off on your camera s memory card Delete any images you don t want to show for instance You can also copy other images from your PC to the c
283. n 123 Z Zip disks distributing images on 356 360 361 Zoom choosing 16 17 Zoom lenses maximizing use of 60 63 Zoom tool in Paint Shop Pro 243 Zoomed pictures taking 62 63 INTERNATIONAL CONTACT INFORMATION AUSTRALIA McGraw Hill Book Company Australia Pty Ltd TEL 61 2 9415 9899 FAX 61 2 9415 5687 http www mcgraw hill com au books it_sydney mcgraw hill com CANADA McGraw Hill Ryerson Ltd TEL 905 430 5000 FAX 905 430 5020 http www mcgrawhill ca GREECE MIDDLE EAST NORTHERN AFRICA McGraw Hill Hellas TEL 30 1 656 0990 3 4 FAX 30 1 654 5525 MEXICO Also serving Latin America McGraw Hill Interamericana Editores S A de C V TEL 525 117 1583 FAX 525 117 1589 http www mcgraw hill com mx fernando_castellanos mcgraw hill com SINGAPORE Serving Asia McGraw Hill Book Company TEL 65 863 1580 FAX 65 862 3354 http www mcgraw hill com sg mghasia mcgraw hill com SOUTH AFRICA McGraw Hill South Africa TEL 27 11 622 7512 FAX 27 11 622 9045 robyn_swanepoel mcgraw hill com UNITED KINGDOM amp EUROPE Excluding Southern Europe McGraw Hill Education Europe TEL 44 1 628 502500 FAX 44 1 628 770224 http www mcgraw hill co uk computing _neurope mcgraw hill com ALL OTHER INQUIRIES Contact Osborne McGraw Hill TEL 1 510 549 6600 FAX 1 510 883 7600 http www osborne com omg_international mcgraw hill com Wasn t it fun to edit your own DIGITAL PHOTOS
284. n pa None High Speed On ley No Watermark Color Adjustment About If you don t tell the print driver about the kind of paper you re actually printing with the results will invariably be disappointing Load the paper in your printer Make sure that you put it in with the appropriate side set for printing and only load a single sheet at a time Click OK to begin printing 13 When the paper comes out of the printer leave it there to dry for several minutes Don t handle it until you re sure it s dry otherwise you could smudge it 347 15 348 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Which Side Is the Right Side Often it matters which side of the page you print on Plain old laser paper is the same on both sides so if you print on a laser printer or you use plain paper in an inkjet it doesn t matter But if you print on specialty paper in an inkjet printer make sure you load the paper the right way Keep these tips in mind Usually the brighter or shinier side of the paper is the printing side Occasionally it s rough like sandpaper E If you re printing on photo paper the back will probably have a company logo on it E Many paper types label the paper with small marks to indicate the proper print side Be sure you look carefully at the print directions the first time you try a new paper Ink won t adhere well or at all to the wrong side of specialty papers and you cou
285. n Redeye Add Text Undo Conections A karate Crop marin matrix 25 Resize Rotate P2190193 Elip Tool Add Text Effects Number of Colors Album jy Search iT Keywords Info Browse sierra Automatically adjust the image its ClON Mewm Image Expert 2000 is an image editor that can run all sorts of corrections on your image automatically though the results are not always as good as you can achieve by hand the final result is not always what you expect and often such automated attempts to fix your photos don t quite hit the spot Use them with care and always remember that you can use the Undo button to revert to the original image These programs are really aimed at novices who don t want to learn the ins and outs of an image editing program but want immediate results If you re reading this book I suspect you are probably more interested in getting your hands dirty so to speak with an image editing program that is more manually operated This sort of program gives you more control and power but of course you have to master the interface before you can see improvements in your images Perhaps the most famous image editor of all time is Adobe Photoshop seen in Figure 11 2 The downside is that the program has a somewhat steep learning curve Another alternative is Photoshop Elements I like the way Adobe has combined the best parts of Photoshop with a simpler interface that s designed for o
286. n be bad news After all computers can be a pain in the neck and Windows in particular can be a nightmare Nonetheless the pictures stored in your digital camera are not terribly useful to you unless you understand how to work with them The images are stored in individual files not unlike the document files you ll find on the computer itself like word processing files music files or the saved game files created by a computer game In this chapter we will look in some detail at the image files created by your digital camera We will talk about file formats image quality and what you need to know about all of this to get the best results with your camera Don t worry though this is not a computer class and we won t go into any more detail than you will actually need to manage your pictures What Are File Formats and Why Do I Care When you take a picture with your digital camera the camera s CCD interprets the scene and records a representation of it on the camera s memory card The scene is essentially a grid or matrix of pixels How many pixels depends on the resolution of the camera If you were taking a 1 megapixel picture for instance the image s resolution might be 1 280 pixels across the X dimension by 960 pixels down the Y dimension It would look something like Figure 7 1 though obviously there would be a lot more pixels The picture is a sort of paint by numbers grid just add the right color to each of the p
287. n connect to a VCR or camcorder Here s how you can do it To create a slide show using PowerPoint follow these steps 1 2 3 4 Start by making sure all the images you plan to use are 640 x 480 pixels If they re bigger resize and save them using a different name It s often easiest to create a special folder for all your slide show images and then delete that temporary folder when you re done creating the slide show Launch PowerPoint and choose Blank Presentation from the New Presentation dialog box We need to choose a slide style it doesn t matter which one so pick the blank slide from the very bottom Choose Insert Picture From File as seen in this illustration Find the image you want to add to the slide 371 16 372 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 5 E Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation BEE J gie Edt Yew Insert Format Tools SideShow Window Help Oe 4y S ed o a s B2085 gt orw Ty atosheese a OBAD LA ETMA When the image appears on your slide resize it if necessary so that it takes up the entire slide from top to bottom and side to side as shown here lajx B A GommonTasks 0 SSS Click to add notes ine 6 Slide 1 of 1 Default Design eg Now add another slide Click the New Slide button option in Common Tasks and then add another blank slide Add another image to this new blank sl
288. n image editing let s talk about the various ways you can add text to your images to turn them into true multimedia works of art P 1 even show you some simple tricks for creating stuff like Windows wallpaper greeting cards and letterhead with your images Adding Text to Pictures If you re used to using a word processor like Microsoft Word you may be surprised to find that many image editors don t allow you to type directly onto the canvas as if you were writing a letter to Mom Instead you need to type your text into a dialog box and then paste that text into the image In fact the Text tool in Paint Shop Pro plays by a few unusual rules E You can t type directly onto the image Instead you need to type your text in a dialog box then transfer it to the image when you re done You can see the Text Entry dialog box used by Paint Shop Pro in Figure 14 1 E The color of the text will usually be painted in the currently selected foreground color so make sure it s set to the right color before you click the Text tool E Text is an editable object when you first position it That means you can position it stretch it transform it and so on but only right away If you change tools and do something else that text typically becomes a permanent part of the image E As soon as you deselect the text it is embedded permanently into your image and can no longer be modified separately from the rest of the image CHAPTER 14 Wor
289. n tool In most graphics programs there are a few different kinds of sharpening filters available These are the most common options Sharpening This affects all the pixels in your image indiscriminately Sharpen More is a common alternative which is just somewhat more intense E Edge Sharpening This effect only increases the contrast along edges in your picture where a lack of sharpness is most obvious It is usually more effective than Sharpening and it is less damaging to the rest of the image Unsharp Mask This variation of Edge Sharpening adjusts the contrast of pixels that neighbor an edge in addition to the edge itself This is the most common sharpening filter and in fact it s pretty standard practice for photographers to run the Unsharp Mask filter on most images that they scan into digital format from a slide or print In Paint Shop Pro the Sharpen Sharpen More and Unsharp Mask filters are available from the Effects Sharpen menu 12 Effects AN Effect Browser Blur Sharpen Edge Noise Enhance Photo 3D Effects Artistic Effects Geometric Effects Illumination Effects Reflection Effects Texture Effects amp gt User Defined 240 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Which one should you use Not all programs offer all three filters but if you have a choice Edge Sharpening is almost always more effective than the plain old Sharpening filter Unsharp Mask works best
290. n use an older version of Paint Shop Pro or another program entirely but keep in mind that the menu items and tool locations will be different 207 11 208 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Open an Image in Paint Shop Pro a _ Since I m going to spend a lot of time in Paint Shop Pro over the next few chapters let s take a quick look at how to use the program Start Paint Shop Pro by choosing it from the Windows Start menu There are three ways to open an image in Paint Shop Pro you can use whichever method you find easiest 1 Choose File Open from the main menu and navigate your way to the image you want to open in the Open dialog box Double click the file or select it and click the Open button 2 Choose File Browse from the main menu The Browse window appears which shows a set of thumbnails in the right pane and a directory tree of your hard disk on the left An example is shown here When you select a hard disk folder its contents appear on the right Just double click an image to open it The Browse window remains open in case you want to open more images in this way 6 Jasc Paint Shop Pro Browse C My Pictures New _ 54 x Eile Edt Yiew Find mageFie Window Help D fkg ocha e en Wino amp 15 Browse allele C MyPictues a m C animals kas G balloon t CJ Books maai Reeve PICO0005 JPG PICOO002 JPG PICOO003 JPG PICOO004 JPG 5 nian C colorado CJ e10 pi
291. n using your macro mode 98 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera gt Correction marks indicate left edge of photo when close Ehia The correction marks help you overcome composition errors caused by parallax E You can avoid using correction marks entirely Instead of relying on the optical viewfinder when shooting close ups use the camera s LCD display instead The LCD display shows you exactly what the lens sees and therefore there s no parallax at all when using it Using Add On Lenses The macro mode built into your digital camera is certainly a nice start for taking close up pictures and you can get some pretty good results with it But if you yearn for greater magnification than your camera is capable of providing there is an answer add on lenses Many cameras are designed to accommodate additional lenses and filters Of course SLR style digital cameras with interchangeable lenses spring directly to mind Cameras like the Nikon D1x accept all the traditional 35mm lenses in the Nikon family and the Canon D30 works with a whole slew of Canon lenses Many of these lenses have macro modes that allow you to get excellent magnification But what if you re not using a camera like that Actually many digital cameras accept add on lenses as well These are lenses that snap or screw on to the front of your camera s built in lens As you can see in Figure 5 5 the common Kodak DC 4800 accepts a wide v
292. n virtually every single one of my pictures I suggest you try doing the same It only takes a few seconds and can improve almost any shot Histogram Adjustment x Histogram Adjustment x Output Edit a Midtones max of compress ass z P na ee gi 0 a 2 a A 7 expand ak A A expand Low 0 Gamma fess Higi 192 Low 0 Gamma fess Higi 192 0000 x al 1 v TAS x 0 000 x alt y 6 667 a e S me a e 9 lclesi aeeem Histograms tell a lot about the amount of color information in an image CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 231 Programs like Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop have a cool tool for adjusting the levels in your image using the histogram and a few sliders In Paint Shop Pro it s found at Colors Histogram Functions Histogram Adjustment In general the way you use this tool is to move the sliders under the histogram to set the white and black points and adjust the gamma The various controls are explained below Suppose you have an image like the one in Figure 11 5 Here s how you would correct the image using the histogram 1 Because the histogram curve drops off before reaching the right side of the graph that tells you that there are few pixels with very bright colors As a consequence you should drag the white point slider to the left to meet the point where the graph really ends That sets this point in the image as white and should brighten the image i Jase
293. nd some models also allow you to set the EV in increments of one half or one third of an EV at a time for more fine control over your scene You have a digital camera at your disposal so frame your picture and take the shot If you don t like the results take it again with different settings Switching Metering Modes As I mentioned earlier it s really the camera s exposure sensor known as an exposure meter that does the majority of the work when figuring out how to shoot your picture It decides how much light is needed to adequately expose your picture So it should come as no surprise to learn that cameras distinguish themselves by the kind of meter they use Some meters are better than others at metering a scene and applying the right exposure Center Weighted Meters In the old days most cameras came with a simple center weighted light meter This meter measures the light throughout the image but applies more weight or importance to the central part of the scene in the viewfinder The assumption usually a good one is that you are most interested in the stuff in the front of the picture so the camera tries to get that part of the scene exposed properly You can see a center weighted light meter in Figure 2 7 Most digital cameras rely on this for ordinary picture taking ahia Most digital cameras use a center weighted meter like this one 37 38 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Matrix Meters
294. ne second and shoot the same scene again 88 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 6 Take more pictures varying the shutter speed so you can get a feel for what kind of results your camera gives at night at various shutter speeds You will very likely find that your camera won t expose a picture for more than a few seconds many cameras limit the shutter speed to 5 or 10 seconds That s okay just work your way up until you hit your camera s maximum shutter speed 7 If your camera automatically records exposure information for each picture great If not write down all of your exposure information so you ll remember what you did later and learn from your efforts If your camera does not let you manually choose the shutter speed and aperture try using its EV adjustment to overexpose your picture by one two or even three stops For example set your camera to EV 3 focus the camera on the darkest part of the scene and then shoot ____ After you ve taken a batch of night shots you can compare your pictures side by side and see the effect of increasing exposure time As you can see from Figure 4 7 there is no such thing as the one perfect exposure in a night photograph Increasing the exposure means longer light trails and brighter points of light Eventually too much exposure time will lead to obviously overexposed images and perhaps digital noise which I discuss in the next section But for the most p
295. ne with a JPG for a special effect such as putting someone from one image into a scene in another picture You ll need to convert the image into a format that can accept more colors The JPG file format only works with 16 million color images That means that even if you convert a 24 bit image into an 8 bit image if you later save it in JPG format it ll automatically be converted to a 24 bit image again That s usually Okay since JPG files are quite compact Increase the Colors in an Image Here s how to increase the number of colors in an image 1 Open an image in Paint Shop Pro GIF and PCX can have just 256 colors so load one of those if you have one on your hard disk 2 Choose Colors Increase Color Depth Choose 16 Million Colors from the menu Jasc Paint Shop Pro sass Fie Edit Yiew mage Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help D SHE 2 Adjust gt me Colorize ShiteL 7 Grey Scale 5 Background Histogram Functions sg Negative Image A Posterize Shilt Z 12 Solarize Split Channel gt Combine Channel gt Edt Palette Shit P i Load Palette Shit O E Save Palette Set Palette Transparency Shift Ctrley Textures pa View Palette Transparency ShifteV Tg Count Colors Used Leo A Decrease Color Depth DEG Color Depth 16 Colors 4 bit Shit Cirlet 2 Shit CirleS Shitt Otrlel Lis Pad i Euni
296. near the horizon allow the viewer s eyes to rest on something familiar even though the real subject fills up most of the frame Technically this is called a secondary focal point You can see how I used this technique in Figure 3 3 to give the viewer a visual resting spot when looking at the backdrop of mountains Remember photography is subjective and I did not intend for the cabin to be the photo s subject Instead the mountains were the subject but by themselves they would make a terrible photograph As a general rule you only want a single focal point in your photograph More than one main subject is distracting and viewers won t really know where to look If I show you a photograph in which several objects have equal visual weight you probably won t like it even though you may not be sure why It is certainly possible to include multiple focal points in an image but you should do it with care and only after you have mastered the basics Use the Rule of Thirds Many snapshot photographers don t really think much about the organization of what they see through the viewfinder so the rule of thirds helps restore some balance to their photographs How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera mleleisisaceem Secondary focal points add interest to landscapes and many other sorts of pictures And though this is the second rule I m going to talk about in many ways I think the rule of thirds is the single most impor
297. ned images The Old Fashioned Look If you want an authentic looking old time photograph you can t go wrong with your camera s sepia mode People instantly recognize the brownish hue of the sepia toned image as something that is quite old or at least something that s supposed to look that way But in addition to just using a little sepia color there are other things you can do to ensure that the image looks more authentic Try these tips E Pay attention to costumes and props If your goal is to take a picture that is set in a specific period it will look more authentic with the right garb regardless of whether it is colored sepia or not E Use natural light Avoid using an electronic flash which can get in the way of the picture s look E After you take the picture fine tune it with an image processing program In Chapter 13 you ll see how you can make the picture look more authentically aged Make a Panorama Panoramic photographs have been around for a long time Before digital photography came along there were two ways to make a panorama Special cameras loaded with special extra wide film were capable of taking photos that were much wider than they were tall 116 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera In fact Advanced Photo System APS cameras still do this with contemporary film Unfortunately APS cameras cannot make very wide panoramas actually all you get with a panoramic shot using APS fil
298. ng But what if you want to paint a precise set of pixels The rectangular Selection tool won t get the job done Instead there are a few other tricks you can rely on CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images Paint Brush For lots of close in delicate detail work the old fashioned Paint Brush is all you need Select the Paint Brush and you ll see you have a variety of options in the Tool Options dialog box Of particular importance is the Size slider By changing the size you re specifying the number of pixels that will be affected every time you click the image with the brush To test this tool just select it and click and drag in the image You can paint by drawing freehand lines or just dab the screen to make small dots of color Magic Wand If you want to change the color or perform some other kind of edit on a region of the image that is somewhat similarly colored such as a person s face use the Magic Wand to select all the like colored neighboring pixels You can make the wand more or less sensitive to color changes by moving the Tolerance slider To test this tool choose the wand and click in a region of your image that has a somewhat consistent color A Selection region will appear you can then use Flood Fill or the Paint Brush in this area 63 Jase Paint Shop Pro kris Eile Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help DSHS 2 RS OOQ p ane ho s G CPOPEALZEBVLVNVVG tHe
299. ng Dions c Compression Compression factor m best quality Lowest compression Progressive encoding 4 Highest compression lowest quality Cancel Help Bun Optimizer 4 If necessary click the Options button to fine tune the file format The Options button lets you specify the amount of image saved in and other properties 5 Click OK to save the file After saving the file youll have two copies one called myfile jpg and one called myfile tif for instance You can delete the older file or if you might still need it keep both copies Of course compression number of colors the image will be when you look at two files with the same name but different file extensions on the Windows desktop it can be hard to tell them apart If in doubt right click the file and choose Properties 215 11 216 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera from the menu Verify the file extension before you possibly delete the wrong file Here you can see how both Windows 95 98 Me on the left and Windows XP on the right identify files horseblur 200 Properties 21 x answers Properties General General summary Pes horseblur 200 m answers Type of fie GIF Image Type Corel PHOTO PAINT 8 0 Image Opens with E Windows Picture and F Location C My Pictures wolves Size 24 1KB 24 778 bytes 32 768 bytes used Location G Documents and Settings Dave My Document
300. ng flashes with 106 108 benefits of 92 93 377 Index composing subjects in 105 framing 97 98 keeping subjects sharp in 104 106 managing backgrounds in 105 106 shooting through glass 108 109 techniques for 101 109 treatment of subjects in 10 102 using Cloud Dome with 109 111 using polarizing filters with 108 109 Cloud Dome using for close ups 109 111 ClubPhoto com site 364 366 368 CMOS Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor chips purpose of 5 6 CMYK cyan magenta yellow black role in dye sublimation printers 334 Collage technique creating panoramas with 116 Color balance correcting 83 235 Color depth changing for images 212 214 decreasing 213 214 treatment by scanners 191 Color images for print scan resolution for 194 Color negative film explanation of 24 Color Replacer tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 243 Color temperatures explanation of 83 84 Color Variations tool in Photoshop using 235 Colorize tool usage of 302 Colorizing images 300 302 Colors choosing for painting on images 242 245 improving 115 228 235 and printers 335 using Contrast control with 233 234 COM ports usage of 160 162 CompactFlash memory cards applications for 17 image of 12 using 154 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera CompactFlash readers using 164 Composer Web design program site 362 Composition 44 applying rule of thirds to 47 49 filling frames in 4
301. ng for night photography 87 C Camera bags choosing 20 Camera controls explanation of 13 14 Camera flash color temperature for 84 Cameras See also Digital cameras selecting 19 versus sight 45 77 supporting with bean bags 104 Candlelight color temperature for 83 Canon D30 SLR digital cameras features of 7 Canon PowerShot G2 shooting in low light with 30 Canon printer paper usage of 342 Capturing the moment guidelines for 70 Cartridges for laser printers duration of 332 CCDs charged coupled devices as 35mm film 152 and night photography 89 purpose of 5 6 28 CD R discs versus CD RW discs 183 distributing images on 361 recording images on 158 CD RW drives archiving images on 183 184 Ceiva digital picture frame displaying images with 369 Celebrity photos superimposing in images 281 284 Center weighted light meters advisory about 40 dynamics of 37 Chromakey explanation of 273 Circular versus linear polarizing filters 108 Clipping option of Unsharp Mask feature purpose of 240 Clone Brush tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 243 Clone tool removing scratches from images with 258 role in airbrushing distractions in images 256 257 using with superimposed images of celebrities 282 Close focus mode determining 93 purpose of 96 Close up lenses combining 100 examples of 98 99 strengths of 100 Close up photos avoiding overexposure of 74 715 Close ups advisory about usi
302. ng the fastest available shutter speed to minimize camera shake and motion blur from objects moving inside the picture Though there are some exceptions most cameras tend to choose the combination that allows for the highest available shutter speed limited only by how small they can make the aperture given the current lighting conditions and ISO setting This isn t always what you want your camera to do though and in fact you might sometimes want to choose a slower shutter speed overexpose the image underexpose it or perhaps base the exposure on a completely different part of the picture That s why you might want to investigate your camera and look for controls that let you tweak the shutter speed and aperture Adjusting Exposure Manually The most basic manual exposure control you can exert over your camera involves setting both the aperture and shutter speed Some digital cameras allow you to set these controls as if you The Truth About Shutters Though I talk quite a lot about shutter speed in this book the reality is that few digital cameras have a real shutter in the sense that 35mm cameras have shutters The 35mm cameras usually have a physical barrier that blocks light from entering the chamber where the film is stored This mechanism the shutter blade moves lightning fast able to deliver shutter speeds as fast as 1 8000 of a second That s fast Digital cameras in comparison often don t have real physical shutters
303. nge If a certain Nikon scanner has a DMin of 3 and a DMax of 3 6 its dynamic range would be 3 3 CHAPTER 10 Turning Prints into Digital Images So who should care about all this gobbledy gook Anyone who scans slides and negatives That s why you rarely see the dynamic range discussed for flatbed scanners the dynamic range for those gadgets is usually pretty shallow around 2 4 and that s all you need to effectively scan prints But slides and negatives store a very deep dynamic range and yov ll want a film scanner to have the best dynamic range you can afford or else yov ll lose all the details in your shadows and darker image regions Only film scanners have sufficient dynamic range usually 3 2 or higher to make satisfying scans from film This also explains why slide scanner attachments for flatbed scanners usually generate such awful pictures the scanner s dynamic resolution is far too low to adequately capture slides and negatives with any modicum of accuracy Other Features You might also want to consider other features like convenience Most scanners are fairly dumb you need to activate them by choosing Acquire from the menu of your image editing program Some scanners though have a button on the front of the scanner like the one in Figure 10 1 If you press it the document in the scanner is automatically imaged for you Some scanners even go this one better they start the scanning software as soon as you open the co
304. night photography 89 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Exposure modes choosing in special situations 65 68 using 64 65 Extension view turning on in Windows XP 141 142 External hard disks usage of 185 See also Hard disks ezprints com printing service 350 F f stops examples of 31 explanation of 25 27 Fabric sheet paper usage of 344 Fax documents scan resolution for 194 Fax Viewer displaying images in 175 Feather tool in Paint Shop Pro using 225 File extensions doc 141 htm 141 mp3 141 xls 141 File formats BMP bit mapped 140 changing 146 147 209 choosing 147 choosing for Web 362 364 choosing image quality settings for 143 GIF Graphics Interchange Format 140 JPG Joint Photographic Experts Group 140 143 purpose of 138 139 saving images in 214 216 saving pictures in 145 147 TIF Tagged Image File 140 144 using 143 149 using HQ SHQ and SQ settings with 143 File sizes estimating 181 183 Files identifying on Windows 95 98 Me and XP 216 Fill flash adding to photographs 78 See also Flash entries Fill the frame rule applying to compositions 48 51 Film types of 24 Film cameras versus digital cameras 7 Film scanners overview of 190 193 Film speeds explanation of 24 25 27 Filters choosing 20 purpose of 295 using with infrared photography 125 FireViewer displaying Palm images on 366 Fish eye lens usage of 62 Fixed focus cameras using
305. nk of it this way A JPG is nothing more than an approximation of the original Every time you save a JPG file the JPG compression algorithm runs effectively making an approximation of an approximation Figure 7 2 shows the effect of opening and saving the same image a dozen times in an image editing program like Adobe Photoshop Notice that the veins in the leaf are much less sharply defined in the image on the right after it has been resaved multiple times using the JPG format Hehi Every time you click the Save button in an image editor your JPG file degrades a little bit more the image on the right is a many times saved degraded copy of the original on the left 146 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Change the File Format When you open an image to crop it brighten it or perform some other minor or major editing job you should save your changes as a new file with a TIF extension Here s how to do that 1 In an image editor choose File Save As from the menu Pro tumma File Edt View Image Cobi Layers Selectons New Chien Oren CuO Browse Cu Chose Beven epture Window Hep Wal x B tumma 1 5 Background Save Chi S Save Cony As s CoiF12 Delete Cul Det Send i a Import Expert Page Setup Print Previews Print ChieP Batch Conversion Run Animation Shop Prejerences 1tumma 2CAWINDOW S Desktop plane 2olane 4 c windows Deskto
306. nning considerations for 200 Program exposure mode explanation of 64 Protect feature usage of 166 Publisher creating newsletters with 324 Q Quality settings choosing for file formats 143 Quick View feature displaying images with 176 177 R Radius option of Unsharp Mask feature purpose of 240 RAM recommendation for PCs 205 Raynox Web site 98 Readers using with memory adapters 164 165 Rear curtain flash feature explanation of 18 77 Rechargeable batteries costs associated with 131 duration of 131 Reciprocity failure role in night photography 89 Red eye removing 252 255 Red eye flash mode 76 avoiding for indoor photographs 82 83 eliminating 251 255 Red eye reduction flash feature 18 Redness in human subjects correcting 235 Reflectors usage of 80 82 Remote control using for night photography 87 Removable storage usage of 13 Resolution adjusting for printers 338 340 choosing for scanners 191 determining 138 262 determining amount of 15 determining for scanning images 194 195 determining with printers 337 340 of inkjets 338 and panoramas 260 261 for printers 335 ratings for scanners 190 and scanners 190 191 setting for file formats 143 testing on printers 339 Resolution control identifying 14 Reversal film explanation of 24 Ricoh RDC 4200 battery depletion results 130 Rotation of images advisory about 227 Rule of thirds applying to composition 47 49 versus m
307. no loss of data will ever occur That s because the image isn t really being compressed in a way that destroys information in the original image Every pixel is preserved forever The most common lossless file formats are BMP and TIF files To figure out how much space either of these files will take up just use this equation File size in bytes x dimension x y dimension x 24 8 In other words take the pixel dimensions of your image and multiply them Multiply that by 24 because there are 24 bits of color information associated with every pixel in the image and then divide the result by 8 because we want the answer in bytes not bits Divide that answer by 1 000 to get the answer in the more popular kilobytes Here s an example Suppose you want to know how much space two dozen images will take up that were shot with your digital camera on its lowest resolution setting which is 640 x 480 The camera saves its images in the lossless TIF format The math would be 640 x 480 x 24 8 921 600 bytes Divide that by 1 000 and you get 921KB which is just shy of a megabyte Multiply that single image result by 24 the number of images you plan to shoot and you get a total storage size of 22 118KB or 22MB That s a lot of space Calculating JPGs That s all well and good but most of the time digital cameras shoot in the lossy file format known as JPG JPG files can be adjusted to compress more aggressively that makes the files
308. nput 570 Hf al Mag fxs x Ounput w 570 nfo al Uri foi T image Size 1 940 2 CHAPTER 10 Turning Prints into Digital Images 197 4 Adjust colors and brightness if necessary In this scanner program there s an auto adjust tool or you can tweak various color and brightness settings manually a DS Elite ojx f e Dy sonecon sorteres jii a E e 3e adex Prescan Image Comection BFE O oa e a ae Bughiness Contrast Red Fae ee penned Green G BiB 5 Adjust the scan resolution Scan the image at a resolution high enough for your final 10 application such as printing or Web publishing but don t overscan the image You ll just waste disk space and slow down the overall process 6 When you re happy with the result press the Final Scan button After the software is finished scanning the image it ll either save it to your hard disk under a filename you specified or open it for editing in an image program dimensions of the cropped image at the outset not the size of the entire image and increase the scan resolution accordingly Tweaking Your Images Today s scanners usually do a good job of reproducing photographs Of course you get what you pay for a 1 000 scanner will create dramatically better images than a 100 scanner almost without exception But there are things you can do to improve your images Sharpen a Soft Image Some photographs are a
309. nt Shop Pro 2 Choose Colors Decrease Color Depth Choose 256 Colors from the menu 11 3 In the Decrease Color Depth dialog box choose Optimized Median Cut and Error Diffusion and then click OK Those options will choose the best colors to give you the most accurate depiction of your image Decrease Color Depth 256 Colors Ey Palette gt r Reduction method Options C Nearest color T Boost marked colors by Optimized Octree Ordered dither fi ea T Include Windows colors Standard Web safe Eror diffusion T Reduce color bleeding Cancel Help 4 Click OK The image should be rendered with fewer colors Unlike the case of increasing the color depth in an image in this case you should be able to see a difference since the image has to be painted on screen with fewer colors and therefore less accurately One was saved as a 16 million color image and the other is just 256 colors The difference is particularly apparent in full color 214 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Many pictures look good enough in 256 colors to be converted from 24 bit without a serious compromise in quality for situations in which fewer colors might save some disk space or connection time Se Save Images in Different File Formats One of the most common things that I do with my images is change their file format usually from JPG to TIF Why do I do that Usually to preserve image quality Ever
310. nter In general I suggest that you forget about the TIF mode on your digital camera It s not worth the sacrifice and a high res high quality JPG is more than adequate 99 9 percent of the time Worse it can take a long time as much as a minute to write a TIF file to memory CHAPTER 7 Conquering File Formats 145 On the PC When you transfer your images to the PC you ll find them in the same file format that the camera used There s no magical transformation as they go from camera to computer But just because they arrive in JPG format that doesn t mean they have to stay that way You can save these images in any file format you like When you save a JPG picture in TIF format you essentially freeze the image at its current level of detail and image quality That way when you edit and save it again later you re not degrading its quality like you would by resaving it in JPG format But remember just saving an image in TIF cannot restore quality that wasn t there to begin with Your image will never look any better than it did as a JPG I highly recommend saving any files that you plan to edit or manipulate in a lossless file format like TIF I have nothing against JPG it s a great format but since it is lossy every time you edit and resave the file it degrades a bit more This is very important Many people assume that resaving 7 a JPG image doesn t affect the image quality but that s not the case Thi
311. ntrix com Netscape Composer www netscape com Macromedia Dreamweaver www macromedia com Also it s worth noting that you can create Web pages with some Microsoft products that aren t even designed specifically for the Internet Publisher for instance has a feature that lets you publish documents to the Web It s not a great Web design program but it ll let you get pictures up on the Web with a minimum of fuss and with software you already own Choosing an Image Size and File Format for the Web Many digital cameras take pictures in resolutions as low as 640 x 480 pixels but this can be too big for a Web page Not only does an image that big take a while to download but it consumes a lot of space on the screen Instead I recommend that you shrink your images down to about 500 pixels across Refer to Chapter 12 for details on how to do that There are two file formats commonly used on the Web GIF and JPG CompuServe originally developed the GIF format which stands for Graphic Interchange Format making the term GIF format somewhat redundant GIF is a compact file format that is commonly used in Web pages The major disadvantage of GIF however is that it limits images to just 256 colors or less depending upon the settings you use when saving the file That can affect the quality of the image on screen though that s generally not very important Usually Web designers like to use GIF format 89a This is the newest version of th
312. ny programs like Paint Shop Pro come with a few dozen The best way to find out what a filter does is to experiment I say that because it s one thing to read an 13 Plug Ins _ _ Many image editors including Paint Shop Pro can use something called a plug in or a plug in filter These are filters that were originally designed for Adobe Photoshop Photoshop filters have become something of a standard in image editing software and many programs can use these filters You can download filters from the Web purchase them in stores or get them with other image editors In Chapter 6 for instance I talk about a program called LensDoc which lets you straighten images that got distorted due to wide angle and fish eye lenses LensDoc is a plug in for Photoshop it s a filter that processes your image within an image editor 296 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera explanation of the filter but it s quite another thing to actually process a picture with each filter to see the effect In general you probably won t use many of these filters very often But it pays to try them out because you never know when a certain effect will be just what you re looking for Table 13 1 provides a quick summary of the most common filter types you might run across There s no limit to the kinds of effects you can achieve with filters though beware Many of them are somewhat clich d Use your judgment when applying them Check o
313. o AC power If your USB devices seem to work erratically or if you get warning messages in Windows be sure to use a powered hub and keep the hub plugged in E Distribute your bandwidth Your PC probably has two USB ports though newer computers are beginning to come with more each of which can transfer up to 12 Mbps 8 of data If you attach a hub to one of those ports those four new ports in the hub still have to share the original 12 Mbps of data If you put four data hungry devices like a digital camera video Webcam joystick and speaker set on the same hub they can overtax the USB hub and make it perform erratically So if you have a bunch of USB devices I suggest that you put a hub on each port and try to move devices around so the most power hungry ones aren t all connected to the same port A Ow eUh Belkin s powered USB hub is just one of many options for connecting more USB gadgets to your computer s limited array of USB ports 164 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Connecting Your Camera with USB If you have a USB enabled camera and PC the transfer process is a lot easier and less error prone than using a serial port Here s a general overview of how to do it 1 Connect the USB cable to your computer s USB port and to the camera You don t have to turn off your computer to do this even if you have to disconnect an existing USB device to free up a port 2 Turn on the camera and s
314. ol in Paint Shop Pro description of 244 Thirds rule applying to composition 47 49 versus moving horizons 51 52 Threads on lenses using 120 Thumbnail images displaying with Paint Shop Pro image editing software 179 TIF mode advisory about 144 Tiffen Web site 98 TIFs Tagged Image Files calculating size of 182 compressing 184 converting JPGs to 214 for enlargement printing 147 versus JPGs 144 purpose of 140 result of saving JPG pictures as 145 saving files as 146 147 usage of 144 Time lapse photos taking 127 130 Tint mode special effects explanation of 18 Toshiba PDR M1 battery depletion results 130 Transfer mechanisms types of 18 19 Transitions adding to PowerPoint video slide shows 372 373 Transparency feature of GIF format 89a explanation of 362 Transparency paper usage of 343 Tripods choosing 20 and close up photography 102 104 and night photography 87 photographing wildlife with 69 taking zoomed pictures with 62 and time lapse photos 128 using with panoramas 117 119 120 TTL through the lens viewfinders purpose of 11 Tulip icon meaning of 93 94 Tungsten light color temperature for 84 TV Photo Viewer displaying images on 373 TV showing images on 370 U Ulead Photo Express program stitching panoramas with 259 Undo feature in Paint Shop Pro using 241 Unsharp Mask sharpening filter usage of 198 239 240 391 Index USB connections usage of 19 164 US
315. olors in Paint Shop Pro Simulating a Shallow Depth of Field You wanted to take a picture with a sharp foreground and a shallow background but your automatic camera settings didn t cooperate Well it s easy to simulate the out of focus effect that a wide open aperture gives your background by using the select invert blur technique we used to give the subject more apparent sharpness You ll need to heap on liberal amounts of blur for this technique to work though You can run the Blur filter several times until you get the effect you like Tool aS AN SA I a CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images 243 Description Arrow This tool is used to move image windows around within Paint Shop Pro It s a safe default setting to use since it won t do anything to your image if you click in the picture Zoom Zoom into the image by left clicking zoom out by right clicking Crop You used this tool in Chapter 11 It lets you cut out unwanted bits of your picture Selection You used this tool in Chapter 11 as well it lets you select portions of an image for further editing Freehand This is another way to select portions of an image Magic Wand This tool selects a region for editing based on color Since photos have lots of similar colors you can click on a region and the wand will select everything nearby that s a similar color It s an easy way to select for instance a person s face Dropper This tool determines the color of
316. omputer store to use this port A second port that is installed in one of the computer s expansion slots COM2 Transferring Images with a USB Port USB is the standard connection system for digital cameras for two very good reasons it avoids most of the headaches associated with serial connections and it transfers images a lot faster than the old slow serial ports Not only is USB hot swappable which means you don t need to power off your PC to insert or remove the USB cable but typically itll automatically recognize your camera when you connect it and even launch the appropriate transfer software automatically In addition USB ports transfer data at up to 12Mbps That s something like 50 times faster than data transfers with the pokey old serial port In reality transfers never reach that theoretical maximum speed but it s a lot faster than serial nonetheless USB 2 0 versus USB 1 1 The vast majority of computers and digital cameras use a standard called USB 1 1 You may hear about a new form of USB called USB 2 0 though and it can be a bit confusing USB 2 0 is dramatically faster than its older cousin Instead of 12 Mbps which is the speed of USB 1 1 USB 2 0 runs at a whopping 450 Mbps So if it used to take five minutes to transfer your digital images to the PC s hard disk USB 2 0 will be able to do it in about ten seconds Pretty cool huh Unfortunately in order for USB 2 0 to work you need a computer with
317. onal macro photographers avoid using flash units when shooting flowers in the field 106 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera p E Usea plain background You can insert a prepared background a piece of poster board for example between the main subject and a distracting background If the poster board is far enough away it ll be out of focus and give you a plain diffused look I use big slabs of colored foam board from the local hobby and craft store for this purpose E Blur it out of existence As I have already mentioned depth of field is perhaps your most powerful tool when taking close ups You can check how much depth of field you currently have by half depressing the shutter release The camera s LCD display will show you the image with the aperture closed to the appropriate level and that will give you your final depth of field If you need more or less depth of field let go of the shutter release and tweak the camera settings Just check your depth of field over and over in the camera s display until you are happy with the result I took the image shown in Figure 5 10 with a very wide aperture to blur the background while keeping the monk s head flower quite sharp Beware of the Flash You might start to get the impression that I am not a big fan of the electronic flash unit built into many digital cameras Flashes that have limited range can make your pictures look artificial and sometimes create harsh shado
318. onfigure the cropping frame s proportion based on how large you want the resulting photo to be so there s absolutely no guesswork Set the end photo size to 640 x 480 for instance and the cropping frame is proportioned exactly right for the job You can also scale the cropping frame to include more or less of the original image in the new resized photo It s all very clever and makes you wonder why no one has ever thought of that before 356 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Viewing Images Someone Sent to You In most email programs like Netscape Messenger Microsoft Exchange Outlook and Outlook Express your attachment appears as an icon that you manipulate like any other file icons Here are your most common choices E With the message window open right click and choose Quick View to see the image on the desktop without opening a large image editing program Double click the image icon to launch an image editing program and display the image E Drag and drop the image icon from the message window to the desktop or another Windows folder for permanent storage A Smaller Image also includes sharpness brightness and contrast controls an optional graphic border for your images and a simple text tool for adding captions If you frequently resize photos for email the Web or printing A Smaller Image is a very handy tool Attaching Pictures in Email Though the process varies from one program to another att
319. ook at Figure 2 10 This type of shot is a real challenge for most cameras since the subject is a wolf sunning itself in an isolated patch of light A center weighted camera would probably average the light in the darker surrounding areas and determine that it needed to select a fairly wide open aperture to add light to the scene But that would wash out the poor little wolf Instead the best solution is to select the spot meter frame the wolf carefully and press the shutter release partially to lock in exposure on the bright subject Then reframe the picture and shoot As you become more confident with your ability to visualize compositions and exposures you can try different things to get the desired effect CHAPTER 2 Understanding Exposure 41 Hehi This wolf is lit differently than the rest of the scene so a spot meter is the easiest way to accurately expose the wolf s fur When to Take Control As I mentioned at the outset you may often be perfectly satisfied with the results you can get from the automatic exposure controls in your camera But there will be times when you can do better on your own Keep your eyes peeled for situations like those described next Very Bright Sunlight Very bright sun can overwhelm your camera especially if the scene is filled with brightly colored clothing reflective surfaces or other tricky subjects You can reduce the exposure for better effects Underexpose the scene by EV 1 for starter
320. ool special effects adding text changing images so they look like they were painted and even creating Hollywood style bluescreen effects Finally the book ends with Part IV a couple chapters that explain how to print and share your images I tell you exactly what you need to know to get great results like optimizing your printer using the right paper and calculating how large you can print your image based on how many pixels it has And then you can learn how to share your images on the computer screen in email on the Web even without any programming and in devices like Palms and digital picture frames To help you along you can find special elements to help you get the most out of the book E How To These special boxes explain in a nutshell how to accomplish key tasks throughout the book You can read the How To box for a summary of what the chapter at large is explaining E Notes These provide extra information that is handy for trivia contests but isn t essential to understanding the current topic E Tips These tell you how to do something a better faster or smarter way E Sidebars These talk about related topics that are pretty darned interesting but you can skip them if you prefer E Special Formatting New terms and terms being defined are in italics while specific phrases that you will see onscreen or need to type yourself appear in bold Want to email me You can send questions and comments to me at c
321. or general purpose photography you might want to rely on the traditional Sunny 16 Rule for a starting point The Sunny 16 Rule is very old it dates back to the earliest days of analog photography and it suggests that when shooting outdoors in bright sunlight choose an aperture of f 16 and a shutter speed that s equivalent to your film speed Since few cameras offer the capability to choose 1 100 most photographers that rely on this rule use 1 60 or 1 125 when shooting with ISO 100 film The following table identifies other acceptable combinations All these add up to the same overall exposure Shutter Speed Aperture 1 1000 F 4 1 500 F 5 6 1 250 F 8 1 125 F 11 1 60 F 16 1 30 F 22 Find the Right Exposure Keep in mind that these recommendations are just a starting point Here are some tips that can help you zero in on your ideal exposure E Your camera will recommend an ideal exposure which you can accept or reject If the camera considers your setting out of bounds it may flash a warning in your viewfinder E Adjust your exposure based on the ISO setting If your camera is set to an equivalent of ISO 200 for instance the Sunny 16 Rule would call for a shutter speed of f 16 and a shutter speed of 1 250 E Make adjustments for brighter or darker scenes If you re shooting in a dark room for instance the Sunny 16 Rule doesn t really apply but it s a good starting point Open the aperture or lengthen the shutter spee
322. or resized down to 640 x 480 pixels and saved in JPG format If you remember to do that you ll never get any complaints from friends or family that your images are too big and are clogging their email system CHAPTER 16 Sharing Your Pictures 355 amp Hil Message Plain Text OF x File Edit Yiew Insert Format Tools Actions Help Esend gt fal amp BiH 0 Bk Y Bontions A GB X i ee rae To Paul Rice ties Subject Hi Dave Johnson wuw bydave johnson com davefbydave johnson com How To Use Digital Video Digital Photography Answers How To Do Everything With Your Palm Handheld I showed this guy my pictures he said they didn t breathe I said I painted them that way Kristin Hersh thur2 jpg Hehi This is what an attachment looks like in many email programs attachments that are decoded incorrectly by your mail program will instead turn out to be page after page of gibberish If you don t mind spending a few dollars you can get a specialized program for cropping and resizing images as well A Smaller Image from TriVista www trivista com is a great little program for prepping your photos for email 16 This simple 15 program is designed from the ground up to crop and resize photos After you drag an image into the application window you can move a cropping frame around the screen until you ve composed the picture just the way you want The cool part is that you can c
323. ore frustration than all of the world s child safe medicine bottles combined Older digital cameras had a shutter lag that lasted nearly a second but even the newest digital cameras have some lag Shutter lag happens because digital cameras have a veritable checklist of tasks to perform when you press the shutter release Not only does the camera need to measure the distance to the subject and lock in the proper focus but it has to measure the ambient light calculate the best exposure and lock in an aperture setting and shutter speed It also has computer like housekeeping chores to perform like initializing the sensor chip flushing buffers and reading white level If your camera s lag doesn t bother you fine But if you want to minimize the lag there are a few things you can do The biggest time saver is auto focus If you pre focus your picture you can save valuable milliseconds of lag see the discussion of the two step shutter How To Capture the Moment If you re more adventurous you can also try pre setting the camera s white balance look in Chapter 4 for details If the white balance is set on auto the camera will have to adjust the colors in the image each and every time you take a picture Instead you can use the camera s menu to set the white balance for whatever lighting conditions you re actually shooting in such as daylight night time fluorescent or incandescent lighting Just remember to
324. orld of 35mm photography you may also be familiar with acrylic UV blocking sprays that you can apply to prints These sprays fix the print and give it a longer life before fading especially when the print will be framed and hung where it may be exposed to direct sunlight Can you or should you use these sprays on digital images Well that depends I d avoid using a photo fix product designed especially for traditional film based prints I ve tried it and it seems to work but I haven t been able to test a wide variety of ink and paper combinations nor have my tests observed the prints for a long period of time Indeed I asked several printer companies what their opinion of these sprays are and for the most part they were all a bit wary Epson for instance said this We recommend avoiding UV sprays since the effect on lightfastness of one color ink could be different than another ink and may actually lead to the visual acceleration of fading or color shifting On the other hand there are a few companies that make a special spray just for inkjet printers and I think these inkjet fix sprays are a lot safer for your digital prints 15 Working with Printing Services Do you have a great picture that you d like to print but can t get the results you want with your own printer You can always enlist the aid of a print shop or service bureau Such businesses are generally not cheap but they may be able to take your i
325. ort with a tripod bolt sticking out of the top It s available for about 15 from www thepod ca Keep the Subject Sharp In Chapter 3 I spent a lot of time talking about depth of field If there were ever a time when depth of field was important this is it The reason At high magnification in very short focusing distances depth of field becomes vanishingly small In fact it s not unusual to find that the total depth of field in a close up photograph is only about half an inch In Figure 5 9 for instance you can see that only part of the flower is in sharp focus while most of the image is blurred That said the focusing range of your camera is always at a premium in close up photography Even if you want your background to be out of focus you often want the most depth of field you can possibly get your hands on since the background will almost certainly be out of focus anyway Here are a few things you should keep in mind to help you control the depth of field in your photograph E Distance Remember that the closer you get to your subject the less depth of field you will have available So to regain depth of field back away from your subject To do that you may have to remove a close up lens from the front of your camera if you re using one or more add on lenses E Aperture Another way to increase depth of field is to close the aperture as much as possible You may need to enter your camera s manual exposure mode to control th
326. orthand of course for digital cameras came equipped with CMOS or CCD chips capable of capturing 640 x 480 pixel images which was ideal for display on a computer screen posting on Web pages or email but you can t really print such a picture On a typical inkjet printer you d get a photograph that measures just three inches across Then came megapixel Mega means million and the term simply refers to camera s maximum resolution A megapixel camera can create an image with a million pixels for example 1 000 x 1 000 or 860 x 1 200 or any other pixel dimension that multiplies out to about a million dots of information The first megapixel cameras raised the bar for everyone Like owning last year s laptop with a slow processor no one wanted to own a VGA camera That started the race we re still in the midst of today 6 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera JChE Older cameras with CMOS sensors typically offered lower image quality than those with CCDs Today most digital cameras capture anywhere from 2 to 3 3 megapixels with a few 4 and 5 megapixel cameras tempting more serious photographers Some high end cameras capture even more pixels as many as 6 million Why the fuss over pixels Well as I alluded to earlier the more pixels you have the sharper your image is and consequently the larger it can be printed If you d like to print a digital photo at 8 x 10 or larger for instance a VGA or one mega
327. ortion Hehi A wide angle lens created this highly distorted view on the left but LensDoc straightened the image quickly and easily CHAPTER 6 Pushing Your Camera to Its Limits 125 You can increase the accuracy of LensDoc by using the green squares to mark a second line a lt Infrared Photography Just for fun you might want to try shooting some pictures in a completely different part of the color spectrum Infrared Infrared light is off at the south end of the spectrum just below the red in the ROY G BIV color spread that you no doubt learned in high school Humans can t see infrared but photographs exposed to infrared light can look dramatically different as if you re seeing the world through the eyes of a bat or one of those aliens from the movie Predator Trees and plants can glow a bright luminous white while the sky is often much more visually turbulent Indeed infrared photography is often like peeking into another world Best of all for our purposes you never really know what 6 you re going to get before you press the shutter release It s like a photographic grab bag Getting the Gear Before you can try your hand with infrared you need to learn if your digital camera is capable of seeing in infrared Not all cameras can some include something called a hot mirror which is designed explicitly to block infrared light Go grab an infrared remote control like the one that operates
328. os Colorize black and white photos When I was a kid I remember going to the movies and being wowed and amazed by special effects stop motion blue screen animated laser combat matte paintings and while I m sure a lot of people were just thinking things like wow and cool I was thinking I wish I could do that I was intrigued by the possibilities of trick photography and I wanted to be able to do it myself Such special effects have always been possible for anyone with the time money equipment and determination I had none of the above But when I got my first image processing program in 1987 I realized I could finally do what I d always wanted to special effects and trick photography on a budget Indeed digital photography opens a lot of doors for us mere mortals In this chapter I tell you how to do some of the tricks that can make your images go beyond simple reality You may not want to try all the techniques in this chapter but I think there s a little fun in here for just about everyone Using a Hollywood Style Blue Screen What is a blue screen Well it s the generic term for a technique in which action is photographed or filmed in front of a solid colored backdrop Later in postproduction special effects technicians Blue Screens ee Though the term is blue screen the color of the backdrop doesn t have to be blue In fact it s commonly green For the most part the blue screen can be
329. ot What you ll probably get is a grossly underexposed subject since the exposure was based on the brighter sky If your subject isn t quite silhouetted you can underexpose the image even more using the EV controls on your camera You might also want to use your camera s spot meter discussed in Chapter 5 to lock the exposure on a bright piece of sky You may find that the subject is out of focus because the camera locked its focus on infinity when you pointed it at the sky If that s the case check to see if your camera has a separate exposure lock button and use it If not you may need to set the exposure manually or use the EV control or focus the camera manually instead One way or the other if your subject is too close to focus at infinity you need to find a way to separate the exposure and focusing aspects of your camera 79 80 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Reflect Some Light A second source of light is just the ticket to eliminate shadows reduce contrast and even out the lighting in your pictures Sometimes you can do that with fill flash and sometimes a small reflector will do the job A reflector is often better than a flash because the light from a reflector is softer and that typically makes better pictures In other words it s always better to use natural light and that includes reflecting it than to use an electronic flash There are two ways to get into reflectors the cheap way
330. otographic situations What does it take to take a good picture Certainly it requires more than a mastery of your camera s various controls If that were all you needed anyone who knew how to read a camera manual could be Ansel Adams No taking good pictures demands a little creativity and a touch of artistry Perhaps more importantly though it takes a solid understanding of the rules of photographic composition and some knowledge which you can acquire as you get better at photography of when it s okay to break those rules Composition is all about how you arrange the subjects in a picture and how you translate what is in your mind s eye or even right in front of you into a photograph After all the camera sees things very differently than you do and in order to take great photographs you have to understand that and learn how to see the world the way your camera sees it Taking a picture with a digital camera is really no different from taking a picture with a 35mm camera That s why in this chapter we will be talking about the rules of composition what they are how to use them and how to break them If you are already an accomplished photographer and you re reading this book to make the transition to digital photography you may not need most of what I offer in this chapter But if you re not an expert I welcome you to study this chapter It is only through an understanding of composition that your images will go from snap
331. oving horizons 51 52 Running streams shooting 69 S S mode explanation of 64 Saturation tool improving images with 234 Scan resolutions for color and grayscale print images 194 determining 195 for fax documents 194 for line art print images 194 for Web page images 194 Scanned images calculating size of 200 cropping 195 197 printing larger than originals 195 Scanner aberrations eliminating 199 Scanners activating 193 and color depth 191 and dynamic range 191 193 interfaces for 194 sharpening images with 197 198 shopping for 190 194 tweaking images with 197 200 types of 189 191 understanding 188 190 using slides negatives and prints with 200 Scanning beds cleaning 199 Sci fi firefight shooting 284 290 Scratch Remover tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 243 Scratches removing from images 258 SD Secure Digital removable memory using 155 SecureDigital memory cards image of 12 price ranges of 17 Selection tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 243 246 Selections turning off in Paint Shop Pro 248 Sepia mode using 115 Serial cables transferring images to PCs with 159 162 Serial ports troubleshooting when transferring images to PCs 160 162 Sharpen filters description of 296 Sharpen tool enhancing images with 239 389 Index Sharpening filters options for 239 usage of 198 Sheetfed scanners overview of 189 Shift program mode explanation of 65 Shots perfe
332. ow E Use Edit Paste As New Layer Once an image is considered a layer you ll need the Layer Palette dialog box to control it If it isn t already on screen choose View Toolbars and select Layer Palette then click Close The layer palette shows you all the layers in an image To vary their transparency use the slider to the right side of the dialog box To make a lot of layers easier to manage you might want to rename them just right click on the layer name on the left side of the dialog box and choose Rename Layer Palette Background BE T 5 63 g laa es re Elvis b S Noma H 8 amp Kris X Normal gt 8 D EEE y gt 1 2 Improving Your Sky I bet that if you browse through your photos you Il find that many of your outdoor photos lack a certain punch the sky is washed out cloudless or otherwise just a little boring There s a good reason for that When you compose a photograph you usually concentrate on the primary subject and pay little heed to the sky itself Since the sky is a lot brighter than your 266 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera subject the camera overexposes it and your sky ends up looking at least a little bleached Even if the sky is properly exposed it sometimes just doesn t cooperate and you ll have a cloudless boring sky that doesn t match the mood you were trying to get By adding some snap back into your skies you can dramatically impro
333. p Pro and use the Histogram Adjustment tool which I explain how to use in Chapter 12 to fix the image After you tweak the image you can leave the red tint or convert it to a grayscale image Connecting Your Camera to a Telescope Folks with 35mm SLR cameras can easily connect their camera to a telescope to take extreme telephoto pictures or even photograph the heavens If you want to try that with a digital camera you re in luck a company called LensPlus www lensadapter com sells a little gadget called the LE Adapter which acts as a docking port between your digital camera or camcorder and other optical gadgets like telescopes binoculars spotting scopes and microscopes It works with a wide variety of digital cameras all you need is a set of threads on the front of your camera s lens to screw on the LE Adapter The adapter comes ready to screw onto cameras with either 37mm or 52mm diameter threads If your camera has a different diameter lens you can buy a step ring that goes from your camera s threads the size is usually inscribed right on the front of the lens to either 37mm or 52mm Essential Add on Lenses Granted this is a matter of opinion but there are a few add ons that I highly recommend keeping in your camera bag I suggest that you carry these lenses if you like to experiment with different perspectives and focal lengths E A 2X telephoto A 5 or 6 wide angle A set of close focus lenses such as 2 4 and
334. parts of the image which you can use to crop and change the composition Combine multiple images into a new composition Use tonal controls to change aspects of your image like the brightness and contrast That s certainly a quick overview of image editing but the point is that there are a lot of image editors around that will get the job done Which one is for you Well you might want to start with a free one If your digital camera came with an image editor of some sort you might want to give it a spin and see if you like the way it works Ultimately though you may be dissatisfied with the bundled software and decide to invest in a better program There are two sorts of image editing programs that you re likely to encounter automatic and manual packages Automatic packages include a lot of wizards and automated processes to change your image for you These programs can adjust the colors and brightness in an image remove red eye in flash photography and perform a host of other minor miracles without any real input from you In Figure 11 1 for instance you can see Sierra Imaging s Image Expert 2000 a program that can correct a host of problems with your image with a single click The downside of course is that 206 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Image Expert 2000 matin matrix Eile Edit View Camera Image Annotation Tools Window Help ce D Quick Fix CrleO g ey A Corrections 4 Zoom Pa
335. pe to portrait You can fix a crooked horizon resize an image for email tweak the colors or brightness of an image it s all up to you These are things that until recently you needed a darkroom and a whole lot of practice to do right and every attempt would cost you money in photo paper and chemicals These days you can experiment endlessly It never costs you a penny until you re ready to print the final result because it s all done with pixels on a computer screen As long as you re careful not to save over the original file you never have to damage or change the original image either In this chapter we ll get started with image editing This is the place to turn to for the most common kinds of corrections simple things you can do to your images without learning a whole lot about the art and science of image editing For more sophisticated things you can do to edit your images check out Chapters 12 13 and 14 which get into the topic a little deeper How Much PC You Need You re probably expecting me to tell you that you should have the fastest PC you can afford a 10GHz Pentium 5 is just about right Aside from the fact that computers haven t gotten that fast yet you don t really need quite that much speed To be perfectly honest you should work with the fastest PC that you can afford Image editing especially with high megapixel images is a horsepower intensive task The more computer that you ve got pushing pixe
336. pixel camera simply won t cut it each pixel would be the size of a postage stamp Take a look at Color Figure 1 1 the first figure in this book s color insert On the left is a detail from a picture taken at 640 x 480 pixels On the right is the same detail but it s cropped from a 3 3 megapixel image As you can see the smaller image has fewer pixels to work with and that s why it looks so grainy Obviously you need lots of pixels to print pictures at a large size and that s why each year we see larger resolution digital cameras hitting store shelves The Future of Digital Cameras And there s no end in sight at least for a while The goal of most camera manufacturers has traditionally been to elevate the resolution of digicams to that which you can get from an ordinary film camera But not all film cameras are the same and serious photographers always want more resolution More resolution or more pixels per picture allows photographers to blow up images to larger sizes and to crop images and enlarge just one small section of a photo without sacrificing resolution as well Some medium format cameras for instance shoot negatives that are bigger than ordinary 35mm prints you can print a medium format shot on a billboard That s impossible with any digital camera made today CHAPTER 1 Welcome to the Future On the other hand most of us never make prints larger than about 8 x 10 inches and that means today s crop of 3 3
337. posure by half Take Figure 2 6 for example In the original picture on the left the bright cat toy in the middle of the scene has confused the camera making it think the scene was properly exposed when in fact it is horribly underexposed The penguin in the background is almost invisible As you can see the background is dark and murky since the camera tried using the central object as the average light entering the scene When the camera is set to overexpose the scene by one stop 36 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Hehi The EV control lets you use your own judgment about exposure values instead of relying exclusively on the camera s meter or EV however the scene is much better exposed The image was saved as you can see on the right side of Figure 2 6 To use the EV control on your camera follow these steps 1 Size up the scene you want to shoot Decide if it calls for over or underexposure 2 If you need to add light to a scene to properly expose it add exposure by setting the EV control to 1 If you instead need to underexpose the scene set the EV control to 1 Here s a typical digicam display set to EV 2 CHAPTER 2 Understanding Exposure 3 Take the picture and review the picture in the LCD display If you don t like the result adjust the EV and shoot it again Most cameras allow you to adjust exposure by up to three EVs either positive overexposed or negative underexposed a
338. ppeal and by increasing the light sensitivity of your camera you may be able to shoot a picture without using the flash at all Using natural light can eliminate harsh shadows and produce more natural colors Your subject is too far away for the flash to have any effect During the day you might be outdoors and want to take a picture of something but there s not quite enough light such as in winter or during very overcast conditions Your camera wants to use a flash but your subject is just too far away As you ll see in Chapter 4 the flash on your digital camera has a very limited range So to properly expose your picture you need to use faster film that is increase the camera s ISO setting E You re shooting at night Most digital cameras have very little ability to take pictures at night or in near total darkness A few models can extend the shutter to about half of a 30 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Eeh A typical ISO adjustment on a digital camera second but that s about it As a result if you want to capture anything at all with a night shot you ll need to increase the camera s light sensitivity to maximum If night photography interests you investigate what I refer to as performance digital Ss carmerras cameras that include manually adjustable shutter speeds and apertures Cameras like the Nikon CoolPix 995 the Olympus C 4040 and the Canon PowerShot G2 are the sort
339. problem Older devices such as one megapixel digital cameras often can t accept larger density SmartMedia cards because the camera s firmware wasn t programmed to understand those higher capacity cards which didn t yet exist when the camera was manufactured Another problem SmartMedia cards are wafer thin somewhat flexible and have unprotected electrical contacts on the outside of the card That makes SmartMedia more easily damaged than other kinds of memory These cards also top out at a capacity of 128MB so you ll never be able to store a genuinely large number of images on any one card especially if your camera is a three megapixel model To add insult to injury SmartMedia writes data quite slowly and comes in two incompatible flavors 3 3 and 5 0 volt versions On the other hand SmartMedia cards are small enough to fit in an adapter that slides into your PC s floppy disk drive so you can copy images to your PC as if they were stored on a floppy disk They re also plenty large for one and two megapixel cameras especially if you carry a spare card when you go shooting Here s the bottom line on SmartMedia I don t like them Not one bit Not a lot of digital cameras still use SmartMedia though Olympus does unfortunately and I think this technology is approaching its end of life I d try to avoid cameras that rely exclusively on SmartMedia cards 154 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera CompactFlash I
340. program that doesn t support the file format that the image is currently in so you convert it into a file format the program does work with E You want to save an image with features that are unique to the image editor you re using such as with masks or layers intact You can save an image in Paint Shop Pro as a PSP file for instance to retain those characteristics For a more in depth discussion of file formats check out Chapter 7 Saving images in different file formats is easy though Just follow these steps 1 Open the image in Paint Shop Pro 2 Choose File Save As from the main menu CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 3 Inthe Save As Type drop down menu choose the file format you need Save in 2 marin x al c Vel crossing bridge marin dress2 marin play recital3 facepaint marin dressed up ae marin smail ie recital4 F horsebw ie marin fireplace ie marinatschhol tecitalb el Mannouncement ie marin gets pin matschool2 recital F mar card1 E marin kitchen E matschool3 recital mar card2 ie marin licing room3 ie matschool5 recital8 E marin borwnie marin living room ae tecitall recitald marin cettificate ie marin living room2 recitall0 ee schoolt marin dress ie marin living room4 ie tecital2 ie shout File name Save as type JPEG JFI marin facepaint Save Cancel Help F Compliant ipg iif ipeg Options Encodi
341. ptil0e 11 Ext Save the active documant with a new name 2 In the Save As dialog box click the list arrow in the Save As Type box and choose the option for TIF It is often spelled out as Tagged Image File Format Save inc J rikon pics zj gl f BE eia feom mm Save as lype Windows or OS 2 Bitmap bmp Windows or OS 2 DIB db WordPerfect Bitmap wpg Zsott Paintteush pcx CHAPTER 7 Conquering File Formats 147 3 Change the filename if you desire and then click Save If you no longer need the original JPG file you can delete it from your hard disk to save space You might want to keep it though in case you want to go back to the original image prior to the edits you just made Choosing a File Format The TIF format is great if you plan to print enlargements of your images or if you want to preserve an image precisely without any compression artifacts Digital images have lots of uses though and that s why there are lots of file formats Here are a few file format tips you might want to keep in the back of your mind E Web publishing If you re publishing pictures on the Web or in a page layout program 7 like Adobe PageMaker JPG is often the best choice But GIF files can have transparent backgrounds so text can be made to flow professionally around an irregularly shaped image as you can see in Figure 7 3 P11 show you how to do that in Chapter 16 E Print publishing Creating a
342. puter the need to compose your shot perfectly in the viewfinder is somewhat diminished Instead you can tweak the shot to your heart s content afterward when you have time to think about it and evaluate your options CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 217 In fact the more megapixels your camera can shoot the more cropping you can do If you have a 2 or 3 megapixel camera and intend to mount your shot as an 8 x 10 inch print you can t throw away very many pixels But if you have a 5 or 6 megapixel camera you have lots of extra resolution to work with You can discard a lot of your photo and still have sufficient resolution to print an enlargement Even if your shot is close to perfect to begin with a little cropping can very likely make it better Here s how to do it 1 Load an image into Paint Shop Pro Adjust it so that you can see the entire image on screen at once To do that you may need the Zoom tool shaped like a magnifying glass Click it and then click the picture with the right mouse button to shrink it or the left button to enlarge it until it comfortably takes up most of the screen If you re not looking at a 100 percent magnification of the image though realize that the image you see may be ever so slightly distorted from the actual image amp Jasc Paint Shop Pro P2190194 Bile Edt View Image Elfects Cobs Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help ELERESE S OTTER R P21901 94 1 4 Backg
343. r included with Paint Shop Pro you can arrange the individual stills configure them each to play for a fraction of a second and save the finished result as an animated GIF or some other kind of animation file that plays in a small window on the computer screen This technique is better if you want to upload it to a Web site email it or just view it on the PC Taking Care of Batteries Digital cameras are battery hogs plain and simple You shouldn t expect the batteries in a digital camera to last very long since they are responsible for running a number of key functions within the camera The imaging system including the exposure system and the zoom The LCD display The flash The image storage system That s a lot to expect from a set of AA batteries and in fact they don t last long Last year I had the opportunity to test a slew of digital cameras by taking picture after picture with a set of alkaline batteries until they died I apologize for not having repeated the test more recently with newer cameras but hey battery depletion tests aren t the most exciting way to spend one s time These were my results Camera Shots Till Batteries Depleted Epson PhotoPC 700 157 Ricoh RDC 4200 200 Toshiba PDR M1 306 Olympus D 340R 140 Kodak DC210 Plus 89 FujiFilm MX 500 307 CHAPTER 6 Pushing Your Camera to Its Limits 131 While 300 photos may seem somewhat impressive realize too that this was an absolute best cas
344. r of images such as 640 x 3 images or 1 920 pixels For height make it about 50 percent bigger than the starting image height such as 720 pixels for a 480 pixel image This gives you some room to maneuver if the images turn out to have some vertical offset and you ll crop out the extra white space at the very end You ll want the image type to be a 24 bit image 16 million colors 3 CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images New Image x Image dimensions Width i 920 z Height psg aj z Resolution 72000 a z Pixels inch Image characteristics Background color Transparent he Image type 16 7 Million Colors 24 Bit ied Memory Required 4 MBytes Cancel Help Pixels bad Add the first image to the panorama working from left to right An easy way to do that is to leave the Browse window open and simply drag each image as you need it into the new image Take the next image and add it to your panorama document As you add the images line them up with the image to their left If you use a program like Paint Shop Pro that supports layers you can make the new image somewhat transparent to help you see where it should line up with the previous image For a quick introduction to layers see the sidebar Combining Images with Layers 263 12 264 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera amp Jasc Paint Shop Pro Image4 oa Ed File Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Se ae S
345. r people describe a digital camera s charge coupled device CCD sensor as the equivalent of a 35mm camera s film heck I use that comparison myself pretty often That s because the CCD sensor behaves like film It is sensitive to light and is primarily responsible for sensing the scene in the same way that the silver halide solution on chemical film records a scene But in just the same way that about 50 different people each stake a claim to being the fifth Beatle there s another component in your camera that is like the film in a digital camera That s your camera s removable memory and that s the subject of this chapter Removable memory cards such as SmartMedia CompactFlash Memory Stick and even the good old floppy disk are just like film in the sense that this is where your images are actually stored If you remove the memory card from your camera and hold it in your hand you re holding your pictures If you insert that memory card in your PC you can transfer those pictures to your computer for editing or printing And since memory cards can be erased and used again digital imaging is a lot more flexible and potentially a heck of a lot cheaper in the long run than 35mm photography To learn how to get the most out of your computer s digital film read this chapter Storing Your Images All digital cameras have to store their images somewhere it s the where that is the big question There s no single standard wa
346. ra to Its Limits 117 ehia Panoramic images allow you to see a picture more or less the way your eyes see the real world have a panorama mode Creating a panorama on the PC is actually pretty similar to making a collage of prints The software simply takes a series of photographs and stitches them together digitally so that the seams are essentially invisible Before we get there though we need to take the initial batch of pictures Believe it or not you can get some very nice panoramic photographs even if you are a bit sloppy when you take the original images For best results however you should be as careful as possible when you take your pictures Just like the old computer axiom garbage in garbage out the better your original images are the better the final panorama will be Have the Right Hardware You can take a series of panoramic photographs by just holding the camera up to your eye I ve done that myself In England a few years ago I made a panoramic photo in front of Abbey Road Studios where the Beatles recorded virtually all their music This was something of a religious experience for me and I was distressed that I didn t have a tripod with me to make the shot perfect But I made do with what I had essentially my body and an Epson digital camera and the results were fine For the best results though it pays to travel with the right gear To take a good panoramic shot each image should be taken level
347. rally only two ways to avoid this problem You can upgrade to a higher quality scanner or arrange your documents in the center of the scanner and avoid the edges The disadvantage to this method is that it can sometimes be more difficult to ensure the document is placed squarely on the tray without using the edges Eliminate Scanner Aberrations As with any optical system you may need to clean the glass scanning bed occasionally otherwise it ll get dirty and show up as smudges streaks spots and lines in the scanned images Use a damp cloth and wipe the surface of your scanner bed but don t spray water or cleaning solutions directly on the glass They can leak into the mechanism through the edges of the glass Surprisingly dust can accumulate on the underside of the glass inside the mechanism after months or years of use You may be able to remove the glass to clean it but beware that can void the manufacturer s warranty so check first HCR The moir pattern is caused by scanning not an original photo but one that was originally in a magazine or newspaper 199 10 200 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Calculating Scanned Image Size How much space will your scanned image take on your hard disk Some scanning software will tell you before you commit to the scan others won t If you are short on disk space or you want to know if a few scanned images will fit on a Zip disk or CD ROM you can use
348. ranging your images it s time to think about filenames I suggest that when you transfer your images to the PC you immediately rename your images and categorize them into specific folders Don t put this off till later If you transfer images and opt to rename them later you ll end up with a few batches of 30 images each that need to be renamed The task will eventually get too daunting and you ll have untold pictures with obscure filenames that need to be renamed Here s an easy strategy for renaming your images 1 Open the temporary folder in which your newly transferred images are stored 2 If you are using Windows Me or Windows XP you should be able to see a preview of the image in the folder If you can t choose View Filmstrip or View Thumbnails from the folder s menu Look at the first photo and decide what you want to name it CHAPTER 9 Keeping Images on the PC 175 3 Click the photo pause and after a second click the image s name Don t simply double click or the image will open If you did this step properly the filename should be ready to edit Type the name of the file and press ENTER If this technique doesn t work for you right click the photo and choose Rename from the menu 4 Repeat the process with the other images in the folder 5 When you are finished you can drag images into an appropriate subfolder in the My Pictures folder and delete the empty temporary folder If you want
349. raph or painting your eyes naturally start in one place and move to another That s in sharp contrast to a typical snapshot that has no particular story to tell the focal point is haphazardly placed and it s cluttered enough that there s no obvious path for the eye to take Good artists can use techniques like lines symmetry patterns and multiple focal points to lead the viewer in a specific way through an image If you can create an image like that consider it a success Know When to Break the Rules Now that I ve spent the last few pages telling you what the rules of composition actually are we can talk a little about how to ignore them Don t get me wrong I love the rules of composition and I think you should follow them After you become comfortable with concepts like the rule of thirds and filling the frame with the focal point however you ll find that you can take even better pictures by bending or breaking those same rules This is an area of photography that is best experimented with and learned on your own but here are a few pointers to help you get started E Change your perspective Technically we re not breaking any rules of composition here but this is something that few people think about yet it can have a profound impact on the quality of your photos Simply put experiment with different ways to see the same scene Try taking your picture by holding the camera horizontally and then see how you might frame
350. rdinary folks not graphics professionals CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images E Adobe Photoshop Limited Edition File Edit Image Layer Select Filter View Window Help Mode gt Duplicate CUERE Cole Image Size Color Balance Ctrl B Canvas Size Brightness Contrast Hue Saturation CiU Rotate Canvas gt Invert Cirl l Equalize Threshold Posterze Variations Doo 5 35M 5 35M__ P Draw rectangular selection or move selection outline Use Shift Ak and Cir for additonal options mCll mmeyas Photoshop is an outstanding program but its features can be intimidating Personally I use and recommend Paint Shop Pro from Jasc This image editing program has about 75 percent of the features found in Photoshop but at a fraction of the cost and with a much simpler interface Throughout the rest of this book I ll use Paint Shop Pro to illustrate techniques Keep in mind though that you can use any software you like but the actual mouse clicks and keystrokes will differ depending upon what program you choose to use You can download a trial version of Paint Shop Pro from the Jasc Web site at www jasc com If you re also interested in digital video editing my book How to Use Digital Video comes with a trial copy of Paint Shop Pro on the included CD ROM Throughout the rest of this book I ve used Paint Shop Pro Version 7 to illustrate how to perform many common image editing tasks You ca
351. re 14 6 322 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Single fold Dual fold side one Back Front Inside Right HCR You can make either single fold or dual fold cards on your PC with almost any program You can t really make dual fold cards in Word since that kind of card requires one of the panels to be printed upside down So Word is best at single fold cards as in this example 1 2 Open Word and create a new document Change the document into a landscape orientation Choose File Page Setup The Page Setup dialog box appears Click the Paper Size tab and select Landscape from the orientation section Click OK Now we need to give the document two columns Each column will be a panel on the finished card Choose Format Columns In the Columns dialog box select Two and click OK Now you can enter your text The left column on the first page is actually the rear of the card If you want to you can add something to the bottom of the rear panel similar to commercial greeting cards Just press ENTER enough times to get to the bottom of the page Now it s time for the front of the card That s the right column on the first page so press ENTER to get there You ll probably want to insert an image there using Insert Picture From File You can place text above or below the image or integrate the text in the image in a program like Paint Shop Pro first Be sure to experiment with lar
352. re slightly different in macro photography Obviously you won t be taking a lot of people pictures from 2 inches away There are numerous choices however I suggest that you start by taking pictures of things that don t move 102 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Once you have coins and postcards well in hand you can move on to photographing insects flowers and other mobile or semi mobile subjects In fact lots of subjects look radically different at close range and magnified than they appear from a human perspective Some subjects can even take on an almost fractal appearance that is their underlying structure can seem to have a nearly infinite amount of complexity as you can see from these ice crystals on a tree branch captured on a chilly April morning That s why I think macro photos make for some very exciting images Here are a few subjects you might want to consider trying your hand at E Hobby subjects such as stamps coins and models Wildlife such as plants flowers leaves insects and butterflies E Found objects such as rubber bands paperclips and fabric E Snow ice and water A Steady Base Without a doubt you should invest in a tripod if you plan to take many close up photographs Although you can get away with holding the camera in your hands most of the time the extreme magnification provided by close up lenses tends to make even the most subtle shake ruin your picture In close
353. rency until you get the effect you like it ll probably be in the neighborhood of 10 to 30 percent S Jasc Paint Shop Pro master phaser Fie Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window OS8S42 88 00 ml l N a S master phaser 1 3 Layer1 2 5 Ae Noma gt os S Noma oe DB R Q on gt xa hd 2 a LA W g oY a 2 A Y Lo Isl Image 2100 x 1575 x 16 Million 2 7 You can also do variations on this To get the target to disintegrate take two pictures using a tripod so you have identical framing In one image include the subject in the other image just shoot the background without the subject When you combine the images using the layer strategy I discussed earlier it will look as if the subject is evaporating CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 289 The Laser Blast You ve now made a pretty convincing disintegration scene but what about the phaser blast As I ve already mentioned using a flashlight is a very inexact science it s hard to get a straight line as you can see in Figure 13 2 With a paint program though you can get a perfectly straight beam In some paint programs holding down the SHIFT key while you draw a line actually locks the brush into following a perfectly straight path 13 In Paint Shop Pro click once for the starting point and then move the brush to the end point Then hold down the SHIFT key as you click Th
354. rientation of the image is no more than 500 pixels Here s how to do it 1 Open Paint Shop Pro and load the file that you want to resize 210 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 2 Choose Image Resize 3 Jase Paint Shop Pro tumma3 Eile Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help D S il Eizo Chi tal Oy th 3 Minor Ole R CD Rotate W Q AZ Crop to Selec g gt Canvas Size a gt Ez image Information ea 5 Arithmetic ad E Add Borders Picture Frame Ki h LSS 2 Watermarking b O A x K hst Textures Lo W 3 x g Y a bd A Y Le fal Change TEN Back Ea Tool Options Arrow E4 E3 3 Since you want to make the image a specific pixel size make sure Pixel Size is selected in the dialog box You could also change the size of the image based on percentage or print size but you don t need those options now CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images Pizel size Percentage of original x Height e2 az Actual print size AM Resize type Smart size s V Resize all layers M Maintain aspect ratio of 0 9231 a tol Cancel Help 4 Make sure the dialog box is set to resize all layers and to maintain the aspect ratio of the image Also set Resize Type to Smart Size this tells Paint Shop Pro to use the best algorithm for resizing the image to
355. ringfield founder of the animated city in The Simpsons once said A noble spirit enbiggens the smallest man If the Simpsons can make up a word so can I so this section is all about de biggening your pictures Why would you want to do that Well high resolution megapixel images are great but they re just too big for many applications Suppose you want to post some images to a Web site 11 for instance Or say you want to email some pics to friends and family A 3 3 megapixel image which measures about 2 048 x 1536 pixels is just too big for these kinds of applications If you email a 3 3 megapixel image to your friends you ll lose friends fast Files that big clog up email pipelines and take forever to download What you need is to de biggen your images In other words shrink them down to a manageable size that others can appreciate to a size smaller than the computer monitor for starters so people can see your image all at once without panning around Some cameras have the capability to resize images even before they re transferred to the PC The Sony DSC P for instance is a cool camera that can automatically make a duplicate email size copy of every image you take That way you can skip this de biggening step when you want to email or upload your pictures How small is small enough I suggest that for Web based or email images you shrink the file so that its longest dimension either length or width depending upon the o
356. rint an 8 x 10 inch picture without ever telling you how many pixels you actually need So when I wrote this book I mapped out all the things I thought you might need to know I went right to the beginning and decided to cover photography techniques like lighting composition and close ups And hopefully you ll find that the book walks you through the key steps of using a digital camera from working with memory cards to file formats to editing images on a PC to printing and finally to sharing your images The world of digital photography is changing fast It s just crawling out of its infancy but it has a long way to go before digital is as common or easy to use as a 35mm point and shoot camera But this is a great time to purchase and use a digital camera and I hope that some of my enthusiasm for the digital medium comes through I love the freedom and flexibility that a digital camera gives me armed with my Olympus e10 or Nikon CoolPix 995 I can take pictures without worrying about buying film or using it before it expires I can instantly preview my work and download just the images I want to keep And I particularly like the fact that I can print 8 x 10 or 13 x 19 inch enlargements exactly the way I want without trying to convey imprecise instructions to some tech in a photo shop I ve even used a Nikon CoolPix 990 underwater when I scuba dive and that too is a whole new and exciting world of photography that is made dramatical
357. rinter from either computer Where do you start Walk into a store and all printers tend to look more or less the same And in my humble opinion salespeople are not particularly helpful unless you already have a pretty good idea of what you want So use this checklist to help choose your printer E Resolution Resolution is measured in dots per inch dpi and most laser printers print between 300dpi and 1 200dpi Keep in mind that 600dpi is four times higher than 300dpi and 1 200dpi is four times higher again We re measuring the number of dots that a printer can pack into a square so 600dpi in height and width is four times better than 300dpi Even if you have a 1 200dpi printer you can easily print a 300dpi image and get good results In the inkjet world resolution varies quite a bit though better printers will typically be advertised as either 2 880dpi or 1 440dpi Don t be fooled though they still print around 250dpi Most inkjet printers regardless of the thousands of dots per inch rating on the box have an effective resolution of between 150 and 300dpi I ll explain why later E Number of colors This is irrelevant for a laser printer of course but when inkjet 15 shopping look for a printer that uses a pure black cartridge instead of mixing all the other colors to mimic black The result is a muddy gray brown instead of black and these printers use up their ink exceptionally fast Better inkjet printers use five or more in
358. rints Prints that look every bit as good as what you can get from a 35mm camera and the local photo shop If that sounds like you you re in luck Recent advances in print technology have made it possible to make your own prints that look every bit as good as what you can get from a 35mm camera In some ways the results can be better With a digital image you can tweak it so it looks exactly the way you want it to and you can print it any way you like from wallet sized all the way up to near poster 13 x 19 inches In this chapter I talk about everything you need to know to get great prints from your digital images When you re done yov ll be able to frame your creations and no one will be able to tell that the pictures came out of a computer printer Using the Right Printer There was a time not all that long ago when computer printers had a reputation for shall we say substandard output Of course everyone thought the printers looked pretty good at the time but there was no way anyone would mistake what came out of a computer printer for a real photograph Printers couldn t depict enough colors The resolution was too low Obvious bands of different intensity colors ran through images like Venetian blinds on a window And those were just the most vexing of the output problems Then a few years ago it all started to change Around the same time that scanners became affordable and digital cameras began to hit the scene printer manu
359. round a i Crop tool t gt a Styles k 11 2 ion Za Textures yg S a gt O Lock g y a A Y 20 EEEE rool Option Zoon FE E 2 Click the Crop tool shaped like the thick frame 3 Click in the image and holding down the mouse button drag the Crop tool until you ve drawn a rectangular outline around the part of the image you want to keep 218 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 4 To move the crop box around within the image move the mouse inside the box so that you see the mouse pointer change into a four way arrow Click and drag the box around the image fw P2190194 1 4 Background 5 To change the size of the crop box hold the pointer over the box outline You should see a two way arrow Now just click and drag to change the height or width of the box E P2190194 1 4 Background Resize crop marks CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 219 6 When your crop box represents the picture as you want it composed click the Crop Image button in the Tool Options Crop dialog box The image will be immediately cropped down to size which you can save as a new file or save to replace the older image Compare the original and cropped versions in the Color Insert If you don t see the Crop dialog box it may not be activated Choose View Toolbars and select Tool Options Palette Then click OK It should now appear on screen Notice that thi
360. rs today buy circular polarizers But a less common linear polarizer simply won t work right for you because it confuses the camera s light sensors CHAPTER 5 Taking Close Ups 109 That may sound complicated but it s actually pretty easy The LCD display on your camera gives you immediate feedback on the effect of the filter If you can see a reflection in the display continue turning the polarizer until the reflection is gone or at least minimized Keep in mind that a polarizer is most effective when you photograph at approximately a 34 degree angle from the reflective surface as demonstrated in this illustration If you use your polarizer properly you can reduce glare significantly sometimes completely In Figure 5 12 for instance you can see the effect of a polarizing filter The image on the left is uncorrected it s what you would get without a polarizer The image on the right has had its reflections stripped away using a polarizing filter Your Own Macro Studio It s not always easy to get perfect results from close up photography There are so many elements to worry about wind lighting the narrow focusing range and limited depth of field Lighting is especially tricky in fact since certain subjects look pretty bad when you hit them with an electronic flash Lots of people try to photograph reflective items like coins and jewelry for instance for selling on ebay com or posting on a Web site and they re
361. rvices and the company has set its sights onthe PDA recovery market Right now Wherify is rolling out a service that tracks and locates our most important resource humans via a GPS enabled wristwatch The GPS Personal Locator designed for children can transmi its position anywhere inside the Untied Sates The device acts ike an alphanumeric pager can access emergency 911 services and transmits its location on a continuous basis Wherify envisions the gadget as an emergency locator for children who get separated from their parents The system also has a breadcrumb mode which allows you to track the position of the wearer via the Internet this can be used to monitor the whereabouts of a child in the custody of a caregiver The system relies on GPS and cell phone technology Vherify told us that a version of the GPS Personal Locator that works in conjunction with Palm powered handhelds is coming later this year There s a downside though the current version of the GPS Personal Locator costs 400 shee nee eetlehs arden nnindinn foe fob dO aL A achi g In an image editor be sure to save your image with a transparent background Then you can make text wrap around it in your Web design or publishing program Save Options dialog box With the JPG file format selected click the Options button You should see a slider control for increasing the compression level Save Options x Encoding Progressive encodin
362. s F stops are represented by numbers that start with f like f 2 5 6 and f 11 The larger the number the smaller the opening so an f22 is very very small not much light gets through to the film while a lens set to f 1 2 is a huge opening that floods the film with light Changing the camera setting by a whole f stop such as from 5 6 to f 8 or from f 11 to f 16 doubles or halves the available light depending upon which way you re going If you adjust a lens from f 8 to f 11 for instance you ve reduced the light by half We talk about this in more detail in Chapter 3 it s really important yet really simple but for the moment take a look at Figure 2 2 This diagram shows the relationship between f stop and shutter speed As you reduce the shutter speed you need to increase the diameter of the aperture in order to have enough light to take a properly exposed picture 26 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 4 8 f 16 1 1000 1 250 1 125 aeh Each of these combinations results in the same light reaching the film Of course there s a relationship between aperture shutter speed and your film s ISO rating Look at Figure 2 3 At a given film speed you can take a picture with a specific aperture shutter combination If you double the film speed without changing the lighting conditions though you have to adjust the aperture and shutter speed so that you still get a properly exposed picture And
363. s and see if that helps Backlit Subjects If you are taking a picture of someone or something and the sun is behind the subject you re usually in trouble the bright background will cause the camera to underexpose the scene That means the subject itself will look like it s in shadow You ll get this if you follow the old and very wrong rule to put the sun behind the person you re photographing The best way to shoot 42 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera an outdoor portrait is to put the sun over your shoulder Nonetheless if you find the sun behind your subject overexpose the scene such as with an EV 1 My clever tech editor David Huss says that he frequently wears white clothing essentially turning his own body into a giant reflector allowing him to put the subject between himself and the sun Low Light In low light such as at night indoors or under thick cloud cover you can often get better results by overexposing the scene slightly such as with an EV 1 Vary the EV level depending on how dark the scene actually is Consider Exposure When Taking a Picture Most of the time you can just compose your shot and press the shutter release But don t forget to adjust the exposure when necessary Use this decision process Do I need to adjust the depth of field that is make the background more or less sharp compared to the foreground If yes adjust the aperture shutter or use the aperture
364. s capability E Point and shoot Most point and shoot digicams that include manual settings for aperture and shutter speed require you to use the LCD display to make onscreen menu changes The Epson PhotoPC 3000Z for instance uses a pair of buttons on the right side of the LCD display to adjust shutter speed and another set of buttons on the bottom of the screen to change the aperture settings as shown here It isn t hard to do but you need to remember first to set the camera to its Manual Exposure mode then remember which buttons do what for fine tuning exposure Nena lorma C 42 Frome 6 o E SLRs A few digital cameras pro style SLRs for the most part use traditional SLR controls for making manual adjustments to exposure Specifically you can turn the aperture ring on the lens to change the f stop or use a control on the camera to accomplish the same thing as you can see in the following illustration Shutter speed is likewise affected with a dial on the camera body and you can look through the viewfinder to keep tabs on the setting 34 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera To set exposure manually you must choose a shutter speed and aperture combination that will properly expose your scene at a given ISO This is a great exercise for new photographers who are serious about learning photography theory Use the Sunny 16 Rule At an ISO of 100 which many digital cameras use f
365. s double click the C drive A window should open revealing more folders 3 If you don t see a folder called My Pictures create it Right click an empty space in the C drive s window You should see a menu appear CHAPTER 9 Keeping Images onthePC 173 f My Documents File Edt View Favorites Tools Help Oek 9 i Norton Antivirus a wd F Peach Folders Ee File and Folder Tasks cd Buyers Guide J B TE l 5 Briefcase Other Places co E Bitmap Image fiction G 5 Microsoft Word Document 3 Py come et l eFax Document My Documents a as Shared Documents HHC 7 H Fl PageMaker Publication 4 My Network Places View gt E Cloak Document oe ae 7 ET Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation range Icons Details ES HTDE palm 3e a Y A Adobe Photoshop Image Microsoft Publisher Document Dave s Documents Paste File Fold oe g Text Document nae 7 May 06 CJ Letters Paste Shortcut WAY Audio 2002 3 30 PM j Undo Rename QrhHz Microsoft Excel Worksheet MC 9 20 ic My Downloade MUSIC Properties My Pictures CJ My Received Files amp 4 Choose New Folder from the menu A new empty folder should appear in the C drive window 5 Now it s time to rename the folder The New Folder text under the folder is highlighted type My Pictures and press ENTER You should see the name of the folder change
366. s a little planning I recommend that you store your images in a single folder or set of folders instead of spreading them all over your hard disk Most versions of Windows have a folder called My Pictures for storing images and I suggest you use it If you are using Windows Me or Windows XP you ll find the My Pictures folder inside the My Documents folder 172 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera If the My Pictures folder doesn t exist create it yourself To create a folder to store your images do this 1 Double click the My Computer icon on your Windows desktop You should see a window that displays all the devices and drives connected to your PC P My Computer DER i File Edt View Favorites Tools Help ay i Back gt F P Search Folders gt F Norton AntiVirus B lt Files Stored on This Computer System Tasks View system information Shared Documents et Dave s Documents To Add or remove programs s gt B Change a setting Other Places a 4 ST S VIDEO C Sp FireWire 0 My Networ es My Documents f Shared Documents Eem C Drive G Control Panel Devices with Removable Storage Details My Computer be Ai Floppy AE Ce CD RW Drive E System Folder oc nw CF Hi 2 If you re using Windows XP double click your My Documents folder it may be called something like Dave s Documents or Betty s Documents If you have an older version of Window
367. s are lit no white balance preset ever seems to work properly For best results and to avoid the inevitable yellow cast in your photos try to arrive early and manually set the white balance with the help of a white or gray card This may sound complicated but it s really not that hard Before you start you ll simply need one additional item a white surface that the camera can use to set the white balance Typically you can get by with a small square of white poster board or typing paper For better and more consistent results though I recommend that you purchase an 18 gray card from your local photo shop Professional photographers use these small gray cards to judge exposure all the time since the exposure meters in most cameras assume that images average out to about 18 percent gray overall You can get a gray card for just a few dollars and you ll be surprised at how handy it is for setting white balance To set the white balance yourself follow these steps 1 Ask your subject or an assistant to hold the gray card with the gray side facing you Make sure the card is where you re actually going to take the picture so you are measuring the actual light as it will be in your scene 86 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Experiment with White Balance Don t think that white balance is used only to get perfectly white whites in your pictures Certainly that is the reason most people use this mode
368. s dialog box changes depending on which tool you have selected Crop by Cutting and Pasting Not all image editing programs have a cropping tool In fact even in Paint Shop Pro there s another way to crop one that you should learn In this alternate approach you actually select and copy a portion of the image then paste it into a new image document Here s how to do it 1 Load an image into Paint Shop Pro and configure it so you can see the entire image 2 Click the Selection tool it looks like a dotted rectangle Be sure the Selection Type is set to Rectangle in the Tool Options dialog box GS Jasc Paint Shop Pro Pic00026 File Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help OGG C2 OA Ocean WMO amp 11 Selection tool gt Selection type Feather TAQCPOPEAVLZEWLNS DOF H5077 Layer Palette Back E3 220 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Using Cut and Paste The Cut Copy and Paste tools are just like the ones in Microsoft Word and other programs though you have a bit more in the way of options These tools allow you to grab a selection some part of the image and paste it in a variety of ways The most important options You can paste selections elsewhere in the same image which lets you add a second copy of yourself to a photo for instance in another photo so you can shake hands with Elvis for example or even into a new blank image
369. s of models that are better equipped to deal with very low light such as you ll encounter at night Using more full featured cameras let you perform long exposures for light trails glowing illuminated signage and other special effects Perfecting Shots with Aperture and Shutter Let s return to the idea of aperture and shutter speed again for a moment As observed earlier in this chapter they re essential ingredients to creating good pictures Of course with most digital cameras you rarely have to worry about setting shutter speed and aperture size at all for typical photography How Cameras Choose Aperture and Shutter Speed Here s what usually happens when you apply pressure to the camera s shutter release the camera s microcomputer samples the scene in front of the lens and determines how much light is needed to adequately expose the scene With most digicams the camera selects a shutter speed and aperture combination that is sufficient to get the job done But you might be wondering how CHAPTER 2 Understanding Exposure does it choose After all there are a lot of shutter speed aperture pairs that will work To take the same properly exposed picture at ISO 100 any of these combinations should be exactly the same f 4 1 250 oe 1 125 8 1 60 31 32 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Usually the camera uses the following logic The photographer wants to take a picture usi
370. s on the market that can generate photo realistic prints But unless you use quality paper they will all disappoint you Which Paper Is Best Unfortunately choosing paper isn t easy even if you know that you want to get the best There are a lot of choices and it isn t generally clear which kind is best based on the name or description on the package This is especially true for inkjet printers I honestly don t know why paper manufacturers make this so hard it would seem to be counterproductive to sales As a general rule you ll find store shelves stocked with paper divided into four quality levels inkjet paper high quality inkjet paper photo quality paper and glossy photo paper So where do you start Let s begin with day to day use that doesn t involve printing photos I suggest that you use either plain paper or inkjet paper Even when printing on plain paper use quality stock since cheap paper can plug the nozzles and decrease the effective resolution of the printer For general purpose printing you can use the same stock that I Paper for Laser Printers If you have a laser printer you may be wondering what kind of paper is appropriate for that printer as well I suggest that you use ordinary 20 pound laser or copier paper Decent laser paper shouldn t cost more than about 7 per 500 sheets a ream I d be reluctant to buy really inexpensive paper 3 ream or less since loose paper fibers in budget priced paper
371. s t Size 7 21 K8 7 387 bytes MS DOS name HORSEB 1 GIF Size on disk 8 00 KB 8 192 bytes Created Saturday February 12 2000 4 58 53 PM Created Monday January 28 2002 3 11 21 PM Modified Sunday December 19 1999 4 04 02 PM Modified Wednesday August 23 2000 8 32 52 PM Accessed Sunday December 10 2000 Accessed Today May 11 2002 3 04 36 PM Attributes T Hidden Attributes Resd only C Hidden VV Archive I System Coreei boo Improve Your Composition In the world of 35mm photography editing your composition is not always easily done To crop an image or change its composition you typically need your own darkroom or a local photo shop with which you can work closely to dictate crop marks and reprint photos to your personal specifications Of course there are exceptions In many photo stores you can insert your negative into a kiosk and the image is scanned and displayed on screen Then you crop the image on the screen and print the result minutes later These new image editing stations are just big in store versions of the image editing software you have on your PC In other words you don t have to drive across town and pay money to do it in a store any more Now you ve got the tools to do it yourself at home Crop Your Image I wouldn t be surprised if this were the single most common edit made to digital photographs Since you can crop and recompose your images so easily on the com
372. s to be rotated right clockwise or left counterclockwise 2 Choose Image Rotate The Rotate dialog box appears 3 Specify how you want to rotate the image Click Left or Right and make sure the button for 90 is selected then click OK Direction Degrees Right 90 180 270 ay FT Moved ANCE C Left C Free 90 01 359 99 ai elp I Al layers 4 The image should rotate such that it is oriented properly if you made a mistake choose Edit Undo and try again There are other ways to reorient your image as well If you took the picture with the camera upside down for instance and stranger things have happened trust me you can choose Image Flip from the menu Likewise you can flip it left to right giving you a mirror image of the original shot by choosing Image Mirror Level a Crooked Picture 11 There s nothing quite as annoying as a crooked picture Especially when the horizon or some other straight line is visible in the image a crooked shot can ruin an otherwise great picture Even if the horizon is only off a little it can be annoying but you can use the principle you learned in the last section on rotating sideways images to fix this annoyance Here s what you need to do 1 Load the crooked image into Paint Shop Pro Decide which way it needs to spin to correct the error and estimate by how many degrees Most errors even seemingly egregious ones are typically less than 3 degrees 2
373. sands of dollars I often run into people who are concerned about inkjet quality based on experiences they had with older printers from the late 1980s or early 1990s But as I mentioned earlier those fears are relatively unfounded today Inkjet technology has improved to the extent that it can be really difficult to distinguish between a 35mm print and a quality inkjet print made on photo grade paper My walls are covered with digital images that I ve printed matted and framed see Figure 15 3 No one can tell the difference CREES These pictures were printed on the Epson Stylus Photo 1270 333 15 334 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera What s In a Name BubbleJets and inkjets are the same thing You may see the term BubbleJet when shopping for a printer but BubbleJet is simply the name that Canon gives to its inkjet printer line Canon claims they made up the name because the company uses a slightly different ink deployment technology but the bottom line is that it s just a name Consider BubbleJets to be inkjets by every relevant measure Dye Sublimation Printers The smallest segment of the printer market is occupied by dye sublimation printers also called dye subs for short Look inside a dye sublimation printer and you ll see a long roll of transparent film that appears to be sheets of red blue yellow and gray colored cellophane The film is composed of solid dyes corresponding to the four ba
374. se Thus you might want to try your hand at using a mask instead This technique relies on your imaging program s capability to turn a selection area into a mask though most programs do allow this and then turn a mask back into a selection area which not all can do You can do this in Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro P11 show you how to do it in Paint Shop Pro 1 Load the image you want to use as the basis for your mask 2 Draw a selection area around your subject as accurately as you can But don t spend all day on it since yov ll use the mask tools to fine tune the selection amp Jasc Paint Shop Pro kris smil 1 1 Background BEE MM File Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help laj x lt DOES 2ce Re QAAN WM E amp PERROZ py i le a Oy 2 b A 13 2 Textures a 460 I Lock g os 8 A J A Z B 562 194 Image 640 x 480 x 16 Million 1 1 MBytes PStart gt A S FE Binbo Mi Jase P ch Collage C eB SIDSZOOR M 3 49PM 280 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Turn the selection into a mask by choosing Masks New Show Selection Turn off the selection outline by choosing Selections Select None Enable mask editing by choosing Masks Edit OPS Now you can fine tune the size and shape of the mask using ordinary paint tools If you choose a paintbrush for instance you can edit
375. se Effects Sharpen Unsharp Mask to sharpen the subject but not affect the background 5 Next choose Selections Invert from the menu This flips the selection so the subject isn t selected but everything else is 6 Choose Effects Blur Blur More You should see the background blur slightly If you re not happy with the result blur it again In fact you can use the blur effect repeatedly until the background is sufficiently blurred 7 Finally when the image is complete choose Selections Select None Hopefully the subject now looks better especially in comparison to the background Painting on Your Pictures Some of the techniques we discuss through the rest of the book require a little well painting And if you take a look at your image editor especially a full featured one like Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop you ll see a complete set of painting tools These digital gadgets allow you to change the colors in an image on a pixel by pixel basis How do they do that Take a look at Table 12 1 there you can see the most important tools in Paint Shop Pro s Paint toolbar These are fairly typical tools as image editors go you ll find their equivalent in most other programs Choosing Colors So let s say that you want to do a bit of painting Let s keep it simple You just want to paint a solid colored rectangle in the middle of an image Before you do that you ll need to know how to select c
376. se File New from the main menu In the New Image dialog box make sure that the width and height of the new image are at least as big as the selection you just made and then click OK You should see a new empty window appear onscreen This is where you re going to paste your selection CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 223 New Image x Image dimensions w E Her Besolution 7200 lz Fete 7inch gt Image characteristics Background color Transparent x Image type 167 Milion Colors 24 Bit 7 Memory Required 7 3 MBytes F a Before you do that paint it Click the Fill tool the overturning paint can Click a color from the color palette in the upper right side of the screen Now click in the empty white image and you should see it fill up with the color you just selected In this illustration you can see the Fill tool as it paints the entire image window a single color ft Image4 1 3 Layer1 11 224 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 9 Finally it s show time With the new image window still selected choose Edit Paste As New Selection The irregularly cropped image should move around under your mouse pointer Decide where you want it to be in the new image and click It will pop into the new image with the strange shape clearly visible against the colored background That little exercise is just scratching the surface of what you can do with selections
377. serial ports with 160 161 HP printer paper usage of 342 HQ setting using with file formats 143 htm file extension explanation of 141 382 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Ilford printer paper usage of 342 Image Edit and Art Web site 269 Image editing choosing software for 19 sources for 269 Image editors choosing 205 209 Image Expert 2000 program example of 205 206 Image quality setting for file formats 143 Image Robot program batch processing with 149 Image sharing Web sites linking to 364 365 Image sizes choosing for Web 362 364 Images See also Crooked images adding color contrasts to 233 234 adding text to 304 307 adding to letterhead 318 320 advisory about enlargement of 211 applying airbrushing to 255 257 applying depth of field to 59 60 archiving 183 186 attaching to email 356 centering tiling and stretching 318 changing color depth of 212 214 cleaning up old and damaged type of 257 258 colorizing 300 302 combining with drop shadows 314 316 combining with layers 265 287 288 290 293 compressing 360 converting to grayscale 297 correcting with brightness and contrast 228 229 correcting with white balance 83 86 creating folders for storage of 172 173 creating gifts from 325 cropping 216 226 347 cropping and resizing utilities for 355 cutting and pasting 219 220 decolorizing 296 300 deleting 183 deleting from memory cards 166 determining scannin
378. shots the ones that bring comments like What a nice picture of a cat to potential works of art Why Composition Is Important Have you ever been on vacation pulled out your camera upon seeing a picturesque view and then been somewhat underwhelmed with the final results If so you just learned the first rule of photography reality as seen by your camera is quite different from what you see with your own eyes If you frame all of your pictures without taking that into account you will always be disappointed CHAPTER 3 Composition Essentials 45 There are a few reasons why what your camera sees is different from what you see First of all your eyes aren t little optical machines that function in a vacuum Instead all that you see is supplemented enhanced and interpreted by your brain In a sense when you see a majestic landscape while hiking through the backwoods of Kauai some of the splendor of the scene is actually being added by your mind Lift the camera to that same view and you get a totally objective representation of the scene without any intelligent enhancements That s because the camera actually is a little optical machine And it does not have a brain And then there s the fact that a camera has a much more limited range of focus exposure and composition than you do When you look at a scene like the Hawaiian landscape I just mentioned you might think you re seeing a fairly static scene with your eyes B
379. shoulder but behind his arm To do that copy Elvis s arm to the Clipboard and paste it back into the image as a new layer exactly over the old arm The only difference is that it ll end up lying over Kristen s hand making it look more like they re in the same picture To make the illusion more convincing you can try to sharpen or blur Kristen a bit to match the original Elvis photo before you copy and paste her The CIA might know it s a fake but it s probably fine for your purposes Shoot a Sci Fi Firefight When I was in college I took my geeky love of Star Trek added a dose of photography and came up with a hobby that could pretty much only be done around 3 00 A M Although it didn t help my grades very much it was a lot of fun to create special effects like phaser blasts and disintegration halos The best part It was all done in the lens so you can try it yourself if your CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 285 digital or 35mm camera supports very long exposures You can compare techniques and see if the digital way is easier here s how I did it in college 1 2 5 6 Set the camera up on a tripod in total darkness and start a long exposure Using a flash expose the subject like someone holding a phaser and the target person The flash does not need to be mounted to the camera you can just take a flash unit and hold it in your hand flashing the subject once or twice Get behind the subje
380. sibly help turn it off Your batteries will thank you E Leave the camera on If you re taking a lot of pictures in a brief time don t turn the camera off after each and every picture You might think that you re conserving battery life but in fact you re burning energy every time the camera has to power on That s especially true if your camera has to retract the zoom lens every time it powers down and extend the lens when you turn it on again E Use AC power when it s available When you re transferring images to the PC don t rely on battery power You should have an AC adapter to power the camera when you re working at your desk near electrical power If your camera didn t come with an AC adapter it s probably wise to invest in one for exactly this reason The AC adapter might also come in handy if you re shooting a lot of pictures inside a house from a somewhat stationary position You can save battery life for the times when you really need it by tethering yourself to an AC outlet If your batteries die in the middle of a shoot and you don t have any spares here s a trick you can try that might give you a few extra shots turn the camera off wait a minute and then turn it back on Often you can sneak in a few more pictures before the batteries are completely exhausted Using Batteries in the Cold You may want to run outside in the dead of winter to photograph snowmen snowball fights and freshly fallen sno
381. sic colors used in printing cyan magenta yellow and black CMYK The print head heats as it passes over the film causing the dyes to vaporize and permeate the glossy surface of the paper before they return to solid form Since the dye actually gets absorbed and goes just below the surface of the paper the process is called dye sublimation Because the color infuses the paper it is also less vulnerable to fading and distortion over time Bottom line the results from dye sub printers are nothing short of stunning they typically look just as good as 35mm prints and even magazine photos The downside is that they re not much good for printing text so your dye sub printer will have to be a second printer which you only use when you re expressly printing photos For me a bigger disadvantage is that dye sub printers typically only create 5 x 7 inch or perhaps 8 x 10 inch prints nothing larger Also the selection of printer models is much more limited and much more expensive You can find some printers in the 500 range but full page 8 x 10 inch prints require bigger printers that range over 1 000 These printers are more commonly used in the professional arena where publishers can inexpensively make test prints that show what output from the final printing press will eventually look like Make no mistake Output from dye sublimation printers looks great But given all the disadvantages I think you re better off choosing an inkjet And s
382. sion CHAPTER 7 Conquering File Formats Understanding File Extensions The many file formats used on computers today are generally referred to by the letters that make up their three letter extension Computer files are generally named using a standardized system that looks like this filename ext The filename can generally be almost anything a random collection of numbers and letters or a word or two that describe the contents of the file Filenames also use a three letter extension that tells the computer what kind of data is within the file Here are a few common file extensions doc Word processing document usually created by Microsoft Word xls Spreadsheet document usually created by Microsoft Excel mp3 Popular digital music file commonly downloaded from the Internet htm Web page document In other words you and I as users control the first half of the filename The file extension though the part that comes after the period depends upon the program that made the file or the file format that the data corresponds to If you open a folder on your computer and find a bunch of image files you can immediately tell what format they are in by looking at their extensions Mypicture jpg is a JPG image while pretty flower tif is saved in the TIF format 010 pics of x Fie Edk Vew Go Favoites Help Ea 33 a z x hij Up Cul Cop Pese Undo Dekle Addtess CAWINDOWS Desktop e10 pice
383. slider back and forth until you get just the right multiple exposure effect 2 Jasc Paint Shop Pro PB031036 Fie Edi Layer Palette Layer1 Tool Options Moyer A A Nomal gt 2 ESA a Y S a Fa B 3 W g ed A A Y 6 For Help press F1 Image 2240 x 1680 x 16 Million 25 1 MBytes _ When you re happy with your multiple exposure save the image As I mentioned earlier you can see the final version of a double exposure shown next To get this shot I took one photo in sharp focus and a second exposure with the flower completely out of focus and then combined them I kept the out of focus image mixed back around 35 percent CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 295 Paint Like Van Gogh An easy way to transform your images into unique works of digital art is with the filters that are built into image editing software like Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop A filter is graphics talk for a tool that allows you to edit or manipulate your image It s called a filter because when you run it software changes your image according to a specific mathematical process filtering the original data in a certain way to deliver a modified image A common and relatively boring example of a filter is Sharpening which adds contrast to the pixels in an image increasing the apparent sharpness Filters can do a lot more than just sharpen or blur your images though There are hundreds of filters out there and ma
384. slightly differently Refer to your camera s user manual for exact details Trying Your Hand at Night Photography Taking pictures at night is a rewarding exciting activity unfortunately digital cameras don t always make it easy to do On the plus side taking pictures with a digital camera is essentially free since you re not buying film So you can experiment to your heart s content without wasting any film Not every camera is cut out for night photography Low light photography requires long exposure times if your digital camera is not capable of shutter speeds of one second or more CHAPTER 4 Flash and Lighting 87 you will probably have some trouble getting decent night shots In fact your camera should have a manual exposure mode so you can dial in the shutter speed by hand Automatic exposure settings may not give you anything even remotely interesting If you re shopping for a camera and are specifically interested in night shots try to get a camera with a bulb setting that s photography lingo for a shutter that stays open for as long as you hold the shutter release down or at least a maximum shutter speed of 8 seconds Not all night exposures are measured in seconds though See the night picture in the Color Insert I captured with only about a one second exposure something any digital camera should be able to do A camera with a wireless remote control can also be handy for night photography since you can act
385. small collection of white balance presets In addition to automatic white balance selection your camera probably includes white balance settings for conditions like incandescent lights fluorescent lights an external flash unit and cloudy or overcast days Choosing a White Balance Preset Changing your white balance setting varies from camera to camera but the process is typically fairly simple For the specifics on your camera model check your camera s user guide In general though this is the process E Turn your camera on and set it to its normal record mode If your camera has a separate record mode specifically for manual photography you ll probably need this one instead E Press the menu button on your camera so that you see a set of menus in the LCD display CHAPTER 4 Flash and Lighting 85 E Find the option for white balance Scroll through the white balance options until you find the lighting condition that best represents your scene E Press menu again to turn off the menus You can now take your picture Measuring White Balance Yourself Sometimes these white balance presets just don t get the job done If you are in a tricky lighting situation such as a room that has both incandescent light and candlelight you may need to set the white balance manually based on the actual lighting conditions in the room One of the hardest lighting situations on planet earth is a school gymnasium Because of the way gym
386. smaller but the quality lower or compress less for bigger higher quality files There s no easy equation you can use on JPGs because the compression varies not only according to the image quality setting you use on your camera but also according to the amount of color information and overall complexity of the picture Nonetheless I ll take a stab at it In general you can assume that JPG files will be about this size depending upon the quality setting JPG Quality Compression High low compression Approximately 95 of the original TIF size Medium Approximately 75 85 of the original TIF size Low high compression Approximately 25 of the original TIF size CHAPTER 9 Keeping Images onthePC 183 These are ballpark figures but you would be able to store about 440 average JPGs in the same hard disk space that it would take to store full resolution TIF files of the same pixel dimensions What does this say about how you should store your images In general high quality JPGs are good enough for most applications and they take up a mere fraction of the space TIFs or BMP files would consume When you can use the JPG format and your hard disk will thank you Be careful about using too much JPG compression though I recommend sticking with a fairly low compression level or your image quality will suffer Archiving Images Eventually your collection of digital images may grow too large for your hard disk If that s the case you hav
387. ssed to save storage space Why do people put up with a file format that sacrifices image quality The answer is that the JPG format does an outstanding job of preserving all the visual information that the human eye can generally see in a picture When you save a picture in the JPG format you ll typically have to zoom in quite a bit to begin to see any artifacts or digital noise caused by the JPG format That s good enough for most people most of the time and you have to weigh that small sacrifice against the tremendous space each JPG file typically saves compared to a completely uncompressed file Thus the JPG format is perhaps the single most common file format in use today for storing digital images TIF Short for Tagged Image File format this format is also very popular but for exactly the opposite reason that JPG is popular TIF files can be saved in two different ways Using compression they maintain an extremely high degree of image fidelity while slightly reducing file size Without compression TIF files are absolutely ossless they preserve 100 percent of the information about every pixel in the original image TIF files are also popular because they are used on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms that makes TIF a good choice if you need to share files with someone using a different kind of computer BMP This is the old standard bit mapped file format for Windows users It can be used for general purpose storage for image ed
388. ssible Figure 3 17 for mlcieli actawa Wildlife photography requires many of the same shooting skills as action photography This page intentionally left blank Flash and Lighting ee Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 72 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to Use your flash for primary lighting Fill in shadows with your flash Keep from underexposing close ups Use the various flash settings on your camera Optimize lighting outdoors Optimize lighting indoors Avoid red eye in low light photos Balance your scenes based on the kind of lighting around you Use a reflector to fill in shadows Take interesting photos at night Photography is all about light In previous chapters I have talked about how to work with the existing light in a scene to control aspects of your photograph like depth of field Sometimes using the light that you already have isn t quite enough however That s why photographers spend so much time with flash units strobes reflector units and other gadgets that help to enhance or supplement natural light In this chapter I talk a fair bit about using the electronic flash Almost every digital camera made today with the exception of very inexpensive VGA resolution cameras comes with a built in flash unit The flash is a way to bring extra light with you and brighten many kinds of pictures On the other hand I h
389. steady hand Using Paint Shop Pro as our workhorse here s what you should do 1 Load the offending image and zoom way in so the eyes fill most of the screen 2 Click the Magic Wand tool and click in the red part of the eye Hold down the SHIFT key and keep clicking until you ve selected all the red in one eye Jasc Paint Shop Pro Dscn0008 Eile Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help Den 2ce 28 90 p en amh E A Dscn0008 5 1 Background Tool Options Magic Wand E3 de 4 S Match mode Tolerance RGB Vale v fe 34 Feather I Sample merged HACPOPRARZSHERUNS NG PREDA 765 EER D limage 2048 x 1536 x 16 Milion 9 MBytes If the wand grabs too much of the image like parts of the face outside the red then the tolerance found in the Tool Options dialog box is set too high You may need to adjust it to 15 or less _ ____ 3 With the red area selected select the Paint Brush or Flood Fill tool and choose a dark color like black Click in the selection to paint over the red CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images amp Jasc Paint Shop Pro Dscn0008 BEE Eile Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help OSHS O HE QO e nw DO a 2 47 BA Dscn0008 5 1 Background ee ae IAYO FERAN OF FRE Tool Options Paint Brush BS E3 AIS be crs sl 766 ESE Ee z Image 2049 x 1536
390. storybook on CD ROM He s also busy writing a book of family style robot construction projects Dave started writing professionally in 1990 before anyone had a chance to talk him out of it Prior to that he had a somewhat unfocused career that included flying satellites driving an ice cream truck managing weapons at an Air Force base stocking shelves at Quick Check teaching rocket science photographing a rock band and writing about space penguins He s still not playing bass in a psychedelic band but at least he s found steady work PART CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 PART II CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 10 PART III CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 14 For more information about this title click here Contents at a Glance Your Camera Welcome to the Future 2 0 0 cece cee eee eee eens Understanding Exposure 0 00 cece cece eee eee eens Composition Essentials cece cece eee ee eee eens Flash and Lighting 0 ccc cece cece eee e eens Taking Close Ups lt 0 sessee tacts ce aan ee sa ee riss trenini Pushing Your Camera to Its Limits 0 cee eens Transferring Images Conquering File Formats 0 cee cece eee eee eens Working with Digital Film 1 0 0 0 ccc cece cee eee eee ee Keeping Images on the PC 1 cee eee eee eee eee Turning Prints into Digital Images 0 0 0 eee e eee Editing Images
391. t An example is shown in the following illustration The scanning head travels the length of the bed to create a digital image of the document Different flatbed models connect to your PC in different ways some use the parallel port others use a SCSI adapter and still others rely on USB Flatbeds generally make high quality images and accept options like automatic sheet feeders so you can copy lots of pages at once They can also scan almost any size document from tiny business cards and 35mm slides all the way up to legal sized documents On the downside they have a big footprint so they re hard to integrate into a small office The major limitation of flatbeds at least as far as photographers are concerned is that they can t scan with sufficiently high quality to make good enlargements of slides and negatives lt a gt id E Sheetfed scanner This is a much smaller scanner that does away with the traditional moving optics and flat scanning bed Instead sheetfeds stand upright and pull documents through the unit right past the stationary scanning head to offer a compact scanning solution Their advantages include a low price a compact footprint and a design that s optimized for scanning sheets of paper and small snapshot photos Of course you can t scan thick objects like books or magazines unless you first separate the pages from the source And some low grade sheetfed scanners can introduce imperfections in the
392. t a large quantity of family newsletters with a laser printer faster than with an inkjet for instance Inkjet Printers If you want to print images I think inkjet printers are the best all around printing solution for most people They produce excellent color output but can also print text at a reasonable speed as long as you don t need to print a lot of it Inkjet printers are in some ways a simpler technology than laser printers Simply put they work by spraying microscopic droplets of ink onto paper You can see an inkjet s internals complete with ink cartridges in Figure 15 2 Of course it gets a lot more complicated than that 332 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera i ClO mibeeyas The print head of an inkjet printer slides back and forth across the page spraying dots of ink as it goes CHAPTER 15 Printing Your Pictures Printer manufacturers exert a lot of effort making sure that the dots are small that they combine with other dots to mimic thousands of distinct colors that they dry fast enough so they don t spread run or smear and that the paper is optimized to handle the ink s chemical characteristics It s a very technical business Nonetheless we generally don t have to worry about most of that stuff What matters is that they create stunning output and they re pretty affordable typically running between 100 and 500 though professional caliber inkjets can cost thou
393. t icon and click in the spot where you want to grab the photo as text In Paint Shop Pro the spot you click becomes the lower left corner of the text ____ 3 Enter the desired text and set the font and size that you want the text to appear in You ll need to make the text big and fat for this effect to work For starters I suggest that you choose a font like Bauhaus 4 Choose the Selection option in the Create As section of the dialog box This will create the text as a selection instead of as solid colored text Text Entry Name Size Sample text Kerning Leading Bauhaus 93 fio Flying La EE Script Westem xl I Auto kem gt Styles _ p Enter text here Stroke oy B 7 U A Fill m Textures Stroke Op i Op m Create as Standard text C Vector Selection Floating IV Antialias Cancel Help Bao CHAPTER 14 Working with Text and Creating Projects 311 5 Drag the Text Entry dialog box away so you can see the position of the text If it s not covering the right part of the image click Cancel and try again gt Jasc Paint Shop Pro bird in flight File Edt View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Hel Tool Options Text F x 0386 9 8 90 Snuml x Q g a E P 2 a 5 B Q T y a hod A Y l o 9 MS 10 bird in flight 1 4 Background Image 2000 x 1514 x 16 Million 8 6 7
394. t needing a camera with a video out connector Microsoft s TV Photo Viewer for instance is a cool little device that looks like an external floppy disk drive It plugs into your TV s video port and displays pictures from floppy disk The gadget comes with Windows software that lets you drag and drop images into a custom 16 slide show You can arrange the images rotate them crop pictures and even add captions When you re done the images are copied to a standard floppy in 640 x 480 pixel resolution which you can insert into the TV Photo Viewer If you give one of these guys to your parents you can make slide shows on floppy disks that you can mail to your folks They can watch the pictures on their own TV at their leisure This page intentionally left blank Numbers 0 4 dynamic range for scanners explanation of 191 193 24 bit images result of converting to 256 colors 213 256 colors result of converting 24 bit images to 213 2X lenses power of 121 300 x 600dpi rating for scanners explanation of 190 35mm cameras functionality of 23 27 35mm film CCDs as 152 4X zoom example of 16 17 A A mode explanation of 64 AC power saving batteries with 132 usage of 11 Action freezing 67 Action photography choosing exposure modes and lenses for 66 68 Adapters using with lenses 120 121 Add on lenses and distortion 122 precautions 122 124 purchasing complete sets of 121 122 types of 126 1
395. t the sun don t shoot into it unless you are intentionally trying to photograph a sunset or a silhouette Add Fill Flash While most people think of their camera s flash as something to use at night or in the dark it s also a great way to improve the look of your photographs in the daytime Set your camera s flash to its forced flash mode and use it to shoot portraits and other outdoor photographs You ll find that the flash fills in shadows nicely dramatically improving the quality of your images You ll be surprised in fact at how much fill flash can do to improve photos that you thought were pretty good to begin with Check out Figure 4 4 for instance Here you can see two portraits one with a fill flash and one without Remember you ll need to be fairly close for this to work Stay within 10 to 15 feet of your subject mlcieii aeem A little fill flash can go a long way CHAPTER 4 Flash and Lighting Shooting Silhouettes It s easy to photograph a silhouette in fact new photographers do it all the time They just don t always do it on purpose The easiest way to photograph a silhouette is simply to position yourself so that the subject you would like to silhouette is arranged against a bright background such as the sky Point the camera directly into the sky and slightly depress your camera s shutter release that locks in the exposure based on the bright sky Then recompose your picture and sho
396. t want to invest in a set of Instant Power back up batteries Instant Power www instant power com sells a great emergency power solution for digital cameras camcorders PDAs cell phones and other devices They re disposable fuel cells that provide hours of operation if your primary batteries die The cells have a long shelf life when left sealed in their pouch meaning you can put a set in your travel bag and leave them there for months at a time This page intentionally left blank Transferring Images Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use This page intentionally left blank Conquering File Formats Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 138 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to Use image file formats Distinguish among formats like JPG TIF GIF and BMP Recognize file extensions on the PC View file extensions in Windows Understand the value of JPG compression settings on the camera Select the best image compression on a camera Determine when to use the TIF format to capture pictures on your camera Know when to save images in various file formats Batch save a large number of images in a different format automatically Choose the best JPG compression level on the PC Like it or not working with a digital camera means that you are going to have to learn some of the nuances of your PC That ca
397. tPage Web design program 362 HotDog Web design program 362 Image Edit and Art 269 KnockOut edge detection program 277 278 Koala HTML Web design program 362 LensPlus 126 linking to image sharing sites 365 MindStor 167 Nixvue Digital Album 167 ofoto com 364 online photo stores 125 Paint Shop Pro image editing software 19 178 Paint Shop Pro image editing software trial version 207 PanVue ImageAssembler program 259 Pixer program 368 Portfolio 6 asset management software 181 Quick View Plus 177 Raynox 98 shutterfly com 364 Smaller Image 355 Tiffen 98 Ulead Photo Express program 259 White balance adjusting presets for 84 85 advisory about making manual adjustments to 84 correcting images with 83 86 experimenting with 86 measuring 85 86 Wide angle lenses advisory when shooting panoramas 259 dynamics of 60 X power of 121 Wildlife photographing 69 70 Wind blocking with reflectors 81 Window light usage of 82 Windows 95 98 installing Quick View feature on 176 177 Windows Picture displaying images in 175 Windows XP turning on extension view in 141 142 WinZip program compressing image files with 360 Word creating greeting cards with 320 324 WordArt program creating greeting cards with 322 323 X X dimension determining 138 X power for lenses 121 xls file extension 141 Y Y dimension determining 138 Yellow squares manipulating in LensDoc plug i
398. tal cameras come with a control for something called white balance White balance is important because different light sources have different color temperatures meaning that a scene will appear to have a slightly different color tone depending upon how it is illuminated You have probably noticed this yourself without really even paying attention You may have seen for instance that ordinary light bulbs appear more yellow than the light that streams in from outdoors And other sources like candlelight and fluorescent lighting are certainly a very different color than sunlight Photographers and scientists have gone to the trouble of cataloging the different color temperatures exhibited by various light sources Higher temperatures appear warm or slightly reddish while cooler light sources tend to add a blue tone to your pictures It s not at all unlike the way a flame has different colors at its outside and center Why Because those different parts of the flame are different temperatures As a point of comparison this table shows the color temperatures of several common light sources Source Color Temperature Degrees Kelvin Candlelight 2000 Sunset 3000 84 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Source Color Temperature Degrees Kelvin Tungsten light 3200 Fluorescent light 5000 Daylight 5500 Camera flash 5600 If your camera is balanced for one kind of light source daylight for instance and you photograph a scene
399. tant rule of photography that you can learn and apply Here s what you should do in your mind draw two horizontal and two vertical lines through your viewfinder so that you have divided each plane the horizontal and the vertical into thirds In other words your image should be broken into nine zones with four interior corners where the lines intersect See Figure 3 4 for an example of this technique It is these corners that constitute the sweet spots in your picture If you place something typically the focal point in any of these intersections you ll typically end up with an interesting composition This really really is the golden rule of photography Thumb through a magazine Open a photography book Watch a movie No matter where you look you will find that professional photographers follow the rule of thirds about 75 percent of the time And while the rule of thirds is very easy to do you may find that it is somewhat counterintuitive Many people try to put the focal point of their picture dead smack in the middle of the frame And trust me there are few things in life more boring than looking at a picture in which the subject is always right in the middle Compare the two images in Figure 3 5 I think you ll agree that the one on the right in which the subject is not in the center is the better photograph Fill the Frame Don t forget to get the most mileage you can out of the frame in which you re working What
400. tch the individual segments together on the PC CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images When you re done you ll end up with a much higher resolution image since it ll have a lot more pixels than a single photo would have Stitching Photos Together by Hand If you don t have an automatic stitching program you can still make a panorama by hand It just takes a bit longer and your results will not be quite as good as what you get from most automated software 261 12 262 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Here s how to do it 1 Calculate the finished image size by finding the size of your individual images If you don t know the resolution of the individual shots load one into Paint Shop Pro and choose Image Image Information from the menu Close the image after you ve determined its size Current Image Information x Creator Information Source file File name c Program Files Enroute Imaging QuickStitch S ample File type JPEG JFIF Compliant Image Status Dimensions 1024 x 768 Pixels Has been modified No 7 111 x 5 333 Inches Has a selection No Pixels Per Inch 144 Number of layers 1 Pixel depth colors 24 16 Million Number of alphas 0 Memory used On disk In RAM Image 2304K Selection OK Masks amp alpha channels OK Undo OK OK Total OK 2304K 2 Create a blank document by choosing File New For image size make sure it is the image width times the numbe
401. te to readers I have a special prize for the first person who understands why an eccentric cat might be named Molniya and epails me with the right answer Email me at davelbydavejohnson com Dave Dave Johnson www bydavejohnson com davelb ydave johnson com Author Hov To Use Digital Video Digital Photography Answers How To Do Everything With Your Palm Handheld I showed this guy my pictures he said they didn t breathe I said I painted them that way Kristin Hersh 6 To add another image to the message choose Insert File from the message window s menu or click on the Attachment button shaped like a paperclip You should see the Insert File dialog box 7 Navigate to the appropriate folder and select the image file you want to attach If you want to attach multiple files from the same folder you can hold down the CTRL key while you click each image file 8 Click the Insert button to close the Insert File dialog box and insert the images in the message 9 When your message is complete click the Send button to send it to its recipient 16 360 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Strategies for Sharing Lots of Images If you need to send someone a lot of images and the total file size is too much for email or floppy disk you have a few ways to get the data to the recipient Often you ll need to combine these techniques Here are some things you can try E Use a compression program like Zip
402. ter The hard drive installation guide will tell you how to configure the jumper Change master slave setting by moving the jumper 4 Mount the drive in the PC Connect the power cable and IDE cable to the hard disk 186 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 5 Without closing the case turn the computer on When the PC starts to boot display the BIOS screen usually by pressing the DELETE or F1 key as your computer starts to boot and check to see that the computer recognizes the hard disk If it doesn t make sure you have set the master slave jumper properly it s connected to the correct IDE channel and the power cord is fully inserted in the hard disk 6 If all is well shut down the PC and seal the case 7 Finally use the software that came with your hard disk to format the drive and prepare it for operation in Windows As you can see it s not difficult to install a hard disk on your own For more details check out another book of mine Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Answers Turning Prints into Digital Images a ___ Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 188 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to Understand how a scanner functions Distinguish among different styles of scanners like flatbeds and photo scanners Choose scanner resolution Shop for a scanner Operate a typical scanner Increase image sharpness Avoid moir patterns
403. th a few to find the paper that delivers the best output with your printer 342 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera E Glossy photo paper The best paper around this stuff is expensive generally costing about a dollar a sheet Certainly you won t use it all the time but if you plan to frame a picture or give your digital prints away to family or friends definitely use the special photo paper Note that you can only print on one side of photo paper the back side looks like the back of a photograph and generally has a logo printed there as you can see here I don t recommend printing on the back of glossy paper even on a laser printer Which Brand What brand of paper should you use Should you use Epson in an Epson printer and Canon paper in a Canon printer or should you buy paper from a company like Ilford known in 35mm photography circles for their excellent paper instead This is a good question Obviously each printer company wants you to use their own brand of paper with their printer In truth vendors like Canon Epson and HP go to great lengths to fine tune their paper to match their inks so colors won t bleed and they ll be as vivid as possible My own Epson Stylus Photo 1270 does best with Epson s Premium Glossy Photo Paper and I use that paper exclusively When I first got the printer I tried a dozen different kinds of papers including paper from companies like Ilford and Tetenal which came hig
404. th formats interchangeably The principal difference is data encryption SD cards allow vendors to deliver copyrighted data to the end user while 8 ensuring it can t be illegally copied Here s the important part SD cards are likely to become a real success in the mobile storage battle Palm for instance has standardized on the SD card format for all of its m series PDAs giving the format a huge base of operations Just as importantly it s small enough to fit into every conceivable portable gadget including very small digital cameras I think that as time marches on you ll see more digital cameras use the SD memory format especially once SD cards can hold more than 128MB of memory Floppy Disk Many Sony digital cameras use the floppy disk drive as a form of image storage The advantage floppy disks are ubiquitous There are no confusing image transfer procedures since you just pull the floppy out of the camera and insert it into the PC s floppy disk drive On the other hand floppy disks only hold 1 44MB of data a tiny amount compared to any other memory card format Floppy disks are also fairly slow Those disadvantages add up to cameras that can t take high resolution images and suffer a long lag between when the image is taken and when it s written 156 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera to memory I always take a little flack for this opinion but here goes avoid cameras that use a floppy
405. that even if you choose a 6 megapixel camera you can set it to capture lower resolution images even a mere 640 x 480 pixels making your camera quite versatile Or you can capture a high resolution image and reduce its size on the PC in an image editing program I explain how to do this in Chapter 12 The higher the resolution the fewer pictures you can store at a given time so there is a bit of a trade off If you buy a camera with too little resolution though you can t ever add information to a picture and trying to blow it up to print beyond its ideal size will generate a pixely grainy mess Optics It is a camera after all not a computer Don t forget to weigh the optics carefully Your camera s optics should be made of glass not plastic and multiple elements help keep everything in sharp focus through the camera s entire zoom range Working with Basic Lenses Also consider what kind of pictures you want to take A fairly wide angle lens is good for landscapes indoor shots and general purpose photography If you want to take portraits or wildlife shots a longer reach is important But take a look at the specs for a digital camera what the heck is a 9 3mm lens Is that wide angle Who knows That s why most digital cameras also advertise their focal length in 35mm equivalents in other words if this digital camera were a 35mm camera its 9 3mm lens would give you the same picture as a 50mm camera
406. that requires no programming no eye for page design and no real Internet skills The solution A photo sharing Web site These sites take the arcane drudgery out of designing Web sites from scratch and posting photos to the Internet by allowing you to upload images to a commercial site via a simple interface The site itself arranges your images into an attractive layout complete with thumbnail views which you can click to see a full sized version of the image captions and even printing services that can print your favorite images and mail the hard copy directly to you These sites are a convenient way to publish your images online for friends family and strangers to browse and you don t have to learn anything about Web site creation A year ago there were as many as two dozen of these sorts of sites and they all tried to deliver photo sharing services for free I recognized at the time that this was a business plan disaster waiting to happen and guess what I was right They re virtually all gone now In fact there are even fewer today than there were a month ago when I started revising this book into the second edition that you hold in your hands right now Of course there are a few left ClubPhoto com for instance lets you arrange your photos into albums and display them for visitors see Figure 16 6 The site lets you drag and drop images from your desktop directly to the Web browser a very convenient way to upload images Anot
407. the opposite of these things sometimes even greater than 180 degrees This kind of wide angle lens is known as a fish eye lens due to the peculiar effect of the angle of view The focal length of your lens has one other important characteristic Depending upon whether you have your lens set to wide angle normal or telephoto you ll get a very different depth of field As you saw previously in this chapter a telephoto setting yields minimal depth of field while a wide angle setting generates a lot of focusing depth Taking a Zoomed Picture Not all special effects need to be done inside a computer The zoomed picture is a good example of a special effect that you can do in the lens of your camera without doing any processing on the computer whatsoever Unfortunately there are very few digital cameras that will let you achieve this effect To take a zoomed picture you need a digital camera that allows you to change the zoom setting during the exposure generally only professional SLR style digital cameras are capable of this feat If you do have a camera like the Olympus Camedia E 10 however here s how to do it Start by choosing a scene that you want to zoom through You ll get the best results with a brightly colored subject and a simple background that won t be too busy Mount your camera on a tripod to minimize camera shake If you have very steady hands you might want to try holding the camera yourself Set your shutter sp
408. the Fill style for instance and the result will be a gradient in the outline of the text instead of the inside of the text You can also change the direction of the gradient fill To do CHAPTER 14 Working with Text and Creating Projects Heh Gradient fills add an interesting effect to boring old text that click in the center of the gradient fill style in the Text Entry dialog box The Gradient dialog box will appear and you can rotate the gradient arrow to force the fill to occur on any angle instead of the usual top to bottom Text Entry x Name Size Sample text Kerning Leading Bauhaus 93 Gradient on d Soript Westem Current gradient r a Honzontal E 4 aj Stroke 9 gt Fit Ty 4 eo EA ill gt Textures Angle i 30 z Stroke gt D Repeats je z Fill S gt P Invert gradient Cancel Edit Paths Standard text T OK Cancel Help 309 14 310 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Create Picture Filled Text That s not all though One of my favorite tricks is to make an image show through the text as if it were a digital stencil as you see here As you can see I ve made the word flying out of a photo of a bird in flight rN 4 a Bes This is an interesting exercise in creating an eye catching picture so let me show you how to do this yourself Here s how 1 Open the image that you want to show through the text 2 Click the Tex
409. the currently selected pixel and makes that the current foreground color for painting and editing Paint Brush This is just what it sounds like It lets you paint on the image not unlike the way you d paint with a real brush It s a lot more flexible than a real brush though since you can change features like the size and shape of the brush as well as the amount of paint that you can spread at once Clone Brush This tool lets you paint with pixels found elsewhere in your image effectively cloning a part of your picture as you paint 12 Color Replacer This great painting tool actually puts the power of many of the program s effects like brightness and hue changes effects filters and more into a brush so you can paint them on Scratch Remover This automated tool erases scratches from scanned photographs Eraser This tool allows you to paint with the currently selected foreground and background colors Airbrush You can configure this tool to splatter paint on your image like an airbrush aN eee Highlights from the Paint Tools Palette in Paint Shop Pro 244 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Tool amp A Y Description Flood Fill Pours paint into a region The currently selected color will run right up to whatever color edges exist Like the Magic Wand you can set the color tolerance Text This tool lets you write text anywhere in your image in any color and any font We talk about this tool in C
410. the mask pixel by pixel if necessary until it perfectly matches the subject you re trying to duplicate You can use the Zoom tool to get a close look and alter the paintbrush s diameter to get just the right amount of detail It s not quick and easy but it works even for including single strands of hair from a person s head G Jasc Paint Shop Pro kris smil 3 1 MASK he File Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help 18 xj OeHS 22 288 990 a nwWlho amp i R Q m ty im g gt 4 2 r A 8 a ug 4 Foor x a J 11 Size Hardness By g EE o BE A Opacity Step Density Ea T Build up brush 4 Layer Palette MASK EI TLL pean Se M eel l E 216 212 Image 640 x 480 x 16 Million 1 4 MBytes Regardless of the color your program uses to display the mask the mask is really just a grayscale image and you need to paint with black white and shades of gray Use white to erase the mask and black to paint the mask If you want to manually insert various levels of transparency in the mask use levels of gray _ ____ 7 When the mask is just the way you like it convert it back into a selection area by choosing Selections From Mask CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 8 Choose Edit Copy to copy the selection to the Clipboard 9 Open the new image that you want to paste the subject into 10 With the new
411. the right paper can have just as much of an effect on the final print quality So what resolution should you use when you print The honest to goodness dpi of most inkjet printers is still in the range of 150 250dpi If you start with a sharp image and plan to use high quality inkjet paper you might see a small difference in image quality if you feed the printer a 300dpi image But the difference will be small and you can generally get decent results with as little as 200dpi If you send images of lower resolution to the printer you ll be able to tell the difference Right now high end digital cameras top out around 6 megapixels But if you have some 35mm slides or negatives you can scan them into your PC at much higher resolutions than any digital camera is currently able to capture Too Much or Too Little Resolution As I already mentioned a 4 x 6 inch inkjet print typically requires an 800 x 1 200 pixel image to start with to avoid pixels and jagged edges in the final image That s almost twice the resolution that a VGA resolution 640 x 480 pixel digital camera can muster So you can see the value in having a 2 or 3 megapixel camera What happens if you print an image that doesn t have enough pixels for the size you want to achieve You get something like Figure 15 4 CHAPTER 15 Printing Your Pictures 339 HEURES This happens when you try to print a low resolution image too big If the output size isn t as important to
412. them CHAPTER 1 Welcome to the Future 13 In addition to each of those some cameras specifically Sony Mavica cameras use a floppy disk or a recordable CD for storing images Only very inexpensive or old digital cameras do not include removable storage at all Such cameras rely exclusively on the memory that s built into the camera to store images Camera Controls Perhaps the most subjective of digital camera features the controls are also among the most important I can t really tell you which is best you need to experiment with a few cameras to see which you like the best Try handling cameras in the store whenever you can Digital cameras typically feature two distinct control systems on body buttons and dials plus on screen menus Figure 1 6 shows some body controls such as a diopter dial for adjusting the eyepiece to your personal eyesight The onscreen menu seen in Figure 1 7 is commonly used to adjust less frequently used controls like resolution settings exposure compensation and special effects filters That s not always the case though as you can see in Figure 1 8 There the Epson PhotoPC 3000Z uses buttons to change the resolution without resorting to a menu system You need to take the time to review your camera manual to find out how to operate all your camera controls Without knowing how to operate your camera you can t really learn to take great pictures Flash control Eyepiece diopter Menu nav
413. thing with Your Digital Camera How to E Sharpen blurry images Blur the background to enhance apparent sharpness Use the painting tools in your image editor Choose foreground and background colors Make selections based on color region and by hand Remove ugly red eye from flash photos Eliminate distracting objects with airbrushing Repair tears and scratches on photos E Create a panorama from a series of photos In the previous chapter you looked at easy and fast techniques you can use to gussy up your images stuff like how to rotate or resize your images correct bad colors and even save them in different file formats But there s so much more that you can do In this chapter we go one step beyond and learn how to fix your images with techniques that actually change reality You ll see how to remove red eye caused by flash photography for instance how to sharpen or blur a picture and how to airbrush away distracting elements from a scene and move elements around within a picture This chapter is filled with techniques that sit between what I would call elementary quick changes and special effects We re not adding Elvis to your holiday pictures but we re certainly going beyond color correction Strap in and have fun with your images and your favorite image editor Sharpening Blurry Pictures I know what you re thinking Wow I can sharpen my blurry pictures Technology is great Well let me begin by saying t
414. through the lens barrel to the CCD at telephoto magnifications the flash has less range If you re used to the great range you would get from an external flash unit mounted on top of a 35mm SLR camera you might be disappointed by the range from a digital camera flash It stands to reason though that the small flash built into a digital camera could not have the same power as the large flash head with lots of AA batteries mounted on an SLR That means you ll have to be aware of how far you re trying to get the flash to throw light especially at night or in very dark conditions If your subject is very far away such as 25 feet or more it is unlikely that the built in flash will have any effect at all on your photograph See Figure 4 2 Here you can see that the flash is less effective at increased distances from the subject In fact some digital cameras disable the flash automatically when they sense that the lens is focused on infinity You might want to check your camera manual or experiment to see if that feature applies to your camera Getting Too Close Believe it or not it s possible to get too close to your subject as well Some digital camera flash units overexpose the subject when you are within a foot or two of that person or object Since you know about the light reducing properties of a telephoto lens you might expect that you can get closer when you zoom in than if you are zoomed out And you d be right with a typical
415. tion printers choosing 334 Dynamic range role in scanner selection 191 193 E Easypano Panoweaver program stitching panoramas with 259 Edge detection programs using for blue screen effects 277 Edge filters description of 296 Edges sharpening 239 Elvis superimposing in images 281 284 Email advisory about sizes of attachments sent by 352 353 attaching images to 356 Index 379 incompatibility of different programs 353 354 sending images by means of 352 356 sending with Outlook 2000 357 359 using MIME encoding scheme with 354 using UUENCODE encoding scheme with 354 Email attachments sending images as 352 353 viewing 356 Email programs examples of 356 Enlargement printing choosing file formats for 147 Epson models using star settings for file formats with 143 144 Epson papers lightfastness of 348 Epson PhotoPC 3000Z buttons used with 13 Epson PhotoPC 700 battery depletion results 130 Epson printer paper usage of 342 Epson Stylus Photo inkjet printer sample output from 333 Eraser tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 243 EV Exposure Value control and night photography 88 usage of 35 37 Exposure checklist for 42 choosing for time lapse photos 128 controlling with ISO 29 correcting 35 dynamics of 23 finding right type of 34 manual adjustment of 32 34 shrinking images for 354 356 Exposure compensation using 35 37 Exposure lock using 39 41 Exposure meters advisory for
416. tions Masks window Help Taol Options Clone HE1 D Ses OSHS 2c ke OO canwoo va R Q a 1 ae P 2 2 B W g y A A Y The Clone tool works best in small areas because you can start to tell that something is wrong with the area you re cloning to if you paint over too large a region 12 The Clone tool has two different modes In one mode when you pick up the brush and paint elsewhere the source stays where you put it this is called non aligned If you pick up the brush and start painting elsewhere and the source moves the same relative distance from where you first started this is the aligned mode Some pictures work better with one mode or the other Experiment to see which is best in each situation Clean Up Old and Damaged Pictures An unexpected benefit of digital imaging and editing has been the ability to restore old pictures heirlooms and keepsakes that you may have written off as too badly damaged to be of much value any more Some of the techniques I ve already mentioned can be used to fix these old prints on your PC First of course you ll need to scan these images into the PC I talk a bit about scanning in Chapter 10 but basically you ll want to scan your old prints at the highest resolution you have available That ll make it easier to print them later From there it s just a matter of applying digital editing techniques to repair them 258 How to Do Everything
417. tive C Greyscale CMYK separations Background 4 Inthe Size drop down menu choose US B 11 x 17 in Paper EZ x q Size Letter 81 2 11 in tad B3 364 x 514 mm Suca B4 257 x 364 mm B5 182 x 257 mm 4 r Envelope 10 4 1 8 x 91 2 in Orientation Envelope CB 114 x 162 mm Envelope DL 110 x 220 mm Portrait Executive 7 1 4 x 10 17 2 in a Half Letter 5 1 2 x 8 1 2 in Index card 5 x 8 in 2 Ba C Landscape Index card 8 x 10 in Scale 1 5 Legal 81 2 14 in Letter 81 2 x11 in M Fito page Panoramic 210 x 594 mm z Photo Paper 4 x 6 in Print output Super A3 B 329 x 483 mm a Color iS C17 x 22 in Cancel C Greyscale y Printer Background Bie Help User Defined C CMYK separations 346 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 5 You can reduce the margins in the Position dialog box to squeeze more picture into the page If the margin boxes are ghosted uncheck Center On Page Then enter a smaller number in the margins such as 15 Page Setup x p Paper Size letter 81 2811 in x Source Auto Sheet Feeder a Orientation Position Portrait I Center on page C Landscape Left margin fo 15 Scale Top margin 0 15 Tl Fit to page Print output r Options Color I Negative Cancel Cc Greyscale Back d Printer CMYK separations Background lh ll Help 6 Click the Fit To Page box You should see the preview of the
418. tive has a lot more dynamic range than the print And if you have a film scanner you can capture it at high resolution and crop it to your heart s content before printing I consider print scanning to be a last resort Editing Images Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use This page intentionally left blank Quick Changes for Your Images ee __ Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 204 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to Determine what the system requirements are to edit images on a PC Choose an image processing program Open and edit images in Paint Shop Pro Change the resolution of digital images for email Web and other applications Change the number of colors that can be displayed in an image Save an image in a different file format Crop images to improve composition Crop and copy an image into a new file Create an irregular crop Rotate images taken with the camera on its side Fix a crooked image Change the brightness in an image Correct the color balance in a picture One of the most exciting advantages of using a digital camera is the flexibility and control it gives you for tweaking and improving your images Don t like your composition Change it You can crop your pictures just a little to subtly improve their appearance or radically change the look of a picture by turning its orientation from landsca
419. torage capability we ll talk about how you can archive your images on media like CD ROMs and additional hard drives Managing Your Digital Pictures Keeping your hard disk organized is essential if you hope to be able to find your digital pictures In a sense then part of this chapter is a tutorial in managing your computer s life I know a lot of people who don t worry too much about organizing their hard disk They just download images from their camera to some folder on their hard disk and assume they can find what they need later The problem The images from your camera typically have fairly obscure filenames like pic00012 jpg or dsc0012 jpg see Figure 9 1 It s impossible to determine the CHAPTER 9 Keeping Images on the PC 171 New i _ Bel x if Bo Wea e BER e gt a amp By Eel 2 x er Back Up Cut Copy Paste Undo Delete Properties Address C C AMy Pictures New i Pic00002 Pic00003 ie Pic00009 Pic00010 E Pic00016 Pic00017 li yukon 27 object s j JE My Computer ECAA Your digital camera s code like naming scheme for images is no help when you want to find a specific picture contents of an image from such an arcane filename Imagine having hundreds or even thousands of files like this on your hard disk and you start to get an inkling of the problem Organizing Your Images Keeping your images organized isn t hard but it take
420. transplanted into another scene 276 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 2 Create a selection area around the entire subject that you want to transplant to another scene Most of the time the Freehand tool set to Smart Edge works best but you might also have good results with the Magic Wand BJasc Paint Shop Pro kandinsky laj x Eile Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help OSH8462 R8 Q 2 i bel OS aa eb kandinsky 1 1 Background PREDOJ py RA GLVPOPLEQVLSZBRiC SSi Tool Options Freehand 4 ye i SEA 9 R fee f ai IF T Lock Selection type Day as ee Smart Edge gt s L j TE 382 184 Image 640 x 512 x 16 Milion 1 MBytes 3 When the selection is complete choose Edit Copy from the menu A Open the second image 5 Choose Edit Paste As New Selection The selection should appear in the second scene Reposition the selection until it looks about right and then save the finished image with a new name CHAPTER 13 Creating Special Effects 211 3 Jasc Paint Shop Pro pp lake2 crop File Edit View Image Effects Colors Layers Objects Selections Masks Window Help D u8 2ce re GO am E N A pp lake2 crop 1 3 Backgr Mel E3 amp f a y a P S a A Lo a g y A A Y 5 fea J Tool Option Zoo BE Layer Palette Backg amp 4 E3 561 Image 732 x 942 x 16 M
421. ts licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the func tions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free Neither McGraw Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inac curacy error or omission regardless of cause in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom McGraw Hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work Under no circumstances shall McGraw Hill and or its licensors be liable for any indirect incidental special punitive consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages This limitation of lia bility shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract tort or otherwise DOI 10 1036 0072228261 About the Author Dave Johnson writes about technology from his home in Colorado Springs Colorado He s the enterprise editor at Handheld Computing magazine and writes a free weekly electronic newsletter on digital photography for PC World magazine In addition he s the author of two dozen books that include How to Use Digital Video How to Do Everything with MP3 and Digital Music and How to Do Everything with Your Palm Handheld the latter two with Rick Broida His short story for early readers The Wild Cookie has been transformed into an interactive
422. ture small objects highly magnified That usually means getting pretty close to the subject like within a few inches as in the following shot CHAPTER 5 Taking Close Ups Using 35mm SLR equipment or even larger gear such as medium and large format cameras we can get incredibly magnified views of small subjects We could magnify the eyes of a fly to fill up an 8x10 inch print In digital photography we typically can t get quite as close as that though we can take impressive close ups nonetheless If you would be happy with getting the fly itself blown up to 8x10 inches then keep reading Coaxing a Digital Camera to Take Close Ups Virtually every digital camera on the market has a close focus mode How that mode works though depends upon whether your camera has an autofocus or fixed focus lens Autofocus Cameras In cameras with autofocus lenses and that represents about 95 percent of the cameras on the market today you enter close focus mode also called macro mode by pressing a button on the camera body A tulip icon typically represents close focus you should see a button somewhere on your camera with such a symbol You can see the close focus button control in Figure 5 1 Often the camera buttons perform more than one function You may need to press the button several times before the macro mode is actually enabled usually indicated by a tulip somewhere on the camera s LCD display That tulip is a reminder that you are
423. u can look for but the most important things to consider when scanner shopping are the scanner s fundamental specifications which I outline over the next page or so Resolution Scanners are rated by the resolution at which they can convert documents into digital images Inexpensive scanners are typically 300dpi Often you ll see a rating like 300 x 600dpi The first number is the optical resolution of the imaging system the second number is the resolution of the step motor that moves the scanning head across the document Since the optical resolution is always lower than the number of discrete steps the motor can perform the first number the CHAPTER 10 Turning Prints into Digital Images 191 Choosing Resolution Scanners come in a vast array of resolutions from a paltry 300dpi all the way up to about 3 000dpi Which resolution do you need If your printer is a mere 200dpi device as are most inkjets why would you ever need to scan a file at a resolution beyond 200dpi In general there are several principal reasons to choose a scanner with a higher resolution E High resolution scanners typically discern greater detail in the images they scan particularly in the lightest and darkest portions of the image whereas lower resolution scanners can t take enough samples to resolve the image properly Higher resolution scanners let you scan small images and print them larger than actual size For instance you can scan a small p
424. up photography I highly recommend attaching your camera to a tripod planted securely on the floor or ground You do not need to purchase a large or particularly heavy tripod Some of the very large tripods that feature separate expensive head units are designed for the rigors of 35mm photography where the camera itself can weigh over 10 pounds Most digital cameras only weigh a pound or two so lightweight tripods are usually sufficient CHAPTER 5 Taking Close Ups 103 If you re working outdoors in the wind the heavier your tripod is the better SS especially for a light digital camera A light camera is more likely to be blown around than a heavy one If you have a light tripod you can hang something heavy from the center of the tripod to help stabilize it When you set your camera up on the tripod you can leave the head unit somewhat loose That helps you move the camera around and position it with minimal fuss This is really up to you try leaving the head a little loose and if you can consistently get sharp images work this way If you find that your images are always a bit blurry and you think that it s because you re leaving the head unit loose then tighten everything up before you take your picture Here s a perfect example In Figure 5 8 you see a bee that I photographed hovering around 5 a columbine If I had tightened down every knob and lever on my tripod there s no way I could have caught the little guy as it
425. ur search Find a Web page Find a person s address Find a business Previous searches The premier e photofinishing service for business partners and sy 4 pri nts consumers Login Photo Albums Products Partner Programs Company info Help Home welcome to ez prints C Finda map a More P 2 E FEE _ Find a Web page containing yes a get ey Beas ezprints Brought to you iy MSN Search Seach ezprints 1 2 3 partners Upload digital Create an album you can Promptly receive Use ezprints as your Create an Album images or sendina safely share with friends your products in backend print service Upload Photos photo CD or Zip disk and family from which the maill to offer your customers 2000 Microsoft Corporation Al rights Order Prints to ezprints you can order prints prints and products from reserved Terms of Use their digital images Tip of the Day Don t forget to order your holiday greeting cards early enough to get them in time for Christmas Done W Intemet Sharing Your Pictures q Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 352 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to Send and receive images via email Choose the right file format for emailing pictures Compress images for email and disk Prepare images for display on the Web Choose a Web design program Store images on the Web without programming Show off pictures
426. use a program like Roxio s PhotoSuite Mobile Edition or BugMe from Electric Pocket Some PDAs like the Sony Clie even come with photo display software built in A popular solution is called AlbumToGo seen in Figure 16 8 This image viewer is designed expressly for displaying images as if your Palm were a wallet so it has a slide show mode along with transition effects for switching elegantly between images AlbumToGo works in two different ways E Using the AlbumToGo desktop application see Figure 16 9 you can drag images stored on your hard disk directly to the Palm Note that for rectangular images that won t fit exactly in the Palm s square screen you can move the image around in the preview window until it looks the way you like then you can click Send To HotSync E Alternately you can download images from ClubPhoto com directly to your Palm To do that visit a ClubPhoto album and click the appropriate Convert To Palm link in the left side FireViewer T My Links D sfo D vitruvianis ACGA Several applications let you display images and even videos on any Palm handheld CHAPTER 16 Sharing Your Pictures Album ToGo Image w Trans w None yukon tumma swans monk seals horse blur Slide Show Ehi AlbumToGo s image list and viewer screen the program can play your images in a slide show mode c EF My Computes re AlbumToGo Desktop uate avis POT Image
427. ut Color Insert Here you can see the original strawberries as well as what they look like with Brush Stroke Stained Glass and Colored Pencil filters applied In Paint Shop Pro you can find all of these effects and many others in the Effects menu Lots of companies sell add on plug in filters for PhotoShop and other graphics programs but I recently started using Jasc s Virtual Painter 3 and really like it The disc includes a dozen effects like pastel silk screen pointillism and watercolor that help you look like an old world painter Decolorizing Your Pictures This effect is a lot of fun Surely you ve seen television commercials in which everything is black and white except for one item a person perhaps or the featured product that is in full color It s an effective trick because your eyes are drawn to the color image in a sea of gray On television this effect is typically done with two cameras On the PC though you can do it after the fact with a single image you didn t even have to have this effect in mind when you Filter Description Blur Blur filters average nearby pixels to give the impression of blur poor focus or motion Sharpen Sharpen filters increase apparent sharpness in an image by increasing the contrast between pixels either throughout an image or only along edges Edge Edge filters typically enhance and trace edges tegions defined by high contrast borders between pixels Noise These f
428. ut that s not really the case In fact as your eyes dart around you are constantly recomposing the scene since you can dynamically change the visual frame in which you are viewing the scene To make matters worse for the camera anyway the aperture of your eyes called the pupil changes size constantly in response to the changing lighting conditions of where you re looking The result You don t realize it but your eyes working in conjunction with your brain are creating a visual feast that is difficult if not impossible to reproduce on paper In comparison it s amazing that we can get good pictures at all with a camera Film and by film I mean both 35mm and digital has a much narrower exposure range than your eyes because the aperture freezes a single instant in time with a fixed set of lighting conditions And unlike the magical pictures in the Harry Potter series of books real photographs cannot change their composition or framing on the fly What you see in the viewfinder is unfortunately what you are stuck with forever What We See Look around What do you see If you look carefully you l notice that your field of vision is a rectangle with rounded corners almost a wide ellipse In other words we see the world panoramically While there are some cameras and some techniques for creating panoramic photographs most of the time this is not the kind of shot we take Nope our job as photographers is to take the
429. uters today Only about a half dozen are particularly popular but even that can be confusing Why are there so many file formats Good question It s not just to confuse everyone Instead different file formats exist because some are better at certain tasks than others Some file formats compress well in other words a large picture will only take up a small amount of space on the memory card or hard disk Other file formats more accurately represent the original image are optimized for the Web or are designed to work well on both Windows and Macintosh computers And most importantly they were all invented at different times under unique circumstances and they simply tend to hang on because some folks still use them The Most Common File Formats As I said earlier there are really just a few file formats that most people use most of the time So while you may occasionally hear about file formats like IFF IMG and KDC you can typically ignore all but just a very few 140 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera By the same token you really should get to know the most common file formats and use them when it s appropriate Here is a quick overview of the most common formats and what they are used for E JPG Short for Joint Photographic Experts Group pronounced jay peg this file format is considered lossy That means when you save an image in this format some of the data is lost That s because JPG files are compre
430. ve your so so photos Multiply Your Sky The easiest way to fix a bleached sky is to multiply it What does that mean Well we re going to open a photo select the sky and copy it to the clipboard Then we ll paste copies of the sky back into the image using a seldom used tool to multiply the colors in each layer of sky to produce deeper darker colors If there s even a little blue peeking through your sky this technique is ideal since it s so easy to do For starters find a picture with a weak sky perhaps like the one below Skies rarely come more anemic than this one so let s see what we can do with it Open it in Paint Shop Pro Now try these steps 1 Click the Magic Wand tool in preparation for selecting the sky The Magic Wand is one of my favorite selection tools because it grabs parts of the photo that share similar colors Set the tolerance in the Tools Options dialog box to about 20 2 Click the Magic Wand squarely in the middle of the sky You should see selection marks appear around a big blotch of sky Use the SHIFT key and click all around the sky until you ve selected the entire thing without also grabbing any non sky parts of the picture CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images 267 3 Make sure that you ve selected the entire sky you can zoom in and pan around the image to double check When you know you ve gotten it all copy the selected sky to the Clipboard by choosing Edit Copy from
431. ver to set a new document or feature multiple buttons on the front for automatic faxing copying printing and emailing Are these features essential Not in a million years But they do make your scanner just a little bit easier to use ECV iE A scanner button like the one on this scanner turns your scanner into a push button appliance instead of a complicated peripheral 193 10 194 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera Finally you should also consider the scanner s interface As I mentioned earlier scanners come in all shapes and sizes and while many connect with the USB or FireWire port a lot connect with parallel or SCSI too Which is best USB and FireWire are the easiest but parallel can be slow and might conflict with your printer SCSI is the traditional interface for high end scanners and it is generally the fastest But SCSI can be a challenge to install You ll need to open your PC and insert an expansion card in an available PCI slot and SCSI software is finicky on some computers Weigh all these issues before selecting a scanner Almost all scanners that use a parallel port also include a pass through port so you can use your printer at the same time Occasionally there are compatibility problems with certain combinations of PCs scanners and printers but this system generally works without a snag Scanning and Correcting Your Images Scanning is generally a straightforward process Typi
432. viewfinder and lens see essentially the same thing Close up to your subject though they clearly see two different things as you can see from Figure 1 4 The concept of parallax and what it means to your photographs is discussed in detail in Chapter 5 Some higher priced digital cameras use a through the lens optical viewfinder that shows you exactly what the camera lens sees just like the LCD viewfinder Optical viewfinder Digital viewfinder glcieisi mecm Almost all digital cameras rely on an optical system that includes both a viewfinder and an LCD display 10 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera IClUl meem The optical viewfinder and the camera s lens don t always see exactly the same thing especially when close up to the subject The digital viewfinder on the other hand shows you exactly what the camera sees and thus is the most accurate gauge of your potential photograph You won t want to use your digital viewfinder all the time though For starters it uses a lot of power and you can get a lot more mileage out of your camera s batteries by using the optical viewfinder instead In addition the LCD display can be very difficult to see in certain lighting conditions like outside in mid afternoon Some cameras allow you to turn off the LCD display to conserve power Leave the display off most of the time to get more battery life Power Systems It shouldn t surprise you terri
433. w also appears in the second image It is this overlap that will allow your computer to line up the image into one seamless panorama 120 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera E Continue turning the camera and taking additional pictures until you reach the leftmost edge of your panorama Or if you are taking a 360 degree panorama continue taking pictures until you reach the first image with a suitable overlap The first thing that you ll need to know is how to attach additional lenses to your camera Typically there are three ways of doing this E Threads Many digital camera lenses are threaded at the end If your lens has screw threads you can probably screw additional lenses directly onto the end Even so you may need something called a step up ring This is a device that screws onto the end of your lens and provides a different diameter for screwing on the additional lenses Lens manufacturers typically make lenses in only a few sizes such as 37mm and 43mm If your camera has a different thread size you will need the step up ring You can get such an animal at the local camera shop or from a filter company like Tiffen www tiffen com Your camera s manufacturer may sell a step up ring specifically for your camera as well E Adapters Some cameras do not have a threaded lens but instead allow you to snap additional lenses onto the end of the camera using an adapter Usually you ll snap or clip the adapter onto the end
434. w clinging to the trees But because digital cameras are electronic devices they don t function as well in cold conditions as in the heat of summer You can prevent most problems though just by keeping your camera batteries warm If the batteries get too cold the chemical reactions that generate power are inhibited and they ll simply stop working Here s what I suggest carry a spare set of batteries in your pocket where your body heat can keep them warm If the current in the first set of batteries drops off due to the cold swap them out with the ones warmed by your body then continue shooting Since the first set of batteries will recover some of their charge when you stick them in your warm pocket you can swap back and forth a few times unless you re shooting in the Arctic where the ambient temperature is 50 below zero CHAPTER 6 Pushing Your Camera to Its Limits 133 Carry Spare Batteries Never go anywhere without a spare set of batteries in your camera case I don t need to tell you how frustrating it can be to run out of energy in the middle of Yellowstone National Park If you can fit it in I also suggest bringing a charger with you so you can charge your NiMH batteries as needed I am particularly fond of slim line chargers like the one shown here since it takes up so little space and can be used to hold a second set of batteries without consuming any more precious space in your camera bag In addition you migh
435. weight Paper 25 years Epson ColorLife Photo Paper 27 years CHAPTER 15 Printing Your Pictures 349 In addition you can find some inkjet printers that are designed to offer extremely long resistance to fading Pigment based inkjet printers like the Epson Stylus Photo 2200 are intended for serious photo enthusiasts and professionals Pigment based inkjet printers are a bit more expensive than dye based inkjets but they can deliver a print life of more than 100 years By comparison 35mm prints tend to be lightfast for only about 50 years so newer printers can create prints that last longer than traditional prints No matter what kind of printer ink or paper you use you should protect your prints from fading from the moment you print them Here are a few precautions you can take E Cover the print with glass or plastic as soon as it s completely dry wait 12 hours after the print is complete Contaminants in the air can fade a print quickly but if you put it under glass or in a photo album the print is no longer in direct contact with air and thus is protected Some ink and paper combinations can cause a print to fade dramatically in a matter of days if left exposed to the open air E Keep the print out of direct sunlight even when under glass Hang the print where the sun doesn t shine directly on the wall E Avoid handling the print in such a way that you touch the ink with your fingers If you ve spent much time in the w
436. when working with Word or Excel I suggest using a Pentium HI class PC with no less than 128MB of RAM If you want to work with really big images like 6 megapixel pictures then consider 256MB of RAM You might be surprised to learn that more memory is generally more useful than a faster processor E Batteries Digital cameras are power hogs I highly recommend buying two sets of NiMH rechargeable batteries since they 1l pay for themselves before you can say alkaline If your camera didn t come with an AC adapter I suggest that you buy one from the camera vendor s accessories store so you can power the camera when you re transferring images to the PC or displaying images on a TV E Memory Buy the biggest memory card you can afford The measly 8MB memory card that came with your camera won t last a day when you re on vacation so having a 128MB or 256MB card is almost essential A spare card if it s in the budget can keep you going when you fill up your main card far away from your PC E Image editing software Your camera probably came with some rudimentary image editor but it may not be up to the task Try a few out and buy the image editor that you like the best I typically use Paint Shop Pro from www jasc com for instance E Printer Geta good color inkjet printer and premium photo paper Don t skimp on this step when the time comes to print your pictures why bother having a good camera this book and taking the
437. with Your Digital Camera Another Kind of Colorizing You can create an interesting work of art using the Colorize tool Colorize converts your image into a picture with uniform hue while maintaining the original brightness levels and that means you get a monochrome image that isn t grayscale Instead it s bluescale redscale or whatever scale you happen to choose Want to get an image that looks as if it was photographed through night vision goggles Try to colorize it with a hue of 75 and a saturation of 80 But keep experimenting some images can look very dramatic when rendered in just a primary color Working with Text and Creating Projects Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 304 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to E Add text to digital images Fill text with color gradients Fill text with other images Create text drop shadows Turn images into wallpaper for the Windows desktop Add small images to letterhead in Word Create greeting cards on the PC Make your own newsletter Over the course of this book I ve shown you how to do all sorts of things to your images everything from the mundane like sharpening cropping and brightening your images to adding sophisticated special effects like chromakey and abstract effects Sometimes though all you really want to do is add a caption or turn a picture into a birthday card In this final chapter o
438. with vignette crops 224 Overexposure of close ups avoiding 106 107 Overlap achieving with panoramas 118 P P meaning of 65 P mode explanation of 64 Paint applying to images in Paint Shop Pro 245 248 Paint Brush tool in Paint Shop Pro description of 243 improving accuracy of painting with 249 Paint Shop Pro image editing software adding text to images with 304 307 benefits of 207 changing file formats with 214 215 choosing colors in 245 colorizing images with 300 302 combining drop shadows and text with 314 316 Contrast control 233 234 correcting color balance with 235 creating masks with 279 281 creating prints with 344 347 cropping images with 217 219 decolorizing images with 297 300 downloading trial version of 207 and drop shadows 312 314 and gradient filled text special effect 308 309 Grayscale feature in 297 making double exposures with 293 295 opening images in 180 208 209 Paint Tools Palette options in 243 and picture filled text special effect 310 311 resizing images with 209 211 rotating images with 227 Saturation tool 234 selecting colors in 242 245 and sharpening filters 239 turning off selections in 248 undoing mistakes with 241 viewing images with 178 180 Web site for 19 Painting improving accuracy of 248 251 Palm devices displaying images on 366 368 Panning using with action photography 67 68 Panorama mode special effect explanation of 18 Panor
439. work for you in this situation but I ve found that many cameras get confused by the dramatic variation in brightness with shots like this so you may need to experiment a bit If you can get enough magnification out of your lens so that the moon fills up at least half of the frame you ll need to shoot a fairly fast shutter speed or even set the EV value to underexpose the frame And be sure to use a tripod Sunset The sky is full of rich gorgeous colors around sunset Base your exposure on the sky itself not your subject or anything on the ground And take a few extra pictures bracketing your exposure to make sure you get the shot E Dusk I have found that photographing lighted buildings and headlight trails works particularly well when you can get the rich blue colors of dusk in the sky at the same time Taking Close Ups Copyright 2002 by The McGraw Hill Companies Inc Click Here for Terms of Use 92 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera How to Set your camera to its close focus mode Close focus a manual focus camera Ensure proper focus when shooting very close up Use the correction marks in the optical viewfinder Use optional close focus lenses Interpret diopter numbers Configure a tripod for semi steady macro shots Blur the background Maximize your depth of field for sharper pictures Eliminate reflections from glass display cases Close up photograph
440. ws Nonetheless flash units are admittedly an essential tool and I don t hesitate to use them when needed On the other hand you should be aware of two key limitations that may be inherent in your camera s flash unit when used in close up photography E Overexposure Unfortunately some digital camera flash units are not designed for very close range When you re taking a close up and you re within say a few inches of your subject some camera flash units badly overexpose the subject These flash units expect the subject to be several feet away and don t react well when the subject is much closer CHAPTER 5 Taking Close Ups 107 alelUsi eeiem This image was taken with a very wide aperture and no flash You can find out if your camera suffers from this problem very easily Just take a test picture or two and evaluate the results Of course there are workarounds to this problem You can try underexposing the picture using the EV controls on your camera or try a low tech solution lay a piece of thin tissue in front of the flash to diffuse the light E Blockage Some flash units are positioned so that the lens itself blocks some of the light when the subject is too close to the camera In my book this is a camera design deficiency plain and simple Nonetheless if your camera is affected by this particular glitch it s easy to see for yourself As in Figure 5 11 there will be a huge shadow in part of the pictur
441. x 16 Milion 9 MBytes 4 Choose Selections Select None from the menu and evaluate your work If you can still see red around the fringes you can take the Paint Brush and change the remaining red on a pixel by pixel basis To do that you might want to reduce the brush size to just a few pixels This setting is found in the Tool Options dialog box Be sure to leave the white spot in the middle of the eye or you ll have created a portrait of a space alien Notice that you don t have to do a perfect job in order to create a convincing eye the detail is so small in most pictures that simply eliminating the red is enough to dramatically improve the picture Airbrushing Away Distractions Have you ever taken a great landscape shot only to realize far too late to reshoot the picture that there s a telephone pole in the middle of what should be serenity Or a tourist in a loud shirt right behind your family shot that you wanted to frame Don t worry this section will show you how to eliminate those kinds of distractions with a little digital airbrushing 255 12 256 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera The tool at the heart of this magical process is the Clone tool This handy feature found in most image editors allows you to copy pixels from one region of your image to another That means you can airbrush away distracting aspects of a picture like power lines hotspots and so on by duplicating a
442. y and I emphatically recommend that you avoid them Connecting Your Camera with Serial 8 If you have a camera that uses a serial cable here s a general overview of what you need to do to get images from your camera to the PC 1 Shut off your PC Be sure to shut down your PC using the Start Shut Down menu item in Windows 2 Check the back of your PC If there s already a serial device like a modem or Palm cradle connected unplug it now Plug the camera s serial cable into the back of the PC now 3 Plug the other end of the serial cable into your camera 4 If your camera has an AC adapter plug it in now Serial transfers can be slow and drain a lot of battery life so avoid transferring images with battery power alone 5 Start your PC and wait for Windows to appear 160 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 6 7 Turn on your camera and set it to the data transfer mode if it has one If not you probably want to set it to playback mode Check your camera manual to be sure QA Ss il l Start the image transfer software that accompanied your camera and initiate the transfer Troubleshooting the Serial Port If your computer reports that it can t find the camera there could be any number of problems preventing the PC and camera from communicating Follow this checklist to help resolve the problem Is the camera turned on and set to the appropriate transfer mode The PC won t
443. y He s a pretty lazy cat though so he might not always keep this up to date We apologize in advance for any tardiness on his H ve s first published fiction The Wild Coo fall On October 15 his short story will be available for sale initially at wildcookie com in the form of an interactive CD ROM for kids age 3 i i 8 We re all very excited about it please check it out i 1 6 van and Marin returned to school this fall Evan is attending The School In The Woods a fun 4th grade only schoolhouse that s i Y if gont in the wande There the emnhacie ie an ecianee and of EJZ 2 seconds over 288 NUM mlClUls miiceem If you can handle programs like Publisher PowerPoint or Word you can probably slap together a simple Web site in a program like FrontPage 362 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera to edit a typical Web page The learning curve is similar to what you might expect from a program like Microsoft Publisher Using a Web design program you can enter text drag and drop graphics and pictures and then edit and format the Web site s appearance with simple toolbar and menu controls There are many good Web design programs on the market Some are free and some are retail products The following table lists some of the most popular editors Editor Where to Find It Microsoft FrontPage www microsoft com frontpage Sausage Software HotDog www sausagetools com Avantrix Koala HTML www ava
444. y also known as macro photography is one of the most exciting areas for experimenting with your digital camera It s a whole different world down there when you get within a few inches of your subject you re used to seeing things from five or six feet off the ground But when you re within an inch or so of your subject and it is magnified to several times its normal size photography suddenly seems like magic You might think I m exaggerating but macro photography really is a lot of fun And just because you have a digital camera not a multi thousand dollar large format camera don t think that you can t play along Certainly having a digital camera means that you may have to shoot your close ups in a different way than traditional photographers do But that is true of any kind of camera Each format has its own unique characteristics and here in the land of digital photography we will talk about how to get the most out of your digital camera when you are taking pictures in the Lilliputian world Capturing the Microscopic World First of all let s talk about some terminology When we discuss close up photography what we really mean is macro photography We re not talking about close ups in the portraiture sense there are no I m ready for my close up Mr DeMille situations in this chapter I hope I didn t disappoint you Instead close up photography is all about photographing the world around us such that we cap
445. y Card Format 00200 156 Transferring Images tothe PC eee 158 Transferring Images with a Serial Cable 159 Transferring Images with a USB Port 162 Transfer Shortcuts Using Memory Adapters 164 Caring for Your Memory Cards 0 00 0 e eee eee eee 166 CHAPTER 9 Keeping Images on the PC 6 cece cece eee eee 169 Managing Your Digital Pictures 0 0 0 e eee ee eee 170 Organizing Your Images 0 c eee cee eee eee 171 Renaming Images sseni nanen taime cee eee eee eee eens 174 Locating and Cataloging Images 00 00 177 Using Asset Management Software 0 00 180 Estimating File Size 1 eee 181 Calculating TIFs 2 0 0 0 eee eee eee eee 182 Calculating JPGS ara ses ig eee ere wae ace Sette ah pe 182 Archiving Images oc vines 4 site bee eer oes ote ol Sp as See 183 Adding Extra Hard Drives 0 00 00 0c eee eee eee 183 CHAPTER10 Turning Prints into Digital Images 00008 187 Understanding Scanners 0 0c eee eee eee 188 Shopping fora Scanner 0 0 eee cece eee 190 Resolution x eai a nile eee Se Ae tad haere See 190 Color Depth sorria ioan a ENEE eee eae dates Renae os 191 Dynamic Range as sve ee Se es LAN weet See 191 Other Features Lotin anien a e Oa AE E Mosc autcaaeieese dinbea DA 193 Scanning and Correcting Your Images
446. y depletion results 130 G Gamma control adjusting brightness of images with 228 230 234 Geometric effects filters description of 296 GIF format 89a features of 362 363 GIFs Graphics Interchange Format versus JPGs 364 purpose of 140 using on Web 362 Gifts creating from images 325 Glare reducing with polarizing filters 108 Glass shooting close ups through 108 109 Glossy photo paper usage of 342 381 Index Glow effects applying to subjects 286 287 Gradient filled text special effect creating 308 309 Gradients painting with Paint Shop Pro 247 248 Grayscale converting images to 297 Grayscale images for print scan resolution for 194 Green excessiveness correcting 235 Green squares manipulating in LensDoc plug in 123 124 Greeting cards creating 320 324 paper for 343 Gyms setting white balance for 85 H Hard disks See also External hard disks adding to PCs 183 184 browsing with Paint Shop Pro image editing software 178 179 capacity recommendation for 205 managing digital images on 170 storing images on 167 Hardware recommendations 19 20 High resolution scanners overview of 191 Histograms adjusting brightness of images with 228 230 233 Horizon keeping straight in compositions 53 moving in compositions 51 52 Hot mirror usage with infrared photography 125 Hot swappable explanation of 162 164 HotDog Web design program site 362 HotSync cradle for Palms hogging
447. y experience most cameras that cost about 500 have at least some manual exposure adjustments When you reach 1 000 these cameras are about as full featured as they come with all of the amenities you d expect from a 35mm SLR camera The Nikon CoolPix 5000 for instance is an excellent example of a camera that has automatic exposure modes as well as manual priority and program settings Here s what each of these settings does and when you would want to use them E Automatic In this mode both shutter speed and aperture settings are selected by the camera to match the current lighting Some digital camera automatic modes try to select the fastest shutter speed possible in order to minimize camera shake when you take a picture while most choose something in the middle a compromise between speed and depth of field There s generally nothing you can do to change the settings that the camera chooses when set to fully automatic except for adjusting the exposure compensation EV dial to over or underexpose the scene E Program The program mode usually indicated by the letter P on your camera s dial or LCD display is similar to an automatic mode Although the camera selects both the aperture and shutter you can generally modify the camera s selection by turning a dial or pressing a button The effect you can increase or decrease the shutter speed and the camera will adjust the aperture to match This is a good compromise between fully
448. y of storing images in a digital camera there are almost a half dozen typical storage schemes in use by cameras today so what kind of storage system you want to use might actually be a consideration when choosing your camera Almost all cameras use one of these methods of storing images Internal Memory Although a few low priced digital cameras use a few megabytes of internal nonremovable memory for storing images this animal is a dying breed In fact it s almost extinct Most cameras include CHAPTER 8 Working with Digital Film 153 the capability to insert some sort of removable memory That way you can insert a fresh memory card when your camera is full of pictures With only internal memory at your disposal you can easily run out of storage space and be unable to take more pictures unless you delete a few old images or you download your pictures to the PC something that can be hard to do if you re shooting snapshots on vacation SmartMedia SmartMedia originally known by the somewhat cumbersome name Solid State Floppy Disk Card SSFDC s the oldest of all memory formats It s also the thinnest weighing in at a mere 75mm thick Because it s so thin SmartMedia shown here has very little on board intelligence it relies on its parent device such as your digital camera to understand how to read and write data on the card While this approach makes for a more streamlined memory card it also poses a potential
449. y saw in the viewfinder With a digicam it s even more magical the pictures are available instantly How does it work Who knows The problem with the Abe Simpson approach to photography which I ve so named based on an episode of The Simpsons in which someone took a picture of old Abe and he shouted feebly You stole my soul is that you can never really improve if you don t know what your camera does or why and if you don t know how you can influence the camera yourself to improve your shots This chapter consequently walks you through the exposure process Here you ll learn what constitutes a proper exposure and how to get it yourself even on cameras that are mostly automatic How Cameras Take Pictures The best place to start is often right at the beginning how on earth does a camera take a picture anyway All cameras regardless of type work more or less the same way as depicted in the illustration here They open their shutter for a brief time allowing light to enter That light then interacts with a sensitive photo receptor like film or perhaps a computer chip and an image is recorded Let s start by looking at a traditional 35mm camera to give us a little perspective CHAPTER 2 Understanding Exposure 23 Inside a 35mm Camera Traditional cameras rely on good old fashioned film But what is film really It s just a strip of plastic that has been coated with a light sensitive chemical The chemical
450. y time you resave an image in JPG format it loses a little quality TIF is immune from that kind of compression punishment though so as soon as J start to edit an image I save it in the TIF format to as they say in the zip lock bag industry lock in the image quality Why don t I just take pictures in TIF format right from the start you must be wondering Well even though my digital camera can take images in TIF format as most can it s an almost useless feature Even with a large memory card I can only take a few images in the huge space consuming TIF format and it takes an enormous amount of time to save each TIF to the memory card Since the image quality difference between TIF and high quality JPG is quite small I take the pictures in JPG format and convert them to TIF afterward when they re on the PC It s a compromise but a sensible one Just looking at a JPG file doesn t affect the image quality So you can open it in an image editor view it and close it again without affecting quality just don t make any changes and don t click the Save button ee There are a number of reasons why you might want to change image file formats on the PC Here are some of the most common E You convert a JPG to TIF to preserve image quality before repeated edit and save sessions You convert TIF to JPG to save disk space or make an image small enough to upload using the Internet E You need to import an image into a
451. you can always try enhancing it afterwards You can sometimes salvage an otherwise throwaway image CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 235 Do you have a people picture that s a little too red This doesn t happen often but can occur when you take indoor pictures in artificial light Back off on the saturation slightly to get a more natural skin tone Correct the Color Balance Quite often the colors in some pictures won t come out quite right for some reason Some cameras for instance tend to shift the whole image toward one end of the color spectrum under certain lighting conditions You can change the color balance in an image in many programs as easily as sliding three controls marked Red Green and Blue To fix out of sync colors open the color balancing tool in your image editing program In Paint Shop Pro you can find it at Colors Adjust Red Green Blue You ll see a dialog box in which you can slide the three primary color controls to the left less or right more to bias the colors in your photo For best results use the color balancing tool very conservatively and be sure to preview your work before clicking OK You ll rarely need to change the colors in your image by more than about 15 percent If your image is too blue however you won t necessarily get the effect you re looking for just by backing off on the blue slider Use this chart to fine tune your image Problem Solution xis the amount you move
452. your image In Paint Shop Pro you can find Blur by choosing an option from the Effects Blur menu Once you ve blurred your background turn off the selection and save your image CHAPTER 12 Cleaning Up Your Images 241 Undo a Big Mistake Paint Shop Pro like many image editors has an extensive undo history you can use to fix a major boo boo If you spend 10 minutes making edits to a photo and don t want to choose Edit Undo 25 times in a row to get rid of it all do this 1 Choose Edit Command History You ll see a dialog box that lists all the operations you ve performed from the last back to the first reverse chronological order Scroll down until you find the point at which your unwanted edits begin Click that first unwanted edit All the operations from there back to the last operation you performed become highlighted Click Undo The image will revert to an earlier state That s the quick overview Here s how to actually pull off this feat of digital trickery Load a slightly blurry portrait that you want to sharpen into Paint Shop Pro Select the Freehand tool and set it to Smart Edge Set the Feather value to about 5 that way the transition from the subject to the background won t be abrupt Trace the outline of the subject s face or body being careful to stay along the edge 12 242 How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera 4 When you have completely selected the subject choo
453. your image and then choose Selections Invert from the main menu You should find that you got the exact opposite of the selected region It s an easy way to select everything except the middle of an image for instance E Paste a selection into another image Using the Layer technique you ll learn about in Chapter 14 you can take a portion of two images and combine them in interesting ways Consider the image below for instance I cut the fish out of another picture using the freehand selection tool and then copied it into a picture of the diver as a separate layer Since you can resize one layer without affecting the rest of the picture I shrunk the selection until it fit in the lens of the mask Rotate Your Perspective Not all of your shots are going to be plain old horizontal shots especially if you took my advice in Chapter 3 and went nuts with camera position and perspective If you have images from your camera that are sideways you took the pictures sideways so you have to turn your head to look at them on the PC you should fix those images right away It s a snap Some image editors in fact even have one click buttons for rotating your images to the left or right by 90 degrees Paint Shop Pro doesn t have that but it s not much more difficult Here s what you need to do to fix a sideways image CHAPTER 11 Quick Changes for Your Images 221 1 Load the sideways image in Paint Shop Pro and decide which way it need
454. your television or stereo Point it toward your camera s lens turn on your camera and look at the camera s LCD display When you press a button on the remote can you see a red light at the end of the remote If you can the camera is sensitive to infrared and you re ready to go If you don t see the remote light up then your camera has a hot mirror and you can t shoot infrared sorry As you have probably guessed you need some way to prevent visible light from entering the camera lens when you shoot in infrared What you need is a filter Infrared filters are designed to block most or all of the visible light in a scene All that reaches your camera s CCD is infrared light which is what your camera will use to take the picture Here s the bad news Infrared filters are specialty photographic items and typically aren t available at your local photo store You may be able to special order an infrared filter but it s probably cheaper from an online photo store such as www adorama com or www bhphotovideo com Either way an infrared filter will set you back around 50 to 75 They come in a variety of strengths but I ve found any one will do Just be sure to order one that will fit the thread size on the front of your digital camera if your camera doesn t have screw threads you may be able to order an adapter Taking the Shot When is the best time to shoot infrared photos In the early morning or late afternoon hours You c

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