Digital Photos

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• Digital Photos
• Understanding Digital Images
• Organizing Your Digital Images
• Enhancing Your Images
• Having Fun with the Results

Computer User Group August 18, 2005
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My Personal Goals for Digital Photos and Other
Images

• Enhance photos and other Images for optimal
  appearance
• Store them in perpetuity with no quality loss
• Organize them such that I can find any single
  photo or group of photos or other images easily
• Easily select groups of photos to create slide
  shows, make prints, etc.

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• What We Will Be Talking About
• Understanding the Basics of Digital Photos,
  Pixels, File Compression, etc.
• Using software to Catalog the Photos
• Simple editing procedures to enhance the Photos
• Good Housekeeping to store the Photos and other
  Images
• Ideas about storing other types of Images on
  your Computer
• Scanning and digitizing printed photos, 35 mm
  slides and other documents

What We Wont Be Talking About

• Sophisticated editing of pictures using Layers,
  etc, in Photoshop Editor
• Editing Videos from CamCorders
• Everything else that I dont understand

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Simple Pixel Math

• A Pixel (Picture Element) is a dot of a single
  color
• Assume that 200 Pixels per inch gives a very
  good print.
• Each sqaure inch will have 40,000 pixels
• An 8x10 picture has 80 sq inches x 40,000 pixels
  3,200,000 pixels or 3.2 Megapixels.
• A 3 Megapixel camera should yield a good 8x10
  print if there is no cropping.
• More pixels may not give a better picture, but
  usually dont hurt.

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Simple Pixel Math (cont.)

• We normally talk about Pixels per linear inch
  rather than Pixels per square inch ie, 200 PPI
  yields a good print.
• We use the term Dots Per Inch somewhat
  interchangeably. 200 DPI is generally a good
  print.
• When displaying pixels on a computer monitor,
  much fewer pixels can look very good.
• For example, an 800-by-600 pixel screen is
  capable of displaying 800 distinct dots on each
  of 600 lines, or about 480,000 pixels.
• This translates into different dpi measurements
  depending on the size of the screen.
• My 19 monitor at 800-by-600 displays about 60
  pixels per inch.
• A picture that looks very good on the monitor
  may not have enough pixels for a good looking
  print.

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More Pixel Info

• There are many other variables to photo quality
  other than just pixels
• Quality of the camera lens
• Compression of the pixel file
• Lighting conditions
• Skill of the photographer
• There is no formula to equate number of pixels
  to file size since some pictures compress more
  than others. My rule of thumb is
• A file of less than 100 kb will not yield a good
  4x6 print.
• 300 kb jpegs will normally be fine for 4x6
  prints
• 1 mb jpegs will normally be fine for 8x10 prints

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Filetypes Commonly Used
Extension Filetype
Photoshop Document. Lossless. Proprietary format
handled only by Adobe Photoshop products. Graphic
Interchange Format. Uses lossless compression
known as LZW. Data output by the camera that
contains all of the voltage details from the CCD.
This information must be transformed into a TIFF
or PSD file. Tagged Image File Format. Lossy and
lossless compression available. Most files are
used as lossless. Product developed by Joint
Photo Experts Group. Can be compressed a little
or a lot.

• PSD or PDD

• GIFF

• RAW

• TIFF

• JPG

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Why Photoshop Elements 3.0?

• Adobe is a big Company with a robust product
  suite.
• Product bundles the Editor program with Album
  program.
• Good help available through Forums, etc.
• Price is Cheap!
• Good alternatives available
• Picture It
• Picasso
• ACDSee
• Digital Camera Software

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Photoshop Elements 3.0 Functionality

• Two progams in one
• Editor is used to enhance and modify pictures
• Organizer is an album to categorize and organize
  pictures
• Organizer
• Designed to help people who store all photos in
  one folder with unintelligible file names
  (IMG_001, etc.)
• Is nothing more than a database that points to
  all the photos.
• But dont be fooled -- there is a lot more to it
  than meets the eye.

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Typical View of a Catalog in Organizer
Categories, Subcategories and Tags created by the
user.
Thumbails of pictures created by Organizer
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Photoshop Organizer
Category
Subcategory
Tags
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Connecting Organizer to Your Pictures
Click on the camera icon to get the drop down
box. Select From Files and Folders to find the
pictures you want to bring into the album.
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Associating Pictures with Categories, etc.
Simply select all of the new pictures and drag
them onto the desired tags. In this case I
dragged them to the 050629 Buchanan Tag.
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Note that the Date is Wrong!
When I copied the digital pictures to my hard
drive, I renamed them to Nine Hole 1, etc. But
someone didnt have the date set on their camera!
Organizer will default to the date downloaded,
not the date the picture was taken.
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How to Insert the Correct Date Picture Was Taken

• Select all pictures to be changed to a common
  date
• Right click on the thumbnail in Organizer and
  select adjust date and time.
• Input the correct date information and it will
  always stay in PS Organizer. It will not be
  attached to the Jpeg itself, i.e. Windows
  Explorer will not display this info.

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Viewing Groups of Pictures
Click on a category, subcategory or tag to see
all the pictures associated with your selection.
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Select Multiple Tags for Viewing Pictures
Check multiple Categories, Subcategories or Tags
to view groupings of pictures.
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View File Location of Pictures
Organizer displays the location of the picture(s).
Select a group of pictures
Select Folder Location
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There are Many More Things You Can do With the
View Function

• You can add multiple categories, subcategories
  and tags to each photo.
• In my personal catalog I have a tag for my
  daughter, Stacey. For all pictures that include
  Stacey, I add that tag. By clicking on the Tag
  Stacey I see all pictures of her growing up,
  graduating, getting married, etc.
• You can request to view multiple groups of
  pictures, e.g. , photos of all golfing events in
  2004
• You can request to exclude selected groups of
  pictures, e.g. include photos of 2004 golfing
  events but exclude those at Oakmoore.

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Example of Tagging Configuration for Personal
Pictures
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Example of Tagging Configuration
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Viewing Info on a Single Picture
Right Click on the Picture to get drop down box.
Select a picture by left clicking on it
Left Click on Show Properties to get EXIF Data
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Properties Dialog Shows EXIF Data
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PSE Catalogs

• Most users have a single catalog for all their
  pictures.
• I maintain 3 separate catalogs
• One catalog for all SIR Organization pictures
  which I use in Newsletters.
• One catalog for digital originals from my or
  other peoples cameras
• One catalog for all my scanned photos and
  enhanced digital photos.
• I select the best photos from my Digital
  Originals catalog.
• I crop and enhance those photos in PSE Editor
  and save the files in a separate set of folders.
• I import those files into my catalog for
  Finished Photos.

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Dos Donts Using Organizer

• DONTS
• Dont move cataloged photos around on your hard
  drive using Windows Explorer. Photoshop
  Organizer wont know where they are. Move
  pictures and files from within Organizer.
• Unless you are using layers and want to preserve
  all steps of your work, dont store as PSD files.
  Save as high quality JPEGS. PSD files dont
  cooperate with Windows Explorer. You cannot view
  thumbnails and Windows Explorer wont show EXIF
  data (date picture taken, etc.)
• Dont delete the People category in Organizer.
  It will cause your catalog to become
  corrupted.DO
• Use Adobe Uploader (or similar software) for
  downloading pictures from your digital camera
  (see details on next slide).
• Set the date and time on your camera. When
  travelling with friends who want to exchange
  pictures, synchronize your cameras.

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Use Adobe PhotoLoader to Download Pictures from
your Camera
Specify which folder to store the pictures
Checkmark the pictures you want to download
Create a name for the pictures that will help
identify them
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Helpful Tips for Various Situations

• Give scanned prints a filename that begins with
  year month day. e.g. 850703 Maui 1.jpeg
• I scan most prints at 300 ppi. This allows for
  about 30 of the picture to be cropped out and
  still have enough pixels for printing purposes.
  If the print is quite small or if you plan to
  enlarge the printed image, then try higher
  resolutions.
• Scanning at very high resolutions can work
  against you. Depending on the quality of the
  photo or document scanned, you bring in image
  issues that can degrade the digital file.
• I mostly use Quick Fix to edit images. That
  allows me to crop them to the desired size,
  remove red eye, and enhance them as needed. If I
  need to paint out some flashes on eyeglasses,
  etc., then I use the clone function in Standard
  Edit.

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Typical File Info Shown by Windows Explorer
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Right Click on Info Bar to Get Options
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Scroll Down and Check Date Picture Taken
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Now Windows Explorer Shows Other Useful Info
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Simple Enhancements in PS Editor
Click on Enhance and then Auto Levels.
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Before and After Auto Enhancing
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Checking The Pixels After Editing
Click on Image, Resize and Image Size
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Pixel Info After Editing
Picture Dimensions
Pixel Info
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Civil War Document Scanned Into PS Editor
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Enlarge the Image to Make it Readable
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Digitizing 35mm Slides

• I had about 600 old 35mm slides I selected for
  digitizing.
• I first tried them in my flatbed scanner (with
  backlight) and it took several minutes per slide
  at 1200 ppi.
• I looked into purchasing a dedicated slide
  scanner, but the better ones are 500
• I searched the internet and found DigMyPics.com
  in Mesa, AZ. They digitized my slides for about
  50 cents each.
• DigMy Pics scans at 2000 ppi. For a 1 square
  slide that is about 4 million pixels. If you
  recall my slide on Pixel Math, that is plenty of
  pixels for an 8x10 print or more.
• DigMyPics will scan at higher resolutions, but
  pictures taken with a standard 35mm camera begin
  to show film grain, etc.
• DigMyPics digitized my slides and sent me a DVD
  with high quality Jpegs (at 2.5 - 4.5 mb each)
  and 2 DVDs of Tiff files at 12mb each. And
  they returned my slides.

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Sample Picture from an Old Slide
1972
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Other Applications for PSE 3.0

• Scan old family pictures and documents and store
  them in a Catalog. Examples are birth
  certificates, life announcements, diplomas, etc.
• If you have a hobby such as coins or any other
  collection, take pictures of all your items and
  organize them in a catalog.
• Build a slideshow of your favorite photographs.
  Add captions and music to enhance the show.
• Make cards, calendars, etc., from your favorite
  photographs.
• Select a group of photographs and have any type
  or size of prints made, ie collages, special
  sizes, etc.

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Be Sure to Back Up Your Files!

• I dedicate one hard drive for my photo catalogs,
  collections, etc. I schedule full backup once a
  week and incremental backups twice during the
  week.
• I use Norton Ghost 9.0 and it saves the last 3
  full backups.
• Once it saves a fourth full backup it deletes
  the oldest full backup with its associated
  incrementals.
• Periodically, I burn a couple of DVDs
  containing all my jpegs and store them at my
  daughters house.
• Be sure to backup your PSE catalogs. I have had
  two instances where a catalog became corrupted
  and I had to retrieve the last backup.
  Rebuilding a catalog can take many hours.