How to use Digital Technology

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How to use Digital Technology

• Digital Camera Demonstration
• By
• Instructional Technology Services, SAISD

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Topics Covered

• What is a digital technology
• History of Digital Cameras
• Parts of a Digital Camera
• The hardware needed to create your own digital
  studio
• What type of memory card should you purchase

Continued
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Topics Covered

• Transferring your images from your camera to your
  PC
• What is the right format for your digital
  projects
• How to create photo-quality prints suitable for
  framing

Continued
4
Image Software Demo

• Using Macromedia Fireworks
• How to correct minor imperfections in your images
• Changing the appearance of your images using
  special effects
• Combining text and other images with your photos

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What is a Digital Technology?
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Digital Technology

• Technology that uses a binary representations to
  store information.
• Binary a number of base two, which uses only
  the digits 0 and 1.
• Computers operate by using binary (presence and
  absence of electricity) to perform computations
  and make logical decisions
• Memory is store using a digital format (CD-ROMS,
  CD-Rs, CD-RW, DVD, Memory Cards, )

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Why go Digital?

• Freedom and Flexibility
• No longer tied to purchasing film and its
  expiration date
• Instant preview of images
• Choice in downloading only the images you want to
  keep
• Power to change your images using a secondary
  software program (Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia
  Freehand 10 and Fireworks, Jasc Paint Shop Pro )

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Why go Digital?

• Personalization of projects by importing your
  images (greeting cards, web pages, presentations,
  )
• The ability to print your images in any size or
  format of your choosing
• Lower end models are still functional and
  cheaper. They make great gifts for beginner
  photographers and younger consumers

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History of Digital Cameras
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History of Digital Cameras

• First digital cameras appeared in the 1990s
• Captured low resolution, fuzzy images of poor
  quality
• Relied on a light sensor to capture the image or
  CMOS chip.
• VGA resolution (640x480 pixels) was the standard
  size of a digital image.
• Because of the low resolution the image printed
  fuzzy and unclear.

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First digital cameras were very expensive
Data taken from How to do Everything with Your
Digital Camera, 3rd Ed. By Dave Johnson,
McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2003
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Stop
What is a high resolution, 3-2 mega pixel digital
still camera?
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But what does it mean?

• Digital Composed of, or employing a binary
  representation of information
• Mega Million
• Pixel Short for Picture Element, a small,
  discrete unit of visual information on a video
  screen.
• Low Resolution Images that do not appear sharp
  and detailed because they are made up of a small
  number of dots per inch.

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But what does it mean?

• High resolution Refers to images that appear
  sharp and detailed because they are made up of a
  large number of dots per inch.
• Dots per inch (DPI) The measurement of how
  sharp your print will be. The more dots, the
  better the resolution or appearance of the
  picture.
• MB Mega Bytes
• Mb Mega Bit

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• A mega pixel camera can create a image with
  millions of pixels or millions of dots of
  information.

Data taken from How to do Everything with Your
Digital Camera, 3rd Ed. By Dave Johnson,
McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2003
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Follow this rule of thumb

• The more pixels you have,
• the sharper the image,
• the larger it can be printed

And the more expensive the camera
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Difference in Resolution
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Difference in Resolution
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Parts of a Digital Camera
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Parts of a Digital Camera

• Lens
• Flash

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Parts of a Digital Camera

• Digital Viewfinder
• Optical Viewfinder
• Menu buttons
• Zoom

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Parts of a Digital Camera

• Ports
• AC
• USB
• Video

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Parts of a Digital Camera

• Power Button
• Mode Selector

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Parts of a Digital Camera

• Media and Battery area

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The hardware needed to create your own digital
studio
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Your own Digital Studio

• A Camera
• A Personal Computer (plenty of RAM and a fast
  processor)
• Batteries (rechargeable are recommended)
• Memory Card for the Camera (128MB, 256MB, or
  higher)
• Image editing software (Adobe Photoshop,
  Macromedia Freehand 10 and Fireworks, Jasc Paint
  Shop Pro )
• Color Inkjet Printer and premium photo paper

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What type of memory cardshould you purchase
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Memory cards

• The cameras removable memory
• There are several different types SD, SmartMedia,
  CompactFlash, Memory Stick
• Several different sizes 16MB, 32MB, 64MB, 128MB,
  256MB, 512MB, and are even available in gigs
• But, may only work in certain brands of cameras.

• Some cameras may also use Floppy Disk
• and CD-Rs as storage devices

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Secure Digital (SD)

• The newest kind of removable memory
• About the size of your thumbnail
• Used as extended memory in PDAs
• Can hold large amounts of memory currently
  256MB or more

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SmartMedia

• The oldest of all memory formats
• About the size of your thumbnail
• Are wafer thin and somewhat flexible
• Can only hold up to 128MB of memory

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CompactFlash

• Same age as SmartMedia
• Reasonably small (about an 1/8th of an inch
  thick)
• Ideal for high-Mega Pixel cameras
• Comes in capacities up to 4GB

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Memory Stick

• Originally made only for Sony and Sony products
• Resembles a stick of gum
• Two different formats
• Memory Stick (only up to 128MB)
• Memory Stick Pro (from 256MB to 1GB)

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Floppy Disk and CD-Rs

• Floppies hold only 1.44MB (a tiny amount)
• CD-Rs hold up to 700MB
• Image transfer is easy
• Floppies go strait from the camera into the
  floppy drive of the PCs
• CD-Rs may require finalization first prior to
  image transfer

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How many images can fit
Assuming youre capturing JPG images in
high-quality compression
Data taken from How to do Everything with Your
Digital Camera, 3rd Ed. By Dave Johnson,
McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2003
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Transferring your images from your camera to your
PC
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Transferring Images

• The camera should come with the software and a
  cable to connect it to the PC
• Todays cameras use the USB connection, though
  older ones may still need a serial cable instead.
• Some high-end models may also use a FireWire

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Things to Know

• USB comes in two formats USB 1.1 and USB 2.0
• USB 1.1 used to the standard and transfers data
  at 12 Mbps (mega bits per second)
• USB 2.0 runs as 450 Mbps
• In order to use USB 2.0, both your computer and
  camera must be USB 2.0 compliant

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Things to Know

• If connect a new USB Camera to your computer
• Start by installing the software first
• NEVER plug in a USB cable connected to the
  hardware prior to install the software (unless
  directed)

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Things to Know

• Memory Card readers or adapters
• Lets you insert a memory card and read images
  from it like a floppy disk
• Will be recognized by your PC as several
  removable disk drives (found in the My Computer
  window)
• Transfers my be faster with the adapter
• Most adapters have slots for several different
  types of memory cards

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What is the right formatfor your digital projects
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Problem Limited Space

• Certain file formats take up more space (MB) than
  others when saved to your PC
• Other file formats may not be recognized by
  certain programs and will need to be converted to
  another type by the user
• And still others may compress well to take up
  less space and still maintain their picture
  quality

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Most Common File Formats

• JPG Joint Photographic Experts Group
• Will compress to save storage space
• May sacrifice image quality in order to save on
  space
• Does an outstanding job on preserving all visual
  information that can be seen by the human eye

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Most Common File Formats

• TIF Tagged Image File
• Can be save with or without compression
• Will preserve 100 of the information for about
  every pixel in the original image
• Can be used in both the Windows and the Macintosh
  platforms

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Most Common File Formats

• BMP Bitmapped file format
• Used for general-purpose storage and as wallpaper
  on your Windows desktop
• Not used on the Internet
• Tend to be quite large because no file
  compression will be used to save the image

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Most Common File Formats

• GIF Graphics Interchange Format
• Has a few advantages over the JPG format on the
  Web
• Can make the background of GIF images transparent
• Images can also be displayed in interlace mode,
  which means you can get an overall impression of
  the picture even before it has fully downloaded.

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How to create photo-quality prints suitable for
framing
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A Must A Great Printer

• A digital camera isnt very useful unless you can
  make great prints.
• Invest in a color inkjet printer, which is
  measured in dots per inch (dpi). Look for
• High resolution 200 to 300 dpi
• Number of color a tri-color cartridge with a
  separate black
• Speed Inkjets print more slowly (color should
  be their selling point not speed)

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A Must A Great Printer

• Eyeball the prints try out the printer in the
  store before purchasing (demo button)
• Ease of installation USB versus an older
  parallel port connector
• Direct printing Some printers let you connect
  your digital camera directly to the printer or
  insert the cameras memory card into the printer
  for quick and painless printing.

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A Must A Great Printer

• Size and capacity of the paper tray some
  printers differ dramatically in terms of what
  kind of paper you can print on. You may have to
  purchase a wide-format printer if you want to
  create posters or large size prints
• Expense of printer cartridges depending on the
  type of printer and the type of cartridge,
  tri-color and black cartridge may run from 23 to
  57 each

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Which paper is best?

• Stock and use paper according to you needs.
• For daily use that doesnt involve printing
  photos, use plain copy paper or inkjet paper
• For high quality printing, you have a number of
  choices depending on weight, grade, and glossy
  application

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Types of paper

• Plain paper inexpensive and the ink tends to
  absorb quickly and blur the image
• Inkjet paper Makes a better draft-quality
  photographic prints. Has embed clay or some
  other ink fixture to stop the inks from spreading
  before they dry

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Types of paper

• Photo paper bright-white coated paper thats
  designed explicitly for photographs
• Glossy photo paper Expensive (generally a
  dollar a sheet). You can only print on one side
  of the photo paper

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Image Software Demonstration
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• Using Macromedia Fireworks
• How to correct minor imperfections in your images
• Changing the appearance of your images using
  special effects
• Combining text and other images with your photos