From Pixels to Projects

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From Pixels to Projects

• Understanding and Using Digital Photographyby
  Jessica Heldman and George Privateer

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What youll learn today

• The basics of how a digital camera works
• What to look for in a digital camera and how to
  choose the right one for you
• How to take the best possible picture
• The basics of digital photo adjustment
• How to set up your photos for laser engraving

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Digital Camera 101
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How digital cameras work

• At the most basic level, a digital camera works
  much the same as a film-camera
• The camera captures images through a series of
  lenses that bounce light off a subject.
• Where digital cameras differ is in the image
  processing
• Film cameras process images chemicallyheck, you
  dont even need electricity to operate a camera!
• Digital cameras convert images into a series of
  0s and 1s that represent the tiny colored dots,
  or pixels, that make up the image.
• The number of pixels a digital camera can copy
  makes up the cameras resolution.

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Learning the lingo

• Here are some of the basic digital camera terms
  well beusing throughout the presentation
• Resolution Refers to the number of pixels a
  digital camera can capture. Can be stated as
  either 3 mega pixel, 3 MP, or 2048 x 1536.
  Resolution is the most common term used to
  differentiate digital cameras.
• Aperture Refers to the size of the opening of
  the lens and how much light gets to the digital
  camera sensor.
• Shutterspeed Refers to how long the sensor is
  exposed to light.
• Memory How a camera stores images. Can be
  internal and external. Also referred to as
  storage.

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Learning the lingo

• Zoom How the camera zooms in on an object.
  Can be either digital or optical.
• White balance Tells the camera what elements of
  a photo should look white, and, in turn, what
  should look black and all colors in between. Can
  be automatic or manual.
• LCD Short for Liquid Crystal Display. It is the
  screen on the back of most digital cameras that
  allows you to preview photos.
• File format (type) Refers to the type of digital
  file the camera will save images as. Most common
  are .jpeg, .tiff and RAW.
• File size Refers to the size of each photo
  taken. This will vary based on resolution and
  file format.

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Picking the right camera for you
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What do I want?
There are literally thousands of options
available in digital cameras. When choosing a
camera, you should focus on what I call The Big
Three
Resolution
Zoom
Feel
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Resolution

• When choosing a camera, here is an easy way to
  determine what resolution you should be looking
  for
• 2-mega pixel (2 million pixels) cameras can
  create prints up to 4 x 5 that are similar in
  quality to a photo lab print. This camera would
  be fine for small sublimation jobs.
• 3-mega pixel cameras can make decent 8 x 10
  prints. This would be a good camera for
  sublimation and some photo lasering.
• 4-mega pixel cameras can make very nice 11 x 17
  prints, and still hold good quality up to 16 x
  20. 4-mega pixel is the current standard
  resolution, and would suit all sublimation and
  most photo lasering jobs. Also allows for better
  image quality after cropping in a photo-editing
  software package.
• 5-mega pixel and up cameras will produce very
  large 20 x 24 prints with no loss of quality.

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Zoom

• As stated earlier, there are two types of zoom in
  digital cameras optical and digital.
• Optical zoom means the lens does the work.
• Digital zoom means the computer processor does
  the work.
• Optical zoom will produce better results, as the
  zoom happens before the image is captured.
• Digital zoom simply magnifies the pixels of the
  zoom area after the image has been captured.
• Buyer beware! Cameras often list Optical and
  Digital zoom together for a total camera zoom.
  The more optical zoom, the better.

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Feel

• This is the totally subjective part of the
  evaluation process.
• If possible, use the camera before you buy.
• How does it feel in your hand?
• How easy is it to access the camera settings?
• Is the LCD screen bright enough?
• Is the camera menu intuitive?
• While a camera might have all the features you
  are looking for, if its not comfortable to use,
  dont buy it! Being happy with the camera is the
  most important user feature!

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Other considerations

• Battery type
• Digital cameras are battery hogs. If possible,
  buy one with a rechargeable battery or buy
  rechargeable batteries separately. And always
  buy extras!
• Exposure controls
• If you want to adjust the aperture and white
  balance manually, look for manual controls. Most
  cameras offer some level of control, with the
  more expensive models offering more control.
• Memory
• Your camera should come with some sort of
  removable memory, such as SmartMedia or Compact
  Flash cards. Youll want to add additional
  memory to store photos, so make sure you know
  what kind of memory your camera takes.

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Things to avoid

• Digital zoom only cameras
• Digital zoom doesnt give you enough flexibility
  and decreases image resolution and quality.
• Cameras that use floppy disks or CDs
• Believe it or not, there are still cameras that
  use floppy disks and CD-ROMS for storage. They
  are often bulky and slow. Avoid these if at all
  possible.
• Memory card readers
• They sound like a good idea, but memory card
  readers can be unstable and accidentally erase
  your memory card, particularly multi-format
  memory card readers. Its best to just hook your
  camera up directly to your PC.
• Basing your decision on video capability
• Most digital cameras today offer the ability to
  capture video. While this sounds like a nice
  feature, video files take up A LOT of memory card
  space, and the video files themselves are often
  poor quality. Get a dedicated video camera for
  video projects.

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Our recommendations

• A camera with 4-mega pixels.
• A camera with at least 2x optical zoom.
• A camera with an easy-to-navigate menu system.
• A camera with removable memory (SmartDisk or
  Compact Flash).

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Readysetshoot!
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Taking the best picture possible

• Besides your camera, the most important element
  to the success of your photo is.

LIGHTING, LIGHTING, LIGHTING!
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Taking the best picture possible

• Remember a photo is really an image of the light
  reflected through the lens of the camera.
• While the built-in flash for your camera provides
  some illumination, you may want to consider an
  external flash.
• At the very least, add some of your own
  artificial light through additional lamps.
• Not only does poor lighting cause shadows, but it
  will also throw off your cameras white balance,
  giving you inconsistent color.

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Some helpful lighting tips

• When taking pictures of people outdoors, try to
  take the photo between 11am and 2pm, with the
  subject facing the sun. The sun is high enough
  in the sky to adequately light the subject and
  will minimize squinting.
• In low-light situations, increasing the aperture
  on your camera will increase the amount of light
  the lens lets in, and will help your picture
  quality.
• Even small work lamps will help light a subject
  indoors. Have the subject face the light, and
  tilt the lamp either toward the ceiling or toward
  the floor to avoid washing out your subject.
• If you do a lot of product photography for
  catalogs or mailings, consider purchasing a light
  box.

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Other tips for great photos

• Stabilize your image with a tripod. Tripods with
  built-in levels can cost less than 50, and will
  improve the quality of your photos.
• Keep a lens cloth handy. There are cloths made
  especially for digital cameras, although a
  lint-free eyeglasses cloth will do fine and
  probably cost less.
• Is your background too dark out? Try increasing
  the ISO speed. This will increase the
  sensitivity of the image sensor in your camera,
  and will bring the background into better focus.
  However, your camera will be more sensitive to
  movement, so this would be a good time to use a
  tripod.

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Other tips for great photos

• When you are shooting a subject that is far away,
  such as a performer on stage, dont use your
  flash. A typical internal flash illuminates up
  to 6. This means the subjects in the foreground
  will be brightly lit, while the subject on stage
  will be in the dark.
• While the LCD screen is a great tool on digital
  cameras, dont forget about the viewfinder. The
  viewfinder is a true representation of what you
  are shooting, as it looks directly through the
  lens. Youll be able to detect shadows and other
  minor imperfections better through the viewfinder.

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After you take the picture
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Basic photo correcting on a PC

• For the purposes of this presentation, we will
  refer to features in Corel Photo-Paint 11. All
  image editing software (like Adobe Photoshop and
  Paint Shop Pro) has similarly named features that
  will perform the same functions.
• Once your image is loaded on to your computer,
  you may still need to make some adjustments.
• Corel Photo-Paint 11 is pretty smart. Seven
  times out of ten, image imperfections can be
  fixed by using the Auto Equalize function.
• This will automatically adjust the basic
  parameters of the photo based on the white
  balance of the image.
• Remember, Photo-Paint is going to look for the
  color white in the image and base all of its
  color corrections off of that measure.

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Basic photo correcting on a PC

• When the Auto Equalize doesnt quite do it
• Start with adjusting Brightness/Contrast/Intensity
  
• Usually, making an image slightly brighter will
  help you determine what colors need to be
  adjusted.
• Beware! Dont make your image too bright or it
  will throw off the rest of your colors.
• Once youve adjusted the Brightness/Contrast/Inten
  sity, try the Auto Equalize again. This time,
  you might get the results you want.
• Adjusting the Color Balance
• If you take a photo with a predominate color in
  the background, you may see other objects in the
  image taking on this colors characteristics (I.e.
  A person in a photo with a bright green
  background might have a slight green tint to
  them).
• Use Color Balance to tame certain colors or make
  others more prominent.

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Laser engraving your photo
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Learning the lingo

• Here are some of the basic laser engraving terms
  well beusing throughout the remainder of the
  presentation
• Halftones Refers to how the laser sees your
  photograph. Halftones are the series of small
  black dots that simulate the gray tones of a
  photograph. In order for a laser to read a
  photo, it must be converted to grayscale.
• DPI Dots Per Inch. How many small black dots
  (halftone dots) there are per inch of a photo.
  The higher the DPI, the sharper the image (as far
  as the laser is concerned).
• LPI Lines Per Inch. A term that originated in
  newspaper printing, it also affects the quality
  of the image. Halftone images have a maximum LPI
  of 150.
• PPI (for your laser) Pulse Per Inch. How many
  times in an inch that a laser will fire. A PPI
  of 1000 means the laser will fire 1000 in an
  inch.

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Halftones and you

• When you look at a photo in a magazine or
  newspaper, you eyes see a continuous grey image.
• In reality, it is a series of black dots that get
  smaller or bigger, depending on the shading of
  the image. When printers make a halftone
  screen, they are creating the illusion of shades
  of grey.
• Your laser, in raster mode, sees your photo as a
  series of black dots, and engraves all of those
  little dots at different sizes to recreate the
  image on your substrate.
• The key to achieving a good reproduction of the
  original image is to render the halftone dots
  accurately!

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Digital camera settings

• Set the image quality of your digital camera to
  the best image quality available.
• Youll probably be saving the picture at a higher
  resolution than your laser needs, but it is
  better to resize the picture down then to try and
  enlarge it. You will end up with better lasering
  results.
• Once youve downloaded the picture, import it in
  to the image editing software of your choice.
• For the purposes of this presentation, we will
  refer to features in Corel Photo-Paint 11. All
  image editing software (like Adobe Photoshop and
  Paint Shop Pro) has similarly named features that
  will perform the same functions.
• Under the Image/Resample menu, adjust the image
  to the size you want. You can also adjust the
  DPI at this time.
• NOTE Photo lasering can be done between 72 and
  300 DPI (180 to 250 is recommended). An image
  DPI more than 300 will dramatically increase the
  file size, but not improve the rendering of your
  halftone screen.

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Rotary engraving a photo

• A rotary engraving system uses three axis
• X, Y, and Z.
• The software that drives the engraver is designed
  to move from one point to another along a
  vector or line.
• The engraver was not designed to recognize each
  pixel of a gray scale image. If that were the
  case, it would have to raise and lower for each
  pixel, and engraving would take hours or days to
  complete.
• The laser was designed to pulsate at short
  intervals very quickly, thereby re-creating the
  gray scale image.

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Setting up your picture for the laser

• After resizing, convert your image to grayscale.
  Do this under Image/Color Mode/Grayscale.
• Check the brightness of the image after
  conversion to grayscale. If the image is too
  dark, your laser will have to remove a lot of the
  cap layer of your substrate, which can cause
  overheating, warping, and loss of image quality.
  If the image is too light, your laser will not
  cut through enough of the cap and the image will
  appear faint.
• Adjusting the contrast of the image may make the
  grayscale image more defined. The best way to
  see if this helps is to play with the contrast
  setting.
• The ultimate goal is to have the image on your
  screen look as close as possible to the desired
  outcome.

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Basic laser settings

• For the best possible engraving, use the smallest
  available lens size.
• A 1.5 lens produces a beam that is .003 in
  diameter, meaning it will be able to render
  extremely small dots in your halftone.
• In general, combining this small lens size with a
  laser software setting of 1000 DPI and 1000 PPI
  will give you the greatest potential for success
  and rendering a detailed halftone screen.
• The more accurately the halftone dot is rendered,
  the clearer and sharper the image will be.

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Source and reference materials
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Sources

• Howstuffworks
• http//electronics.howstuffworks.com/digital-camer
  a.htm
• Yahoo! Shopping
• http//shopping.yahoo.com
• CNET Reviews
• http//reviews.cnet.com/4520-10165_7-5512377-1.htm
  l?tagtxt
• http//reviews.cnet.com/4520-11244_7-5535981-5.htm
  l?tagnav
• Olympus Cameras
• http//www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_tips
  tricks.asp
• Digital Camera HQ
• http//www.digitalcamera-hq.com/hqguides/top-ten.h
  tml
• Rowmarks Laser Guide Online
• http//www.rowmark.com/MARK/laser_guide/start.asp

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elements

• www.animationfactory.com

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