Suggested purchases

Why bother?

Chris Conti 6/01

Instant evaluation with the LCD read-out makes it better for photographer and all

No more film to buy No waste More control over image Immediate use – no more running to one

hour process Good cameras are BETTER quality than

35mm

Good digital cameras aren’t cheap,

but…The savings in film and processing

And the improved quality of production eventually outweigh the original cost.

It’s too expensive.

Sure they can!A $500-700 camera will take at 1/800 which stops action well; however, it takes a second to release the shutter. To catch action, the photographer will have to anticipate the shot and release a bit earlier, but it’s not difficult.

They can’t take sports

Let new photographers take lots of photos and review them to get some practice predicting action.

No is film wasted and they get immediate feedback.

Hard to learnComposition is easier to teach because students and teacher can view photos instantly and critique them.

Formatting digital images for your specific needs will take some getting used to, but probably not as much as you’re thinking.

Here’s some solutions:• Teach one student who will teach the others.

• Spend one day on instruction and they will all know it.

• Have a step-by-step guide by the computer.

• Set up an action in the ACTION palette on Photoshop. This feature allows you to record several steps and then one command will “play” through all the steps.

• Only change what needs changing. Photos usually do not need manipulation beyond, resolution, sizing, lightening and using UNSHARP MASK. Don’t let the kids overwork the photo.

Quality not as good as 35mm

It’s better!The photos I’ve taken both personally and with school are at a higher quality than ones I’ve taken with a 35 mm camera.

For personal prints, try uploading to Yahoo photos. For .50 for professionally printing per picture. $5 for an 8x10.

Batteries run down quickly. Camera manuals say that you can conserve battery power by not using the LCD view, but that is the best feature of the camera. NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) batteries are the most widely used type of rechargeable battery. Don’t even bother with regular AA batteries.

You may need to invest in more memory. It’s easy to fill a hard drive with photos. More RAM, more hard drive space, Zip drives, network space, tape back ups and/or CD burners may become a necessity.

Things to consider

Erased means erased. There’s no undo once you hit “Yes, delete.” You might want to back up often or have one location where all originals are stored.

Get a camera with a LCD monitor. You can delete right in the camera and retake shots. This is useful for mug shots too because you can show the person their photo and retake if needed.

Downloading -- you have several options. Cameras come with cables, but you can purchase a Flash Path which allow you to insert the Smart Media card into a floppy drive or a disk card reader that is like small external floppy.

Things to consider

Files names need to be detailed and you will need to organize files.

Most cameras download and name each photo by number which makes it difficult to remember that the softball photo you need is really P1823974.

When resaving the photo, it will need to be named something more than softball.jpg or it will be of little use to the person looking for a photo and photos saved by the same file name will write over each other.

Things to consider

Suggestion: have the photographer save the files as what it is, who is in it and who took it. For example that softball photo could be called:

SB AshleyG run3 JS.jpg which means that Joe Smith took a softball picture of Ashley G running at third.

Walsworth would like you to resave the photo as the page number and position and put those photos in a file named for the page, because they will need the originals. For example: p120pos3 (means page 120 position 3) saved in a folder called “pp120-121 art.”

Always process ASAP

Always watch your pixel count

when processing your digital image, so you don’t throw away the resolution/pixels that your camera caught. Under IMAGE SIZE, Click RESAMPLE IMAGE until the resolution is linked with the size and set your resolution to 225 for publishing yearbook or 170 for most newspapers. (Your photo size should decrease, but the pixels will be the same.) Then click the box off and decrease the photo size if needed.

Things to consider

If you plan to crop a lot, do so before you do ANY step

Use the ACTIONS palette on Photoshop to do several procedures automatically. These actions make everything a lot easier, but you should only record commands that you can run on all photos. Then you can tweak each photo as needed.

We have one action that changes the resolution for publishing, then resizes, changes it to CMYK color and applies an unsharp mask.

We have another action to make a photo ready for the web (changing the photo back to RGB and the resolution back to 72dpi.)

If you have several photos to process, you can BATCH them.

Things to consider

A good camera $500-800

Memory for camera $100-200

Batteries and charger $50-100

Minimum Total $650-1100Also may need to update computer system

and may need to purchase more storage space.

May need to purchase Adobe PhotoShop or similar software.

G4 400 mhz or Pentium lll 600 Mhz processor

64MB RAM

10GB Hard drive

High capacity media drive – Zip, Jazz

High capacity backup – network storage, CD, Zips, additional hard drive

Comparison made at Ritzcamera.com

6/01

Kodak DC-4800

3.3 Mega-pixels

$600

NikonCoolPix series2.1-3.3

Mega-pixels

$450-700Olympus C-series

2.1-3.3 Mega-pixels

$500-$800

Nikon D1-XNikon lenses fit it

Top shutter speed of 1/16,000 sec.

Runs about $5000

Recharger: About $25 with 4 batteries

Extra batteries: about $4 each.

NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) batteries charge quickly, last approximately 700 charge and discharge cycles, and perform well in low temperatures. Rechargeable alkaline batteries are not a good alternative for use in digital cameras.

Teach everyone about recharging.

Memory: About $50 for 32MB

Two types: SmartMedia and CompactFlash

SanDisk ImageMate ImageMate sits on your desk and acts like a removable disk drive, treating the memory card like a diskette.

About $80

Download helpers

About $90

FlashPathMemory card slides into FlashPath and becomes an A-drive/floppydrive reader.

For most purposes (non-action)

o Set the camera on program and let it do the work.o Put the LCD on, but it will go through batteries faster.o Use the zoom or wide-angle to get the shot.o Press the shutter release.

To focus lock: put what you want in focus in the middle of your screen then hold shutter release halfway down. Move to compose the shot and

press all the way.

o Look over them while still in camera o Delete unwanted oneso Download the pictureso Open photo in PhotoShopo Save in a folder in a designated location with a specific file name:

LuisDfreestyleCC.JPG In folder named Swimming 3/7/01

o Crop as needed

o Go under IMAGE > Image size o Click on RESAMPLE until all height, width and resolution are linked on side.

o Set resolution to 225 (the height and width should decrease) This is the maximum size you should place this photo.o Go IMAGE > Mode and change to CMYK for color photos or Grayscale for black and white.

o Go under FILTER > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask o Put settings at:Amount 100%Radius 1.0 pixelsThreshold 10 levels

o SAVE AS and put under a designated to use folder. Save as a JPG at a quality of level 8.

o Figure out what size you will use the photo o Go under IMAGE > Image size. Click on resample until the resolution IS NOT linked. Change to the size needed.

o SAVE AS the page and position number under the correct page folder

swim122-3 under file 122-123 photos

Always click NO.

Then submit the folder of photos

with your pages.

This keeps the file size smaller.