Software - Gary Howell
Saving images
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raw: a digital representation of what the camera saw, it hasn’t been processed
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tif & jpeg: the camera processes the image and saves it (may not be the exact image). By compressing a file some image quality is lost
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gif: often used on the web, not designed for photos more graphic images
Storing options
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Memory card,
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PC/Mac hard disc,
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External hard disc,
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CD/DVD,
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On-line storage
A DVD will hold more than a CD. DVD’s will hold 4GB on a normal disc and 8GB on a double layer disc, the quality varies. A good disc will cost £1 each. RW means re-writeable & can be used more than once. R means writeable and can be used only once. The plus & minus signs on a DVD represent speed, minus discs are slower but more compatible. ‘R’ discs are better for storage. A DVD will only last about 10 years before deteriorating.
On line storage, space can be bought on the internet for digital photo storage but its expensive, they do all the back-ups but if payments aren't kept up you may lose all your photos. Need permanent connection to the internet.
Portable hard drives are an option in the field, files from a memory card can be copied straight to it, they use a lot of power.
Memory cards can be locked so images don’t get deleted and images can be locked so they don’t get deleted with the other images on the card.
It's best not to erase photos on camera as on some cameras it’s easy to accidentally press ‘erase all’ rather than just erasing one image.
Editing software
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Adobe Photoshop (over £500)/
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Adobe Elements (less than £100)
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Corel paintshop pro (£40)
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Camera software
Organisational software
Organise your photos using a system that you understand otherwise you won’t use it.
‘Picasso’ is free software that can be downloaded from Google, it does a mixture of editing and organisation.
Resizing
Compression – stores lots of pixels of the same colour as one pixel. Images without many colours compress well.
Printing
Dpi (dots per inch), most printers print at 300dpi, fewer dpi the more pixelated an image looks.
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Never alter the original photo, copy it and edit the copy.
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Decide on the end use of an image.
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It’s not possible to over-write a raw file.
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Balance quality with file size – may loose resolution.
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Can the image be cropped?
Should photographs be adjusted at all?
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Colours and contrast
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Marks and scratches
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Removal of objects
See how dirty you sensor is by taking a photo of a clear blue sky.
After cropping you may need to make sure the aspect ratio is the same as the original.
Sharpening, main purpose is to correct the image for processing
Gary demonstrated cropping & resizing in Photoshop and some of the other tools for touching up photos.
