Technically Easy

Category: Digital Photography

All posts relating to digital photography, including both hardware and software. Tutorials and reviews are the most common types of posts.

  • Resizing Digital Photos for E-mail in Windows XP

    Once in a while I will get several digital photos as attachments in an e-mail, and the photos haven’t been resized. This is a problem as photos from a digital camera are usually 2MB and larger, which is quite big to send in an e-mail. Add to the fact that there are usually several photos being sent in an e-mail, and you can see that it can take some time to download the entire e-mail.

    In this post I will show you a quick method of resizing your photos right in Windows XP that will make them ready for e-mailing or uploading to the Web.

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  • Tips on Taking Photographs with a Digital Camera

    I’m not a professional photographer, but I do enjoy taking pictures. I try to take the best pictures I possibly can, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I bought my first digital camera in 2002, and since that time I have been learning some tricks and tips that I can use to take better photographs.

    In this post I will provide some tips that have helped me through the last few years, and hopefully they will help you.

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  • What is a Digital Raw File?

    I have written several posts regarding digital Raw files produced by digital cameras. There is also much discussion online as to whether one should save photos in JPEG or Raw files. As with any file format, Raw files have both advantages and disadvantages.

    In this post I will look at what exactly a digital Raw file is, what is needed produce a digital photo from a Raw file, and finally the advantages and disadvantages.

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  • 48bit Image Colour Issues When Saved as JPEG

    When I edit images in Photoshop that are either created in Photoshop, or from a scanner, I usually deal with 48bit images. I like the extra overhead for editing that 48bit images provide. The one problem that I encountered recently was saving the file to a JPEG to be displayed on a Web site. The problem was the colours of the image were off and the image looked dull and had a lack of contrast.

    After reviewing my workflow when saving a 48bit to a JPEG to display on the Web I quickly realized my mistake. I explain my mistake in this post and how I corrected it.

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  • Organizing Digital Archives

    A few months back I wrote a post call Data Archiving Method where I talked about which media I chose to backup my scanned photo and negative archives. I also mentioned the labeling method I chose to keep track of each photo. I haven’t wrote much about archive since then so I decided to provide more information for those that are archiving.

    In this post I will elaborate on the organizing and photo properties that I have chosen for the archives.

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  • About Colour Management

    For those who like to edit and print your pictures with the same colours you see on a computer monitor, then learning how to manage colours is very important. Although the colours may look similar between a printed photo and how it is displayed on a computer monitor, chances are that there is some colour differences.

    In this post I will discuss what colour management is, and how best to use it to reproduce the colours in the photos you see on your monitor.

    Devices and Colours

    If you were to show a thousand people various shades of red and ask each one to point to the true red colour, you will probably get a thousand different answers. Each person has their own opinion on what the colour red looks like. Devices to some degree are no different.

    There are many devices that deal with colours: scanners, printers, digital cameras and monitors. If they all displayed the same colour the same way, then there wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, each device displays colours differently so if you were to transfer a picture between two devices, chances are the colours won’t be the same. This is where colour management comes in.

    The goal of colour management is to obtain a match of a colour between devices, provided the device is capable of displaying the necessary colour.

    In order to get the same colour to display on a device you would first need to calibrate the device. A search on Google for monitor calibration will result in almost two million pages in the search results. There is much discussion on calibrating your monitor. Once you have calibrated a device, you will then have a colour profile that can be associated with that device.

    Colour Profiles

    Once you calibrate your monitor you can save the information in a file called a colour profile. This file contains information about mapping the colours for that device. Some mappings may provide information about the closest possible colour and remap the entire colour range to allow for different gamuts.

    Many of the devices that are used to present specific colours to the user include an ICC colour profile that may be installed along with the drivers and applications. The colour profiles may also be available on the vendor’s Web site or through a third party.

    You may need several colour profiles for a particular device to ensure that your colours are as accurate as possible. For example, a photo printer can print a photograph on many different types of paper: glossy, matte, normal printer paper. Each of the paper types reproduce colours differently, and as such will require a separate colour profile for the printer. You may be able to get a profile from the paper manufacturer, or they may suggest a profile to use. Either way, it is best to use a profile specific to that paper type.

    In photo editors, there is an option to define the various colour profiles to use for the devices. Make sure you select the colour profile that is associated with each device that you will be using to ensure that your get accurate colours.

    When saving your photos, you can embed the ICC colour profile so if someone were to open that photo on a computer without the profile, the colours will still be displayed accurately because the profile information is embedded inside the file. The downside to this is that it makes your image file larger.

    Summary

    Each device that is used with photographs can display colours differently. To get accurate colours, it is important to use a colour profile for that device. The device’s vendor, or a third party vendor, can provide you with the necessary colour profile for the device. Some devices, such as printers, may require different colour profiles depending on the target output, such as glossy or matter paper.

  • Scanning Photos and Negatives Resolution

    I have began archiving the photos and negatives that are conveniently stored away in boxes. It is a great undertaking, but one that I’m sure I’ll enjoy. I describe my organizing method in my post titled Data Archiving Method. The one issue I have had, however, is determining the resolutions I will use for the digital archives.

    There are many questions about resolution with regards to scanning. I haven’t found any conclusive evidence on which resolutions to use, but I have made up my mind as to which ones I will use.

    Photographs

    One of the most debated points with regards to scanning pictures, negatives, and slides is the resolution to use. The general consensus is to print at 300dpi (dots per inch), so what should we be scanning the original in at? The answer to that question is it depends. Let’s take a look at how resolution plays a roll in the printing of a picture.

    Suppose you have a 4×6 photo that you want to scan in and eventually print. You scan the document in at 300dpi with the size in pixels of the picture at 1200×1800. The size is calculate by taking the size of the photo, in this case 4 inches by 6 inches, and multiplying each number by 300, since you are scanning in at 300dpi.

    Now if you want to print the photo at 300dpi you would get a 4×6 photo, which is the same size as the original. If you want to make a larger print of the photo, you can do one of two things: either print at the current resolution by decreasing the 300dpi to something like 180dpi, or rescan the original at a higher resolution.

    If you were to rescan the original at a higher resolution, say 600dpi, you will now have a photo that is 2400×3600 pixels. Dividing both numbers by the print resolution of 300, you can now enlarge the photo to an 8×12.

    Keep in mind, however, that because you are scanning a photo, and not the original negative, you won’t gain much if you continue to increase the resolution. That only helps to enlarge the photo, and not increase the clarity.

    Negatives

    I read somewhere that some think the resolution of a negative is equivalent to a 20-megapixel digital camera. I’m not sure how accurate this statement is, but I can tell you one thing: you can get scan at a much higher resolution and get better prints from scanning negatives than an actual photo. When you do scan negatives, you will definitely need a higher resolution, unless you like really small photos.

    The size of a single 35mm negative is 1.42×0.94 inches. If you scan a negative at 300dpi, you will get an image size of 426×282. Printing this image at 300 will give you a picture the same size as the original negative: 1.42×0.94 inches. That is a really small photo. You will need to scan in the negative at a much higher resolution.

    Many scanners can now scan above 3000dpi. If you plan on scanning hundreds or even thousands of negatives you may want to go with a scan dedicated to slide and negative scanning. I didn’t have the money for one, so I have invested in a flatbed scanner. Dedicated slide and negative scanners can go as high as 4000dpi, or possibly higher, while my flatbed can go up to 4800dpi, although with results not as good as a dedicated scanner.

    If you were to scan a negative in at 3000dpi, you would end up with an image that is 4260×2820 pixels in size. This is equivalent to a 12-megapixel camera. This allows you to print 9×14 inch photograph at 300dpi (4260 divided by 300, and 2820 divided by 300). For most people this will more than suffice for printing.

    If I were to scan at the full 4800dpi, the image size would be 6816×4512, or 31 megapixels. The file size would be monstrous to the point where I wouldn’t be able to easily save many photos because the larger the image files, the more space you are going to need to store it. If you do scan at a high resolution, make sure you have the storage space to accommodate all of your files.

    To help you determine what resolution to use, please check out Scanning and Printing Resolution Calculator. The Web site also provides great tips on scanning for both photos and negatives.

    Summary

    I have read many posts regarding scanning resolution online, and everyone seems to have there own opinion. For me, when I’m archiving my photographs, I’ll scan them in at 600dpi to leave a little room for enlarging. For negatives I will scan them in at 3200 since it is a nice compromise between file size and resolution. I probably won’t be printing any large photos, but it would be nice to have enough overhead just in case I would like to many years in the future.

    In the end, however, scanning resolution will be decided by your requirements, needs and capacity.

  • Digital Photo Workflow

    I have taken thousands of pictures with the two digital cameras I have owned in the past 5 years. I purchased my first camera in 2002 and quickly began learning how best to take pictures. The camera was a Canon G2 and I learned about and began using the RAW file format when taking pictures. I then acquired the Canon S3 IS but it unfortunately didn’t have a RAW file format, so I quickly learned to make do with taking pictures in the JPEG format.

    Although my file format has changed I still like to tweak my pictures. I do this because I am not the greatest of photographers so I like to make some quick edits to my pictures. In this post I will provide an overview of the workflow I use to make my pictures ready for printing.

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