Unit 27 Digital Image Capture & Editing

Tuesday 6th January 2015

Basic Mac Introduction

Turning the Mac on:

Most of the time the Macs will already be on but will be in sleep mode, you can press any key on the keyboard or wiggle the mouse to wake the Mac up. If the Mac is turned off completely reach your hand behind the left side of the Mac and press the concave button, it's at the bottom. Log on using your student ID number and password.

Personal college storage:

Everyone has their own personal storage space called a hard drive, which you can save up to 10GB of memory on. It can be found on the desktop, it's a blue hard drive icon titled with your student ID number. Below is a screenshot of mine, to show you what it looks like.

To save work to your hard drive, you simply drag and drop the work you want to save into the hard drive. You will need this work to be on your desktop first. Your personal storage space will be on all of the Macs in the Mac Suite, and on all PCs in 'my computer.' I much prefer having my own USB flash drive which I save all of my work too, I find it much easier and if something goes wrong with the Macs in college all of my work is safe.

Some differences between Macs and PCs:

The main difference from using a Mac instead of a PC is the interface and the hard drives. On a PC everything you need will be on the start menu, whereas on a Mac everything you need will be on the desktop and dock. All of the applications in the doc are your recently used applications and also any documents that have been sent there. Below is a screenshot of the dock, if the dock doesn't appear when you log on then all you need to do is move the cursor to the bottom of the screen and it will appear.

You can also use the search bar to find any programmes you're looking for. All you need to do is click on the search icon on the top right corner of the desktop, then type in the name of the application you want. I have shown an example below.

Coloured buttons at the top of open documents:

At the top left corner of open documents you will see 3 buttons, one red, one yellow and one green. Below is a screenshot to show you what it looks like.

Clicking the red button closes the document/application.

Clicking the yellow button sends the document/application to the dock, to re-open you just have to click on it's icon in the dock.

Clicking the green button either makes the document/application fit the screen exactly or makes it smaller so you can access other documents that are also open.

External hard drives, USB sticks etc:

When you plug in an external hard drive, USB memory stick or memory card it will show as another drive on the desktop. You should rename all of your memory cards/USB sticks/external hard drives to your name, so if you lose any of these items or leave them plugged into a Mac a lecturer can return them to you. Below is an example of my USB stick.

To rename any file or memory stick click the current name twice but slowly, then when the name is highlighted type the new name and press enter.

Downloading images from a camera to a Mac:

The simplest way to connect a camera to a Mac is with the USB connector that came with the camera, then the camera will show as a drive on the desktop.

• If you double click this icon, then open the folder DCIM, an image folder will be inside. Then you can drag and drop the desired folder onto the desktop, depending on the number of images, this may take a while for the folder to download.
• Another way of getting pictures from a camera to a Mac is putting your SD card from your camera into a card reader, if you don't own a card reader you can hire one from the college. The card reader (which is a USB) then gets plugged into the back of the Mac. This also shows as an external drive on the desktop, where you will find a DCIM folder and an image folder within.
• Some of the Macs already have a slot in the side for SD cards, they are located on the right side. 
• It's recommended to work from images on the desktop and not from a memory card/USB stick, this is to avoid software issues.
• If your camera or memory card doesn't show up on the desktop, then you can go to applications within the hard drive and open "Image Capture" software to download.
• To download an image from the internet you hold the control button on the key board then click on the required image at the same time. Then click 'Save Image As' and select desktop as the destination. I have used a screenshot as an example below.

Finding software that isn't in the dock:

All software that you need but can't find in the dock will be found in the Applications folder.

within the icon on the desktop.

You can manage what software you want in the dock by dragging documents and application icons from the application folder to the dock.

If you need to right click as you would on a PC mouse:

On a PC you would right click the mouse for options, but on a Mac instead of right clicking once you would instead hold the control key then click the mouse at the same time. This gives you all of the same options.

Hard Drives:

PCs have lots of drive options, such as E drives, F drives etc. Macs only have the one hard drive on the desktop, but all applications and documents can be found within.

Archiving work (Malleable and Permanent):

There are two ways to archive work. 

One way is to store work on an external or internal hard drive or on a USB stick. This is called malleable archiving as you can go back and alter work and re-save them in the same place.

The other way is to burn your work to a DVD or CD, this is called permanent archiving as you can't alter the files and save them back once the disk has burnt.

Printing documents in the Mac suite:

If you want to print a document you already have open, you go to File > Print as shown below.

This dialogue box shown below will open.

You make sure that the printer selected is COBC Colour or COBC Mono.

You also ensure that you're printing on the right size paper, to check this you click the "Page Setup" button as shown below.

  

This dialogue box shown below should then open.

You then check again that the paper size is correct and then choose either COBC Colour or COBC Mono. When you click OK you will be asked for your password. If the name actually comes up with your name then you need to change your name to your student number, otherwise your document won't be sent to the printer.

Copying and Pasting:

Copying and pasting on a Mac is really easy, you select with the cursor what you want to copy then either go to Edit on the toolbar and select copy, or the shortcut is the Apple key and the letter 'C' at the same time.

To paste you place the cursor where you want to paste then either select Edit from the tool bar and click paste, or the shortcut is the Apple key and the letter 'V' at the same time.

Screen grabs:

-Whole screen shot:

Press shift key, command key and the number 3 from the top row at the same time.

-Part screen grab:

Press shift key, command and the number 4 from the top row, a marquee tool appears and then you select the part of the screen you want to screen grab.

Dragging and Dropping:

You can select single files or whole folders, then simply drag them from their original place by keeping your finger on the cursor and moving it to the desired location. Then let go of the cursor when its hovering over the folder/hard drive you want to move the files to.

Releasing external devices:

Before you pull out any memory cards/external hard drives/USB sticks you should eject them. To eject a device, hold the control key, click on the device and then click "Eject" or "Eject Device". If you don't do this properly you could lose or corrupt files that you have open.

Print Resolution:

For printing images as photo quality, the print resolution should always be set at 300 PPI, as shown below.

 

For images to be sent as e-mails or web sized images these should be set at 72 PPI, as shown below.

 

PPI means pixels per inch, and should not be confused with DPI which stands for Dots Per Inch and is related to the dots that a printer makes on the paper.

 

Cards Readers allow you to download images from your camera to the Mac or any computers, most card readers read a variety of types of cards, SD Compact Flash, Mini SD cards, USB sticks, etc.

Paper weights:

Most of the paper used in college is the paper weight of 80GSM (GSM stands for grams per metre, and relates to the actual weight of 1 meter of paper.)

Photographic paper should be anything above 220 GSM but 240 GSM is the general weight of most photographic paper.

Generally, cheap non photographic printers can't print on paper above a certain weight of GSM therefore can't print on photographic paper.

Photo printers can also generally print at a higher DPI than everyday cheap printers.

Histograms:

Histograms show information regarding an image and its exposure. You can change the exposure of an image by sliding the output levels left or right. The right side of the histogram is the white part of the images gradually changing to the black side of the image on the left of the histogram.

Lossy and Lossless files:

The main difference between lossy and lossless files is that lossy image files will always compress the information within that file to save memory and space on the drive that it is saved on. Unfortunately the effect of this is that the file loses digital information everytime it's saved. JPG files are lossy files.

The affect of repeatedly saving a lossless file is that the file will – over a period of time – loose information to such a degree that the image will start to appear with digital noise ie graininess.

Lossless image files are files that will not compress when saved thereby keeping all the information in the file when closing. Photoshop Files and Tiff files are lossless.

Logging off:

I should always remember to log off from the computer when I have finished working at it, this prevents other students from accessing my work, and printing on my print credits especially if I have ticked the remember my password box.

Analogue Source Scans

For this task I chose 2 images from an analogue source (magazine, book, cd cover etc.) and scanned them. I then screen grabbed the scanner settings (to make notes of the resolution and image scan size). 
Below is a screen grab of the scanner settings. I chose this image because it was quite plain and simple, and I wanted to start the task with something easy.

I opened the image in photoshop and rotated it 90 degrees clockwise. I then duplicated the layer so I could work on the layer copy instead of the background layer, this is so if I made any mistakes I could go back and fix them. Next I added a layer mask to the layer copy, then went to image>adjustments>desaturate. This made the image black and white. I then chose the brush tool, chose a soft brush and changed the size of the brush to 100. I made sure the colours were black on top of white, then brushed over the parts of the image I wanted in colour. The first image below is the original image I scanned. The second image is the edited version.

Below is a screen grab of the scanner settings of my second image. I chose this image because it's very colourful and busy, and I thought it would be fun to play around with.

The first image below is the original image and the second is the edited version.

File Formats

JPG(JPEG)

 JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts group. You would save images in this file format because it's viewable by all and can be used for print and the web. The downside is that the JPEG format is lossy. Each time you open and save, the image compresses and you lose a small amount of information.

GIF

 GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. The GIF format is particularly suited to rendering images that contain large blocks of the same colour, or large blocks of repeating patterns. It does not suffer the lossyness that leaves JPEG unable to display flat, clean colour without losing all compression. 

BMP

BMP stands for Bitmap. The BMP format is a commonly used raster graphic format for saving image files. It stores colour data for each pixel in the image without any compression. This method of storing image information allows for crisp, high-quality graphics, but also produces large file sizes. The BMP format is both lossless and uncompressed.

TIFF

TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format. TIFF files are a good option for archiving intermediate files which you may edit later, since it introduces no compression artifacts. They are significantly larger than theirJPEG counterparts, and can be either uncompressed or compressed using lossless compression.

PSD

PSD stands for Photoshop Document. A PSD file is a layered image file, it's the default format that Photoshop uses for saving data. PSD is a proprietary file that allows the user to work with the images individual layers even after the file has been saved. When an image is complete, Photoshop allows the user to flatten the layers and convert the flat image into a JPEG, GIF, TIFF or other non-proprietary file format so it can be shared. Once a PSD image has been flattened by conversion it cannot be converted back to PSD and the user can no longer work with the image's layers. 

TGA

TGA stands for Truevision Graphics Adapter. Also referred to as TARGA, which stands for Truevision Advanced Raster Graphics Adapter. TARGA was the first family of video cards for IBM compatible PCs that supported TrueColour display, which had been intended for use with professional image and video editing. TGA files can be opened by most image editing software, from Microsoft Paint to Adobe Photoshop. 

PNG

PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics, it's a file format for image compression that in time, is expected to replace the GIF format. Like a GIF, a PNG file is compressed in lossless fashion (meaning all image information is restored when the file is decompressed during viewing). Typically, an image in a PNG file can be 10 to 30% more compressed than in a GIF format.

Copyright Legislation

(In relation to Photography)

Who owns the Copyright of a photograph?

A photograph is classed as a work of art (whether it merits it or not.) The photographer who created the picture owns The Copyright of the image. Or a Company owns it if the photographer is in the employment of that company, and takes the photograph as a part of his/her contractual duties. 

   

How would we infringe the copyright of a photograph?

By copying it, if we copy a photograph in any manner (download, photocopy, re-photograph it, scan it etc) we are infringing the photographers copyright, and thereby breaking the law.

How can we legally copy photographic images?

By gaining permission to do so from the photographer. If we cannot find who the photographer is after exhaustive searches, backed up by legal proof of search, then legal judgement can be made to class the photograph as 'An Orphan Work', thereby giving a company or individual copyright of the image. (Until the creator of the image comes forth with proof of creation of the Work of Art.) 

How long does copyright of a photograph last?

For 70 years beginning at the end of the year of the Photographer's death.

How can we protect our own images from being copied and used commercially?

By watermarking images that are to be in the public domain and by ensuring that if your images are in the public domain they are traceable back to you. 

For further information please see: http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/protect/p16_photography_copyright

Watermarking an Image