Teaching for the future: digital photography.One of the many new technologies in the visual arts visual arts npl → artes fpl plásticas visual arts npl → arts mpl plastiques visual arts npl → field is digital photography. It's used in the advertising, publishing, printing and television industries. To keep current in the visual arts profession, the art teacher will need to have an understanding and practical knowledge of digital photography. This is a technology that students enjoy using; it is one that they want to learn and will apply to their daily work. Traditional Film Photography Traditional print photography uses a camera that requires light-sensitive film. Black-and-white film and color film are processed into negatives through specific chemicals that require temperature and environmental control. The negatives are printed onto paper. Although many high school programs regularly produce black-and-white prints, few schools have the equipment, laboratory facilities or technical capabilities to process color A color printed from four separate printing plates. Four-color process printing uses cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) inks to produce full color reproduction. Contrast with spot color. See CMYK. film. Traditionally taken photographs for school projects may be enlarged or reduced either in the darkroom darkroom, n a completely lightproof room or cubicle that is used in the processing of photographic, medical, and dental films. See also safe light. with an enlarger or electronically with a scanner attached to a personal computer. Digital Film Photography Digital film photography requires a digital camera which has a charged coupled device See CCD. (CCD CCD in full charge-coupled device Semiconductor device in which the individual semiconductor components are connected so that the electrical charge at the output of one device provides the input to the next device. ). A CCD is a computer chip containing photosensitive A material that changes when exposed to light. See photoelectric. cells that generate voltage when struck by light. With a digital camera, a photograph may be taken in one of several resolutions such as 8-bit or 24-bit; 8-bit yields 256 grays or colors while 24-bit yields more than 16 million colors. The images are "saved" in the digital camera's specialized memory known as "flash memory." Flash memory should not be confused with the electronic flash device; these are entirely separate issues. In our classroom, Apple QuickTake The Apple QuickTake (codenamed Venus, Mars, Neptune) was one of the first consumer digital cameras. It was launched in 1994 by Apple Computer and was marketed for three years before being discontinued in 1997. 100 cameras are used by students. For our work, 24-bit resolution is used. Most new Macintosh computers will display 8-bit and 16bit images on the screen; however, an additional graphics card, a device plugged into your computer, is generally required to display 24-bit images. Once photographs are taken, the camera is cabled to a computer where QuickTake software is loaded. The photographs or images are transferred by software command electronically to the computer. QuickTake software permits resizing of the photographs. In addition to QuickTake software, the images may be edited with software such as Adobe Photo shop or Kodak PhotoFlash. After editing, images may be placed electronically into a variety of documents such as cards, brochures, newsletters and newspapers. Students plan project layouts on paper. Finished layouts are then designed using a Macintosh computer with desktop publishing software The following is a list of major desktop publishing software. A wide range of related software tools exist in this field, including many plug-ins and tools related to the applications listed below. . Desktop publishing software, such as QuarkXPress, PageMaker or Ready-Set-Go, is ideal for projects. Our students prefer using QuarkXPress and ReadySet-Go. The completed page layouts are printed on an output device such as an Apple LaserWriter or Tektronix Color Phaser Printer. If you do not have a color printer A printer that prints in color using three (CMY) or four (CMYK) colors of ink, toner or dye. Four color ribbons have been used in dot matrix printers, but these are rare today. See color laser printer and printer. , color photographs on the computer screen may be printed black and white. Problem-Solving, Projects and Possibilities Ready-Set-Go and QuarkXPress are desktop publishing software programs that can be learned by senior high students. In our production environment, students use these programs daily to create work for blended instruction school projects, community projects and customer work. * RELATED ARTICLE: Traditional Photography In traditional photography, the artist uses a camera (1) which has film. (2) The exposed film is loaded into a developing tank (3) and processed with chemicals. Once the negative (4) is processed, each print is enlarged (5) and printed onto paper which is processed in chemicals. (6) The finished prints are ready. (7) (Illustration by Antwan Thomas) Advantages * Photographic images are controlled in the darkroom. * Many cameras have interchangeable lenses. * Different films are available for different applications. * Up to thirty-six images may be photographed on a roll of film. Disadvantages * Requires chemicals and special ventilation for processing film and negatives * Chemicals pose health risks and storage concerns. * Requires a darkened dark·en v. dark·ened, dark·en·ing, dark·ens v.tr. 1. a. To make dark or darker. b. To give a darker hue to. 2. To fill with sadness; make gloomy. 3. room for print processing unless a commercial processor is available * If the camera is accidentally opened with film inside, all images are destroyed. Digital Photography With digital photography, the photographer uses a digital camera (1) to take a photograph. The images are transferred to a computer. (2) The computer images are edited by software. (3) The final edited images are placed in a document then printed. (4) (Illustration by Mike Hammond) Advantages * Images are edited and handled electronically. * No chemicals to handle or special ventilation requirements for processing facilities * If the camera is opened or the batteries removed, the images are stored undamaged in internal memory called EPROM-Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. * This is the trend in the industry. Disadvantages * Entry-level digital cameras have a fixed focus lens although 24-bit picture quality is good. * The printed image quality is limited to the resolution of the output device such as a printer. An image printed on a 300 dots per inch (dpi) laser printer will not be as high quality as an image printed on a 600 dpi laser printer. * Initial cost of hardware and software * Time investment required to learn computer and image editing Changing or improving graphics images. It typically refers to bitmapped images rather than vector graphics drawings. Using an image editor, images can be modified by an artist using pen, brush, airbrush and other "painting" tools. software * Only eight, 24-bit resolutions may be stored in the camera until the images should be transferred to the computer. RELATED ARTICLE: Ideas for Student Projects advertisements, announcements, blended instruction activities, brochures, demonstrations, displays, group pictures, magazines, newsletters, newspapers, postcards, posters, press releases, school reports, student election posters, student research papers, digital photographs for television production program RELATED ARTICLE: Careers to Discuss High-end digital cameras are used for * commercial and industrial photography * medical and scientific imaging *newspaper photojournalism * portrait and wedding photography * military documentation * law enforcement RELATED ARTICLE: Hardware Computers: Macintosh PowerPC 6100, Macintosh Quadra The Macintosh Quadra series was Apple Computer's product family of professional high-end Apple Macintosh personal computers built using the Motorola 68040 CPU from 1991 until the Power Mac was introduced in 1994. 650, with Radius 24-bit color card installed Monitor: Apple 20" color monitor See monitor. Graphics Tablet See digitizer tablet. : Wacom graphics tablet Digital Camera: Apple Computer, Inc. Printers: Apple LaserWriter Pro 630, Tektronix Color Phaser Printer Software Image Editing: Adobe Photoshop See Photoshop. , Kodak PhotoFlash Painting: Fractal Design Painter See Painter. Desktop Publishing desktop publishing, system for producing printed materials that consists of a personal computer or computer workstation, a high-resolution printer (usually a laser printer), and a computer program that allows the user to select from a variety of type fonts and sizes, : QuarkX-Press, Ready-Set-Go, Page-Maker Martin Nikirk is chair of Visual Communications at the Washington County Career Studies Center in Hagerstown, Maryland. |
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