USING PHOTOGRAPHS

Acquiring Photographic Images

Photographic images can be acquired from a scanner or digital camera; software is usually provided. These devices have different resolution capabilities, so be sure the image resolution is appropriate for your needs. In our SD class, Digital Imaging, we use several different scanners and digital cameras, and of course get different results.

Editing and Converting Photographic Images

Editing techniques are the same for images produced by scanners or by digital cameras. If you can't afford Adobe PhotoShop, begin with the software that was bundled with your device. Even if you can afford PhotoShop, you should probably start out with a less complicated application.  My favorite image editor and format converter is PaintShopPro.  You can sometimes download and try an older version before you pay for 9.0.

After your photograph is edited in an uncompressed format (tiff, bmp, or psp), you will need to convert it to the gif or jpg format before you put it on your webpage. Compressing the image and/or reducing the number of colors will reduce the "weight" of the file, sometimes without losing too much quality.

Variables

With many images, you will need to experiment to find the proper relationships among these four variables: file format, image sharpness, viewing size, and loading time (file size). NOTE: Images designed to be sent by telephone lines and viewed on a computer monitor do not have the same criteria as images designed to be printed out.

With digital images, you must also consider an additional variable: the actual size of the scanned image--in inches or pixels. If you enlarge or reduce a digital image, you will often lose sharpness, particularly with photographs and compressed images.
 

Example:

The image below (of somebody's 21-month-old grandson) is much too large for a webpage. You won't notice it in the lab, because we have a high speed connection, but if you have a dial-up connection at home, this image will take too much time to load.  Because this website is instructional in purpose, we sometimes deliberately "make mistakes" to make a point. (And then sometimes those mistakes just happen.)   In most cases, the second image loads first because it is smaller.

In this example, the smaller size is a result of reducing a larger image; therefore, some sharpness is lost. Instead of reducing or enlarging a scanned image, you should re-scan it, particularly if the file is compressed. FP's autothumbnails give the end-user a quick download, with the option of clicking to see the larger image.
 

	This jpg image is 108 KB.  On a dial-up connection, it will take too long for most people to have the patience to download it.
This autothumbnail jpg image is 5 KB. Click the picture to see a larger image.

Page Changed 09/09/2005

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