Session 6 Lesson Plan
Tools and techniques: standard software tools, eg freehand draw, rotate, flip
crop, group/ungroup, resize; special effects, eg soften, sharpen, watermark,
invert; colour, eg colour balance, colour depth (eg 8-bit — 256 colours, 16-bit —
64,000 colours); layering; advanced techniques, eg representation of three
dimensional images, masking
Colour
RGB
CYMK
Web safe
- Colour correction
- Consistent colour
Presentations Assignment 2
Using digital cameras
Manipulating the imagesRGB info RGB to Color Name Mapping
RGB Red Green Blue The Colors of Televisions and Computer Monitors
Mixing red green and blue light in various quantities it is possible to generate a number of other colours from the range of visible light. This effect is behind the design of the television and computer screen.
CMYK In full-color (process) printing, your printer uses four inks:
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
When these four inks (collectively known as CMYK) are combined, they can produce millions of different colors. Below is an illustration of how changing the percentage (screen) of one ink can dramatically effect the color. Note that only Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are used below. Black, the fourth process ink, is used to darken the colors created by the other three process colors.
Web Safe Palette 216 colours that are the same on all computers.
Colour Correction in Photoshop Colour Management
Monitor Calibration
Monitor settings are not a matter of taste, as in "I like this, I leave it like that." Only a correctly balanced display will show you what the picture looks like. The printer then will need to be calibrated.
What colour is red? A post box, a strawberry, a bus?
Consistent Colour
The look of the colour needs to stay the same from the original to the camera to the screen and to the printer.
Types of Digital Cameras
Digital cameras fall into the following categories:
- ultra compact: good for slipping into a pocket or purse, but the controls and viewfinder are very cramped
- Mobile Phone: good for slipping into a pocket or purse, lenses are poor and images are poor to enlarge even with higher pixels
- compact: what most people buy, reasonably pocketable, reasonably easy to control
- creative compact: more features and options than "compact" £200 more expensive; good for techno-junkies
- SLR-like - hybrid: chunky, easy to control with fingers, larger sensors and better image qualty in low light
- SLR: large and cumbersome, best image quality, best low-light capability, best tool when you are going out specifically to take photos.
How a digital camera works in more detail very simple A digital SLR
Resolution Affects Output
Most digital cameras allow you to change the resolution setting, so you can fit more or fewer images on your memory card. This can be a helpful feature if you only have one card or if you are on a trip and can't transfer photos to your computer. But if you take a photo of a spectacular sunset, and you capture it on a lower resolution setting like 800x600, you may be unhappy with the result if you want a 5x7 or 8x10 print. That's because the low resolution image lacks detail, and may also appear jagged. The greater the number of pixels in an image, the higher the resolution. The higher the resolution, the better and larger the print you can make.
Light is not always what it seems. Our eyes are very forgiving, so when we move from place to place everything seems normal in terms of colour. So, for example, when moving from a bright daylight environment to a room lit by a candle all that will appear to change, to the naked eye, is the light level. Yet record these two situations using a camera and the first will have a blue hue and the latter will come out with a heavy orange cast. This is because our brain can quickly adjust to the changes, making white appear white, whereas film is balanced for one particular colour and anything that deviates from this will produce a colour cast.
Adjusting White Balance
Different digital cameras have different ways of adjusting white balance so ultimately you’ll need to get out your camera’s manual out to work out the specifics of how to make changes. Having said this - many digital cameras have automatic and semi-automatic modes to help you make the adjustments.
Preset White Balance Settings
Here are some of the basic White Balance settings you’ll find on many cameras:
- Auto - this is where the camera makes a best guess on a shot by shot basis. You’ll find it works in many situations but it’s worth venturing out of it for trickier lighting.
- Tungsten - this mode is usually symbolized with a little bulb and is for shooting indoors, especially under tungsten (incandescent) lighting (such as bulb lighting). It generally cools down the colors in photos.
- Fluorescent - this compensates for the ‘cool’ light of fluorescent light and will warm up your shots.
- Daylight/Sunny - not all cameras have this setting because it sets things as fairly ‘normal’ white balance settings.
- Cloudy - this setting generally warms things up a touch more than ‘daylight’ mode.
- Flash - the flash of a camera can be quite a cool light so in Flash WB mode you’ll find it warms up your shots a touch.
- Shade - the light in shade is generally cooler (bluer) than shooting in direct sunlight so this mode will warm things up a little.
- Snow/Beach - the ground is brighter than it is normally and the camera is adjusted to cope.
Using Scanners
Scanner software Paperport Vuescan
Assignment 3 P5 Capture existing images using a scanner and a digital camera and edit them to meet a given user need
Using a Photograph of the venue for Assignment 3.
- A Garage, or
- A Shop, or
- A location for a concert
In this session we will be working on and editting the venue photograph.
Changing the shopfront using masking. Cleaning up the venue.
