showyourpics

Transcription

showyourpics

2 CDS
ON DISC REPLIGATOR 6 CANVAS 6 PHOTO ALBUM 5
NEW!
The definitive guide to better photos
132 pages of image-editing
tutorials, kit reviews and more!
2 BETTER ACTION PHOTOS!
2 PAINT SHOP PRO HELP
2 CAMERA MODES EXPLAINED
PHOTO
2 ONLINE
DEVELOPING TESTED
Get blur-free images – we reveal how
How to sharpen detail to turn blurry pictures into
perfect photos. Plus swap colours for fun effects
How to choose the right settings for each subject
20
We rate 8 top options and reveal the best
PACT
CREATE THIS PHHOTOOTIM
TIPS
FANTASTIC
DIGITAL IMAGE!
We show you how to use Photoshop’s
Blending layers and Quick Mask mode
7
6 TRIPODS RATED FROM £13-£40
We reveal the best buys for top-quality results
7
FUJI FINEPIX A303
Take a look at this easy and
efficient entry-level camera
re to take photos in
24 poses for couples and women, whe
rtcuts and more!
sho
rd
boa
Barcelona, Paint Shop Pro key
£4.99
7
In-depth review of the latest
version of this classic model
EXCLUSIVE! 5 ALL-NEW
TIPS & IDEAS CARDS
FEBRUARY 2003
MINOLTA DIMAGE 7Hi
2 How to achieve ideal skintones and facial expressions
2 Flatter your subject – top photo tips & image-editing tricks
2 Ideas, poses and camera settings – we show you how
02
7
Why it’s time to make the
move to 5 megapixels
Discover how to compose & take perfect
photos of individuals and groups
9 771479 001003
OLYMPUS C-50 TESTED
IMPROVE YOUR
PORTRAIT SHOTS!
PRINTED IN THE UK
British Landmark Series Wiltshire, England
2
8
Nick Merritt
Managing Editor
Nick’s background is technology and
image-editing related. He’s launched,
managed and built some of the UK’s
leading publications in these areas.
8
Dylan Channon
Senior Art Editor
Dylan is a keen amateur
photographer and sits on the advisory
board of Somerset College of Art
and Technology.
8
Roddy Llewellyn
Art Editor
Roddy studied photography at
university and is PPA Designer of the
Year for his work on Cre@te, a
magazine for creative professionals.
8
Tim Daly
Photographer and writer
Tim is one of the UK’s leading digital
photography experts. He’s written
numerous books on the subject and
his photographs have been exhibited
across Europe.
8
Steve Bavister
Photographer and editor
Steve is one of the UK’s best-known
photographic writers, having edited
and published Practical Photography
in the past. He now writes for a
variety of photography mags.
8
Barry Jackson
Digital artist and Photoshop guru
Barry combines his digital camera,
computer and Adobe Photoshop
to create his own particular style of
photo surrealism.
8
8
Ed Davis
Photo retouching expert
Ed is a commercial photographer of
many years’ experience. He is a
member of the National Association
of Photoshop Professionals.
2
4
MEET
YOUR
TEAM
STARTHERE
February already?
T
he magazine world is full of questions about time: why do covers have next
month’s date on them? Why must I start planning for Christmas in August? Given
that I am writing this four days before Christmas, how do I convincingly pretend
it’s the middle of January, when you’ll be reading it?
Working on a photography mag only makes the problem more acute, since photography
is all about recording what’s happened, not what’s about to happen. But somehow we
manage. Just don’t ask the guy who edits Getup&go how he got that twitch.
Which somehow brings me onto this month’s issue. Where do I start when there’s so
much great stuff to talk about? Canvas 6 – my word, you’re going to like that. Talk about the
program that does everything. Not only is it a fully-featured image editor, but you can create
drawings and paintings, do DTP layouts, even create graphics for the web. Incredible. We
hope our tutorial is enough to get you started but there’s no way we can do justice to this
program in only four pages.
And there are the tips cards. A few of you told us that you would prefer the reviews
reference cards to be more useful, so we’ve changed them. We particularly like the posing
card and Getup&go International, so we hope you do too.
Finally, back to my previous editorial: the very, very few of you gagging to know what
compact I’ve finally gone for – well, it’s the Olympus C-4000Z. Can’t wait!
Nick Merritt, Managing Editor
[email protected]
In issue 5, we introduce a DVD option! Buy either the DVD version of the mag (all disc
content is on a single DVD, which contains extra DVD-only software and material), or the
two CD version as usual. It’s up to you…
8
5
ISSUE 5 ON
SALE 13TH FEB
Every month we will show you how
to capture and create better pictures,
give clear, independent buying
recommendations on the latest kit,
and deliver two CDs packed with the
best PC software.
We use boxes, tips, quick fixes, quality
photography, walkthroughs and diagrams
to show you how to improve your
photographic and image-editing skills
We have a cast-iron policy of editorial
independence. All our kit is reviewed assold. We discourage our journalists from
accepting gifts from advertisers.
We welcome your opinions on the
magazine, ideas for articles, photography,
thoughts and questions.
Send them in today – see the email
addresses below.
c
Departments
We want your letters, ideas,
photography, articles, tips and more!
Write in today to the following areas:
Issues with your discs
[email protected]
Your letters
[email protected]
Photos for our galleries
[email protected]
Events, ideas, places to visit
[email protected]
Camera/photo help and advice
[email protected]
Articles/ideas for publication
[email protected]
Visit our website today!
www.digitalcameramagazine.co.uk
Customer services/subscriptions
[email protected]
2 HOW WE RETOUCHED THE COVER IMAGE
Aidan O’Rourke
Technical expert
Aidan is a contributor to the
Manchester Evening News. He
lectures on digital photography
around the UK.
;
Our promise
to our readers
8
We almost used this image for last month’s
cover but decided against it because the
quality wasn’t up to scratch and we didn’t
have enough time to retouch it. No such
problem this month. Although it was a
strong visual, it felt too cold for something
that needs to be warm and welcoming.
Our retouching guru Chris Stocker (see his
feature on page 24) took off the greenish
cast, cleaned up her eyes so they were as
bright and sharp as possible, and finally
added shadow to her nose to make it more
defined against her skin.
DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE
003
Contents DCM#04
What’s hot inside your magazine this February
IMPROVE YOUR
PORTRAITS!
We show you how to pose your
subjects for winning results
■
■
■
■
Group and individual shots explored
Ideal skin tones and facial expressions
Top photo tips & image-editing tricks
28 poses and key camera settings
STARTS PAGE
16
PAGE 58
Creative project
These boots…
Getup&Go*
Raging winter storms, the mud
splattered chaos of rally driving
and the eerie beauty of The
Eden Project: we take you there
Digital photographer
Barry Jackson takes
you through the
stages of a surreal
piece of work
Essential ways to get
more out of this
versatile image
editing software
PAGE
* UK editions only
006
Ulead PhotoImpact
20 top tips
PULL OUT
SECTION –
FIND IT
AFTER p34
74
2
Kit reviews
The UK’s definitive reviews
package every month
HOT SHOTS
PAGE 08
TRAILBLAZERS
PAGE 50
2
Your 2 coverdiscs
OLYMPUS C730
PAGE 30
PAGE
120
Deneba Canvas 6
The multi-talented creative package
OLYMPUS C-50
PAGE 32
CASIO QV 5700
PAGE 34
Every issue we bring you not one, but two CDs –
each one packed with exclusive full software. This
month, enjoy Repligator 6.0, Deneba Canvas 6,
Photo Album 5b and tons of demos – all to keep!
ON DISC 1
CAMERA SUPPORTS DIMAGE 7HI
PAGE 36
PAGE 40
Your images
20 pages of image-editing tips
SURREAL IMAGES
PAGE 58
PHOTOSHOP
ELEMENTS PAGE 68
PHOTO
RESTORING PAGE 64
PAINT SHOP PRO
PAGE 70
FULL Canvas 6
DEMO Canvas 8
TOURS 5 x 3D tours
TEST SHOTS for each of
our main cameras
VIDEO TUTORIALS Image
editing techniques
£O4
33
F FULL
SOFTWARE
IN TOTAL!
ON DISC 2
FULL Repligator 6.0
FULL Photo Album 5b
TRIAL PhotoImpact 8
TRIAL Photoshop 7
TRIAL Breezebrowser 2.3
TRIAL DVD Picture show
FREEWARE: Cheez 1.0
PLUG-IN Filters 1.03
PLUG-IN AlphaWorks
Deluxe
PLUG-IN Light 1.52
PLUG-IN nik Color
Efex Pro
Regulars
EYEWITNESS
Hotshots gallery
Frontline news
p08
p14
YOUR PHOTOS & LETTERS
Reader profile
Trailblazers
Day in the life
Viewfinder
p12
p50
p52
p54
OFFERS
Subscribe!
Upgrade your software
p78
p122
HELP AND ADVICE
Photo Clinic
Your questions answered
p64
p88
FOLD-OUT SECTION AFTER PAGE 34
Up close at The Eden project
Action shots with rally driving
UK Botanic gardens
Get out and about in stormy weather
Tips for Action shots
DEALER BANK
Suppliers
GETUP&GO TO EDEN
Pullout section
THIS ISSUE WE
SHOW YOU HOW TO…
1
FUJI FINEPIX A303
PAGE 28
CAMERA TECHNIQUES
PAGE 83
101-119
TAKE BETTER PICTURES
Photograph people’s features
Photograph children
Convey emotion
Pose your subject
Photograph different skin colours
Compose and frame
Capture likeness and character
Make your subject stand out
Use flash/backlight/slow sync mode
Use landscape/snow/sports action mode
Shoot in summer light
Shoot in winter light
Shoot in low natural light
16
19
19
20
20
21
21
21
83
84
85
86
87
IMPROVE YOUR IMAGE-EDITING SKILLS
Mute the colours in a portrait
Blur out background details
Cut out an image
Blend images for surreal results
Restore old photos
Make selections in Photoshop
Swap colours in a photograph
Emphasise the focus of your picture
22
23
24
58
64
68
70
72
USE YOUR PC BETTER
Archive and index your shots
Showcase your photos online
Use an online photo developer
Calibrate your monitor’s colour
94
96
98
99
HOTSHOTSTURNOVER
Every issue, we print the best digital photography we
can find. Turn over now and see some of the shots that
have inspired us this issue…
2
007
Hotshots
Images with impact
SHOT OF THE MONTH
ROAR! MATTHEW WHITLEY
“I captured this snarling beast at Bronx Zoo in New
Jersey, in the USA. I was lucky to get such an
animated shot as lions tend to slumber during the
daytime hours.” Canon EOS D60, 100-400mm lens
[w] www.mkwphotography.com
[e] [email protected]
02
03
04
02
7TH TOUR OF JAPAN Yuji Tomobe
“Captured with the help of some fill-in flash at
the 7th Tour of Japan, as he whizzed past.”
Canon EOS D30
[w] www.jsdi.or.jp/~ytom/
03
SUNNY YELLOW DAFFODIL Melanie Kipp
“Everything becomes more interesting and
beautiful simply by taking a closer look.”
Minolta Dimage 7
[w] www.caughtintimephotography.com
04
SUPERMAN Jim Johnston
“Contestant performs an aerial stunt
during the 2002 Gravity Games held in
Cleveland Ohio.”
Canon EOS D30
009
05
06
07
05
OSTRICH Alex Maddox
“I captured this image of an ostrich at
Oudtshoorn, South Africa.”
Sony DSC70
[w] [email protected]
06
MR EGG HEAD Barry Jackson
“Find out how I made this image in next
month’s issue.”
Fuji 6900z
[w] www.ethrealme.com
07
NEXT
MONTH
STONEHENGE Bob Jones
“I wanted to capture some of the
mystery of Stonehenge and, thankfully, the
weather helped me out.”
Olympus E-10
[w] www.bodafon.com
We give you all the files
and techniques you need
to create this stunning
image
011
2ProfileMe and my camera
CHARLIE BROWN
ARVADA, UNITED STATES
www.CharlieBrownPhotos.com/Hyatt
Three years ago, Charlie retired after 30
years in the corporate world. He bought his
first digital camera, the Sony DSC-F505,
with the primary goal of reacquainting
himself with the natural world around him.
He began his adventure by visiting a small
lake near his house, taking photos of
sunrises and sunsets, animals and macros.
Over the years, landscape and nature
photography – particularly the panorama –
have become his major emphases.
Nowadays, Charlie uses a Sony DSC-F707.
He loves the immediate feedback digital
photography gives him, the processing
versatility digital darkrooms provide, and
the ability to capture a landscape with the
ease using digital panoramic stitching.
01
03
After winning some digital photo contests,
Charlie gets requests for images and his
plan is to set up a small printing operation
to provide limited copies of his prints.
@
NOW SEND US YOURS!
Email us a 100K JPEG thumbnail of your best
shots! The best wins a 128Mb Crucial
CompactFlash card each issue.
[email protected]
01
POLLINATOR
02
Sony DSC-F707
03
02
04
012
MOULTON'S BARN
Sony DSC-F505
FROSTY REFLECTION
Sony DSC-F707
04
PAINTING THE EVENING
Sony DSC-F707
Frontline
Send in your news! Email us today at [email protected]
Adobe eyes your
picture albums
Adobe’s powerful new picture organiser, Photoshop Picture Album, can’t wait
to put your image files in some sort of order
THE IDEA
BEHIND THE
PRODUCT IS TO
ACT AS A
SIMPLE
INTERFACE TO
ALL YOUR
DIGITAL
PHOTOS, NO
MATTER
HOW MANY
THOUSANDS
YOU HAVE
A
dobe is to release a new product in
2003 which it touts as a fast new
way to organise and share your digital
photos. No shortage of those, but given Adobe’s
dominance of the market, you have to take notice.
The idea behind Photoshop Album is to act as a
simple interface to your collection of digital photos,
no matter you have stored on your PC. The actual
area within the program where you view your
images, is called the Photo Well. Photoshop Album
automatically sorts and catalogues photos with the
Well – and it can also handle video files.
The program claims to automatically scan your
entire hard drive for photos and organise every
image it finds, meaning the chances of you losing
a picture down the back of some obscure folder
are much reduced. The program also catalogues
images on external media like archive CDs, so you
can keep track of what picture is where.
There are a couple of interesting-sounding
organisation views: the Calendar view opens up
a view similar to that of a monthly wall-planner,
with images displayed against relevant days, so
it’s easy to see what pictures were taken when.
There’s also a Tagging system to help users
cross-reference images. Simply choose a category,
create a new tag and drag the tag onto a picture
or group of pictures. Then check a box to sort any
matching pictures to the top of the tagged photo –
the result being that a single click can bring up all
the pictures of a single subject, like images tagged
‘mum’. There’s also a very interesting-sounding
feature that enables you to search for any photos
similar to a specific image.
Archiving and image repair
There’s the usual CD archiving, emailing and so
on, but of more immediate interest perhaps, are
the creative and fixit tools. Photoshop Album
enables you to produce photo prints, calendars,
greeting cards, slideshows and more. Imageediting wise, there’s a collection of basic tools
including red-eye removal, levels, cropping, fill
flash, brightness and contrast. There are also
one-click fixes for colour and brightness problems,
and sharpening out-of-focus images.
We’ll have more information on this next issue,
including a trial on our CD, so find out more then,
on sale on 15th February, or visit www.adobe.com
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
ALBUM
AUSTRALIAN
ECLIPSE
DVD PICTURE SHOW
NEW VERSION
New image program from
Adobe makes us sit up and
take notice
■ See below
This year’s best eclipse
location Down Under…
■ See opposite
More photo exploring and
basic image editing – seems
to be the month for it…
■ Version 1 trial on our CD
QUICK
SHOTS
BAG IT
Looking for a new
bag for your camera
stuff? A new range
from Australian
manufacturer,
Crumpler, comes in
nine sizes, from
£13.50 to £41.50,
and features highdensity, water
resistant Tefloncoated Polymid
fabric. Find out
more at
www.intro2020.co.uk
or phone 01628
674411 for full
information.
FINEPIX S2
PROBLEM
Got a Finepix S2 Pro
you bought after Oct
20? Then it might
have a power supply
problem that could
render the camera
inoperable. To find
out if your camera is
affected, or to get it
repaired, phone Fuji
on 01234 218388.
DRAG AND
DROP
PRINTING
A Photo Page is
a new Windows
program which its
makers claim
simplifies the
process of printing
photos. You can jazz
up prints with
frames, shadows
and other effects.
The full version is
$15, or get a trial
from trivista.com
OS X VIEWER
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Operating systemWindows 98-XP compatible PC
128MB of RAM minimum, 256MB recommended
150MB of available hard disk space. Internet Explorer 5-6
Colour monitor able to handle 800x600 at 256 colours
minimum. CD-ROM drive.
There’s a new OS X
file viewer for Canon
users. Go to www.
powershot.com/
powershot2/
customer/fvu-e.html
Direct printing
from Canon
New model from Canon takes images
directly from your memory card
A new multifunction printer,
scanner and copier is being
released by Canon. The
PRINTERS SmartBase MPC200Photo includes
direct photo printing too – simply insert your
camera’s memory card and the printer does
the rest, producing prints up to A4, or at the
more usual 6 x 4 inch (borderless).
Print quality is up to 2,400 x 1,200 dpi and it
can churn out 14 pages per minute (mono) or
10 pages per minute (colour). Plus it’s able to
handle copying up to A4.
Additional software includes Exif Print
(so you can output images exactly as the
photographer intended) and Easy Photo
Print for simple image selection and output
from the PC.
It’s on sale now from £199 – find out more
from www.canon.co.uk/multifunctionals.
2
3
Best sellers
Information
supplied by
www.dabs.com
BEST SELLER
Canon
Powershot A200
£135
SUB-£100
Mustek
Gsmart II Mini
£45.82
SUB-£300
Sony Cybershot
DSC-U20
£222.06
SUB-£800
Canon
Powershot G3
£598.07
DVD PictureShow 2 aims at
digital camera users
First Adobe. Now Ulead. It’s the month
for picture organisation software all
right, with Ulead’s announcement of
SOFTWARE the newest version of DVD PictureShow
specifically aimed at digital camera users. The Digital
Camera suite includes organisation and viewing tools,
including software which enables us to view digital
photos on TV, via email and online.
You can create slideshows for display on PC, Video
CD or DVD, or import, adjust and view your pictures in
Photo Explorer 8. Everything’s been designed to be
simple for beginners, and with Ulead saying it
delivers good results from low-end digital cameras,
it’s probably fair to say this is being aimed at the
entry-level user.
You also get to cut your own video projects, add
voiceovers and more. DVD PictureShow 2 Digital
Camera Suite is on sale now from Ulead’s website
(www.ulead.co.uk) for £30 – or you can upgrade
your existing version for £20.
Remember our eclipse a couple of years
ago? Once again, the Aussies show us how
it should be done…
The time: 7.41pm, 4th December.
The Place: Termination Hill, Australia
Store tons of images and
take them with you
Cast your mind back two or three years – remember
the British flirtation with the eclipse? Despite the
predicted flock of eclipse-hunters, ravers, mystics and
loonies mowing down Cornwall, everyone decided to
stay at home instead and catch it on TV.
Which was just as well as those of us huddled
outside were treated to a slightly lighter patch of the
sky getting slightly darker – such were the vagaries
of the British weather. Only those who had made it
to Totality on the south coast of Cornwall were
greeted with anything approaching the full
spectacular glory of a total eclipse.
Australia, of course, has done it better. On 4th
December, assembled crowds were presented with
perfect viewing conditions – clear skies and just after
totality, sunset, rounding off the day’s astronomical
excitement perfectly.
The eclipse path passed over Angola, Zambia,
Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, before
travelling over the Indian Ocean to Southern
Australia, so people across the southern hemisphere
had their cameras poised and ready.
Amateur eclipse hunter Fraser Farrell has a
description of his successful visit on his website at
http://astronomy.trilobytes.com.au/2002/dec4.html.
He explains how he captured some reasonable
eclipse pictures although some exposure problems
meant a little Photoshop trickery was needed.
Updated Nixvue Digital Album for photos on the move
Looking for a simple way to carry
around your image archive
without lugging a huge great PC
SOFTWARE with you? The latest version of
Nixvue Digital Album, version II, is due to be
released in February.
This is a standalone palm-sized storage
device that enables you to transfer, copy, paste,
rename move and delete files from
CompactFlash cards, or, SmartMedia, Memory
Stick and SD/MMC cards with an adapter.
Coming with USB2.0, it links easily to your PC
if you want to archive images, and it also
enables you to display your images on TV if you
want. It’s compatible with all the latest PC and
Mac operating systems for driver-free autodetection as soon as you plug it in.
Find out more at www.intro2020.co.uk
WIDEANGLE
What’s happening around the world (but shorter)
US COASTAL WATERS
Something fishy
A starfish, the Brittlestar, promises
advances in photographic quality.
New research has shown the crystal lenses
which cover its body (used for vision) are
optically perfect – 20 times better than
anything man-made. It’s expected to
inspire the cameras of the future.
MANCHESTER, UK
Red eye production
Fuji and Manchester United have
signed a deal to allow Fuji to slap
the United logo on their imaging kit. In
return Fuji gets exclusive pictures of the
various United players. The press release
has both Diego Forlan and Juan Veron
promoting the kit – just as well they’ve
both started scoring really…
Behindtheimage
New features to help us all organise and share our images better
©WWW.REXFEATURES.COM 2003
JAPAN
Direct action
Pentax Japan’s new Optio 330GS
comes loaded with direct printing
capability through its new firmware
upgrade (v 1.11). It’s not yet clear if Euro
and US cameras will get the treatment…
TALKBACK
1
Tell us what you think! Our website forums at
digitalcameramagazine.co.uk are just the place. Add your
comments, ideas and more and join the Digital Camera club!
2
015
COVER FEATURE BETTER PORTRAITS
YOUR GUIDE STEVE BAVISTER
Steve is a photographic journalist and freelance photographer. He is editor of The
Photographer, a leading magazine for pro photographers, and author of ten books
on photography including Digital Photography and Take Better Family Photos
[email protected]
PORTFOLIO STEVE BAVISTER
Take better portraits!
There’s more to portraiture than just pointing a camera at someone, says Steve Bavister.
You need to think about how to pose them to make the best of their features
O
ne of your prime responsibilities when
photographing people is to help them look their
best – and the key to that is accentuating the
positive. While most of us are not exactly Brad Pitt or
Jennifer Lopez, we all have good points that can be brought
out through composition and lighting. Weaknesses can also
be minimised with just a little thought.
Many of us, for instance, carry a few pounds more than
4
WHY WE CHOSE
THIS PICTURE
We sharpened the eyes to
encourage eye contact
We added shadow to her nose,
making it more noticeable
The original version of this picture
had a slightly green cast, so we
removed it, warming up the image
016
we’d care to, and look more attractive when posed in a way
that’s ‘slimming’. The secret here is not to have the person
square-onto the camera because it emphasises their width.
Nor do you want them side-on, which draws attention to
any ‘beer belly’ they might have. Place them at an angle to
the camera instead, and have them standing rather than
sitting, which also prevents the body slumping down and
looking blobby.
If someone is below average height and you want to
make them look taller, all you have to do is shoot from a
slightly lower angle – but not so low that you start to
exaggerate the perspective. When someone is taller than
normal, shooting from just above their eye line will give an
attractive result. Once again, it’s important not to overdo it,
or it will seem like you’re looking down on them.
If people are not happy with their teeth, they generally
won’t reveal them – and you won’t see them smiling from
ear to ear. Instead, you’ll have to make do with a more
limited range of expressions, but you should still have no
problem coming up with some really nice shots. If you’re
working digitally, teeth that are not exactly dazzling white
can be brightened in just a few seconds.
Most women whose ears protrude have long hair to hide
them, so there’s little the photographer has to do other than
make sure the hair is doing its job. With men, this isn’t an
option, as styles these days are much shorter. What you
should never do is photograph the person head-on –
because that is guaranteed to make the ears as visible as
possible. Instead, ask them to stand three-quarters to you, so
that one ear is hidden. Then make sure the person is facing
the light in such a way that the exposed ear is in shadow.
Nosing ahead
If your subject has an unusually large or long nose, there
are a number of things you can do to make it look better.
One is to shoot from a slightly lower angle and another is
to ask the person to tip their head back a little. If you
have a zoom lens, setting it to its longest position and
working from farther away will improve perspective. If your
subject has a small or stubby nose, then do the opposite –
017
PHOTOGRAPHING CHILDREN
If your kid is shy, be patient, don’t try to coax a smile. A
natural expression is the aim, so hand the child a favourite
toy or treat like an ice cream and capture the reaction. Focus
on the eyes and face and you won’t go wrong…
018
a
shoot from above, get them to lean forward and go in
closer with your zoom lens at the bottom of its range. It
goes without saying that if anyone is self-conscious
about their nose, sideways-on profile shots are a
complete no-no.
If the chin is sagging, shoot from above and ask the
sitter to lengthen their neck by leaning forward, which
has the effect of tightening loose skin. A ‘weak’ chin can
be enhanced by shooting more from underneath.
Some men are sensitive about their receding hair line
or bald spot and welcome a little help in playing it
down. There are two things you can do: take the picture
with your camera below their eye height, so the hair
line is less visible; and position them so that as little
light as possible comes from above, so the face is the
lightest part of the picture and the forehead a little
darker. Try crouching down with them standing
underneath a tree. If the hair is grey, and that seems to
be an issue, find a spot where the light doesn’t draw
attention to the fact.
Full-featured
If your subject has full, rounded cheeks, avoid
going in too close. Shoot three-quarter compositions
rather than tight head-shots and, if possible, use
the telephoto setting of a zoom lens. With sallow,
concave cheeks, choose a setting where the light isn’t
coming in from the side. With dark-haired men, sessions
early in the day will minimise the likelihood of a ‘five
o’clock shadow’.
Developing lines and wrinkles is a natural part of
growing old – but not everyone wants to be reminded
of the passing of the years. To make them less
prominent, keep the illumination as soft as possible,
perhaps shooting on a cloudy day, and place them so
the light is coming from behind you, not from the side.
Since you are working digitally, the image can obviously
be softened in the computer.
Many people wear spectacles and, as far as possible,
avoid reflections in them because it can be difficult to
see their eyes. Generally, you want people to have
their head tipping down slightly to lose reflections – but
don’t take this too far or it can look awkward. One
excellent approach is to get them to lean forward,
with their arms resting on a table or the back of a
chair. When taking pictures of people with glasses
outdoors, you should avoid having them looking directly
into the sun.
In fact, the best time to shoot is when there’s no
direct sun at all. When shooting a bespectacled portrait
indoors, choose a room with only one window, and
place your subject at 45 degrees to it. Whatever you do,
A black reflector helps you ‘remove’ light from around an over--lit subject. To see how it
works, place two black reflectors (perhaps black velvet) off-camera, on either side of
your subject’s face and see how they draw attention to the centre of the face
2 CONVEYING EMOTION
They say the eyes are the windows of the soul, and in photography it’s certainly important
that they’re clear and sharp. You need to take care with focusing, especially with groups or
when the person is off-centre and, if necessary, use your camera’s focus lock. The eyes are
also one of the main ways by which we convey emotion. Tests have proved that portrait
shots are more attractive where the subject’s pupils are dilated.
2
Always try to fill the
viewfinder’s frame so there
are no distracting
background objects and
shoot when you see an
expression cross your
subject’s face. Some
cameras have portrait
modes – these zoom in on
your subject slightly and fire
a quick burst of fill-in flash.
2
Get good shots of babies is
all about making sure they
are comfortable and getting
down to eye level. Don’t
loom over them and shoot
down. Give them something
new and interesting to play
with and capture the
resulting facial expressions. If
you don’t want to use the
flash close to a baby, make
sure the room is well lit and
use your camera’s highest
ISO setting.
2
If there’s one straightforward
rule for portrait photography
it’s always focus on the
eyes. Here we’ve
emphasised our subject’s
eyes with a very tight crop
into her face. One other
handy tip is to use your
image editor to sharpen
eyes, remove unsightly
blood vessels or shadows,
plus darken and enlarge
pupils for that friendly,
dilated look.
019
COVER FEATURE BETTER PORTRAITS
DIFFERENT SKIN COLOURS
1
You’ll encounter a wide range of skin types – from
pale white through to rich black, and all the shades
in between. You may find you need to tweak the
exposure slightly with different skin types. Extremely
pale skin can easily end up all washed out, and you
may need to fine-tune the exposure to prevent that
happening. With dark skin you may need to increase
exposure a little to prevent the shadow areas
merging. For mixed groups, take a light reading from
the light falling on your subjects and not the light
reflected from them, for an accurate exposure setting.
Being able to pose people effectively
is one of the most important skills
of portrait photography
don’t use direct flash because it will be reflected straight
back at you. You should also make sure that the person
is not looking at anything else that’s highly reflective –
and that includes you! So wear dark tones rather than a
white T-shirt where possible.
Posing pointers
Being able to pose people effectively is one of the most
important skills of portrait photography, and the only
sure way of developing it is to take lots of pictures using
as many approaches as possible to find out what does
and doesn’t work.
One approach that certainly doesn’t work is leaving
your subject to their own devices. People don’t know
how to pose in front of the camera. It’s not something
020
you’re taught at school, and for most of us it doesn’t
come naturally. So, if you want to produce something
with lasting appeal, you have to give your sitter some
guidance about how to stand and where to look.
Hands in particular can be a problem area. When
standing up, people often let their arms dangle like dead
fish by their sides or fold them defiantly across their
chest. Simply asking them to bring one hand in front of
the groin area and clasp the wrist with the other hand
can make a big difference. People tend to hold tension
in their shoulders, so encourage them to relax and
soften every joint.
Of course, you don’t just have to photograph people
standing. Try ringing the changes by taking pictures of
them sitting, leaning or lying down. All these
approaches can yield superb results, and which one you
use depends upon the person and what you are trying
to achieve. Older folk are likely to feel more comfortable
sitting and less inclined to lie down, while youngsters
may prefer a more informal style.
Should people be looking at the camera or away
from it? It’s entirely up to you. Looking into the camera
indicates an awareness that the picture was being taken,
while looking away suggests that a more private
moment may have been captured.
Most of the portraits taken are of people looking at
the camera, which makes it a good enough reason to
take some pictures where the subject is averting their
gaze – an attempt to do something different.
And irrespective of which approach you go for, there are
certain head positions that work well.
Having the face full-on to the camera can all too
easily look like a passport photograph and, as we’ve
seen, is not really ideal for those with ‘rounded’ faces
because it shows the full width. However, you do get
strong eye contact, which can work for those with a
characterful and interesting face.
Three-quarters views are ideal if you want your
subject looking off into space, as if thinking about
something or lost in some pleasant daydream. It also
works well with most people if they look at the camera,
providing the torso has also been turned to face at the
same angle. One of the best posing combinations is
having the body at an angle of 45 degrees to the
camera and then turning the head towards the camera.
This tends to be flattering for most people.
g
2
YOUR POSE CARD
Not sure how to achieve a striking pose? Our pose
cards attached to the front of this magazine are just
what you need. We’ve collated 14 poses for women,
and 14 poses for couples – try them out and, of
course, send in
your efforts!
The advantage of photographing someone full
length, with everything from the top of their head
to the tips of their toes included, is that you get a
sense of the whole person. More of the background
is included, so you’ll also see more of the context
in which the picture is taken. However, the person can
be rather small, so you may not discern their expression
clearly, and unless the background is interesting or
appealing, the picture may be weak and lack impact.
A tighter crop – the three-quarters shot – goes from
just above the knees, with some space above the
person’s head. This is a good choice for general picturetaking as you can see some of the body but without the
face ending up too small.
Worried about how to flatter that horrifically ugly and/or misshapen family member?
Discover a useful checklist of corrective techniques at Photographytips.com (the kind
suppliers of our pose cards) at www.photographytips.com/page.cfm/2941
2 LIKENESS AND CHARACTER
The ideal portrait captures an aspect of the subject’s personality, ideally in a flattering way.
This might be a mannerism, an expression, body language, or something in the pose.
Generally, open arms, eye contact, a smile and a subject leaning forward shows interest,
and makes for a good photo. The best way to elicit a smile is simple – smile at them first.
The key thing is to make your subject feel good about being photographed.
Maximum impact
Composition and framing
For many people, composition is a natural, intuitive
process. They look at the subject and the scene, raise
the camera to their eye, and take the picture. Somehow
it seems obvious that the image should be framed in a
particular way.
But, in reality, there are many different ways a
photograph can be composed, and the more conscious
you are of the choices you have, the more successful
the shot is likely to be.
Two of the most important things to think about are
where to place the subject and how big they should be.
Are you looking to capture character or shoot an
environmental portrait? The kind of picture you have in
mind will, to some extent, determine how big you want
the person to be in the frame.
As a rule of thumb, in photographs where the
surroundings and background are important you’ll show
more of the person than in shots where the emphasis is
on them as an individual.
For bags of impact, with plenty of eye contact and
separation from the background, crop into a tight head
and shoulders. It can be rather ‘intimate’, though, and
isn’t suitable for those with facial imperfections.
Then there’s the question of where you place the
subject. At the centre of the frame, to one side, top or
bottom, or in a corner? Bang in the middle of the frame
seems the obvious place to position someone – it
makes them literally the ‘centre of attention’, and you
can usually see where they are and what’s going on.
But it can be rather boring and static
Putting them to the left or right of the frame is
visually more interesting, and better if you want to
show them in a specific context or location – though you
do need to be careful the shot doesn’t look ‘off-balance’.
Placing your subject at the top or bottom of the frame,
or in one of thee four corners, creates more tension but
is an approach that should be used only occasionally
where something different is required.
When you have a willing adult to photograph it’s
reasonably easy to get them to pose for you – for a
while at least – but with younger children you may
struggle. They quickly get bored, or may not be
interested in following your suggestions in the first
place. If that happens, don’t try to force the issue – go
for a candid approach instead. When photographing
groups, the principles are the same. But you also need
to think in terms of shapes – such as triangles and
squares – and, most importantly, make sure all of the
faces are visible.
2 FIVE WAYS TO HELP YOUR SUBJECT STAND OUT
It’s all too easy for the person to get lost in a busy
background, but here are some simple ways to make
them the centre of attention:
■ Find a neutral, plain backdrop, such as a plain wall.
■ Ask the subject to stand further away from
the background.
■ Increase your distance from the person and use a
longer lens setting.
■ If you have exposure control, use a large aperture
such as f/5.6 or f/8 to limit the depth-of-field.
■ Make sure that the person is lit more strongly than
the background.
021
COVER FEATURE BETTER PORTRAITS – POST-SHOOT
Enhancing portraits:
muting colours
Change the look of your portrait by giving its colours a subtle, muted effect. Tim Daly shows us how Elements helps
*
ON OUR
COVERDISC
CANVAS 6
Need an image editing program
to try these tehcniques? Look no
further than your coverdisc
0
EXPERT TIPS
M
ost image editing centres around correcting,
and restoring an original image to its best, but
there are tricks you can play to give a totally
altered effect as well.
For example, many portraits from the ’50s and ’60s
were shot on poor quality slides or negative film and
recorded the face in a muted but stylish colour palette.
You can easily make a modern portrait take on this look
of faded colour by draining colour away using the
saturation slider. This is found under the Enhance8Adjust
Colour8Hue/Saturation dialog box, but you must then
use the same control in an adjustment layer.
Adjustment layers are not the same as pixelcontaining layers, as they only contain settings like
Levels, Curves and other dialog controls. Once applied to
an image, the adjustment layer ‘floats’ in the layers
palette and applies its effect to all the layers beneath it.
These special layers can be returned to at any stage of
the project by simply clicking on the layer icon and
former commands can be modified without
overcooking the result.
Best of all, and particularly useful for this project, is
the ability to cut holes into adjustment layers using the
eraser tool, so enabling other effects underneath to mix
and merge with the adjustment. The purpose of this
technique is to mix together full and low colour
saturation in one image.
TIM DALY
PHOTOSHOP EXPERT
PRINTING OUT
Choose a printing paper that
isn’t bright white, to carry the
effect right through. Ivory or light
cream papers will help to make
the image much less vivid and
therefore more subtle.
0
EXPERT TIPS
01
OPEN AND CROP
04
USE THE ERASER TOOL
First, make all your cropping, contrast and
repair adjustments before the treatment.
Portraits look best when all distracting detail in the
background has been removed by cropping or cloned
over with the rubber stamp tool.
02
MAKE AN ADJUSTMENT LAYER
05
VARY THE OPACITY
The first step is to open your Layers palette
and click on the tiny white/black semi-circle
icon at its base. The pop out menu presents a range of
adjustment layers, but choose the Hue/Saturation option
for this project.
03
REDUCE SATURATION
06
REPAIR THE MISTAKES
Once the Hue/Saturation dialog appears, slide
the Saturation triangle left to reduce colour
intensity. Press OK and return to your image. If you do
want to modify this command, just click on the
Adjustment layer icon to be returned to the dialog.
TIM DALY
PHOTOSHOP EXPERT
SAVING YOUR WORK
Adjustment layers can be saved
and stored with your work for
future use, but only in the
Photoshop .psd format. Adjustment
layers are much more data efficient
than simply duplicating layers and
will help you to keep your file size
to a minimum.
OTHER ADJUSTMENT
LAYERS
The same kind of techniques can
be applied using other adjustment
layers such as Levels and
Brightness/Contrast. In the
full Photoshop, most
Image8Adjustments menu
options are also offered as
adjustment layers.
022
Pick the eraser tool from the toolbox and set it
with soft edge brush properties. Try a brush
size of 35 pixels and make sure that the foreground colour
is set to white before erasing. Gently remove areas of the
image to reveal the fully saturated version underneath.
If your erasing looks too harsh and
unsophisticated, try reducing the opacity value
of the eraser tool to 30 per cent. This will create less of an
immediate ‘hole’ but enables you to remove an area
gradually in stages.
If you remove too much of the adjustment
layer, change the foreground colour to black.
Adjustment layers work like stencils, so any hole created
using white can be patched over with black. Remember
to set the opacity at 100 per cent first.
;
4
NEXT MONTH
SPRING IS SPRINGING SO
IT’S TIME TO THINK ABOUT
LANDSCAPES…
Enhancing portraits:
getting rid of backgrounds
Use Elements to blur out distracting backgrounds, to give emphasis to your subject
M
any fabulous portrait shots are spoiled by a
background which is too sharply focussed,
leading your attention away from the main
subject. Unless there’s something of specific interest
going on behind the subject then a deep depth of field
is just distracting.
It’s easy to see these mistakes in retrospect, but
much harder to remember when shooting, especially if
candid portraits are your thing. But there’s always the
01
SELECT THE ZONES
This image has three recognisable zones
behind the main subject which we have
marked 1, 2 and 3. It’s important to try and visualise
enclosed shapes (like jigsaw pieces) at this stage, so you
can plan how and where you’re going to select.
chance to correct the problem using your image editing
software to blur out the background. Photoshop and
Photoshop Elements have various filters that do this,
although but none of them quite replicate the
diminishing rate of defocusing created by a camera lens.
Elements manages to create a very similar effect
though – by making the furthest parts of the scene
more blurred than nearer parts. Using the Gaussian blur
filter within carefully drawn selection areas, different
02
MAKE YOUR SELECTION
Use your lasso tool to draw around the shape
in question and make this as accurate as you
can. Click on Shift to add other areas to your selection or
Alt to remove mistakes as this will help you create
unconnected zones as shown.
zones of sharpness can be created that put more
emphasis on your portrait.
Your first task, though, is to decide on the zones. Try
and identify three zones behind your subject and create
selection shapes that look like irregular-shaped jigsaw
pieces that fit tightly together. These will vary wildly
depending on the picture you’re editing but no matter
what the selection, all the bits should be saved under
the Select8Save Selection command for later use.
03
0
EXPERT TIPS
TIM DALY
PHOTOSHOP EXPERT
USING THE
MAGNETIC LASSO
If you find it tricky to draw an
accurate selection using the lasso
tool, try the sticky magnetic lasso
option. The tool works by locking
to an edge which is a sufficiently
different colour or contrast to its
neighbour. If you make a
mistake, use your History palette
to retrace, or the tool can be
difficult to deselect.
NAME YOUR ZONES
Complete an enclosed shape and do a
Save8Selection command, since continuous
selections can be saved and stored for future use.
Repeat the process for each ‘zone’ and give each one
a different name.
0
EXPERT TIPS
TIM DALY
PHOTOSHOP EXPERT
TURNING OFF LAYERS
If you click the tiny ‘eye’ icon on
each layer in the layers palette,
you can temporarily turn it off. This
makes editing on individual layers
much easier, particularly when
there are overlaps.
04
RETRIEVE YOUR ZONES
Once complete, do Select8Load Selection and
retrieve one at a time. From the Edit menu,
choose Cut, then Paste the area back into the image in
the same place, but as a new layer. This will stop the filter
effect looking strange at adjoining edges.
05
GUASSIAN BLUR
On each layer, apply a gradually increasing
Guassian Blur filter that gives the illusion of
three-dimensional depth. As a starting point try a
Gaussian blur filter at 5 pixels, 8 pixels and 15 pixels to
the nearest, middle and furthest zone respectively.
06
FINISHED RESULT
The final result shows all the ‘pieces’ slotted
back into the background but now blurred to
varying degrees. This gives a much better concentration of
emphasis on the central figure and creates a much
stronger-looking shot.
CHANGING TO
MONO MODE
If your colour images have brightly
coloured backgrounds, a much
simpler way to reduce the visual
distractions is to convert your RGB
file to Grayscale mode.
023
COVER FEATURE BETTER PORTRAITS – CUT-OUTS
YOUR GUIDE CHRIS STOCKER
Chris has worked at Future Publishing since the early 1990s as our Photoshop and 3D expert,
creating 1000s of covers and illustrations for a diverse range of magazines, ranging from
Computer Arts to Total Film. He is one of the UK’s top photo retouching experts
[email protected]
PORTFOLIO CHRIS STOCKER
Creating reliable cut-outs
in Photoshop 7
Having problems with Photoshop’s extract tool? Need a reliable method of cutting out images and
compositing onto another background? Read on to learn a professional’s tried and tested method
*
ON OUR
COVERDISC
PHOTOSHOP 7
See our trial of Photoshop 7 on
CD 2 and use it to practise
these technqiues.
VIDEO TUTORIAL
Check out the companion video
tutorial on CD 1 – look for the file
Tutorial/feat_port2.
C
utting out images using the Extract or the
colour range can sometimes be great for one
part of the image such as the hair but, if the
body is a similar colour to the background, it will leave
artifacts around the edges.
This means that you may have to spend much time
zooming in and carefully painting back in areas all
around the body with the history brush, which is tedious
and tricky to do because of the smooth curves you’ll
need to paint with the brush.
By the time you have played with the settings in
the extract dialogue box, done several previews, waited
GET STARTED
for ages while the extract does its thing, then spent
another half an hour checking and cleaning up the
edges, you may as well just cut the body out with the
pen tool.
Safety first
At least then you’ll be safe in the knowledge that you’ll
have created an accurate mask that will not need to be
scrutinised again for imperfections. You can then quickly
make a hair mask and combine it with the body mask.
Although the time saving can be huge in the long
run, it does require some skill with the pen tool – which
is no bad thing as it will keep you in good stead for
many a cut-out job in the future. The method we will
use to create the hair mask involces using the dreaded
Calculation Commands; they look a bit scary but are
much like Photoshop layer blending modes.
In the layer palette, when you have a floating layer
and apply hard light for example, an algorithm blends it
with the layer below creating a different looking image.
Where the calculation commands differ is that the
blending works through a dialogue box on individual
red, green or blue channels to create a new mask
channel in the channels palette.
An understanding of the channel features in Photoshop is key to this kind of image
editing. It’s quite an advanced skill, used by professionals for magazine covers
? EXPLAINED
CHANNEL
Images are mixtures of three or four
colours – RGB or CMYK. A channel is
one of these colours. Each channel
can be stored as a greyscale
represenation – see
www.sketchpad.net/channels1.htm.
024
01
SELECT A CHANNEL
We will start by selecting the best channel to
apply the calculation command to, so hit
control 1 to view the Red channel, followed by control 2
for green and control 3 for blue. Blue has the strongest
contrast between the hair and background so that’s the
channel we want to use here.
02
CREATE A NEW CHANNEL
Now for the calculation command. Go to
image8calculations and choose the following:
source 1 Channel blue, source 2 Channel blue and Linear
Burn from blending, then click OK. You are now viewing a
new channel that you have created in the Channels
palette, through your calculation commands.
03
CREATE THE HAIR MASK
Select Channels from the windows menu so
that you can see what’s going on and then go
to levels Control-L. Once there, drag the top outside
triangles closer to the middle of the image to create a
dense black section and clearer white section, then hit OK.
The hair mask is now complete.
4
ONE-CLICK
FIX
CUTTING OUT
Press D on the keyboard to set the swatch to the black and
white default. Press X to to swap swatch foreground and
background colours
Now we’re going to use the pen tool to select parts of the woman’s body then we’ll
use the Quick mask option to create, fuse and paint different mask selections
* WEB LINKS
OTHER ONLINE TUTORIAL
BY CHRIS STOCKER
www.computerarts.co.uk/
tutorials/2d/
04
SELECT THE PEN TOOL
Come out of the alpha channel view by clicking
on the RGB composite image in the channels
palette. Now zoom into the girl’s leg and select the pen
tool. Check that Exclude Overlapping Path areas is selected,
(see red square, top bar, above). Proceed with the path.
05
DRAW AROUND THE IMAGE
With the pen tool selected, draw around the
image of the woman. When you reach the
hair, don’t cut it out precisely but instead make a general
cut out of the right shape. On the image above, the cut
out line has been marked with a red line.
06
CUT OUT INNER SPACES
When the whole of the body has been cut out
as one large, joined up path, move on to the
inner parts of the image. Cut out the areas of sky
between the arm and the body, making the path a mask
with a soft edge, to be combined with the hair mask.
0
EXPERT TIP
CHRIS STOCKER
PHOTOSHOP EXPERT
DRAWING PATHS
When using the pen tool click
and drag the direction that you
want the curve to go, paying
special attention to the direction
points as these determine the
shape of the curve.
DRAWING PATHS
07
SELECT A PATH
10
PAINT THE HAIR
Zoom out of the image and go to the Paths
palette and click on the path holding down the
Control key (this will make the path a selection). At the
bottom of the tool palette open the quick mask options
and set to colour indicates8selected area.
Set your painting swatch option to black and
white by hitting the D key on the keyboard
and select a paintbrush of around 100 pixels. Start painting
in the hair, but don’t go too far outside as you may pick up
some stray pixels.
08
ACTIVATE QUICK MASK
11
CHECK FOR HOLES
With the selection still active, hit Q to activate
the Quick mask, zoom in on a selection and
Gaussian blur the mask to suite the edge softness of the
image, combining the masks, turning the image into a
floating layer and clearing the background to transparent.
Things should be looking pretty good at this
stage. You may want to now deselect the
selection (Control-D) and check for tiny holes that need to
be painted in. Hit Q to come out of Quick mask – this will
turn the whole mask into a selection.
09
COMBINE THE MASKS
12
FINAL TOUCHES
Go to the Channels palette and click the mask
of the hair from earlier (or hit control alt-4).
You’ll need to inverse the selection from the select menu.
This combines the masks, turning the image into a
floating layer and clearing the background to transparent.
Use a few more points and keep
the Direction points quite close
together, so in other words, click
and drag quite small distances
for greater control. See video.
Go to the layers palette and double click the
image for the Layer style dialogue box. To
make the image transparent, click on the layer mask icon.
Sample the hair with the eyedropper tool and paint over
any blue bits with the brush set to mode-colour.
DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE 025
SECTION #01
REVIEWS
Section highlights…
KIT REVIEW
MINOLTA DIMAGE 7HI
SEE PAGE 36
PAGE
PAGE
28
FUJIFILM FINEPIX A303
THE 3-MEGAPIXEL SNAPSHOT
There’s stiff competition at this end of the market.
Can this one stand out from the crowd?
PAGE
OLYMPUS C-50
THE 5-MEGAPIXEL COMPACT
With the options of a semi-pro camera packed into
a slimline design, can this live up to expectations?
PAGE
MINOLTA DIMAGE 7HI
THE 5-MEGAPIXEL ZOOM ZLR
The first 5-megapixel camera to hit the market two
years ago is still slick enough to trounce its rivals
PAGE
LAB TEST
ONLINE PRINTING SERVICES
Order long-lasting high-quality prints of your digital
images right your desktop – we test 8 printing services
PAGE
PAGE
32
44
Kit reviews
The latest digital photo gear, reviewed and rated
f
Contact our reviews team
Reviews you can trust!
Our aim is to inform you fully about a product’s best and
worst features. To this end, we guarantee each review is
Independent: We have a cast-iron policy of editorial
independence. Suppliers never see a review until the
magazine hits the newsagent Authoritative: Every review
includes the manufacturer's range, other options, test shots,
3D tours, plus links to buy online Clear: We use diagrams
and boxes to ensure each review delivers a definitive verdict
#
If you have a comment about our reviews, or a product
you would like us to test, please email us at
[email protected]. Visit our website at
digitalcameramagazine.co.uk for reader verdicts
28
32
36
44
REVIEWS
3-MEGAPIXEL COMPACT
Price
Resolution
Lens
Memory
Battery life
Contact
£280
3.2 megapixels
f2.8-4.8 3x zoom
16MB xD Picture Card
250 shots (AA alkalines)
Fujifilm 020 7586 1477 www.fujifilm.co.uk
SAMPLE IMAGES ALL THESE IMAGES CAN BE FOUND ON OUR CD
FujiFilm FinePix A303
VIRTUAL TOUR
Try before you buy! Rotate and
view this camera on-screen with
our unique virtual reality tour.
ON OUR
C WEBSITE
OPINIONS & SHOPPING
Post your views, see what other
readers think then buy this camera!
digitalcameramagazine.co.uk/
fujia303
M
ost digital camera users want more than
just a few quick snaphots from their camera.
Manufacturers have realised that three
million pixels is now a realistic entry point for most
potential buyers, and are supplying an endless barrage
of ever-cheaper, ever-better 3-megapixel models as
a result.
New cameras are coming in at aggressive new price
points, fighting it out with old stagers which have been
on the market six months or more, and are themselves
subject to vicious price-cutting as they near the end of
their production lives.
The FinePix A303 is one of the new boys, aiming to
slice up the competition with its blend of slick,
pocketable charm, ease of use and quality of results.
The competition’s tough and unique features are a rarity
– so it’s no surprise that this model is technically
unremarkable but shoots instead for a winning blend of
quality, handling and convenience.
3
OUR
COVERDISC
* ON
3
With so many 3-megapixel snapshot cameras on the market, it’s subtle combinations of
qualities, not killer features that are winning out. Has FujiFilm’s new A303 got what it takes?
4
Nice and easy
DIGITAL RANGE
FUJI
FinePix F601
Price: £490
Megapixels: 3/6
FinePix F401
Price: £350
Megapixels: 2/4
5
FinePix A303
Price: £280
Megapixels: 3
FinePix A204
Price: £200
Megapixels: 2
£
5
028
FinePix A202
Price: £140
Megapixels: 2
Admittedly, it feels a bit plasticky at first, but that’s only
to be expected at the price. With the batteries fitted it’s
neat, pocketable and streamlined – you can whip it out
of your pocket at a moment’s notice.
The Fuji’s practicality takes a step further with the
use of just two AA batteries for power. Not only this, the
A303’s modest power requirements mean it’ll produce
up to 250 shots on a pair of ordinary alkaline cells. Most
cameras which use AAs really need NiMH cells, and will
suck alkalines dry in minutes.
The A303 uses a switch on the top-plate to slide back
a solid protective lens cover and power up the camera,
as opposed to the sliding lens cover found on some
Olympus models which protects the lens while the
camera’s not being used, and acts as a power switch
when you slide it back, The lens cover’s a lot more
robust than the delicate little leaves covering the lens
on a Digital Ixus, for example, and the fiddly lens caps
fitted to some more upmarket models on the market at
the moment.
7
LENS
The A303’s 3x zoom
produces crisp, clear
results, and the
camera’s exposure
offers reliable results
nearly every time
So what’s the A303 like to use? Quick and easy.
There’s so little to know that it’s almost laughable. In
standard auto mode, the only thing you’ll need the
menus for is changing the quality setting. You’ve got
a button for changing the flash mode, another for
switching the display on and off and another (rather
horrid, it has to be said) horizontal rocking switch to
control the zoom.
Simplicity delivered
If you switch to Manual mode (via the menus), you
get some extra photographic controls. Now you can
7
HANDGRIP
Running on a pair of
AA batteries, and
alkalines at that, the
Fuji is practical and
convenient for day-today use
7
POWER SWITCH
Slide the power switch
to the right, and the
protective lens cover
swings aside, the lens
pops out and you’re
ready to shoot
adjust the white balance and exposure compensation.
Pretty standard features on any digital camera, so
the A303 is unremarkable in that respect. But it
does seem to be very well-judged for its market,
and aimed perfectly at first-timers or point-andshooters who want minimum technology and just
reliable, colourful, sharp shots. Simple it is, but if the
camera can deliver good results without user
interference, there’s little wrong with that. Let’s be
honest – most digital camera shots can be taken in
program AE mode with no exposure compensation or
manual fiddling at all. Half-pressure on the shutter
TURN THE PAGE TO
COMPARE TEST SHOTS
PERFORMANCE
2 SKIN TONES
4
5
6
1
3
7
LCD
Small LCDs often
make up for it with
big pixel counts. This
one doesn’t. At just
60,000 pixels it does
the job, but no more
WORTH
A LOOK
2
OLYMPUS
C-300
£280/3MP
SONY
DSC-P71
£295/3MP
7
NAVIGATION
CONTROLS/ZOOM SWITCH
The Fuji's switchgear is not
its best point however. It
reflects the price point and
is merely functional – not
at all pleasing
new generation of physically smaller 3-megapixel
CCDs (as evidenced by the smaller lens focal
lengths). Although this should theoretically degrade
image quality, in practice the A303’s images have a
Image storage
Batteries
AC adaptor
Software
Weight
Dimensions
Transfer
OS
CASIO
QV-R3
£300/3MP
1
xD Picture Card
2 x AA
Not supplied
CD Rom & Windows, USB Drivers,
VideoImpression, FinePix viewer, DP Editor
145g (without batteries)
97.0mm(w) x 63.9mm(h) x 34.3mm(w)
USB
Windows 98/Me, 2000, XP, Mac OS 8.6-9.2.2,
OS X 10.0.4
KODAK
DX4330
£250/3MP
sharp, gritty look close up, compared to the slightly
soft look typical of previous 3-megapixel CCDs. The
results look crisp and clear, and there are few 3megapixel cameras which can do better.
Winners in this highly competitive 3-megapixel
market are hard to choose because so much
depends on price. As things stand at the moment,
though, while the A303 faces tough competition
from a number of rivals, its streamlined shape, ease
of use, modest power requirements and great
results put it a nose ahead of all of them.
Verdict
FUJIFILM FINEPIX A303 FULL SPECIFICATIONS
3.2 megapixel, 1/2.7-inch 3.3MP CCD
2048 x 1536
Fujinon f2.8-4.8 3x zoom
Auto, macro mode 10cm
Program AE
64-zone TTL
1.5-inch 60,000 pixels
+/-2EV, 0.5EV increments
Auto, on, off, red-eye, slow sync
No
320 x 240 at 10fps without sound
Can be connected to computer for use as webcam
ZOOM CONTROLS
The A303’s zoom
controls also double up
as menu navigation
controllers – saving
space on this compact
little camera
build quality, convenience, value and results.
This is where the FinePix A303 scores heavily. In
all our test shots – indoor, outdoor, with flash,
without flash – it produced extremely well-exposed,
saturated and neutral shots. This is a camera you can
leave on auto for the vast majority of your pictures.
Of all the cameras we’ve looked at this month, this
produced the most reliable exposures, most
consistent colours and best point-and-shoot snaps.
The Fuji’s images are sharp, too. Like Olympus
and some other manufacturers, FujiFilm is using a
Image processing tends to be slower on cheaper
cameras, too, and this is noticeable in the FinePix’s
playback mode, where it takes two or three seconds
to display successive shots and isn’t especially quick
at zooming and panning either. However, most of its
rivals struggle in this respect too.
In the end, complaints are all very well, but it all
Sensor
Image size
Lens
Focus
Exposure modes
Metering
Monitor
AE compensation
Flash
Video output
Movie recording
Other features
7
This produced the most reliable exposures,
the most consistent colours and the best
point-and-shoot snaps
Image processing
CON The auto white balances counteracts artificial
lighting so well that portraits look a little cold
2 OUTDOOR SHOTS
works, it’s easy to figure out and the camera leaves
you free to concentrate on your snaps. Thing is, its
numerous rivals can all boast the same qualities, so
it’s going to come down to a more subtle blend of
release locks the exposure and focus, and that’s as
much creative control as most of us need under
ordinary conditions.
We’ve already mentioned the extremely
competitive marketplace being targeted by the
A303, and even at £280, the FinePix doesn’t have
things all its own way. The build quality and
switchgear does tend to reflect the price point, with
slightly naff, dead-feeling buttons and a really rather
nasty four-way navigation system with two small
left/right buttons either side of the horizontal zoom
rocker switch. The LCD panel has definitely seen
some compromises. It’s reasonably bright and
colourful, but with only 60,000 pixels, it’s hardly
very sharp.
PRO The FinePix produces bright, colourful images
even in overcast lighting conditions
A slim, pocketable,
easy and efficient
compact camera
The FinePix A303 won't startle you
with its looks or its build quality, but
underneath its modest exterior is an
extremely capable and likeable
camera that produces fine results
5
6
PRO The cold blue light and warm, watery
sunlight shows up in bright, vibrant colour here
CON Could prove a bit too saturated and garish for
contrast scenes – some shots look a little unnatural
2 INDOOR SHOTS
5
6
PRO The Fuji’s accurate exposure makes it very
good at available light photography and flash shots
CON The A303’s colour could prove too lurid at
times when you’re looking for a subtle effect
2 IMAGE QUALITY
5
6
PRO The A303 adds a gritty edge that makes the
images look crisp at all magnifications
CON Bright highlights can produce some strong
colour fringing, and flare may degrade the image
Features
Images
Build
Value
1
1
1
1
70
85
80
90
87%
FINAL
SCORE
029
REVIEWS
3-MEGAPIXEL COMPACT
OLYMPUS C-730
Price
Resolution
Lens
Memory
Contact
£445
3.2 megapixels
f2.8-3.5 10x zoom
16Mb xD Picture Card
Olympus 0800 072 0070 www.olympus.co.uk
Olympus C-730
A 10x optical zoom? Wow, that’s big. The Olympus C-730 is perfect for sports and wildlife
fans, then, but does that make it too specialised for the rest of us?
*
ON OUR
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VIRTUAL TOUR
our unique virtual reality tour
ON OUR
C WEBSITE
OPINIONS & SHOPPING
olympusc730
DIGITAL RANGE
OLYMPUS
E20
Price: £1,300
Megapixels: 5
C-5050
Price: £649
Megapixels: 5
C-4000
Price: £450
Megapixels: 4
5
£
5
030
C-730
Price: £445
Megapixels: 3
C-720
Price: £400
Megapixels: 3
P
ixels aren’t everything. If your main interest is
sport, wildlife photography or anything else
that requires telephoto lenses, a long-range
optical zoom will be the first thing on your shopping list.
The massive 10x zoom on the Olympus C-730 UZ (UZ
stands for ‘Ultra Zoom’) gives you the equivalent of a
350mm lens at full stretch, and there aren’t many
digital cameras that can match that. Sure, other cameras
boast digital zooms that can go just as far, but only by
magnifying a central part of the image, drastically
reducing the resolution.
This puts the C-730’s resolution into perspective. A
3-megapixel CCD isn’t going to set the world alight in
this day and age, but it’s still good enough for highquality enlargements up to A4, and that telephoto range
puts the Olympus in a class of its own.
The C-730 boasts a 3x digital zooming feature,
offering a potential maximum 30x zoom capability.
However, we’re not fans of digital zooms – they offer
‘empty’ magnification that doesn’t record any extra
detail. In this case, given the C-730’s huge optical
zooming range in the first place, it’s probably gilding the
lily somewhat, too.
Size is everything
For those who need extreme telephoto capability, then,
the C-730 offers remarkable value. It’s also very
compact. If you were expecting a camera like a
drainpipe with a box on the end, you’re in for a surprise.
The lens does extend further than most when you
power the Olympus up, but it’s still little larger than
Olympus’s own C-4000 or C-5050 compacts.
These focal lengths do bring an increased risk of
camera shake. Don’t imagine you can shoot hand-held
in dim lighting with the big zoom settings this camera is
capable of achieving. It’s best to use a tripod if you
want your sports and wildlife shots to come out sharp.
It’s not a fault with the Olympus, but a characteristic of
long lenses everywhere, on any camera. What helps
here, though, is the C-730’s maximum aperture of f2.8
at the wide-angle end, and which only drops to f3.5 at
3
1
7
LENS
With a 35-350mm
zooming range and
a f2.8-3.5 aperture,
the C-730’s lens is
something special
the telephoto end, allowing the highest possible shutter
speeds. It may be that digital camera users don’t know
how lucky they are – there’s not much point shopping
for a 350mm f3.5 lens for a 35mm SLR film camera
with less than £1,000 in your pocket, and that’s for a
fixed focal length non-zoom.
The 3-megapixel CCD in the Olympus may still leave
some nagging doubts in your mind, though, since
all the latest headline-grabbing cameras are 4megapixel or 5-megapixel models. Indeed, you will see
a noticeable difference in quality between the C-730’s
output and that of a 4- or 5-megapixel model by the
time you’re printing at A4 size or larger. Even so,
shots from the C-730 will still look good, particularly at
7
FLIP-UP FLASH
The built-in flash
won’t fire unless
you flip it up with
the button on the
top plate
normal viewing distances. It uses one of the newer,
physically smaller 3-megapixel CCDs adopted by other
makers now, and in the Olympus it produces sharp,
slightly gritty images (when you get really close up).
The results are a lot better than those of the first 3megapixel models, and crisp enough to need little, if
any, sharpening.
Design compromises?
So does the C-730’s design compromise it for everyday
photography? Not in terms of size, handling and
portability, as we’ve already mentioned. But the huge
zooming range does mean Olympus has had to drop
the optical viewfinder in favour of a digital one. It’s big
TURN THE PAGE TO
COMPARE TEST SHOTS
7
7
SHUTTER
BUTTON/ZOOM
SWITCH
The switch is fast,
given the zoom
range it’s got
to cover
mode. It’s big, clear and positive – easy to use, but
not easy to knock by accident.
On the back, the buttons are visibly cheaper than
those on more expensive upmarket cameras, but do
the job perfectly well. As usual with Olympus
cameras, the four-way navipad buttons double as
NAVIPAD
Olympus sticks to its
tried-and-tested
control layout, with a
well-designed
navipad that offers
fast access
you save up to four sets of custom settings for reuse later.
Given that it’s got such appeal to serious users,
though, it could do with starting up a bit faster.
When you press the power button, there’s a pause
of around a second before anything happens at
all, making you wonder if you pressed it hard
enough. The rest of the start-up process is fairly
leisurely, too, as the lens extends from the body and
the LCD activates. Focusing is reasonably rapid, but
does take longer as the focal lengths increase, as
you’d expect.
And how does it look?
fast-access menu controls in record mode. It’s a
system that works well, especially given that
Olympus has stuck with separate buttons for each
directional controller and not given into the
temptation to include one of those horribly woolly
four-way switches.
As well as offering a wealth of manual
photographic controls, the C-730 has a real-time
histogram display to help you judge exposure levels
before you shoot rather than afterwards, and it lets
Video output
WORTH
A LOOK
2
FUJIFILM
FINEPIX S304
£380/3MP
FUJIFILM
FINEPIX S602
£595/3-6MP
Movie recording
Other features
Image storage
Batteries
AC adaptor
Weight
Dimensions
Transfer
HP PHOTOSMART
850
£400/4MP
320 x 240 15fps QuickTime without sound
Twin media slots
SmartMedia or xD Picture Cards
4 x AA
No
107.5mm(w) x 76.0mm(h) x 77.5mm(d)
USB
NIKON
COOLPIX 4500
£600/4MP
Verdict
Metering
Monitor
AE compensation
Flash
3.2-megapixel, 1/2.7-inch 3.34MP CCD
Olympus Multivator f2.8-3.5 10z zoom
Auto, 4cm in Super-macro mode
Program AE, shutter-priority, aperture-priority,
manual, scene modes
Digital ESP, spot, multi-spot
+/-2EV in 0.3EV increments
Auto, on off, red-eye, slow sync, slow sync with
red-eye, second-curtain sync
NTSC or PAL
The C-730 is no oil painting, and lacks the build
quality and design finesse of more upmarket rivals.
But you’ve got to remember the price and what
you’re getting for the money. If you need extreme
zooming, here’s a camera that offers it, without any
compromises, in an extremely affordable,
workmanlike and photographically sophisticated
package. Yes, you can get cheaper 3-megapixel
snapshot cameras, but they won’t do what this
camera can.
1
OLYMPUS C-730 FULL SPECIFICATIONS
Sensor
Lens
Focus
Exposure modes
CON Outdoor shots showed a slight reddish/
magenta tinge. Indoors, flash control is good
7
VIEWFINDER
The digital
viewfinder is not
especially sharp,
but surprisingly big
and bright
It’s fine for point-and-shoot snapping, but
it also offers lots of high-end features for
more serious photographers
result. It offers a handy 35mm equivalent wideangle view at the short end of the scale, which isn’t
bad considering that many rivals with shorter zoom
ranges don’t go as wide as that. The C-730 is a
perfectly good everyday, all-purpose camera. It’s fine
for point-and-shoot snapping, but it also offers lots of
high-end features for more serious photographers.
The main mode dial on the top plate offers access
to the C-730’s program AE, aperture-priority, shutterpriority, manual and scene modes, plus playback
PRO The C-730 produces strong, contrasty shots
even in overcast lighting
3
MODE DIAL
The C-730 is robust
and practical – the
chunky, positive
mode dial is a
good example
and clear, but as with other digital viewfinders, it
lacks the sharpness and clarity of an optical finder.
The 1.5-inch LCD panel on the backplate isn’t
especially big, but it is sharp and bright.
Despite its extreme zooming range, the Olympus
lens doesn’t seem to suffer any compromises as a
2 SKIN TONES
2 OUTDOOR SHOTS
7
3
PERFORMANCE
5
6
1
1
OLYMPUS C-730
The C-730 has
great zooming
capabilities and is
hugely versatile
It’s not the cheapest 3-megapixel
camera you can buy, but it’s surely the
most versatile. Despite the huge zoom
range, it’s compact and practical, too
5
6
PRO Reliable exposure control and huge zooming
range make the C-730 great for outdoor photos
CON It did make a bit of a pig’s ear of our test
shot, producing an over-warm result
2 INDOOR SHOTS
5
6
PRO Flash shots come out well, and simple pointand-click shooting offers reliable results
CON The C-730 seems a little more prone to
camera shake than some
2 IMAGE QUALITY
5
6
PRO The C730’s lens offers a huge zooming range,
but without appearing to harm its sharpness at all
CON Not steadiest camera for hand-holding; you’ll
need a tripod to exploit that 10x zooming range
90
FEATURES
88
IMAGES
BUILD
VALUE
80
94
1
1
1
1
88%
FINAL
SCORE
031
REVIEWS
5-MEGAPIXEL COMPACT
OLYMPUS C-50
Price
Resolution
Lens
Memory
Contact
£550
5 megapixels
f2.8-4.8 3x zoom
32Mb xD Picture Card
Olympus 800 072 0070 www.olympus.co.uk
Olympus C-50
Do you want a compact, snapshot camera or a full-blown enthusiast’s model packed with
photographic controls and esoteric features? Tricky choice – unless you opt for the Olympus C-50
our unique virtual reality tour.
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olympusc50
DIGITAL RANGE
OLYMPUS
E-20
Price: £1,300
Megapixels: 5
C-5050
Price: £700
Megapixels: 5
5
C-50
Price: £550
Megapixels: 4
C-4000
Price: £450
Megapixels: 4
£
5
032
C-300
Price: £280
Megapixels: 3
4
3
VIRTUAL TOUR
D
igital cameras tend to come in one of two
sorts. If you want full-on photographic control,
you tend to get bulky cameras festooned with
knobs and dials and with a price tag to match. Whereas
if you want a small, slick, pocketable camera, you have
to accept point-and-shoot simplicity and abandon all
your photographic ambitions, right?
Olympus’s C-50 aims to offer the best of both worlds,
with a highly compact design, but with the multiple
metering and exposure options of a semi-pro camera.
Not only that, it packs in a 5-megapixel CCD to offer the
maximum resolution you can get in a digital camera
without taking the big step up to a digital SLR.
On paper, it’s a very tempting package, particularly
since the Olympus undercuts other high-powered
5-megapixel models, and by some margin. But how
does it shape up in daily use?
3
OUR
COVERDISC
* ON
Style and substance
In appearance and basic operation, the C-50’s a lot like
Canon’s S30/40/45 models. Finished in brushed steel
and chrome, it’s got a sliding lens cover that also
switches on the power.
It’s quiet and quick, too. While other digital cameras
can sound like they’ve got gravel in their bearings, the
C-50’s lens moves in and out with barely a whir. It starts
up pretty quickly and there’s not too much shutter lag,
either. The C-50 feels sophisticated and well-made, an
impression reinforced by the firm, positive mode dial.
This offers access to the cameras program, aperturepriority, shutter-priority and manual modes, as well as
its landscape, portrait and other scene modes. You’ll
need to dip into the menus to swap between the PASM
exposure modes, but given the market this camera’s
aimed at, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The
C-50 is best suited to those who want this level of
photographic control, but not every day, and not if it
compromises point-and-shoot simplicity.
Although the controls generally feel very good, the
four-way navigation controller is a bit stiff and the
display/playback mode button to the right of the LCD
7
7
LENS
That lens looks dinky,
but it’s fast, with a
good maximum
aperture of f2.8, and
sharp, too
feels distinctly dead and unresponsive.
Other than that, though, the layout of the controls is
very good. The four-way navipad is also used to apply
exposure compensation while taking shots – it’s very
easy and quick. The menu system is quick to navigate,
too. Press the menu button, and the LCD displays four
options to correspond to the four navigational buttons.
Three of these are shortcuts to commonly used
functions, while the fourth displays the full menu
system. It’s neat, fast and also user-configurable.
Elsewhere, one button changes the flash mode while
another switches on spot metering and macro modes.
7
SLIDING LENS COVER
The lens cover protects
the optics when not in
use, and powers up the
camera when you slide
it open
SHUTTER RELEASE/
ZOOM SWITCH
There’s nothing to
worry technophobes
here. Just point, shoot
(and zoom) and the
C-50 will do the job
For a camera which does so much, the C-50 is
commendably clear of knobs and buttons. There’s a
configurable ‘My Mode’ for storing your own chosen
settings, and the C-50 can even auto-bracket exposures.
This is on top of a panoramic picture function and
optional spot-metering mode – despite its size, this
camera really does do an awful lot.
Small is beautiful?
The Olympus packs all this photographic power into a
pretty small body. It’s not as tiny as a Digital Ixus, for
example, but it’s not far off. And there are two factors
TURN THE PAGE TO
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OLYMPUS C-50
PERFORMANCE
2 SKIN TONES
1
5
6
Metering
Monitor
AE compensation
Flash
WORTH
A LOOK
2
5-megapixel, 1/1.8-inch 5.4MP CCD
2560 x 1920
Olympus f2.8-4.8 3x zoom
Auto
manual, scene modes
Digital ESP, spot
Auto, on, off, red-eye, slow sync,
slow sync with red-eye
KONICA
REVIO KD500
£500/5MP
KYOCERA
FINECAM S5
£500/5MP
MODE DIAL
The main mode dial is
big, clear and offers
fast access to the most
used functions. It’s stiff
enough not to be
moved accidentally
this LCD is unusually crisp and bright. It takes a
second or so to cycle between shots in playback
mode (these 5-megapixel files can be quite big), but
zooming in and panning around your saved shots is
7
NAVIPAD
The C-50’s navipad isn’t as
crisp as those on some
other Olympus models,
but it shares the same
efficient menu access
system which is a bonus
FinePix A303, (reviewed page 28).
As a foolproof point-and-shoot camera compact to
carry anywhere, the C-50 could hardly be much
better. And it backs this up with photographic control
As a foolproof point-and-shoot camera
compact to carry anywhere, the C-50 could
hardly be much better
quite quick, even if you do have to keep clicking the
buttons (they don’t keep scrolling/zooming if you
keep them pressed).
Picture quality
All this technological finesse won’t amount to much
if the camera itself doesn’t take good pictures. Here,
though, the C-50 does very well. If it wasn’t for a
couple of slightly odd white balance decisions while
we were photographing inside Wells Cathedral, we’d
say it was as reliable and consistent as the FujiFilm
Video output
Movie recording
Other features
Image storage
Batteries
AC adaptor
Software
Weight
Dimensions
Transfer
OS
MINOLTA
DIMAGE F100
£400/4MP
that could make you wonder if there’s any point
buying a semi-pro model. The lens doesn’t have the
zooming range or wide aperture of some models,
and the colour balance can occasionally turn a little
lurid, but these are small flaws when set against its
terrific day-to-day usefulness.
There are better models than this for photo
enthusiasts, but none of them are any good at all if
you’ve left them at home when you need them.
The C-50, by contrast, can just slide into your coat
pocket and go with you everywhere.
1
OLYMPUS C-50 FULL SPECIFICATIONS
Sensor
Image size
Lens
Focus
Exposure modes
7
NTSC or PAL
320 x 240 15fps QuickTime
TruePic image processing and Pixel Mapping
xD Picture Card
Lithium-ion rechargeable LI-10B
Supplied
Win 98/2000/NT/XP, Mac OS9 or higher
99.5mm(w) x 58.5mm(h) x 41.5mm(d)
USB
Windows 98/ME, Windows 2000/XP, Mac OS9
or later
CANON
POWERSHOT S45
£480/4MP
Verdict
which have helped the designers get the
dimensions down.
The first is the use of a rechargeable lithium ion
battery. Most Olympus cameras run on AAs, but this
slimline lithium cell offers good battery life without
the bulk. It recharges in just two hours, too.
Secondly, Olympus has ditched SmartMedia cards
in favour of new xD Picture Cards. Being promoted
jointly by Olympus and FujiFilm, xD cards make
SmartMedia cards look positively huge. Barely larger
than a postage stamp, the Olympus card offers a
reasonably generous 32MB storage, and you can
already get xD cards up to 128MB. A 256MB card is
imminent, and the design reportedly offers a
theoretical maximum of an amazing 8Gb.
However good xD cards might be, or become, it
would be nice if digital camera makers could just sit
down and work out which memory card format is
best and just stick to it. (We can’t help thinking that
if Canon can squeeze a Compact Flash card into the
tiny internals of the Digital Ixus, then everybody else
ought to be able to do the same.)
Not surprisingly, given its size, the C-50 makes do
with a modest 1.5-inch LCD, but with 134,000 pixels,
3
LCD
Small it may be at just
1.5 inches across the
diagonal, but the
C-50’s LCD screen is
exceptionally bright
and crisp
CON Good flash exposure indoors, but the white
balance can surprise. Turn down the saturation?
2 OUTDOOR SHOTS
4
7
PRO Good contrast and saturation, even in dull
lighting. Good skin tones – slight reddish tendency
A compact,
foolproof and
powerful camera
You might expect a pocketable
compact camera to sacrifice features
and image quality, but the C-50
appears to make few concessions
in either direction
5
6
PRO The C-50 picked up the warm sunlight on the
pier, maximising the available colour and contrast
CON The C-50 can be too lurid, but for the average
snapshot user it will deliver great-looking shots
2 INDOOR SHOTS
5
6
PRO Colours are warm and vibrant and flash shots
come out well (as ever, slow flash mode is best)
CON The white balance isn’t always predictable,
dialling in extra yellow in one interior we shot
2 IMAGE QUALITY
5
6
PRO The C-50’s ultra-compact design doesn’t appear
to compromise its optical quality one jot
CON The compact design makes it hard to hold
steady, so watch camera shake in dim lighting
Features
90
Images
90
Build
Value
1
1
1
1
83
89
88%
FINAL
SCORE
033
REVIEWS
5-MEGAPIXEL COMPACT
CASIO QV-5700
Price
Resolution
Lens
Memory
Battery Life
Contact
£600
5 megapixels
f2-2.5 3x zoom
16MB Compact Flash
1130 images or 5hrs 20 mins playback (AA FR6 lithium cells)
Casio 0208 208 7838 www.casio.co.uk
Casio QV-5700
A 5-megapixel camera for £600? The Casio QV-5700 goes further, with high-end photographic controls, a sharp, fast lens
and build quality and handling that puts it right up there with the best
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OPINIONS & SHOPPING
casioqv5700
C
anon’s PowerShot G2 has made a big name
for itself as a top enthusiasts’ camera with a
great lens, great resolution and great
photographic control. So why are we talking about the
renowned PowerShot G2 in a review of the Casio
QV-5700? Because the Casio seems to be everything
the G2 is, but better.
It looks like the Canon, with a moulded handgrip,
solid and positive controls and even the same lens. It
goes one step better, though, with a more attractive
and “grippable” black finish (the Canon’s a bit shiny and
slippery) and a control wheel which makes many of the
camera functions quicker to adjust.
Interestingly, the Casio runs on a quartet of AA
batteries and the company’s claiming a remarkable life
expectancy of 1130 shots or 5hrs 20 minutes of
continuous playback. In fact, though, this is achieved
with expensive lithium AAs – ordinary NiHM cells are
likely to last less than half as long.
Photographic features
DIGITAL RANGE
CASIO
5
QV-5700
Price: £600
Megapixels: 5
QV-4000
Price: £400
Megapixels: 4
QV-R4
Price: £350
Megapixels: 4
QV-R3
Price: £300
Megapixels: 3
£
5
034
EXILIM EX-S2
Price: £300
Megapixels: 2
Casio really has packed a lot of photographic features
into this camera. As well as the programmed auto
exposure mode, there’s shutter-priority automation, full
manual control, aperture-priority, and a whole range of
scene modes.
In fact, Casio refers to these as Best Shot modes.
Like the cheaper Casio QV-R4, the QV-5700 doesn’t
content itself with a simple selection of icons to
represent these shooting modes. Instead, it presents a
full-screen page indicating the sort of shot each mode
is designed for (via a sample thumbnail) and an
explanation of how it works.
While the QV-R4 has over 30 of these Best Shot
modes, the QV-5700 has just five. That’s until you
discover it comes with a CD containing 100 more, ready
to be transferred and installed in the camera.
The Casio’s control wheel is much better than any
navipad for making aperture, shutter speed, EV
compensation, ISO and other adjustments, and the
layout of its buttons is well-planned – it’s a camera you
2
3
7
LENS
The Canon-built f22.5 zoom is a fast,
sharp optic that’s
seen service in many
different models
can use extensively without having to start up and
navigate through the menu system.
Some features have a less obvious benefit, like the
Digital Soft Focus (rather easy to apply in Photoshop),
and some of the menu options could be clearer. Why,
for instance, is the ISO setting called Sensitivity and
rated as +1, +2 and so on instead of being given
standard ISO numbers? The manual offers a translation
into ISO values, but why make it so difficult? Also, we
couldn’t find a slow flash option, or any reference to
one in the documentation. That’s a surprising omission
in a camera that’s so well-specified in other ways –
even to the extent of offering a studio-style external
flashy sync socket.
7
HANDGRIP
The QV-5700 runs
on four AAs, and its
low power
consumption should
prolong battery life
There are nice touches too, though, like the real-time
histogram display which lets you see whether your
current exposure settings are going to clip the highlights
or shadows before you take the shot.
Handling
This camera does really feel like it comes from a
premium-brand manufacturer rather than an electronics
company. It doesn’t have the formidable mass of a
PowerShot G2, but once the batteries are installed, it’s
solid-feeling and wieldy.
It’s not without its handling flaws, though. Startup is
on the leisurely side for such a high-end photographic
tool, taking around five seconds from the moment you
TURN THE PAGE TO
COMPARE TEST SHOTS
7
POWER SWITCH/
SHUTTER RELEASE
The QV-5700’s
power/playback/
record switch is on the
shutter release. Zoom
is on the backplate
CASIO QV-5700
PERFORMANCE
2 SKIN TONES
3
4
3
5
6
PRO Very good outdoors, very neutral – other
cameras showed reddish/magenta tones
CON Our slow flash shot was weak indoors and
produced greyish-looking complexions
2 OUTDOOR SHOTS
1
7
7
MODE DIAL
The outer collar
operates drive
modes, while the
inner dial works
exposure mode
WORTH
A LOOK
2
5 megapixel, 1/1.8-inch 5.36MP CCD
Canon, f2-2.5 3x zoom
Auto, manual, infinity, 6cm macro mode
manual, Best Shot modes
Multi-pattern, centre-weighted, spot
Specifications +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments
Auto, on, off, red-eye
NTSC and PAL
320 x 240 AVI format with sound
OLYMPUS
C-50
£550/5MP
OLYMPUS
C-5050
£700/5MP
5
6
PRO Accurate exposure with good contrast, wellsaturated colours and neutral colour balance
CON Some may find the colours a little muted, but
you can fix that in your image-editor later
2 INDOOR SHOTS
As well as the auto exposure mode, there’s
shutter-priority automation, full manual
control, aperture priority and scene modes
automatically goes to the rotating collar around the
shutter release to zoom in and out – on the Casio,
that shuts down the power.
In playback mode, the Casio cycles through saved
images very quickly. Zooming and panning is a little
slower, but it does at least auto-rotate shots taken in
portrait format.
Crash report
The one thing we did have problems with was what
appeared to be sporadic firmware crashes. Now and
again the Casio would fail to start up properly,
extending the lens but then seizing up and flashing
the pair of lamps by the viewfinder window. The
only solution was to open the battery compartment
cover to momentarily cut the battery power – after
that, the camera would work fine again.
Other features
Image storage
Batteries
AC adaptor
Weight
Dimensions
Transfer
OS
NIKON
COOLPIX 5000
£800/5MP
The quality of results provided by the Casio makes
up for a lot of these quibbles. When it’s good, it’s
very good. The dawn harbour shot on the CD
demonstrates a truly impressive level of sharpness –
you can easily make out the links in the anchor
chain of the largest boat.
At other times, though, the results can be more
variable. The Casio came up with some odd
exposures now and again (like the underexposed
shot inside Wells Cathedral), and sharp though that
Canon lens is, it doesn’t take much to provoke flare
and colour fringing.
Ultimately, while the Casio has a lot to commend
it, including that surprisingly good build quality and
handling, it’s got some significant flaws too. If it
weren’t for these small niggles, it would have got
a 90% score.
1
CASIO QV-5700 FULL SPECIFICATIONS
Metering
Monitor
AE compensation
Flash
Video output
Movie recording
ZOOM SWITCH
AND JOYSTICK
These two are the
low points in an
otherwise good set
of controls
100+ Best Shot settings transferable from CD
Compact Flash
4x AA
Supplied
335g (excluding batteries)
118mm(w) x 74.5mm(h) x 64.5mm(d)
USB
Windows 98/Me, 2000, XP, Mac OS 8.6-9,
OS X 10.1
MINOLTA
DIMAGE 7i
£800/5MP
Verdict
turn the power switch before the lens is fullyextended and the LCD monitor lights up. The monitor
itself is a good size and clear enough, though a little
dim in broad daylight.
Focussing could be quicker, too, though any
impression of sluggishness is exaggerated by the
shutter-release button, which feels too heavily
weighted – half-pressing the button to activate the
focussing and metering takes more pressure than
you might be expecting, and the Casio could do with
a lighter first pressure and more differentiation
between this and the full-release pressure.
We’re also not sure about the QV-5700’s
navigation button. The Casio eschews the usual fourway navipad in favour of a little thumb-operated
joystick. It’s got novelty value sure enough, and it
works OK, but it’s not as positive or as controllable
as a navipad, and it’s not as if the Casio doesn’t
have enough room on the backplate for a
conventional controller.
The worst control, though, has to be the zoom
switch. It’s a narrow, horizontally mounted rocker
switch with a short movement on the backplate. If
you’re used to other cameras, your finger
Sensor
Lens
Focus
Exposure modes
7
BUTTONS BY LCD
These and the
control wheel (top
right) save you
using the menu for
different functions
Powerful
photographic
options at a
good price
The Casio’s surprisingly well made,
well designed and handles well too.
But it’s marred by some quirky design
points and occasional unpredictability,
which is a real shame
5
6
PRO Good, neutral colour and that fast f2.0 lens is
ideal for artificial or natural light indoors
CON But where’s the slow flash mode? An odd
omission on such a sophisticated camera
2 IMAGE QUALITY
5
6
PRO Very good, sharp detail rendition. Get it right,
and you’ll get images to cut your finger on
CON Watch the focussing point with close-ups.
Also bright highlights can cause colour fringing
FEATURES
92
IMAGES
87
BUILD
86
VALUE
90
1
1
1
1
84%
FINAL
SCORE
035
REVIEWS
5-MEGAPIXEL ZOOM SLR
MINOLTA DIMAGE 7HI
Price
Resolution
Lens
Memory
Battery Life
Contact
£1,000
5 megapixels
f2.8-3.5 7x zoom
16Mb CompactFlash
220 shots
Minolta 01908 200 400 www.minolta.co.uk
Minolta DiMAGE 7Hi
In a market where technology advances at the speed of light, surely any camera nearly two years old belongs in an old
folk’s home? Minolta’s determined to keep plugging the DiMAGE 7, though, with a new, pro version
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dimage7hi
DIGITAL RANGE
MINOLTA
5
DIMAGE 7HI
Price: £1,000
Megapixels: 5
DIMAGE 7I
Price: £750
Megapixels: 5
DIMAGE F100
Price: £400
Megapixels: 4
DIMAGE XI
Price: £350
Megapixels: 3
£
5
036
DIMAGE X
Price: £300
Megapixels: 2
T
he Minolta DiMAGE 7i was the first 5megapixel digital camera to hit the market in
May 2001. The DiMAGE 7i, and now the 7Hi
models boast some revisions and enhancements over
the original, sure, but can a camera this old compete in
today’s market? Yes, it can compete. And not just
compete, it can trounce the rest as effectively as it did
in 2001. And here’s why…
5-megapixel CCDs were state-of-the-art in May 2001
and, despite many people’s expectations about future
developments, they’re still state-of-the-art now. Sure,
you can buy digital SLRs with 5, 6 and even 11megapixel CCDs, but only if you’ve just won the lottery.
The DiMAGE 7, offers the largest resolution of any
remotely-affordable digital camera. But it’s been joined
by Nikon’s Coolpix 5000 and 5700, Sony’s DSC-F717,
Casio’s QV-5700 and others. So can the DiMAGE still
trounce the rest? Yes, and here’s why.
Photographic enthusiasts accept lots of compromises
when they switch from 35mm SLR film cameras to
digital cameras. Like fast, manual zooming – ditched in
favour of slow, graunchy electric motors. Like 28mm
wide-angle lenses, most photographers’ favourite
‘second’ lens – ditched in favour of zooms that rarely go
wider than 35mm. Like hands-on knobs and buttons
that let you adjust the camera in moments – ditched in
favour of fiddly menus on LCD screens. Like not being
able to use filters any more – ditched thanks to lens
mechanisms that preclude filter threads and require
expensive attachments/converters instead.
This is why the DiMAGE 7 is unique. There’s a proper
rotating zoom collar on this lens. And this lens goes
right from 28mm to 200mm in 35mm camera
equivalents. And you can adjust practically every
important photographic parameter, from ISO to white
balance to EV compensation and more, without touching
the menu system.
And (pause for breath), the lens has a conventional
filter thread on the front. It’s all so practical, so ‘right’
that you want to grab all the other makers by the throat
and give them a shake.
DIGITAL
CAMERA
MAGAZINE
1
2
7
LENS
Excellent 28-200mm
zooming range,
fast f2.8-3.5 optics
and a filter thread
on the front
Professional capabilities
Like other makers, Minolta has been changing its
camera ranges practically on a monthly basis, the
DiMAGE 7 has soldiered on remorselessly. The DiMAGE
7i, introduced in March 2002, brought faster and more
sophisticated focusing, a new high-speed shooting
mode and improved shutter response and speed range.
Underneath, though, it’s still the same classic design.
So good is the DiMAGE 7, that Minolta’s now
7
CONTROL DIALS
The control dials let
you adjust EV
compensation, drive
mode, sequence
shooting, ISO sensitivity
introduced this, the new 7Hi model, to run in parallel
with the 7i. The 7H’s single most notable feature is its
ability to hook up with studio-based flash systems via its
external flash sync socket. This takes it into professional
territory, where photographers would otherwise be
checking out digital SLRs at twice the price. The 7Hi’s
image quality is such that it’s fine for all but the most
demanding (large-scale reproduction) work. The 7Hi can
also shoot at an exceptional 3fps at full resolution –
MINOLTA DIMAGE 7HI
PERFORMANCE
2 SKIN TONES
7
3
CONTROL WHEEL
The control wheel
works in conjunction
with its mode and
settings dials to
provide fast nonmenu-based control
5
6
PRO The Minolta’s less inclined towards lurid
saturation than some of the other cameras
CON Slow flash shots need more power, and there
was the occasional tendency to underexpose
2 OUTDOOR SHOTS
4
7
1
perfect for fast-moving fashion and editorial shots
indoors, and sports action outdoors.
Snags and drawbacks
At this point we have to stop and list some of the
Dimage 7’s faults, if only to stop ourselves having a
7
HYPERFINDER
The Minolta’s
HyperFinder boasts
improved colour,
and will rotate
through 90 degrees
The focusing speed, fast though it is, doesn’t
match that of the Olympus E20 or any digital SLR,
and the controls aren’t instantly intuitive – you’ll
need to spend some time with the manual to get
the best from this camera. Oh, and if you attach the
neck strap, it fouls on the CF card door when you try
BATTERY
COMPARTMENT
The DiMAGE 7Hi
runs on four AAs.
Cheap and
practical, then
6-megapixel digital SLR images and 5-megapixel
‘pro-sumer’ camera images is as large as that
between 5-megapixel cameras and 3-megapixel
models. The DiMAGE 7Hi is extremely good, but only
compared with its direct rivals and not digital SLRs.
5
6
PRO The Minolta offers neutral colour and its
exposure system favours the highlights
CON You’ll find yourself adjusting your images’
levels to restore contrast, colour and brightness
2 INDOOR SHOTS
The bottom line
It’s all so practical, so right that you want to
grab all the other makers by the throat and
give them a shake
to open it (you can tell we’re getting niggly now,
can’t you?).
One of the most important points to make,
though, is that at this level it’s the CCD’s physical size
that has the biggest bearing on image quality. While
entry-level digital SLRs offer only a small apparent
increase in resolution (6 megapixels versus 5), they
use much larger CCDs, which place far fewer
demands on the optical system and produce visibly
sharper results. The difference in quality between
MINOLTA DIMAGE 7HI FULL SPECIFICATIONS
Sensor
Lens
Focus
Exposure modes
Metering
Monitor
AE compensation
Flash
Video output
Movie recording
WORTH
A LOOK
2
5-megapixel, 2/3-inch 5.2MP CCD
Minolta GT f2.8-3.5 7x zoom
Auto, manual, 13cm in macro mode
manual, scene modes
Multi-segment, centre-weighted, spot
Auto, on, off, fill-flash, red-eye, rear-sync
NTSC or PAL
320 x 240 at 15fps with sound
CASIO
QV-5700
£600/5MP
NIKON
COOLPIX 5700
£900/5MP
Other features
Image storage
Batteries
AC adaptor
Weight
Dimensions
Transfer
OS
SONY CYBERSHOT
DSC-F717
£800/5MP
1
Flash sync socket for use with studio
lighting systems
Compact Flash
4 x AA
Supplied
117mm(w) x 90.5mm(h) x 112.5mm(d)
USB
Windows 98/Me, 2000, XP, Mac OS 8.6-9.2.2,
OS X 10.1.5
OLYMPUS
C-5050
£700/5MP
Verdict
fit. The digital ‘HyperFinder’, improved in the 7i and
7Hi models, still isn’t as good as a proper optical SLR
viewfinder like that in the Olympus E20, for
example. And while the HyperFinder does tilt up and
down through 90 degrees for waist-level viewing, a
flip-out rotating LCD panel would be handier still.
The 7Hi’s metering system doesn’t impress us
every time, either. Now and again it lapses into
underexposure – nothing serious, but enough to
leave you with some tweaking to do in Photoshop.
In terms of quality of results, the DiMAGE 7Hi is no
longer conclusively superior to its rivals. For handling,
practicality and control, though, its completely
different design philosophy keeps it well ahead.
It all boils down to that lens. Not only does it
offer a huge 7x zooming range, it encompasses a
genuine wide-angle setting, offers fast (non-motor)
zooming and gives you a conventional 49mm filter
thread on the front. And it’s got that excellent f2.83.5 maximum aperture. The lens alone is a
masterpiece. Throw in the intelligent on-camera
controls, excellent switchgear and robust design and
the DiMAGE 7 is still hard to resist.
But only go for the 7Hi model if you must have
that 3fps sequence mode and studio flash capability.
The ‘amateur’ 7i is otherwise just as good and some
£300 cheaper.
This camera is a
classic design:
full stop!
The DiMAGE 7 didn’t just introduce
new levels of resolution, it brought
truly intelligent, practical design too.
The resolution may be commonplace
now, but that design isn’t
5
6
PRO The 28mm (equivalent) wide-angle setting
lets you shoot interiors the others can’t squeeze in
CON Our slow flash test shots were disappointing,
proving under-illuminated, grey and characterless
2 IMAGE QUALITY
5
6
PRO The sharpness is excellent and it suppresses
flare far better than the rest on test
CON There’s little to criticise, but the images will
benefit from a slight dose of sharpening
98
FEATURES
IMAGES
93
BUILD
92
VALUE
86
1
1
1
1
92%
FINAL
SCORE
037
REVIEWS
IMAGE-EDITING SOFTWARE
MICROSOFT DIGITAL IMAGE PRO
Manufacturer
Price
Contact
Website
Microsoft
£45
0780 6010100
www.microsoft.com
DIGITAL IMAGE PRO CREATIVE EFFECTS
Digital Image Pro
This nifty little piece of software provides one-click access to the most important features you’ll need to
correct your images… but Richard Cobbett asks if it appeals to pros as well as amateurs?
A DEMO
ONLINE
* VIEW
DIGITAL IMAGE PRO
There’s no trial available but there
is a video demo you can watch in
Windows Media Player. Visit
http://photos.msn.com/editorial
/EditorialStart.aspx?article=CDProd
uctOther_ProductDigitalImagePro
&section=CD_PRODUCT
x FEATURES
CONTROLS
■ New user interface
■ Improved/added
lighting controls
■ Support for Photoshop plug-ins
■ Additional documentation
■ More Product Tour videos
■ Enhanced Batch Editing tools
■ Improved zoom control
■ New crop controls
0
EXPERT TIP
RICHARD COBBETT
PC EXPERT
MINI LAB
Use the mini lab for correcting,
rotating and renaming groups of
pictures, saving yourself time.
038
P
rovided that you’re using a recent version of
Microsoft Windows, you’ll already own a copy
of the basic Picture It! application, and be able
to experiment with how it works and how best to use it
before splashing out on this upgrade.
Digital Image Pro takes its younger sibling’s ease of
use, and focuses firmly on the world of digital
photography – offering powerful tools that require no
artistic skill to use. However, it doesn’t cover all bases in
that it makes no effort to endear itself to the hearts of
conventional artists or more experienced photographers.
To begin with, you simply load in your image and tell
the software what to do with it. This is an important
distinction, as while programs such as Paint Shop Pro
and Adobe Photoshop provide you with toolkits, Digital
Image Pro focuses firmly on Tasks. Should you have a
picture with a blemish on it, for example, you don’t
have to load up the clone tool, paste some skin over
the area on a separate layer, meld the edges and apply
any touchup effects. You need only pick the Remove
Blemish task and click until Digital Image Pro has sorted
the problem out for you instead. The beauty of this
program is its simplicity and ease of use.
2 USING DIGITAL IMAGE PRO
Digital Image Pro is a
task-orientated, laboursaving program that’s
very easy to use…
06
04
08
03
01 Main Window
The main window is where you
position and edit your image pieces.
07
02 File Browser
Flip between open files with ease.
01
03 Task Menu
Each menu option has a thumbnail
to indicate its effect.
04 Task Buttons
Touch-up Tasks are split up according
to category.
05 Zoom Panel
Unlike most of the rest, Zoom
controls are always available.
02
06 Main Toolbar
Text and other local image
controls are fixed on the toolbar.
05
07 Project Menus
The final options handle projects,
including multiple file edits.
08 Stack
The Stack holds the layers and
objects in your scene.
Multi-tasking
The same applies to Wrinkle removal, Red Eye, and a
number of other extremely convenient shortcuts.
Whichever you choose, the left of the screen snaps
open to make way for the new task. Some, notably Red
Eye, offer little control, while others, like Brightness and
Contrast, provide sliders for precision adjustment. Be
warned, however, that while this approach does work, it
is very, very slow. Experimenting by switching between
the various screens on offer and adjusting everything
can take a long time if you need multiple tools. You can
run a series of tasks on multiple images simultaneously,
but at the expense of this control.
As well as the standard levels slider, there is a Task
on hand to control the amount of back and frontlighting
that will be associated with your image. This produced
some of the best results in the test, immediately adding
vivid colours to previously washed out-looking images,
and just by dragging the slider. Tints, blurs and sharpens
proved just as effective, although even with the
inclusion of a number of paintbrushes, the emphasis on
global rather than local edits can prove frustrating.
Plug in and play
One of the biggest features in Digital Image Pro is its
support for plug-ins. This is really useful, as any Adobe
Photoshop-compatible effect can be loaded in and used
on your images, with plenty on offer, covering
everything from creating the illusion of natural media to
adding a vivid glowing edge to your work provided in
the box. Many more of these effects are available
online, both free and commercial, and prove extremely
convenient for filling up any gaps in Digital Image Pro’s
relatively small line-up.
While this software serves its purpose as an image
editing tool perfectly well, its lack of dedicated drawing
or manipulation tools do pose a problem if you want
to play with your photographs or do any clever
manipulation. For mere correction though, it does
the job and with all of the features that you need to
get by, is a strong contender.
No match for Photoshop or
FINAL
even Elements 2, but for both
SCORE
quick and easy edits, there are
few better alternatives.
82%
8
Getup&go
Where to go, what to shoot
FEBRUARY 2003
UNFOLD
THIS 8-PAGE
SECTION!
■ Map of gardens
■ Top photo tips
■ Places to visit
■ Pocket guide
BASED ON ORDNANCE SURVEY
MAPPING © CROWN COPYRIGHT, ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED: AM134/02
THIS MONTH
WINTER STORMS
In search of stormy shots?
The harbour at Lyme Regis
is the perfect spot
THE EDEN PROJECT
Get yourself to the world’s
largest greenhouse – it’s a
garden of paradise
ACTION
PHOTO TIPS!
Fold out this
guide to take
better pictures
WINTER GARDENS
Garden of Eden
Wrap up warm and go
down to the woods in
search of flowers
NATURE Architectural and horticultural wonders lure Pete Martin
to deepest Cornwall in search of a modern paradise
pace-age architecture, tropical rainforests
and Mediterranean olives may seem odd
bedfellows, but down in Cornwall they
successfully occupy the same weird space.
Brainchild of gardener and entrepreneur, Tim
Smit, the Eden Project has been attracting
controversy, praise and crowds in equal portions
since it opened in 2000. In summer, the queues
for this horticultural wonderland are immense so,
if you want more space and time to take
pictures, now is the time to visit.
Eden’s heart is its two massive biomes, set in a
dramatic lunar landscape. Kept humid by artificial
S
RALLY DRIVING
Rallys provide a fantastic
opportunity to snap
action-packed pictures
Detach this section and take it on your travels!
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waterfalls, plunging down the sides of what was
once a china clay pit, the larger one houses over
1,000 species of exotic tropical plants in the mists
of its 50-metre high space. Alongside, the warm
temperate biome has been landscaped with
plants better suited to the Mediterranean than to
the cold Cornish winter outside its hi-tech plastic
covering. Between the two, and a third outdoor
temperate zone, you’ll find subjects for your
camera as diverse as mahogany trees, bananas,
bamboos and sunflowers.
Visually, the site is stunning, with 35 acres of
weird and wonderful landscaping wrapped
around, and reflected in a central lake. You’d be
busy for years simply photographing the more
attractive specimens, but the most dramatic
pictures will inevitably be of the biomes
themselves. They rear up everywhere in your
viewfinder, hundreds of transparent air-filled
pillows on a geodesic steel framework,
reminiscent of giant bubbles or insect eyes, and
look fantastic juxtaposed against the natural lines
of the plants they contain.
Eden is also about entertainment. Depending
on the season, you’ll encounter wandering
players, Tibetan prayer flags fluttering in the
breeze, massive sculptures or artists at work, all
with one thing in common – helping us to
understand the role plants play in our lives.
Hopefully your photographs will reflect this!
EDEN INSPIRATION [w] www.edenproject.com, Eden’s official website, packed with information about things to see, and the project's aims and history [w] www.eden-project.co.uk A lo
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MIX AND MATCH
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LILY THE PINK
CORNWALL
IMAGES © Simon Burt Apex News and Pictures" (www.apexnewspics.com)
Getup&go to… THE EDEN PROJECT
FAR-RIGHT If the crowds are too
much, go for close-ups of plants
Note the juxtaposition of natural and
manmade objects
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BUG EYES
AIM FOR ST AUSTELL
By car: east of St Austell, signposted from
the A30, A390 and A391.
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HOW TO GET THERE
8
DETAILS
BASED ON ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPPING
© CROWN COPYRIGHT, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: AM134/02
Isolated from their
surroundings, the biomes
resemble strange scientific close-ups
EDEN PROJECT
WHAT IS IT?
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Situated in a disused china clay pit near
St Austel, the Eden Project contains the
largest greenhouse in the world, and is
home to over 100,000 species of
plants – exotic and everyday.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
JUNGLE LIGHT
Adults £9.80, children £4, family £23.
Strong back or side light will pick
up the steamy atmosphere to lend
a sense of drama
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LOCATION
Eden Project, Bodelva, St Austell,
Cornwall, PL24 2SG.
GARDEN PARADISE
FACILITIES
Garden enthusiasts will find a
wide range of plant
environments and species at Eden
Three restaurants, coffee bar and shop.
OPENING HOURS
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DANCING IN THE STREET
Winter hours until 30th March 2003,
10am – 4.30pm (last entry 3pm).
Look for the bizarre. There are
many works of art dotted
throughout the site
INFO
www.cornish-riviera.co.uk for local info.
EXPERT ADVICE
ocal man’s personal view of the Eden Project, packed with pictures
EXPOSURE TIP
USING FILTERS
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Protection: seawater and cameras
don’t mix. Keep a plastic bag in
your pocket for protection from
spray, or invest in an all-weather
housing. Droplets on long lenses
may not be visible at wide
apertures, but will be obvious with
wide-angle shots. Try to shoot
from sheltered locations and use
shutter speeds around 1/250th in
high winds.
8
Pete Martin
specialises in
photographing
UK cityscapes
Exposure: bracket exposures in
dramatic lighting if you have time.
Images normally regarded as
underexposed may give the effect
you are looking for, and this isn’t
always easy to see on the LCD.
MORNING MISTS
A muted colour palette helps emphasise the graphic
shapes of the trees against the biome framework
Use graduated ND filters inside the
biomes to balance out exposure
between sky and ground so you don’t
lose detail in the roof structure.
Alternatively, get down low and expose
for the sky to create bold silhouettes of
plants and people against the
framework. Outdoors, use long lenses
to home in on the strange shapes. Look
for interesting reflections in the lake or
the way plants inside press against the
clear plastic walls.
Getup&go to… BOURNEMOUTH
SOUTH COAST
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RALLY DRIVING
AIM FOR BOURNEMOUTH
By car: from the M27, take the A338 to
Bournemouth. Rally stages will be
signposted off this at Somerley Park
(near Ringwood) and around.
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HOW TO GET THERE
ACTION THRILL SEEKING
allying is the UK’s most popular motor
sport, and no wonder. It’s got speed
and noise and is full of adrenaline and
excitement. It also makes for gritty, actionpacked pictures.
Before packing your flask and
waterproofs, you need to know your roads
from your stages. Road rallys take place on
normal roads, usually at night, and are more
a test of navigational skills than high-speed
R
5
WATER JUMP
5
FLASHY DRIVING
Wherever there's water there's
dramatic pictures to be had
Combine long exposures with flash to pick
up the car lights at night rallys
driving. For the best pictures, you want
stage rallying, where higher performance
cars compete off-road against the clock –
often in forests or across old airfields.
You’ll find helpful clubs all round the
country, with rally series taking place
throughout the year. More importantly, races
take place in daylight! Major events include
the Network Q stage of the World Rally
Challenge and numerous BRC stages, but
smaller local rallies will help hone your skills
and are no less exciting.
Despite increasingly stringent rules
governing where you can and can’t go to
watch the cars, it’s still possible to get good
vantage points in spectator areas, from
where you can capture plenty of action. The
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Pete Martin goes into top gear to capture the thrills of rally driving
secret is to get there early and find a spot
where the cars will be coming towards you
on a bend. As they drive round, they’ll be
travelling slightly slower, making it easier to
focus and freeze the action, but their wheels
will also be throwing up mud, gravel and
water that make for dramatic images.
Vehicles set off at timed intervals, so
you’ll get plenty of chances to get the
picture right. Notice what the early starters
are doing and plan your shots accordingly.
Look for unusual angles near sprayproducing puddles, or bumpy sections
where speeding cars may leave the track
altogether, and pick backgrounds to
highlight the cars, using a telephoto to crop
in tight.
WHAT IS IT?
Bournemouth hosts the annual Rallye
Sunseeker, including the final round
of the 206 Winter Cup, on 22nd
February, with 100 cars competing in
16 stages over 70 miles of local forest
and MOD tank testing grounds. There
are plenty of viewpoints at all the
stages of the race.
WHERE TO GO?
Rallye Sunseeker 2003.
LOCATION?
Somerley Park near Ringwood.
WHAT ARE THE FACILITIES?
Catering at Somerley Park – otherwise
take a flask and sandwiches
COST?
£10 for either a Rover forest car park
or Somerley Park; £24 for both car
park passes and programme.
EXPERT ADVICE
Pete Martin
specialises in
photographing
UK cityscapes
Pre-focus: try pre-focussing
manually on the spot you want
your car to occupy, and press
the shutter a split second
before it gets there.
INFO
www.rallyesunseeker.co.uk
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Shutter speed: speeding cars
and long lenses require high
shutter speeds (1/250th plus)
for sharp images, and that
means wider apertures or
upping the ASA setting in
gloomy forests. Panning with
the vehicle enables slower
speeds and increases the
sensation of speed by blurring
the background – useful when
you’re stuck with mundane
‘side-on’ vantage points.
DETAILS
POST-SHOOT
INTENSIFYING COLOURS
Get as close as possible to the action for
maximum impact. In the absence of a
telephoto lens, crop your pictures
tighter to improve the composition. Add
panning-style blur by cutting out the
car, and making a new layer, adding a
Linear Blur (Filters) to the background.
Feather the edges of the cutout by 2 or
3 pixels to soften the transition.
GET SOME INSPIRATION [w] www.rallycodriver.co.uk Just one of dozens of websites dedicated to rallying enthusiasts but with an event finder for all the major rallies this year
USE A FAST SHUTTER
Do use a fast speed – the
longer the shutter is open,
the more motion the
camera will record
■ Now send us your pictures!
Email a small JPEG to
[email protected]
with your name & a few words
about the shoot, and we'll reply!
to fold this booklet:
8 How
This is side A. Turn over for side B
Side A
STEP 1: Detach sheet
from rest of section
8
Side A
8
STEP 2: Fold this side
in half horizontally
STEP 3: Now fold
around into a square
GARDENS/ACTION PICS
SIDE B: EXOTIC AND
spectacular, high-energy shots
of rallys and winter storms
TELEPHOTO LENS
■ Tips
■ Equipment
■ Dos/don’ts
ZOOM LENS
If your camera has a
shutter priority control,
use it to ensure you can
set the exact shutter speed
you want.
01
INDEX:
2 CAPTURE MOTION
SIDE A: 9 TIPS ON HOW TO
SHUTTER PRIORITY
WHAT’S IN THIS ISSUE
TOPICS COVERED
>
EQUIPMENT:
three items for
better results
6
FOLD ALONG THIS LINE SECOND
DETACH HERE
REDUCE THE ANGLES
Don’t capture the subject
moving across your field of
view – you’ll get a better
effect if it’s coming towards,
or moving away from you
offer plenty of opportunities
to snap frosty scenes and
greenhouse specimens
your spirits: even in February,
5 Lift
Britain’s botanical gardens
■ Detailed maps of
how to get there
2
2 BOTANICAL GARDENS
If you want to get really
good, a telephoto lens
will help you get cracking closeup sports pictures.
03
a piece of the action?
5 Want
Get out and shoot some
A lens rated at 80mm to
200mm will enable you
to get much closer to the action.
02
USE THE ZOOM
Do get close into the action but
remember, the closer you get
the more apparent the effect of
blur will be unless you pan
with the action
Dos and don’ts
GETTING IT RIGHT: CAPTURING MOTION
.
FOLD ALONG THIS LINE FIRST
TEAROUT FACTSHEET NO.4
FEBRUARY 2003
Getup&go
Getup&go ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY
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If you’ve ever tried to
photograph moving
objects, you’ll know
how hard it is to avoid
blurring and to capture them
at just the right moment.
In this month’s Getup&go
rally report we show you how
to capture fast-moving
objects. Luckily, it’s not as
hard as it looks…
are equivalent. You can use a
slower shutter speed if they
are moving towards or away
from you.
THE DISTANCE
OF THE SUBJECT
3
The closer to the camera the
subject is, the greater the
angle of motion there is and
the more it will move across
the field of view relative to a
you’ll need a shutter speed
twice as quick for a 100mm
lens – that is, 1/500 seconds.
The more you zoom, the
faster the shutter speed
needs to be.
more distant object – even
if the speeds are the
same. This will increase
blurring. Similarly, zooming
in on an object has the
effect of making it appear
closer, so that it will blur
more. This effect increases
in proportion to the focal
length of the lens. For a
shutter speed of 1/250
second with a 50mm lens,
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6
The type of zoom you use will affect the final quality
of picture. The ideal zoom will have a range of 80mm to
200mm, and for that kind of quality, you will probably need
to invest in an additional lens – and for that, you will need an
SLR camera. However, some top compact digitals like the
Olympus C4000 Zoom can manage 32mm to 96mm optical
zoom. With digital zoom on top, you may find your digital
camera comes close enough to delivering a zoom range you
can live with.
results – it balances exposure
requirements with shutter
speeds automatically.
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LOOK FOR THE
TURNING POINT
With many moving objects,
there’s a turning point at
which the object freezes
while it changes direction,
like a ball at the high point of
a parabola. Anticipate this
change of direction and you
have a perfect moment to
capture the action before it
all starts up again.
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REMEMBER
SHUTTER LAG
If you are panning with your
subject, remember to factor
in shutter lag – the time it
takes from pressing the
shutter release, to the shutter
opening. Anticipate wrongly,
and a slow lag could mean
the action is over before you
have even taken the picture.
USE YOUR
CAMERA’S MODES
Because of the trade-off
between shutter speed and
aperture size, which affects
depth of field, consider using
your camera’s program
modes to help you get the
best balance. The shutter
priority mode will enable you
to override your camera’s
built-in trade-offs with the
exact shutter speed you
require. Also consider the
Action mode built into many
compact digitals for the best
USING A ZOOM
4
BETTER
SHARPNESS
You can increase sharpness by
photographing fast-moving
objects as they come towards
you, or move away. Try to get
a wide angle of view and
don’t get too close to the
subject. Select a fast shutter
speed, in the order of 1/500
seconds. And use a high ISO
setting – ISO 200-400
because a fast shutter speed
will reduce the amount of
light falling on the CCD.
UNDERSTANDING
BLUR
1
Blur occurs when the image
moves while the shutter is
open. The way to reduce blur
is to reduce the time the
image lingers on your CCD.
There are several ways to do
this. Using a fast shutter
speed is the most
fundamental, but other
attributes affect how long the
image remains on your CCD,
including the speed of the
subject, its distance, the
direction of movement and
how far your lens is zoomed.
DIRECTION
OF MOTION
2
Objects will blur more if they
are travelling at a right-angle
to your camera lens, than if
they move towards or away
from you – even if the speeds
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PAN WITH THE SUBJECT
One way to generate the effect of motion while
having the subject remain still, is to move or pan the camera
as the subject whizzes past (see Hotshots issue 1
for a great example of this). Simply move with the
subject, keeping it centred in your viewfinder. For best
results, use an auto-focus camera with a slower shutter
speed, say 1/125 seconds.
PULLOUT NO.4
Getup&go... routeplanner
UK botanic gardens
Britain has many outstanding botanic gardens. And thanks to centrally-heated greenhouses, many are open all-year round
2 1 SCOTLAND
T
he extraordinary success of The Eden
Project in Cornwall has renewed interest in
exotic and botanic gardens of all types. Of
course, the great advantage of Eden is that
as well as having fantastic, space-age
architecture, the environment within its biomes
remains constant – no matter how grim the
weather is outside, so there’s no barrier to
visiting it in the winter.
Many of the UK’s top botanic gardens also
feature greenhouses that are open all year. Our
map opposite reveals some of the best places to
visit if you want to see some beautiful gardens,
lift your spirits from the grey drabness of a British
winter and photograph flora.
And if that isn’t enough to inspire you, just
remember, the shortest day has been and
gone – from here on, the weather’s on the up.
21
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS
Founded in the 17th century as a physic
garden (a garden for growing medicinal
plants) in the centre of Edinburgh,
the Royal Botanic Gardens have
expanded to encompass four sites
around Scotland. Each site specialises in
different plants. For example, Logan,
provides space for sub-tropical plants in
its greenhouses, while Benmore focuses
on trees and shrubs from high rainfall
areas of the world.
Other highlights: from 11th January
to 23rd February, look out for the
‘Zones of Inhibition’ exhibition – an
exhibition of the private lives of fungi,
focusing on four fungi of economic
importance. On 25th January, there’s
the Winter Wonderland guided walk
(book in advance).
Entrance: Free.
Family-friendly? From 15th February to
18th February, there’s a special ‘Frost
February Fun’ kids event, which features
storytelling and entertainment (£2 fee).
More info: www.rbge.org.uk/rbge/web/
index.jsp
2 2 CENTRAL ENGLAND
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD BOTANIC GARDEN
Wander into Oxford and while you’re there, visit the botanic
garden. Founded in 1621, it’s the oldest botanic garden in
Britain. Outside, there’s a comprehensive collection of plants
and trees, while inside the greenhouses contain a selection
of tropical plants from around the world.
Other highlights: located next to the river Cherwell, it’s
adjacent to Magdalen Bridge.
Entrance: closed on Good Friday and Christmas Day, it’s
otherwise open around the year and only starts charging
from 1st April.
Family friendly? Under 12s get in for free even on-season
(April 1st to August 31st).
More info: 01865 286690
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2 3 SOUTH-WEST LONDON
*WEBSITES OTHER UK BOTANIC GARDENS
Your options aren’t confined to the places here. Visit
www.rbgkew.org/friends/gardens.html for details on
gardens in Cardiff, Windermere, Kent, Hampshire and
many more
KEW GARDENS
Situated ten miles outside London, Kew is probably the world’s most famous
botanic garden. And it’s well geared up for visitors at any time of the year,
too, with special winter displays. Look out for fruiting trees, winter bark
and flowering cherry. Towards February, snowdrops and witch hazels appear
near the rock garden. If the winter is mild, the first magnolia of the year begin
to sprout at this time of year.
Other highlights: gift shops sell everything from calendars to stinging nettle
syrup, a range of special seasonal events and two restaurants/eateries if you
want to make a day of it.
Entrance: open all year apart from Good Friday and Christmas Day.
Family friendly? Children up to and including 16 years get in for free
(accompanied by an adult)
More info: www.rbgkew.org.uk
23
DORSET
LYME REGIS
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© GUY EDWARDES
Getup&go to… LYME REGIS
AIM FOR LYME REGIS
By car: take the A35 coast road from
Dorchester to Honiton, then the A3052 to
Lyme Regis.
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HOW TO GET THERE
8
LANDSCAPE WINTER STORMS
DETAILS
WHAT IS IT?
Ever since Meryl Streep lashed herself
to the Cobb in the teeth of a gale in The
French Lieutenant's Woman, Lyme Regis
has become a Mecca for photographers
in search of stormy images. The oddlyshaped 13th century harbour wall
makes an ideal focal point as massive
waves break over it, and is a popular –
if dangerous – place to dodge the spray
(so much so that it is often closed
during bad weather). The curve of the
bay allows views from the seaward side
back across the sea front itself.
Blustery winter days take Pete Martin to Lyme Regis in search of watery action
8
light, while behind it the sky remains
black and heavy. Such moments may be
opportunistic, but you’ll increase your
chances if you’ve read the forecast and
are waiting for them. You also need to
move fast; bad weather changes
constantly, so familiarity with your
camera is essential. Keep images simple.
Why not try pointing the camera up at
the sullen skies and scudding clouds?
Include a strip of horizon in order to
ground the image, but meter off the sky
itself (avoiding any sun) to create dark,
brooding images. Look for apt subjects
such as windswept bare trees to
silhouette against the sky.
STORMY WEATHER
ABOVE Place the people a third into
the picture to tighten the composition
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LOW HORIZONS
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STORM LASHED
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LIGHT WAVES
TOP-RIGHT The brooding sky and dark
horizon gives an almost mono picture
MIDDLE-RIGHT A sheltered viewpoint
gives a dramatic picture
Nothing.
Plenty of cafés and B&Bs, as befits a
popular seaside town.
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o a photographer there’s no such
thing as bad weather. But for
pictures of nature in the raw you need to
be out in it, not sat at home in front of
the fire. The sea is perhaps the most
potent of nature’s forces to capture, as a
trip to Lyme Regis on a wild and windy
day will demonstrate. When the tides are
high and the winds from the south,
storm tossed waves are hurled against
sea defences all along this Dorset
coastline, from Exmouth to Portland Bill.
But it’s at Lyme that the elements can
seem at their most dramatic, as the
waves drive into crash over the Cobb.
In westerly winds, the Cobb is best
shot from the undercliffs to the west, or
the gardens above, with the breaking
waves backlit by any sun that makes it
through. When the wind’s from the east,
the sea front itself loses its protection
from the harbour wall and becomes the
focus of its fury.
Paradoxically, the best lighting for
landscapes often occurs when the
weather is at its worst. Fleeting breaks in
the storm clouds may allow the sun
through, with fingers of light spotlighting
perhaps Golden Cap along the coast, or
flooding the foreground with a brilliant
T
POST-SHOOT
ARCHIVE ALL YOUR
SKY SHOTS
Some may not work on their own
but prove a perfect replacement for a
bland sky in another picture. Cut around
the main image content, save the
selection and make it into a new
layer, then paste your chosen sky
behind it and adjust its position. You'll
need to do a little tidying up to make it
look real, but this means that you'll get
at least one good picture from two
possible rejects.
BOTTOM-RIGHT A strong backlight
helps pick up the spray off the waves
GET SOME INFORMATION [w] www.lymeregis.com Local tourist information site [w] www.ukho.gov.uk/easytide.html The website for the UK Hydrographic Office – tide tables for the whole of the UK
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Getup&go to… HODSOCK PRIORY
TEASEL TEASE
Teasels are a regul
background and ba
stems and their thick coating
Live and kicking
NATURE Laurie Campbell searches our woodlands for the
traditional first signs of spring
8
you’re looking for other subjects, holly berries
and haws often survive marauding birds, and
look good against blue skies on sunny days.
Evergreen holly leaves also make pleasing
patterns, especially in hedgerows where you’ll
have fewer problems with depth of field. And
you’ll find dead hogweed flowers on riverbanks
and teasels on waste ground, both of which can
be picked and taken home for still lifes. Try
leaving these out overnight when frost is
forecast and photograph the results. Who said
winter was dull?
ICED UP
These crystals of fro
Work quickly if it's s
SHOOTING IN WOODS
Set the camera’s white balance to
‘overcast light’ when shooting in shady
woodlands. Get down low to capture
individual snowdrops, ensuring that the
camera is parallel to the stem to keep
both this and the flower head in focus
within a limited depth of field. A
beanbag makes a handy low alternative
to a tripod, which may struggle at this
height. Not being so leggy, aconites and
cyclamens can be photographed from
above more easily.
GIANT PLANTS
This is the same giant hogweed plant as above, but this time the
20mm wide-angle lens creates a setting for it by including the
background and blue sky. The plant can grow to four metres high
GET SOME INFORMATION [w] www.ngs.org.uk For 75 years the National Gardens Scheme has been opening private gardens to the public for charity. Their site helps you find them
8
OVERCAST SETTING
8
8
he first flowering of the candlemas bell,
aka the humble snowdrop, is a sure sign
that winter is almost at an end. Introduced to
this country by Italian monks in around 1600, this
harbinger of spring unfolds a drooping bellshaped flower through its cover of woodland leaf
mould as early as January, and makes an
attractive subject when little else is in flower.
The even, shadowless light of an overcast day
is best for capturing the delicate beauty of these
hardy flowers, ensuring that the whites of the
petals don’t lose their detail – always a problem
in stronger light. Take advantage of a wideangle lens’ close focusing to get in tight on
individual clumps of flowers, while still showing
their context, or make drifts appear more
densely packed with a telephoto lens.
A macro lens or attachment is handy for closeups of single flowers, with their three outer
petals protecting an inner set tipped with green.
Avoid windy days, as the leggy plants will move
too much for slow shutter speeds. If it’s a
problem, gently tie a stem to a twig pushed into
the ground just out of shot to steady it.
When you’re done with the high key shots
afforded by snowbound snowdrops, fill your LCD
with colour from the winter aconites, cyclamens
and crocuses that follow hot on their heels. If
T
UP CLOSE AND
The three-dimensio
speed to give a wid
essential to reduce contrast an
IMAGES ©LAURIE CAMPBELL
AIM FOR WORKSOP
By car: leave the A1 north of Worksop
onto B6045 towards Worksop. It’s two
miles along, and well signposted.
HOW TO GET THERE
Frosted bracken fronds make strong, graphic shapes
up close. The camera was parallel to the frond to
keep everything in focus at a restricted depth of field
GRAPHIC BRACKEN
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8
8
lar sight in winter. Here the dark
backlighting helps to isolate the
g of hoar frost
WINTER GARDENS
8
ER
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
HOGWEED HEAVEN
The delicate nature of this giant hogweed head
called for a long lens and a wide aperture to create
as soft a background as possible
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WHAT IS IT?
Many woodland gardens open in
February to allow visitors their first
glimpse of spring. One of the most
spectacular is Hodsock Priory near
Worksop, which has five acres of
gardens and 20 acres of woodlands
planted with 80 varieties of snowdrops.
LOCATION
Hodsock Priory, Blyth, near Worksop,
Notts, S81 0TY.
WHEN IS IT OPEN?
From 1st February for five weeks,
10am to 4pm.
rost on a reed stem were shot virtually life size on a macro lens.
sunny as the frost doesn't last long
Adults £3.50, children 50p.
Teas and light snacks available.
CONTACT
Tel 01909 591 204.
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POST-SHOOT
USE THE LEVELS CONTROL
8
D PERSONAL
onal nature of this clump of snowdrops required a long shutter
de depth of field in the low light. The subdued soft light was
and keep detail in the whites of the petals
DETAILS
WORM’S EYE VIEW
For this low angle view, Laurie used a bean bag as a camera support. A wide angle
lens and hyperfocal focussing technique maximises the depth of field. This means
focussing about one-third of the way into the picture
It’s easy to overexpose and lose the
detail in the whites of snowdrop petals.
Take care of the highlights by careful
use of the Levels control. Select the area
you wish to be the highlight with the
white dropper tool, then adjust the
mid-tone slider to distribute the tones
below this. Make sure you click on areas
of pure white or you could affect the
colour balance.
REVIEWS
CAMERA SUPPORTS
JESSOPS TP323
MANFROTTO MN679
Price: £40
Contact: Jessops www.jessops.co.uk
Type: Tripod
Price: £28
Contact: Manfrotto www.manfrotto.it
Type: Monopod
Jessops has packed the TP323 with almost every gadget and feature available in
the tripod world. At 1.5kg and 63cm folded, it’s far from the lightest and smallest
tripod on test, but the features more than make up for its old-fashioned styling.
From the top, the three-way adjustable head is detachable, enabling you to
screw and unscrew the camera in your hand rather than on the tripod itself. The
head comes with two spirit levels, mounted at right angles to keep everything
flat, and the column head also has 360-degree markings on it. The TP323’s
handles and fittings are made of ABS; solid and practical but a little cheap
feeling. The central (air-cushioned and braced) column is moved up and
down by a crank, enabling precise positioning. The three-section
aluminium legs have quick clip releases, and extend to give a maximum
height of a metre and a half. Finally, the feet have ball-in-socket joints,
giving them a self-levelling action. Completing the list of features are
carrying options – a hook at the base of the central column and
carrying handle about halfway up.
Verdict: the TP323 is a complete tripod, with enough features
to make a good addition to any
photographer’s kit – although
FINAL
SCORE
the weight may deter hardcore
outdoor photographers.
The style of Manfrotto’s MN679 is like an upmarket
walking stick – three interlocking anodised aluminium
shafts topped with a comfy non-slip grip, nylon wrist
strap and ABS head. The MN679’s selling point is its
restyled leg locks that simply snap open and shut (45degree run), making it much quicker to set up and put
away than rivals. It’s 64cm long when closed and the
leg extends to an impressive maximum height of
162cm (nearly five and a half feet).
The head is well designed, with a nice, wide 60mm
ridged plate and a clever spring-loaded screw (with
cap) that automatically handles both 1/4-inch and
3/4-inch camera screws. We did find that using the
smaller screw did require careful handling – it
might prove tricky to do if you’re wearing gloves
or in the cold. The MN679 comes with its own
Allen key mounted on the shaft to adjust the
leg lock tension in the field. Monopods
aren’t quite as stable as tripods, and you
obviously can’t leave them to take a selftimer shot, but you really notice the
payoff when it comes to weight – the
MN679 weighs just 600g and can
support up to 10kg of equipment.
Verdict: overall, this is a
professional and very
well-priced model.
85%
82%
FINAL
SCORE
ATLANTIC ALFA 3 Q/R
Price: £18
Type: Clamp
The Alfa 3 is typical of many entry-level tripods – it has enough utility to earn its space in
your camera bag, and enough drawbacks to make you want something a bit more
substantial. A weight of just 560g, combined with a packed-down size of 40cm and a
respectable maximum height of just over a metre, make it light and flexible enough to
use in the field. It also comes complete with metal leg brace and a three-way head.
There’s a quick-release camera platform but no spirit levels to keep your images
straight. Elevation is a standard sliding control, and the legs are in four sections,
controlled by quick-release clips, and capped with plain rubber feet. So far, so
good. However, the real problem with the Alfa 3 is its build quality. The
aluminium central column and legs are thin, almost flimsy, and certainly aren’t
up to use in environments where they’ll receive the odd bash or kick. All the
fittings and screws are ABS plastic – tough, but not as hard-wearing as steel.
And because the Alfa is light, unless you’re using the smallest digital
camera, your setup will be top heavy – bad for working on slopes.
Verdict: if you’ve never used a tripod, the Alfa 3
will show you what you’ve been missing, but if
FINAL
SCORE
you’re going to take it further than a car park,
you’ll need something a little more solid.
67%
040
;
5
NEXT MONTH
WE RATE THE BEST POCKET
HARD DRIVES
THE POD THE POD
Price: £15
Contact: The Pod www.thepod.ca
Type: Beanbag
When tripods shrank down to monopods, it
was only a matter of time before someone
went that step further and made a camera
support that’s just a ‘pod’. With no legs at
all, The Pod is a 12.5cm diameter, 5cm
deep circular sack packed with tiny
plastic beads, and is intended for
use in situations where tripods are
either impractical or forbidden
(many museums, for example). It
provides a safe support for even
the largest digital camera – the
manufacturer claims it can take the
weight of a fully grown man.
But The Pod is a lot more than just the
mini-beanbag it resembles. Made from thick
water-resistant nylon, The Pod is topped with a steel screw
and is adjustable to a wide range of angles (though flat horizontal can sometimes be a little tricky to achieve).
The base is non-slip and non-marking, with a central Velcro-fastened opening that enables you to remove the
contents. This means you can transport the Pod empty then fill it at your destination (it weighs about 400g
when full). If this all sounds like an ideal travel companion, intrepid explorers will be
FINAL
pleased to hear that The Pod also floats (note: don’t try this with a digital camera
SCORE
attached) and is fairly invulnerable to dropping or crushing.
Verdict: The Pod is a great idea, very well executed.
78%
SLIK CORPORATION SLIK MINI
JESSOPS CLAMP/TABLE TRIPOD
Price: £13
Type: Clamp
This tripod looks more like a piece of woodworking equipment than a camera
support, but Jessops has managed to squeeze a few neat features into this model.
Folding down to a pocket-sized 13cm and weighing only about 150g, the
Clamp/Table Tripod is primarily for use around the house, but if you’re brave enough
you could attach it to tree branches, fence poles or even bike frames for those hardto-get action shots.
The black ABS construction is lightweight and feels a bit delicate, especially in the
clamp screw, where you really need strength. A double ball-and-socket joint links the
clamp to the head, enabling you to fix the head at almost any angle to the body. No
maximum support weight is stated, so we tested the clamp with a heavy old Epson
digital camera. It seemed to hold okay, but the ball-and-socket joint was less than
rock solid, with a tendency to droop unless kept pretty much vertical.
The Clamp comes with two snap-down legs to make it a tripod – but don’t
imagine this will give you the stability of a proper, braced model. The legs are light
and the whole thing is unstable, especially if you want to get a portrait rather than
landscape shot.
Verdict: the Clamp is an interesting idea, but build quality is
FINAL
SCORE
questionable and it’s definitely a size reduction too far. Only
suitable for use with light equipment.
55%
Price: £20
Contact: Slik www.slik.com
Type: Tripod
From one of the biggest names in tripods comes one of the
smaller examples of the type. But, as the box plaintively begs,
‘don’t laugh’ at this little tripod.
One of the major drawbacks of using most camera supports is
their sheer bulk – and the Slik Mini packs down to a diminutive
20cm and a trim 320g when folded. With its rubber-tipped legs
and central column extended, you’ve got a maximum operating
height of 215mm.
This is obviously far too short to use for traditional shooting, but
is ideal for low-angle shots and for using on top of walls, tables
and so on, or with the self-timer. It’s also ideal for use as a chest
pod or wall brace when you’re on the move.
Build-wise, the Slik Mini is a class act, with a suction pad on
the base of the column to aid stability and a cork pad on the head
plate that should keep your camera from getting scratched. The
aluminium and ABS construction feels very solid, and the two-way
pan and tilt head is secure enough to trust with even bulky
models. Elevation is controlled with a nice, chunky screw.
Verdict: the instructions claim the Slik Mini can handle
equipment up to 1.5kg, which should be enough
for all but the largest SLRs with their longest
lenses. We found no stability problems with our
heavy test camera.
Thanks to Jessops for the kind loan
of the equipment for this feature.
Check out their website at
www.jessops.com
73%
FINAL
SCORE
041
ONLINE PRINTING SERVICES
LAB TEST
Labtest
ONLINE PRINTING
SERVICES
I
t’s long been a sore point among digital
photographers that while raw image
resolution improves steadily and cameras get
ever smaller and more capable, we are often judged on
the variable quality, impermanent prints that inkjet
printers seem doomed to produce. But times are
changing and multi-megapixel CCDs can now produce
the level of resolution (300dpi+) required for commercial
silver halide printers to output prints at standard 6 x 4
and even 10 x 8-inch sizes.
The issue now shifts to one of getting the data from
your camera or PC to the right lab for you. One option is
to take a CD or memory card into your high street photo
processors and queue up behind the happy snappers –
and probably end up talking to an assistant who thinks
SmartMedia means The Guardian. Much more exciting
are the dozens of online printers setting up their stalls in
cyberspace, offering services dedicated to the digital
imager. And just like the boom in e-tailing a couple of
years ago, a young market means some fantastic offers
as they fight to acquire your custom. These businesses
aren’t limited to the familiar high street developers –
everyone from camera manufacturers and film
companies to internet portals and flashy startups wants
a piece of this pixel pie.
There are two main types of service on offer. The first
offers an online album service, where you upload your
images (JPEGs only) through a web interface into semipermanent albums stored on their servers. These allow
you to publish your images for your friends or the
general public to see, as well as enabling you (or
anyone, if you like) to order prints. The second involves
OUR
COVERDISC
* ON
PRINTER TEST IMAGE
Find the test file we used to
generate the print results on this
page on our coverdisc A, look for
a link to it on the disc intro page
043
LAB TEST ONLINE PRINTING SERVICES – FEATURES
TOP TIP Don't rely on promises of permanent online storage. Several online album providers have gone bust, taking thousands of images with them. Always keep backups!
BONUSPRINT
AGFANET/
COLORMAILER
BOOTS
JESSOPS/
PIXOLOGY
FEATURES
FEATURES
FEATURES
FEATURES
What you get Bonusprint is best known for
creating processing envelopes inside Sunday
supplements. Its experience with mail-order
printing is second to none, and the online
experience fits the brand – basic, cheap and fast.
The website loads in seconds and doesn’t muck
around – prices, a FAQ and a download button is
all you get. Mac and PC downloads are the
smallest on test, and the program (Fotowire)
has a step-by-step wizard. Bonusprint offers
three print sizes, no choice of finishes, novelty
items, CDs or extras, but it offers a good
cropping option. You can access Bonusprint from
the Windows XP print wizard.
What you get The Boots Wellbeing website is
more about healthcare than photography,
but that poor impression fades as you open
up the hefty 5.4Mb Viewer software (PC
only). This is far more than just a printing
wizard: it’s an image editor, album browser
and help centre all rolled into one. While the
editing functions are no substitute for a
dedicated image editor, it’s a brave effort,
and the crop function is nicely integrated.
The album browser works well. We had
difficulties communicating with the Boots server,
and you have to upload all images before
choosing print sizes and getting prices, which
isn’t very user-friendly. Also, there is no
resolution warning.
What you get Colormailer is the only
international service we tested – it’s based in
Switzerland, but fulfils via Agfanet, the
Windows XP wizard, Nokia and Sony in the
UK. Uniquely, you can choose to either
download Colormailer’s efficient Fotowire
software (PC/Mac), or upload images directly for
printing (but without any permanent online
storage). Which ever way you choose to
download the software, a large range of print
sizes are on offer, with a choice of matt or gloss
finish on enlargements only. You can also order
an archive CD and various novelty T-shirts.
Colormailer operates a reasonably-priced
professional service with choice of finishes, pro
paper, 3,000dpi printing and a free screen
calibration guide.
What you get Jessops is one of dozens of
companies using Pixology’s software and print
service, which consists of a branded 5.1Mb
download (PC only). The Print@Net software
enables you to browse your drive to select
images, showing thumbnails of acceptable
formats (JPEG, TIFF, BMP and Flashpix) but not
filenames. Selecting images and print formats is
easy, with the software offering resolution
advice but no information on cropping/framing.
You can choose from a comprehensive range of
print formats, plus a bewildering array of novelty
items, from passport pics to coasters, mugs,
mousemats and laminated posters. The Jessops
software and website has notably good FAQs
and customer support, and is currently offering
ten free 7 x 5 prints.
Key feature Colourmailer’s web upload function
is a good option, but doesn’t allow the framing
accuracy of the Fotowire software.
Key feature You can save multiple delivery
addresses for dispatching the huge range of gifts
to friends and family.
Key feature Fotowire’s cropping option opens
your image in a new window. You can then
rotate and choose either to fit the picture to the
print (giving white borders if it’s not spot on) or
move a mask around for a full-frame print with
cropped edges. (download crop.bmp)
8
Key feature Edit functions include cropping,
sharp/soft focus, sepia/B&W, auto-colour and
red-eye removal. Adding text in a variety of
typefaces and styles is straightforward.
8
8
8
VERDICT
VERDICT
VERDICT
VERDICT
Fotowire downloads
quickly, uploads your
images swiftly, and
the crop option is
first class. Sloppy
printing lets down a
good-value service.
The software is
comprehensive but
more suited to
beginners. Print
quality is let down
by some harsh
compression.
Colormailer is the most
flexible service tested,
with a good range of
uploads and options,
but international
shipping can
add time.
This is a slick piece of
software with a good
product range but
some key failings –
no framing advice or
image filenames.
Print quality is poor.
? EXPLAINED
MONITOR CALIBRATION
A common complaint about
printing digital images is that the
images look darker or brighter than
they did on your desktop.
Calibrating your monitor can fix this.
If this is a problem, open the image
in an editing package and compare
it with the final print. Now simply
adjust the brightness and contrast
until the two look the same.
044
you downloading software onto your desktop and
performing most of the image selection and ordering
process off-line. The package then uploads the images
and debits your credit card. Beyond these basic
functions, both systems offer extra services, depending
on the printer. Some let you apply basic image-editing
functions (cropping, red-eye, distortions) to your pictures,
choose from a wider range of services (including
posters, photo T-shirts, mugs and so on) or send to
multiple addresses. The amount of customer support
offered and turnaround times quoted also vary widely,
and the company you choose should depend as much
on these as the headline prices.
Features on offer
The most important feature to look for in any printer is
that it offers the service you require – all offer 6 x 4,
7 x 5 and larger (10 x 8 or similar) prints, but only
PhotoBox, Pixology and Colormailer have a wide range
of formats, from enprint size right up to posters, with
non-standard (for example, panoramic) formats on offer,
too. Only PhotoBox allows you to choose gloss or matt
finish on all sizes. The web services accept only JPEG
images; the download printers can all take at least TIFF
and Flashpix files, too.
The other essential considerations are cropping and
resolution warnings. Most digital cameras produce
images in a different aspect ratio to traditional 35mm
cameras, and you can obviously create images of
any dimensions in your image-editing software. The
better printing services show you exactly what will
be cropped for each print, and some (Agfanet and
Bonusprint) even let you move that crop around. A
print-to-fit option ensures all the image is printed out,
though it will mean white borders at the top or sides.
Resolution advice is just as important. All the printers
on test except PhotoBox and Boots offer automatic
warnings if the image you’re printing is light on pixels
for the print size you’ve selected – it’s not always easy
to tell without it, and the last thing you want is a
pixellated picture hanging on the wall.
Branded services
The world of film and processing is a small one. Only a
handful of companies make 35mm colour print film, and
an even smaller bunch make the commercial machines
that actually create your prints. Similarly, many of the
online printers you’ll see on the web don’t print your
images themselves, they’re just an own-brand for one
of the big players. See our table at the end for the
rundown on who prints for whom, but generally
KLICK
KODAK
FEATURES
FEATURES
What you get Klick’s print wizard software is so
simple and transparent it’s hard to believe it’s a
5.4Mb download. With an Explorer-style
interface, it’s supremely easy to use – you
simply navigate to the right folder and select
(and rotate) thumbnails of the images you
want. The next step gives resolution advice for
each of the five print sizes on offer (6 x 4 to
12 x 8), but, unfortunately, no cropping
information. After selecting the quantities you
want, it’s just a matter of inputting delivery
and card details and then uploading all the
data. This is a rather basic service, accepting only
JPEG images and offering few frills, but it is
extremely cheap – with 6 x 4 prints just 15p
each and only 75p for postage.
What you get Kodak’s EasyShare concept works
all the way from camera to printer, and the
Kodak website is an integral part of this
user-friendly system. The front page is admirably
brief, with just a registration link and sign-in
box. Once you’re signed in, you’re presented
with an album view page where you can
create, alter and upload (JPEGs only) to online
albums. You can then view, rotate and buy
prints of your images in any of six formats
(6 x 4 to 18 x 12) or a selection of novelty
items (mugs, mats, T-shirts and jigsaws),
should you wish. Resolution and cropping
information is well handled and there’s plenty
of help pages to browse through (though no
phone support).
Key feature Choosing your images takes just a
few seconds – and, usually, Klick’s software
even keeps a running tab of the total upload
file size.
8
Key feature You can share each online album
with friends. Just add their email address to a list
and they’ll be sent a link letting them view or
buy from the folders you choose.
8
MSN
PHOTOBOX
FEATURES
FEATURES
What you get It’ll come as no surprise that MSN
Photos is the first service offered by Windows
XP’s online print wizard. Although you can also
order through MSN’s impressive website, you still
need to download software (an upload tool) and
prices are slightly higher. The website offers gift
printing and lets you share online albums with
friends. The built-in wizard is the easiest option
for XP users, accessed directly from the desktop.
MSN Photos uses Fujifilmnet to fulfil orders, but
choice is limited to a mere four print sizes (6 x 4
to 12 x 8). The wizard is the only service to let
you print GIFs and offers resolution but no
cropping advice. You can select multiple shipping
addresses, but be careful, there’s no order
confirmation screen when you place an order.
What you get PhotoBox is a dedicated web
album service, and offers a wider range of
features and printing options than any other on
test. Registering and creating albums is easy, but
uploading JPEG images is less straightforward –
there’s no progress dialogue box and even
uploaded images take a few minutes to become
available for use. You can share your albums
with selected friends and there are public
albums you can post to and print from. The
range of print sizes is enormous – everything
from tiny passport shots to 30 x 20 posters are
available in gloss or matt. You can choose a
wide selection of photo gifts, archive CDs, and
there’s professional and multiple address
options. There’s good cropping info but
surprisingly no automatic resolution warnings.
Key feature The selling point of Windows
XP’s print wizard is that you can select and
print out your images without downloading
additional software.
8
Key feature Your 30Mb allowance for online
albums increases to a generous 100Mb when
you place your first order.
8
VERDICT
VERDICT
VERDICT
VERDICT
At less than half the
price of other services
and delivering some
of the best quality
images, Klick is
unbeatable for dayto-day printing.
This is a basic service
that will appeal to
beginners, although
it’s far from cheap.
And the prints have
poor colour and
uneven exposure.
A choice of four print
formats just won't be
enough for most
photographers, but
the print wizard
can't be beaten for
ease of use.
This is a superb service
for serious digital
imagers, offering the
fastest and most
comprehensive
service. Print quality
is faultless.
speaking, the big players are Colorplaza and Pixology for
downloaded software, and PhotoBox for web albums.
You shouldn’t necessarily avoid branded services –
you’ll get exactly the same printing and delivery service
as the parent brand and prices can be even keener,
especially if they have special offers on. Customer
service might get complex, though, so shop around
before you settle on a printer.
The high street versus the net
So does online printing spell the end of photographic
printing on the high street? Hardly. Most of the major
photo finishers are moving with the times, offering a
variety of services to appeal to the digital photographer.
You can now take a ZIP or CD (and, increasingly,
memory cards) containing your images to almost any
large branch of Jessops or Boots for output as a
conventional print, or even a negative or transparency.
Prices are similar to online services, and you won’t
need an expensive broadband connection or hours on a
dial-up to upload them. Control over cropping and
the range of print sizes and formats available is
more limited than some of the better online printers,
but you do have the convenience of picking your prints
up locally (or even on the spot for simple prints) instead
of waiting for the post.
High street outlets are also good sources of digital
imagery. Most processors will transfer your 35mm
negatives onto a CD at the time of processing for
around £5 for 40 images. This may sound expensive
compared with a 10p CD-R and it can take up to
a couple of days, but the quality of scanning should
be first rate – if it isn’t, ask them to do it again!
Some processors (Boots, for instance) even include
picture viewing and editing software on the disc.
Many processors are now offering image
enhancement and manipulation services. These mainly
cater to the ‘airbrush my ex-husband out of the
holiday snaps’ market, but can be helpful if you
haven’t got access to a scanner and Photoshop. Prices
start from around £10. Some of the services above are
accessed via self-service kiosks, which aren’t
tremendously reliable, so call in advance to ensure the
service is actually working and there’s someone to help
you use them.
3 IN DETAIL
PRINT QUALITY
Most commercial printers print at
300dpi, and suggest resolutions of
1,800 x 1,200 (a 2-megapixel
image) for 6 x 4 prints and 3,000 x
2,400 (7MP) for 10 x 8 prints for
best results.
Home printing
Printing at home is always an option, but don’t imagine
that it’ll save you lots of money. A single A4 sheet of
good quality glossy photographic paper costs around
50p, and printing on it can cost nearly as much again in
045
LAB TEST ONLINE PRINTING SERVICES – TEST RESULTS
TOP TIP To access the photo developers built into Windows XP, go to the My Pictures folder and select from the left hand task pane
BONUSPRINT
8
AGFANET /
COLORMAILER
BOOTS
8
8
JESSOPS /
PIXOLOGY
8
TEST RESULTS
TEST RESULTS
TEST RESULTS
TEST RESULTS
The pictures arrived in three
days, in a card envelope. Loose inside
was a wallet with the enprints and a display
mount with the 10 x 8 print. The customer’s
name is on the back of the prints.
Detail This was printed to fit the frame. Good
detail and a nice exposure was marred by a
yellow cast in our shot.
Indoor The indoor shot showed lovely crisp
detail. The light felt very natural but might be a
little cool for some tastes.
Outdoor Good detail and the ‘print to fit’ crop
worked well where the subject got right to the
edge of the image. A red tramline (printing error)
was noticeable.
Test That tramline made another appearance.
The complex print came out too pale and slightly
yellow, but with very good detail.
Skin The
enlargement had
a graininess but
FINAL
SCORE
a natural feel to
the colours.
Boots is one of the fastest
services on test, with prints shipping
out the day after we ordered them.
Unfortunately, they arrived in just a cardboardbacked paper A4 envelope, with a loose
cardboard sheet inside – not the best protection
against a busy postal system. The images were
printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper, with file
names printed on the back.
Detail There was very well balanced exposure of
a complex subject and strong detail.
Indoor The indoor image was well exposed but
too red. There were some grainy edges.
Outdoor The outdoor shot had noticeable fringing
and colour noise throughout. Colour artefacts
could be seen in the detail.
Test Good tones and sharp detail were let down
by digital noise again.
Skin The detail was
sharp and tones
precise, but it
FINAL
SCORE
still maintained a
human feel.
Prints from the Swiss-based
printer Colormailer were the last to
arrive, taking a respectable five days, but they did
deliver a very professional package. A thick card
envelope contained an extra card backer and
plastic wallets protecting the prints, an invoice
and some high-quality index prints. Colormailer
uses Agfa Prestige Digital paper, and prints the
customer name on the back. Performance was
satisfactory, with excellent detail on all shots but
less impressive colour reproduction.
Detail Excellent detail and good colours in a well
exposed print.
Indoor The colours in the indoor shot were
muted, but there was plenty of crisp detail.
Outdoor Again, detail was first rate, although a
slight underexposure dulled the image.
Test Deep colours and sharp edges were spoilt by
a mild yellow cast.
Skin Colours
accurate but
FINAL
SCORE
muted. Digital
noise visible.
The Jessops Pixology prints
arrived in three days, in a rip-open thin
card envelope. A further plastic bag then
contained print wallets. Prints came on Fujicolor
Crystal Archive paper but the quality was very
disappointing. With a few exceptions, the prints
suffered from poor exposure and noticeable
digital artefacts, especially at sharp edges.
Detail A catastrophic framing error left half the
frame blank. The image was also over-exposed.
Indoor Good overall colour balance let down by
pixellated digital edges and far too much noise.
Outdoor Horrendously over-exposed, leaving the
sky looking more like a turquoise sea in our
outdoor shot. The highlights were lost and there
was also a lot of noise, especially at the edges.
Test The nasty edge effects really stood out on
the test card print. Colours were okay but straight
lines were imprecise.
Skin Vibrant
skin coloured
FINAL
SCORE
rescue Jessops’
ratings.
62%
? EXPLAINED
FTP UPLOAD
For the online album services,
uploading via an FTP browser (even
the one built-in to Explorer) has
advantages. It should have an
accurate progress meter and the
ability to drag and drop images,
even whole folders, into your
FTP account.
046
65%
ink. And while modern inkjet printers can produce
startlingly good results if everything’s spot on, the
wrong combination of ink, printer and paper can give
flat, lifeless results. Inkjet prints can fade within a few
months, although this is less of an issue than it used to
be. If you intend to do a lot of printing at home, use the
paper and ink recommended by the manufacturer.
Ease of use
The good news is that none of the online printers we
tested are difficult to use – anyone who can use Explorer
74%
or a basic image editor will be able to order prints
in a matter of minutes. But if you don’t have a
broadband connection, uploading them can be time
consuming and expensive. For instance, it’s worth
remembering that a typical 2-megapixel image will be
around 400K in size. So uploading at 3 to 4K/second
with a dial-up means a couple of minutes per image,
and a lot longer if you’re using TIFFs instead of
compressed JPEGs.
The web album services have the advantage of being
completely plug and play – just log on and you can
50%
upload your images from anywhere in the world, which
is great if you’re on holiday with a limited number of
memory cards. The downside is that upload times can
be longer still, and you don’t get a proper dialogue
box telling you how much time you’ve got left to go.
Kodak and PhotoBox are both reliable services,
although tracking down help info in Kodak was laborious
and we also received some security warnings. Klick
offers a web album service alongside its download
option, and Colormailer has a basic web upload service
but no albums.
KLICK
KODAK
MSN
PHOTOBOX
DIGITAL
CAMERA
MAGAZINE
8
8
8
8
TEST RESULTS
TEST RESULTS
TEST RESULTS
TEST RESULTS
Klick’s package – a thick
cardboard box – was not very well
labelled, but nevertheless arrived in three
days. The prints came in a wallet and the
enlargement was loose, with a thin cardboard
backer, all in a plastic bag. A basic invoice had
only delivery address and thumbnails of the
prints, which were printed on Fujicolor Crystal
Archive paper.
Detail A lovely balanced exposure revealed
plenty of detail. There was a tiny yellow cast.
Indoor Good performance in tricky conditions
indoors. The print came out slightly too red, but
adequately sharp.
Outdoor An excellent result outside. Strong but
not overbearing colours, although it would have
benefited from a touch more exposure.
Test The range of colour and contrast was really
impressive. Detail
was spot on.
Skin A warm
FINAL
SCORE
and flattering
portrait.
Kodak’s service actually ships out
of Stuttgart in Germany, so we were
pleased to get our prints at the same time as the
majority of the UK-based printers. The cardbacked paper envelope felt quite flimsy, and the
prints (on respected Kodak Royal paper) were
stored all together in a thin paper holder. The
delivery note had thumbnails of our images on it,
and didn’t state the print costs.
Detail The image was overexposed, completely
washing out any detail from the flowers. The
colours were muddy.
Indoor A green cast killed an intimate portrait.
Outdoor The reds were too saturated, jumping
out at the cost of any detail. However, the detail
was good, and edges were nice and sharp.
Test A red colour cast and blurry edges let Kodak
down on the test card image.
Skin A green cast
flattened the
image. Pixel
FINAL
SCORE
structure and
noise visible.
MSN was the slowest of the UKbased printers, taking four days to turn
our order around. The prints (on Fujicolor Crystal
Archive paper) arrived in a colourful card
envelope, containing a wallet with the smaller
prints and a card-backed A4 envelope with the
enlargement. The four 6 x 4-inch test prints were
unacceptable – all were completely out of focus.
Detail Colour and exposure were fine, but the
image was out of focus, blurring the fine detail.
Indoor Very poor focusing combined with flat
colours made another unacceptable print.
Outdoor The focusing was as bad as ever, even
accurate exposure and lovely deep colours
couldn’t save this photo.
Test Atrocious focusing had blurred all the detail.
Skin The crisp enlargement must have been
made on a different machine from the other
prints as the focus
was fine, with
plenty of detail.
FINAL
SCORE
Colours were rich
and strong, too.
PhotoBox was the fastest service
on test, with our prints postmarked the
same day we placed the order. The packaging
was tough and clearly addressed, with a picture
invoice and the message we requested. The
prints were shipped together in a single plastic
sleeve, and PhotoBox also printed the filename
on the back of each Fujicolor Crystal Archive print.
Detail The flowers leapt off the paper, with
superb colour and astonishing levels of detail.
Indoor Too much red blurred details in the lowlights, but they weren’t disastrous.
Outdoor The outdoor print really showed the
benefit of the extra half inch, with none of the
subject lost to cropping. Good contrast and
convincing colours, especially skin tones.
Test The cropping was a little strange, but the
level of sharpness in the details was excellent.
Skin Nice and
warm, with a
wide colour
FINAL
SCORE
range. Detail
was fine, too.
80%
The downloaded software was all easy to use – full
marks to the Fotowire software (used by Agfanet and
Bonusprint) for keeping the download to 2Mb. The
Fotowire and Klick programs are simple wizards – there’s
no way to go wrong as you’re guided through the
selection and upload process step by step. Pixology
(Jessops) and Boots present more substantial interfaces,
with Boots in particular offering image editing and
album browser functionality on top of the essentials. It’s
a great idea (and good for cropping), but it’s no
substitute for a real image editor.
51%
You might think the Windows XP wizard would be
the easiest to use of any online printer, and it certainly
involves the least user effort – just decide between the
three services on offer (MSN Photos, Jessops and
Bonusprint) and you’re done. However, you will need a
.NET passport to sign into MSN Photos (with your credit
card and address details), and the wizard is a touch too
simplistic to be useful. There’s no order confirmation
page, no crop marks and getting anything other than
the most basic help info involves navigating to a
website anyway.
42%
The results
All the services we tested delivered our prints in the
correct sizes, to the right address, within five days.
PhotoBox and Boots were quickest, and Colormailer and
MSN Photos the last to arrive. Print quality varied
enormously, from superb to unacceptable, and we
encountered all the problems familiar from commercial
35mm printing, such as poor exposure and focusing,
variable colour balance and contrast, inaccurate framing
and tramlines. In addition, some printers introduced
digital errors (colour artefacts, noise and pixellation),
90%
? EXPLAINED
COMPRESSION
Minimise the compression of any
images you want to print.
Compression is great for delivering
acceptable quality images for web
or email use, but can be visible
when output. Choose 'maximum'
or the highest quality setting when
saving your images as JPEGs.
047
LAB TEST A4 INKJET PRINTERS – SPECIFICATIONS
BUYERS’ TIP If you're in a hurry to get your prints back, keep your order simple. Adding enlargements or novelty items can delay your whole order
1
SPECIFICATIONS
AT A GLANCE
AGFANET / COLORMAILER
BOOTS
BONUSPRINT
JESSOPS / PIXOLOGY
Overall %
Features %
62%
43%
65%
50%
74%
77%
50%
40%
Performance %
66%
71%
66%
54%
Ease of Use %
75%
70%
70%
75%
URL
bonusprint.co.uk
wellbeing.com
colormailer.co.uk/agfanet.com
jessops.co.uk/pixology.co.uk
6 x 4 price
$0.25
$0.30
$0.22
$0.34
10 x 8 price
£1.25
£4 (10x7)
£1.70 (11x8)
£1.24
P&P
£0.70
£1.50
£1.50
£1.50
Web upload/ Albums
N
N
Y/N
N
PC download size/spec
1.6Mb, Win 05+
5.4Mb, Win98+
2.1Mb, Win95+
5.1Mb, Win 95+
Mac download size/spec
0.8Mb, OS8.1+
N
1.9Mb, OS8.6+
N
Image formats
JPEG, Flashpix, TIFF, BMP
Print sizes (in)
Enlargements
6x4,7.5x5,8x6,10x8
N
6x4,7x5,9x6,10x7
15x10
4.5x6,5.3x7,6x8,6x4,7x5,9x6
11x8,12x8,16x20
6x4,7.5x5,8x6,10x8
15x10,18x12,18x27
Non-standard formats
N
N
A4,30x40,20x28,28x10,16x14
15x5,18x51
Pro
N
N
Y
N
Novelty items
N
N
Y
Y
CD
N
N
Y
N
Crop marks
Y
Y
Y
N
Resolution advice
Y
N
Y
Y
Multiple addresses
N
Y
N
Y
YAHOO PHOTOS
http://photos.yahoo.com/
Good online album storage and
printing service.
PHOTODEAL
www.photodeal.co.uk
This download printer (PC only)
often has good special offers.
FOTANGO
www.fotango.co.uk
This online album printer also
processes traditional 35mm and
APS film, and automatically stores
the images in your album.
048
5
www.acecam.com
This American site has a surprisingly
good index of online printers
in the UK and worldwide.
A good resource.
5
PRO Well
integrated
software for
beginners
probably as a result of extra compression. Worst
offenders were Kodak, with pixellation and extremely
poor colour accuracy; Jessops, with unreliable exposure,
a nasty framing error and clear digital artefacts; and,
above all, MSN with consistently unacceptable focusing.
The best performers were PhotoBox and Klick, both of
which produced superbly detailed, vibrant images with
spot-on focus and exposure.
All the prints came on standard mini-lab photographic
paper – Fujicolor Crystal Archive, Agfa Digital Prestige
and Kodak Royal – which means that your prints should
last at least 50 years if stored correctly. Compare that
with some home printing inkjet/paper combinations
which have lifetimes measured in months and the
benefits of commercial digital printing are clear.
Added value services
Above and beyond hard copies of your images, most of
the printers offer a range of extra services. Printing to
T-shirts, mugs and mousemats is common. Only
Bonusprint and Boots lack novelty items, but Jessops and
PhotoBox go completely overboard, sticking your
pictures on everything from keyrings to calendars. More
seriously, PhotoBox and Colormailer offer a range of
5
ACE
CON Very limited
product range.
Average prints
CON Expensive.
Consistent
digital image
problems
5
PRO Good
images and the
best range of
features on test
5
* WEB LINKS
PRO Excellent
Fotowire
software.
Cheap
CON Slow
service
services for more professional users. They can archive
your images on CD for £6 to £7, give your images the
professional treatment (hand-adjusted colour and
better paper) and arrange next-day courier delivery –
though none of this comes cheap. Colormailer is the
only service that doesn’t discourage black and white
images (when you print B&W images on a colour
printer, you often get unpleasant colour fringing), but we
didn’t test this service.
Conclusion
If you’re stuck with a dial-up net connection, you
should think carefully before using any of these online
printers exclusively – they’ll eat up a lot of your time and
it will probably be much less trouble to use a similar
service in the high street. But if you’re already part of
the broadband revolution, there’s no doubt that online
printing has finally come of age. All the printers we
tested are fast and simple to use, and the majority are
reasonably priced and produce perfectly acceptable
prints most of the time.
But some differences are clear. Many of the larger
companies are only dabbling in online printing for now –
this means a speedy service and keen prices, but it also
5
PRO Good
product range
and easy to use
5
5
CON No crop
marks. Poor
quality prints
a limited range of products (as few as four print sizes)
and quirky technical support. And while all commercial
printers are prone to the odd off day, the consistent
digital and focusing errors introduced by a couple of
printers can only be blamed on poor development and
quality control.
Hopefully, these services will improve but, in the
meantime, we recommend you stick with the printers
that did best in our performance tests.
If you just want to try online printing, you can’t go
too far wrong with Klick. As well as being the cheapest
printer on test, charging just 15p for a 6 x 4 print, the
software is utterly intuitive and the results were
some of the most impressive we saw, with well
balanced exposure and excellent levels of detail.
If you want anything even slightly out of the
ordinary, though, you should look to the dedicated
online printer PhotoBox. Despite a few gaffes
(including no auto-resolution warning), this is the most
comprehensive and professional service out there,
with super-fast service, an enormous range of print
options and producing by far the highest quality
prints – really stunning colours and exceptional
sharpness throughout.
;
2
NEXT MONTH
WE TEST AND COMPARE
THE LATEST DIRECT
PHOTO PRINTERS
3 IN DETAIL
LIGHTFASTNESS
KLICK
KODAK
MSN
PHOTOBOX
80%
33%
51%
43%
42%
40%
90%
80%
80%
54%
40%
90%
DIGITAL
CAMERA
MAGAZINE
80%
75%
75%
80%
klick.co.uk printat
kodak.com
XP wizard/photos.msn.co.uk
photobox.co.uk
£0.15
£0.39
£0.45
£0.49
£1.20
£2.49
£1.82 (12x8)
£2.50
£0.75
£1.50
£0.74
£1.50
Y/Y
Y/Y
N
Y/Y
5.4Mb, Win 95+
N/A
Windows XP only
N/A
N
N/A
N
N/A
JPEG
JPEG
JPEG
6x4,7x5,8x6,10x8
6x4,7x5,8x6,10x8
6x4,6.7x4.3,7.5x5
6x4,6x4.5,5x3.75,7x5,10x8,8x6,9x6
12x8
12x8,18x12
12x8
12x8,15x10,30x20
N
N
N
5x5,12x5,A2,A3,A4
N
N
N
Y
N
Y
Y
Y
N
N
N
Y
N
Y
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
N
Y
Y
Y
5
PRO Web service
easy to use
5
CON Very
limited range
of products
and features
CON Expensive.
Low-quality
prints
5
PRO Simple
to use
5
5
PRO Cheapest
on test with
some of the
best images
CON Light on
features and
atrociously
poor prints
5
0
PRO Print
quality, speed
and features
second to none
CON Expensive –
this quality
doesn’t
come cheap
HOW WE TESTED THE ONLINE
PRINTING SERVICES
W
e rated the printers on the services they offer,
with greater emphasis placed on more
important functions. For example, smaller
download file sizes and Mac compatibility earned more
points than novelty printers. Key features were the
number of image formats accepted and the range of
print sizes and types offered.
Performance We selected five test images, each
designed to test a separate aspect of the online printers.
Four of these were typical 2-megapixel JPEGs. The
outdoor shot highlighted colours and contrast. The detail
shot tested sharpness and focus. The indoor shot was to
see how the printer dealt with more subdued hues and
skin tones. The test card shot was helpful to check on
cropping and objective colour accuracy. Finally, the shot
of the baby (at 8 megapixels) tested how the printers
managed complex skin tones and printing at a larger
size (around 10 x 8). We assessed the prints ‘blind’,
without knowing which came from which printer.
The orders were placed with the printers within an
hour of each other. Because we ran the test at a busy
postal time just before Christmas, we judged the
turnaround time from the postmark, not how long it
took to deliver. However, we did down-rate the
Colormailer and Kodak services as they’re based in
Europe. We also rated the packaging the prints arrived in
– well-labelled, tough packages got higher marks.
Ease of use We rated each printer on the design and
functionality of their website and any downloads. We
took into account customer service and help functions.
Overall To arrive at an overall score, we weighted
performance at 65 per cent, features at 35 per cent and
ease of use at 5 per cent.
Common features
All the printers accept MasterCard and Visa, but
PhotoBox and Boots also accept Switch and Solo cards.
EXPERT TIP
MARK HARRIS
BASIC CHECKS
5
5
Despite claims made by paper and
ink manufactures, images output
on inkjet printers have yet to
prove their longevity. Conventional
silver halide prints from labs
should last at least 50 years, and
probably much longer if looked
after properly.
All offer gloss finish only, except PhotoBox which gives
the option of gloss or matt.
Verdict
It’s rare to undertake a group test of eight very similar
services and find one that excels in all areas, but
PhotoBox did just that, winning top marks for its
features, delivery time and print quality. With its
comprehensive website service, uploading and sharing
your images is as easy as ordering the huge range of
products on offer. PhotoBox turned our order around the
same day we sent it and even the packaging was the
toughest on test. Image quality was absolutely first class
– great colours, superb detail and none of the digital or
printing errors we found elsewhere. The only downside
is its hefty price – users on a budget should try Klick, a
great download service with bargain-basement prices
and near-professional print quality – but only on a very
limited range of products.
ONLINE PRINTING
ESSENTIALS
The first thing to check is that
your computer is capable of
using the service – software
should be available for a range
of PCs and Macs. The printer
should accept a range of image
formats (to save you time resaving them) and – very
importantly – offer a good
selection of print sizes. Post and
packaging charges tend to be
the same regardless of how
many prints you choose, so you
don’t want to be splitting your
order among several companies.
A quick turnaround is also
important – if the company
doesn’t even claim that less than
three or four days, it’s unlikely to
deliver any quicker than that.
Look to the future – is the printer
offering regular software updates
and do they offer the services
you might not want right now
but will grow into? The best
printers offer excellent customer
service – check that they offer
multiple delivery addresses,
order tracking and a phone
number for when something
inevitably goes wrong.
049
Trailblazers
Travel the world, see interesting things and shoot them
WINNER!
MARIGOLDS IN THE FLOWER MARKET, CALCUTTA, INDIA SUSAN MELKMAN
“The picture was taken with a Fujifilm Finepix S602 Zoom.”
02
02 Photographed by:
Brian Gleeson
Location: The Sphinx at Giza under
the shadow of the pyramids
Camera used: Nikon Coolpix 775
03 Photographed by:
Caroline Jefferson
Location: Yosemite National
Park, US
Camera used: Sony F505V
Trailblazers
050
03
05
04
204 Photographed by:
Colin Worley
Location: Man working in rice
terraces, Bali
Camera used: Olympus
C-2100 UZ
Ean Proctor
Location: Double O Arch in
Arches National Park, US
Camera used: Sony
Cybershot PS-71
Matthew Tuck
Location: Dover beach,
Barbados
Camera used: Fuji
finepix 6900
Bert Rendering
Location: “The photo is taken
in Turkey, October 2002 during
a trip near Marmaris.”
Camera used: Fuji Finepix
2800 Zoom
07
06
GET YOUR PICTURE FRAMED!
Send them in and the best gets framed and returned. We’re looking for
landmarks, unusual events or just something fabulously composed. Start
planning that trip away! ■ Email us at [email protected]
This month, you have mostly been to…
3
7
5
6
2
1
4
Trailblazers
051
YOUR PHOTOS
JORDAN GRAND PRIX RACING
EMAIL US! Send in your life – see opposite!
MEET HELEN TEMPLE
01
Each issue in Day in the Life, we focus
on someone with an interesting job,
and follow them round for a day. This
month, meet Helen Temple,
Marketing Officer for Jordan Grand
Prix Racing.
The impression is that a PR job in F1
is glamourous, is that true? As Helen
says: “Some of the time it is
glamourous, and I remember how
fortunate I am to be here, doing a job
and going to places that a lot of F1
fans can only dream of. And although
the mechanics call the marketing staff
‘luvvies’, and give me grief about the
press office being an easy life, it’s a
hard day’s work…”
Day in the life
Jordan’s Marketing Officer, Helen Temple, takes Digital Camera
Magazine through a Grand Prix Saturday
A
typical day for Helen begins at 7.30am,
when she arrives at the circuit to check
emails and scan F1 stories on the net in
the motorhome office. Most interviews have to be
accommodated within a ‘media hour’, plus a few
short TV interviews before and after track session.
Track sessions start at 9am and an effort is made
to put live updates on the Jordan website. Before
qualifying starts at 1pm, Helen persuades the
drivers to talk to the TV crews while they wait to
get into their cars, and she gets immediate
feedback when qualifying has finished.
Newspapers and magazines have deadlines
in the afternoon, so it’s vital for Helen to make
sure the Jordan media release is written up and
052 DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE
distributed to them quickly after the session.
At 4pm journalists start to arrive and the drivers
spend about an hour a day with them. Onequestion interviews can always be squeezed in, but,
as Helen explains, “the drivers are usually rolling
their eyes at me when they are on interview
number seven after I promised them only four.”
The final part of the day is spent going through
piles of papers, items that fans have sent into be
autographed and the schedule for the next day.
Helen’s day usually ends at 6pm, and if there are
no media or sponsor functions in the evening
(which often go on late), she heads back to the
hotel tired, but knowing she’s lucky to have a job
that so many people would love to do!
02
03
4
CONTACT
US
Now it’s over to you: we want your life in our hands (or on these pages anyway). If
you have a visually interesting job that you think might make a good Dayinthelife,
please email us today at: [e] [email protected]
T BE INSPIRED! www.f1jordan.com
Dayinthelife a
i h lif
01 Fisichella racing hard
Jordan driver, Fisichella, takes a corner
on an average day at the office.
02 Quote… unquote
Quotes are gathered from drivers
immediately after they have qualified.
03 Eddie and Helen
Helen ensures that Eddie Jordan gets
to press interviews on time!
04 Down in the garage
Qualifying hour is spent in the garage
gathering information. And, if needed,
removing unwanted visitors!
07
08
04
05
05 Online information
An effort is made to put live updates
to the team website so that fans can
log on and get all the latest news.
06 Faxing the F1 facts
Post-qualifying press releases are
created and distributed to the world’s
media from here.
07 EJ’s interviewed
Eddie limits press interviews – or he’d
never have time to do anything else!
08 Takuma signs autographs
Takuma, the Jordan driver, signs
autographs for the fans.
06
09 The best part of the day
Time to party! Well, it’s all part of
Formula 1…
09
Many thanks to Helen Temple and all at
Jordan Grand Prix racing for their help and
assistance in this feature. Also thanks to
Paul Sutton at Sutton Motorsport Images.
Find out more about Jordan Motorsport at
www.F1jordan.com
ALL IMAGES ©2002 PAUL SUTTON MOTORSPORT IMAGES
053
Viewfinder
We want your letters! Email us at [email protected] and we’ll print the best
Welcome…
Call them gremlins,
call them acts of God,
or more realistically,
call them mistakes.
Sometimes little, er,
bugs do manage to
wetback our sturdy defences, crawl under
our quality radar and raid our pages.
In issue 3, all the apostrophes
mysteriously vanished from the Getup&go
and Viewfinder pages. This is a first, since
they were all there when we last checked. It
turns out a corrupt font installed on one of
our Lino computers was at fault – our team
has something like 35 years of combined
magazine experience and has never come
across anything like it before. Our apologies
for this. Note this month’s mag is replete
with apostrophes, we’ve even chucked in a
few strictly unnecessary ones just to even
the score.
In the meantime, keep writing in to
[email protected].
Nick Merritt Managing Editor
Can I get issue 1?
I picked up issue 2 on the day of release and was
seriously impressed. I hit your website to order a
back issue of issue 1 but the order was delayed
due to problems with the website. When it finally
went through, all copies were gone!
I was seriously disappointed – Future mags
promote the use of technology and encourage
people to embrace the digital age! I’d really
appreciate a copy of issue 1, even a well thumbed
one with no CDs. I’ve even tried Ebay with no
success! Is it at all possible that there might be a
spare copy ‘lying around’ the office?
Bill Bulloch
DCM Really sorry about this. We can put your
mind at rest on one point – because of the
incredible demand for issue 1, it would have
made no difference whether Subs had got their
finger out right away with respect to your
website order. We sold out and there were no
back issues! Sorry about this.
Unfortunately our office was also cleaned
out by colleagues suddenly “dropping by for a
chat.” So we don’t even have any spares left
ourselves. We can, however, send out PDFs of
specific articles if this helps, so please let us
know and we’ll do what we can.
What camera?
Interact
Since last issue, another 1,900 people have
registered at www.digitalcameramagazine.
co.uk, taking our total to a healthy 5,900 –
not bad at all, keep ‘em coming folks! Here’s
what our forum regulars have been
discussing this month:
Alan Muscat asked, “What are the differences
054
I’m new to digital photography and was looking
for a compact camera. Knowing nothing, I’d
narrowed the field down to the Pentax 430RS,
Minolta Dimage 100, Fuji 601 and the Canon S45.
I’d decided on the Pentax until I read your review
in the December issue. Another magazine voted it
their best camera in its class – did you have a
faulty one? Finally, would you just go straight for
the Canon S45?
Ian Read
between traditional and digital photography
in terms of supporting equipment, such as
studio lighting, depth of field control, TTL
metering, etc.”
Obviously a potential defector there. Peter
Harrison and John Hoffman were kind
enough to point him in the right direction.
Peter advised: “Generally on £300-£400
Star Letter PhotoImpact 8 winner
What paper?
I have an Epson printer and have tried Epson and other manufacturers’ cartridges. The Epson ones
give higher quality outputs. Epson recommend they be used with Epson paper but I have had
good results from some Kodak papers, too, but variable results using Ilford. What about you guys
doing one of your comparison tests so that we can get a reliable and objective opinion or at least
data on which to base our own?
Gary Sandy
DCM Interesting idea. On the whole, for the sake of an easier life, we’ve tended to go with
the ‘use maker’s paper in maker’s printer’ recommendation.
One reason for this, is that while doing what you suggest
may look okay, there’s no assurance the results will remain
so over time, given the different chemical compounds used
by the various papers, inks and coatings. As a result there’s
no realistic way for us to test for the resulting light-fastness.
So while your photos might look fine now, there’s no
guarantee they will do so in five or ten years.
This month’s Star Letter wins a copy of PhotoImpact 8.
DCM Well, we are certainly tougher reviewers
than our rivals. One benefit of our £5
coverprice is we’re less dependent on
advertising income to balance the books, so
we really can say what we think.
We think the Optio 430RS is a good camera.
You won’t go far wrong with the Konica
KD400Z but if you can move up a price bracket,
the Olympus C-4000 Zoom is my personal
favourite at the moment. As for the S45, it’s a
superb camera and will certainly do what you
want, we’d have no hesitation in
recommending it.
We love digital
In response to Ian McCandless who slagged off
digital photography, I suggest he tries it before he
cameras you would have manual control
over Zoom (35 – 105 mm), ISO (50-400),
Shutter Speed (1/1500 – 15secs), Aperture
(F2.8 – F4.9), Flash (1.1 – 15.7 ft), Manual
Focus and White Balance settings.”
John said his main concern was over
shutter lag, plus, “the SLR film brigade will
look at you with scorn and say you are no
criticises it! Does he really think the millions of
people who are ditching 35mm film for digital are
doing it because they’ve been conned by the
camera companies? We’re not all stupid!
Susan Hart
…Okay, Ian McCandless, fair enough to be
suspicious but things have moved on. It’s been a
long time since I heard that old canard about LPs
delivering better sound than CDs – if true, why has
vinyl been confined to such a tiny niche?
David Ross
…I expect lots of people will be furiously
disagreeing with Ian McCandless’ letter about
longer a true photographer.” Correctly, he
finishes his observation with, “what tosh.”
Johnathan Ryan started a thread
suggesting changes and improvements to
the website, so if you have any ideas, get
yourself over to the thread ‘website
suggestions’ and put in your two cents’
worth – we’re all ears.
Inspired!
Have our tutorials and ideas sparked something? Send in your
examples and we’ll print the best every month, to
[email protected]
Trip to London
digital being overhyped, but he has a point. I have
gone digital and I like it, but for any professional
work on a budget, it’s still cheaper to use 35mm
film and scan it.
Kevin Ripley
Barrel of laughs
Kids’ stuff
Congratulations on an excellent second issue. I was
particularly impressed that your reviewer picked up
the barrel distortion problem on the otherwise
excellent Fuji F601 – none of the other reviews I’ve
read have mentioned this, although it is very
obvious in some types of photograph at wideangle settings.
Your reviewer remarks that this can be
corrected in digital-imaging software. Could you
explain how? I’ve tried to find a tool to do this in
both Photoshop Elements 2 and in Corel
Photopaint (admittedly a fairly old version) but
without success. The full version of Photoshop is
beyond my pocket.
Chris Bradley
Your premiere issue was amazing! What lured me
to the mag was the tutorials. The photo
compositing tutorial with the art set and kids
running around was a valuable insight. I had a lot
of fun doing my own – I used my three kids and
my sister-in-law’s two kids, (it will be presented as
a 20” X 30” poster for my father-in-law as a
Christmas gift from all of his grandchildren).
Software’s nice, but the articles make or break a
magazine, and your stuff is really making it.
Richard Murray
DCM In Elements 2 and Photoshop 7
there’s a new Perspective tool which is
a real improvement over the use of the
Transform tool we’ve mentioned
previously. Use the crop tool to select
your picture. Then under Image,
Transform choose Perspective. This
enables you to drag the selection in a
symmetrical way, which corrects
distortion evenly.
DCM We’re not sure about that one Kevin. Our
friendly neighbourhood Walcot Studios went
digital in 2002 and tell us they’re winning tons
of new business because costs are now so
much lower they can undercut their rivals,
deliver good quality and still make a profit. So
it’s not just consumers who are seeing benefits
– the grizzled, sceptical old pros are too.
Congratulations on an excellent magazine. I already subscribe to Windows XP: The
Official Magazine, so I am no stranger to the format. Digital Camera Magazine lives
up to my expectations of good quality and information – well done! I have now
subscribed as well. I particularly like the ‘Get Up & Go’ section and had the chance to
use it yesterday on a day trip to London from Edinburgh. I have attached one of my
photos taken at Trafalgar Square after dark. I
used your tips and am
delighted with the result.
I used an ISO setting of 100,
F5.0 and shutter speed of 1
second.
Jim Woodrow
Fantastic stuff Jim, this is
easily the best picture
we’ve received so far –
please keep them coming.
Sundown
I was making coffee in the kitchen when
I noticed the sky seemed to have bands
of fire running across it (due to the sun
about to appear over the horizon), so I
ran for the camera. As there wouldn’t
have been time to get anywhere more
open (I’m half a mile from the coast!)
before the light changed, it had to be
done from the back garden – silhouettes
it was!
Mark Bedding
Tell us what you want!
Every issue, it’s our aim to improve the magazine.
Write in to [email protected]
Running around
He wanted…
John Doherty wanted a
searchable index so he
could find articles in his
back issues easily
He got…
From issue 5,
we’ll include
an index on
our coverdisc.
WRITE
IN
TODAY!
He
wanted…
Richard Murray
is one of the many
who want video tutorials
on our disc
He got…
Finally, they’re here!
Check your discs for a
bunch starting this issue.
She wanted…
Jane James thinks there’s too much
space given to camera reviews and
wants less.
She got…
No change – sorry! We had
lots of reviews in issue 2
because of Christmas but
every issue we will carry at least five
camera tests.
Every issue, we aim to improve some aspect of the magazine. Email
your suggestions to [email protected] and the Editor, in his
great wisdom, will decide what you deserve…
This is natural blur as I was
testing what my Olympus
would make of my daughter
spinning round. As it happened
she came to a sudden stop –
hence the partial blur!
Then I tried to improve it by
using Layers (Serif7) to Clone
out the shoes and Cut&Paste
over some of the background.
Sue Premru
Keep it up Sue, good to see
some examples of creative
use of blur.
SECTION #02
YOUR IMAGES
CREATIVE PROJECT
PHOTO SURREALISM
SEE PAGE 58
CREATIVE PROJECT
PHOTO SURREALISM
Barry Jackson takes two ordinary pictures and
blends them, with extraordinary results
PAGE
PHOTO CLINIC
RESTORE AN OLD BLACK & WHITE PHOTO
We give a faded wedding picture from the 1950s
some special treatment
PAGE
PAINT SHOP PRO TUTORIAL
SWAPPING COLOURS
Add a new dimension to your photos by
transforming the colour of just one element
PAGE
TOP TIPS
GET MORE FROM ULEAD PHOTOIMPACT
Get the most out of this popular photo-editing
software, with our 20 top tips
PAGE
PHOTO CLINIC
SEE PAGE 64
PAGE
PAGE
70
74
Your images
Making and creating better pictures
Tutorials you can trust!
f
Our aim is to bring you creative ideas, expert tips and
quick fixes you can use in your own work.
Authoritative A leading professional in his/her field
writes every tutorial. Value-added We try to include
Contact our editorial team
image files, and full or trial software so you can try the
tutorial for yourself, delivering a complete package.
Clear Our large page size means we can add extra
elements, explanations and detail to each tutorial.
#
If you have a comment, suggestion, idea or
submission you would like to make, please
email us at [email protected] Visit
our website at digitalcameramagazine.co.uk
58
64
70
74
PROJECT PHOTO SURREALISM
YOUR GUIDE BARRY JACKSON
Barry became hooked on digital photography only this year. He soon realised that
the combination of digital camera, computer and Adobe Photoshop were the
perfect tools to create his own particular style of photo surrealism
[email protected]
PORTFOLIO BARRY JACKSON WEBSITE WWW.ETHEREALME.COM
Discover Blending layers
and Quick Mask mode
Digital photo artist, Barry Jackson,shows you how a little imagination and a copy of
Photoshop can turn three ordinary photographs into one extraordinary image
A
PROJECT
KEY DETAILS
2
ON OUR DISC
■ IMAGE FILES
All the elements you need to
recreate ‘These Boots’ are on
our discs
2
SKILL LEVEL
6
2
1
TIME TO COMPLETE
3.5
HOURS
rmed with a digital camera, computer and
photo-editing software you have the tools
necessary to express your artistic ideas;
combine these with a little imagination and a
willingness to experiment, and the art world is your
oyster. In this tutorial I will share with you the
techniques and creative process used to produce a
surreal image, in the hope that it will inspire you to
create artistic projects of your own.
Creating the idea
The Oxford dictionary gives the definition of surrealism
as the ‘expression of the subconscious mind’. This is
quite apt because the idea for my image, ‘These
Boots’ (opposite), came to me in a hazy moment just
before waking one Saturday morning. With the idea still
fresh in my mind, I collected my Fuji 6900z digital
camera, a tripod and an old pair of boots from the
wardrobe. I went out to the garden and positioned the
camera and tripod on a section of path at the back of
the house.
Using the self timer to avoid shaking the camera, I
first took a background shot of the path, and then placed
the boots on the path and shot them in the same way.
Finally, I sat on a chair in front of the camera and
placed my bare feet in the same position as the boots,
leaned over to the camera, set the timer and took the
shot. Now, with the three main elements of my image
in the camera, it was time to experiment.
Over the next few pages I will recreate the steps
used to produce my image, so that you can create
it yourself…
3 TOOL SCHOOL
BLUR FILTER
Learn how to use the gaussian blur filter combined with the
gradient tool to reduce the depth of field.
HOW WE
PREPARED
EACH ELEMENT
BARRY JACKSON
DIGITAL ARTIST
A
INSPIRED BY A SLEEPY
MOMENT, I PHOTOGRAPHED
THE SEPARATE ELEMENTS
USING A FUJI 6900Z
058
THE BACKGROUND
The background is a section of path at the
back of my house. I picked this because I
liked its subtle blue and purple colouring and grainy
texture. The three shots were taken with a Fuji 6900z
digital camera.
B
THE BOOTS
The boots were perfect for the part – apart
from being the wrong colour. All the
elements of the image were taken from the same angle
using a tripod so, when combined, they would have the
same perspective.
C
THE FEET
I used the camera’s self-timer to take these
shots of my feet – this enabled me to get the
photograph right and also prevented the camera from
moving when the shutter release button was pressed,
preventing blurring.
Everything you need to
create this image is on your CD
All
All the images
images, filters
filters and plug-ins you
you need
to cre
create this image are
are on your
your co
cover CD.
CD.
All
All images
images are
are © Barry
Barry Jackson.
Jackson.
2
CDA/tutorials/
BACKGROUND
BOOTS
FEET
backgr
ound.psd
background.psd
boots
.psd
boots.psd
feet
eet .psd
TOP TIP Name a layer by clicking on its representation in the Layers palette. Rename it by right-clicking on its name and selecting Layer Properties
STAGE 1
2
ARRANGING THE LAYERS
By opening the individual
elements within separate layers,
we can easily make
adjustments to each one
without affecting the others.
Now we can match the boot
sizes to the feet.
0
IN FOCUS
01
Understanding the Layers palette
REDUCE OPACITY
Use the Layers palette
to control the way
layers look, their names, colours
and so on. Here, we’ve taken the
opacity of the Boot layer down to
50% (click on the Boot layer
name, then adjust Opacity), so you
can see the feet underneath them,
as a guide.
LAYER STYLES
Apply an effect to a layer – it
could be a blend, a glow or
emboss effect, and more
DROP-DOWN MENU
Click on the drop-down menu to
access different ways to dissolve,
fade and adjust colours
ADJUSTMENT LAYER
Tweak the contrast, levels,
curves and so on, from
this control
LAYER OPTIONS
Click here (top-right) to rename,
delete, merge, duplicate a layer,
or flatten the whole image
02
ISOLATE THE RIGHT BOOT
03
RESIZE THE RIGHT BOOT
06
USE THE ERASER
With the images in separate layers, we can
now see that the boots are too wide to blend
with the feet. First use the polygonal lasso tool (L) to
make a rough selection around the right boot, then rightclick and choose Layer via Cut.
EXPERT TIP
BARRY JACKSON
PHOTOSHOP EXPERT
USING THE
MAGNETIC LASSO
The Magnetic lasso tool enables
you to roughly draw around a
subject whilst automatically
adding anchor points along the
edge to create a selection. If any
mistakes are made, backtrack
along the path whilst pressing
the delete button; this removes
the anchor points one at a time.
This places the boot on a new layer and allows
each boot to be resized individually. Select Free
Transform from the Edit menu (Ctrl + T) and squeeze the
boot to fit the foot, double-click to apply the change.
04
ISOLATE THE LEFT BOOT
Return to the original boots layer and again
use the Polygonal lasso to make a rough
selection around the left boot, choose inverse from
the Select menu (Shft + Ctrl + I) then delete the
background (Ctrl + X).
060
05
RESIZE THE LEFT BOOT
Select Free Transform from the Edit menu (Ctrl
+ T) and squeeze the boot to fit the foot. Try to
concentrate on getting the top of the boot to fit – the
lower part will be deleted later. Finally, double-click to
apply the change.
While the boots are still semi-transparent, use
the eraser tool (E) to remove the background
from each boot layer. This gives us a better idea of our
goal. Don’t worry about erasing the end of the right side
lace, we will replace this later.
4
HOW TO USE
MASKS IN…
STAGE 2
…PAINT SHOP PRO
…PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS
Discover how to use Masks via three handy tutorials at
www.digital-foundry.com/index_paintshop.html
…PHOTOIMPACT
There’s no Quick Mask mode in Elements but you can fake it. See
www.arraich.com/elements/pse_mmultilayermasks1.htm
Discover more about Masks in PhotoImpact, at http://
graphicssoft.about.com/library/extra/blmasks-upi.htm
2
ISOLATE THE ELEMENTS
Having used the feet as a guide,
we now have the correct size of
boots we need. Now it’s time to
isolate them.
07
MAKE A SNAPSHOT
Click on the camera icon at the bottom of the
History palette – this adds a temporary copy to
the top of History palette that can be returned to at any
time, just in case we make a mistake and have to get
back to this stage.
08
ISOLATE THE BOOTS
Return the opacity of both boots to 100 per
cent and use the Magnetic lasso tool (L) to
carefully draw around each boot once the selection is
complete. Once done, right-click Select Inverse, then Ctrl +
X to delete the remains of the background.
IN FOCUS
12
3 IN DETAIL
SELECTION TOOLS
Photoshop provides three tools for
selecting awkward shapes: the
Lasso tool, the Polygonal lasso and
the Magnetic lasso. Lasso draws a
wiggly line that exactly follows
your mouse’s moves. Polygonal
draws straight lines and is ideal for
selecting straight-edged objects.
Magnetic is like the normal lasso
tool but snaps its wiggly line to
regions between areas of high and
low contrast, helping your accuracy.
ISOLATE THE FEET
11
ISOLATION RESULTS
TIDY UP
Zoom in and use a fine eraser to tidy up any
rough edges. When complete, make sure the
top boot layer is selected then Merge the two boot layers
together. Go to Layers – Merge Down (Ctrl + E).
Working with Quick Mask mode
MAKE A QUICK MASK
Quick mask is a way of
painting the area you want
to turn into a selection. Click on the
Quick mask icon (Q) near the bottom of
the Tools palette then use the Brush tool
(B) to paint over the black area of the
boots but leave the laces and inside the
boots unpainted, click (Q) again to make
the area around the mask a selection.
10
09
TOOLS
Use a hard-edged
Brush tool (B) to
increase the size of the
mask and the Eraser
tool (E) to decrease the
size of the mask
COLOURS
Make sure the default
foreground and
background colours
(black & white) are
selected painting with
any other colour creates
a semi-transparent or
partial mask
Use the Polygonal lasso to make a rough
selection around the area we want to keep.
Delete the background (as in step 08), then use the
Magnetic lasso and the Eraser tool to complete the
isolation as in steps 08 and 09.
When complete, the image should look like
this. Make a copy of the Boots layer by
dragging it onto the New Layer icon at the bottom of the
Layers palette, just left of the Trash icon. Then click on the
Eye icon to turn the layer off – we will use this later.
061
TOP TIP Remember, when Snapshotting the History palette (see previous page), snapshots are temporary and are not saved when you quit the image
STAGE 3
2
IN FOCUS
BLEND THE LAYERS
Blending layers enables us to
creatively mix together the layers
into the final composition.
0
13
Colour adjustment
ADJUST THE
COLOURS
From the Select menu,
choose inverse (Shft + Ctrl + I)
and then adjust the colour of
the selection by using Curves.
Finally, from the Select menu and
choose Deselect.
CURVES
Click on and drag the
line to adjust the
colours, top-right
represents highlights;
bottom-left shadows
and the midpoint
represents midtones
COLOUR CHANNELS
Click on the drop-down
menu to adjust each
colour separately (red,
green, and blue) or
select RGB to adjust all
the colours together
14
DUPLICATE A LAYER
15
ERASE SELECTED AREAS
18
MAKE A SHADOW
Make a copy of the feet layer and drag into
place above the active boots layer; reduce the
opacity by 50%. Use the Clone tool (S) to copy and fill in
any missing areas of skin so the coloured boot area is
completely covered.
EXPERT TIP
BARRY JACKSON
PHOTOSHOP EXPERT
USING THE ZOOM TOOL
To quickly zoom in or out use Ctrl
+ to zoom in and Ctrl – to zoom
out or use Ctrl + space bar + left
click and drag the mouse over a
specific area of the image to
zoom straight to that point.
Carefully erase the areas of the layer above
the laces and then return the opacity to 100%.
Select hard light from the drop-down blending modes
menu at the top of the Layers palette. Try experimenting
with the various blending modes.
16
HUE/SATURATION
Turn the Boots copy layer on, and place above
the Feet copy layer (with soft light mode from
the blending modes menu turned on). The image is
getting there but it’s saturated. Go to Image8Adjust
Hue/Saturation and then reduce the saturation.
062
17
DROP SHADOW
The image now needs to be blended with
background. Double-click on the original Feet
layer, this will bring up the Layer Style palette. Click on
Drop shadow in the Styles menu and experiment with the
settings. Make sure the Preview box is ticked.
Make a new layer (Shft + Ctrl + N), title it
Shadow and place it on top of the other layers.
Use a soft air-brush to paint a shadow on the inside of the
left boot. Finally, go to Filter8 Blur8Gaussian Blur then
reduce the layer opacity to 70%.
4
MORE ABOUT MASKS
AND SELECTIONS
PHOTOSHOP 5-7
Find out more about the selection tools and masks at
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photoshopmasks
WWW.CARLVOLK.COM/PHOTOSHOPTIPS.ASP/ T ADD TO FAVOURITES
STAGE 4
2
ADJUST THE
BACKGROUND
With the main images
combined and ready, we need
to turn our attention to the third
element of the composition –
the background.
19
TIDY THE BACKGROUND
Use the Clone Stamp tool (S) to remove the
distracting greenery from the top-left corner
then drag the gradient tool (G) from the corner to create a
dark, shadowy area to match the top-right corner. This
increases the sense of perspective in the final image.
0
EXPERT TIP
20
REDUCE THE DEPTH OF FIELD
Duplicate the background and apply to it a
Gaussian Blur filter, go to Layer8Layer mask8
Reveal all and then drag the Gradient tool (set to
foreground to background) from the top of the picture to
the heel of the boots.
IN FOCUS
21
MERGE VISIBLE LAYERS
Once you’re happy with the background, turn
off the Background layer and merge the
visible layers together (Layer8Merge visible), (Shft + Ctrl +
E). This enables you to make final adjustments to the
boots without affecting the background.
Final result
BARRY JACKSON
Layer Styles
CREATING NEW STYLES
24
TO SUM UP
We’ve taken three photographs,
placed them on separate layers,
isolated the areas we wanted to use, blended
them together, adjusted the colours and
added some shadows. Finally, we’re increased
the sense of perspective and reduced the
depth of field. And there we have it: our final
surreal result.
Rather than using a real
background, create your own
using Layer Styles. Experiment
with some basic pattern via
Layer, Layer Style, Pattern Overlay
and see what you get.
22
REPAIR THE LACE
23
FINAL ADJUSTMENTS
DEPTH OF FIELD
Blur the
background with
the Gaussian Blur
filter to reduce the
depth of field
SHADOWS
Add shadows
to blend the
boots more
naturally with
the background
It is now time to replace the end of the righthand side lace we erased earlier. Use the
Magnetic lasso tool to make a selection around the end of
the left-hand side lace, copy (Ctrl + C) and paste (Ctrl + V).
Drag the selection over to the right-side lace
then use Edit8 Free transform to position over
the lace end, double-click to apply. Make final colour and
contrast adjustments before flattening the layers (Layer,
Flatten image).
063
PHOTO CLINIC RESTORATION
YOUR GUIDE ED DAVIS
Ed Davis is a London-based advertising and corporate photographer with many years
experience of studio and location photography. He specialises in image manipulation, and
delivers creative solutions that combine photography and digital technology. He is a member of
NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals)
Equipment used: a scanner and Adobe Photoshop 7
[email protected]
WEBSITE www.ed-davis-photography.co.uk
Bring back black & white!
This wedding photo from the 1950s has faded so much that it looks like sepia print. With a little care and
attention Ed Davis can take care of the holes, cracks and stains ’til it looks as good as new…
I
n the last two Clinic sessions we’ve
restored a colour print from the ’70s and
an old, hand-tinted portrait. This month we
look at a wedding photograph from the 1950s taken
just a few years after the end of the Second World
War. Good quality photographic paper and chemicals
were not readily available at that time – the paper
CLINIC
CHALLENGE US
2
THE READER
JAN WINTERGREEN
Jan emailed us asking if we
could help with this ‘battered old
specimen’ – a photo of her
parents’ wedding in 1953. We
were only too pleased to help!
2
CHALLENGE LEVEL
5
2
2
1
BEFORE
16
AFTER
The picture is cracked and worn, and
the colour has faded
TIME TO REPAIR
HOURS
used was quite soft and porous which meant that
photographs were prone to discolouration; they
would absorb moisture and crack when they dried
out. In spite of all the distress, the photo we are
dealing with is still very crisp, giving us a good base
to work with. The restoration of this image involves
various retouching techniques. There are missing
02
01
areas around the edges that need replacing, drawing
pin holes to reconstruct, cracks from folding to cover,
and a few stains as well as the discolouration to
remove. The fabric of the lady's coat to the right of
the groom has a particularly tricky zigzag pattern –
we will have to demonstrate accuracy and patience
to get it spot on.
The photo looks as good as it did on
the wedding day!
03
NOW SEND YOURS!
Contact us via email with a 100K
JPEG attached and if we like it,
we’ll get in touch!
Email us today at:
[email protected]
8
04
05
Photo
Clinic
064
We need to employ a whole range of techniques here to
get the result we want, involving the Clone tool, the Patch
tool and the Curves palette. Taken together, we’ll be able
to restore this picture.
02. RIPS AND CRACKS
04. REPAIRING TEXTURES
Solution: Use the Clone Tool to remove small
areas of damage, then Copy and Paste to repair larger
sections.
Solution: To retain the texture of the coat fabric, in this
case a zigzag pattern, copy undamaged parts of the
material using the Patch tool.
01. BRINGING BACK THE BLACK & WHITE
03. MISSING PARTS
05. HAVE FUN WITH COLOURS
Solution: This colour is not the original one. So Brighten
the photo using the Curves palette, and then desaturate to
remove all of the discolouration and stains.
Solution: Reconstruct the missing corners from other parts
of the image using the lasso tool and liberal uses of Copy
and Paste.
Solution: Although above we have decided to return the
picture to its original state, there’s also the option of toning
the image too.
4
MORE ABOUT THE
HEALING TOOL
Set the blend mode to replace and it will blend noise and
grainy images more effectively
STAGE 1
BRINGING BACK
THE B&W
2
The photograph was originally
black & white but has
discoloured over the years to
a faded, brownish tint.
01
BACK TO BLACK & WHITE
04
RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB
07
USE THE LASSO
Open the Curves Palette:
Image8Adjustments8
Curves (Ctrl + M). Choose a white area, such as the collar,
click the Highlight Eyedropper, click on the white area.
Now using the Shadow Eyedropper, click on the dark area
inside the doorway to make that black & white.
STAGE 2
02
STAIN REMOVAL
05
SWAP THE AREAS
08
MOVE INTO POSITION
There are stains on the bride’s dress due to
chemical reactions and dampness. Remove
the colour so the stains are the same tonal range as the
rest of her. Use the Desaturate command on the Options
Bar: Image8Adjustments8Desaturate (Shft + Ctrl + U).
03
READY TO RETOUCH
06
REPAIRING THE DOOR FRAME
09
MAKE IT FIT
The brownish colour has now been removed.
The tonal range of the image is neutral and
easier to retouch – it can be re-coloured at a later stage.
Different effects can be applied to the finished print, such
as sepia tone or hand tinting.
2
RIPS AND CRACKS
There are several areas that
need to be repaired: the rips,
the cracks, the stains and other
small blemishes.
The photograph is fragile. Parts of the surface
have been lost, leaving gaps in the emulsion.
Using the Copy and Paste method, damaged areas can be
covered, and blended together. Minor blemishes and
cracks need the Clone Tool and the Healing Brush.
0
The damage is extensive: on the left a rip and
a missing section; on the right, a white sticker
covering part of the door frame. Repair the left side first (it
has the least damage) then copy and paste the repaired
section onto the right-hand side.
Repair the door frame on the left of the photo
using the Clone Tool on the Tool Bar (short cut
S). Place the cursor over an undamaged section of the
door frame, press Alt, move the cursor to the damaged
area and click. This will cover the small defects.
EXPERT TIP
ED DAVIS
USING LAYERS
LINKING LAYERS
If you want to lock layers
together, click on the small box
next to the eye in the Layers
palette. A link of chain will
appear in the box: they are now
linked. If you move one layer, the
linked layers will also move.
Click the Lasso Tool (short cut L), select the
repaired area with the Feather setting on 2px,
copy the section (Ctrl + C) and Paste (Ctrl + V). To move it
into place and flip it left to right select the Transform Tool
on the Option Bar: Edit8Free Transform (or Ctrl + T).
Position and merge the new door frame with
the background. On the Layers Palette, click
the arrow in the top right, on the drop down menu click
Merge Down. This will combine the two layers. Repeat
the process to cover the rip inside the door frame.
Select an area with the Lasso Tool (short cut L).
Drag the selection over an undamaged area of
similar texture. Copy the area (Ctrl + C – marked in red)
then paste (Ctrl + V) it on its own layer. Move it over the
damage. Use Transform tool (Ctrl + T) for an accurate fit.
065
PHOTO CLINIC RESTORATION
ONE CLICK FIX There are more patterns in the drop down menu of the Pattern selector. Click on the small arrow in the top right corner and click on Load Patterns
3 IN DETAIL
10
BRING BACK THE WHITE
13
BLEND THE LAYERS
16
FIND A REPLACEMENT
The bride’s dress is the lightest part of the
photograph, showing an array of stains, dirt,
cracking and other blemishes. Choosing a good source to
clone or copy and paste from is essential to retaining the
original definition and texture of this garment.
BLENDING OPTIONS
One of Photoshop’s strengths is the
power and control it gives to the
blending of layers. Try hard light
mode for richer, deeper tones, or
soft light for lighter tones.
On the Options Bar click Layer8Layer
Style8Blending Options, a large palette appears.
On the Blend If: section there are two sliders: This Layer
and Underlying Layer. Click on the top slider, Press Alt. This
splits the slider, giving more variation in the blend. Repeat
with the second slider until the balance is achieved.
STAGE 3
11
SELECT THE DRESS
14
SUBTLE CHANGES
17
COPY AND PASTE
Make a selection around the bride’s dress
using the Lasso Tool (short cut L). For a soft
edge, pick a Feather setting of 6px. Create a new Layer by
clicking on the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the
Layers Palette or on the Option Bar: Layer8New8Layer.
The newly created white layer is used to blend
in with the stained bride’s dress, diffusing the
imperfections without loosing too much of the detail.
The area in red has been blended with the top and
bottom layers so it has lost some of the stains but still
retains the texture.
12
PICK THE RIGHT PATTERN
15
DEFINE THE EDGES
18
FITTING IN TO THE IMAGE
On the Tool Bar, click the Paint Bucket Tool. On
the Options Bar click Fill8Pattern. From the
drop down menu, in the Pattern selector, choose a light
black & white pattern. Click inside the selection to fill it
with the chosen pattern.
To enhance the edges of the bride’s jacket and
buttons click on the Burn Tool in the Tool Bar
(short cut O). Set the Exposure on the Option Bar to 35 per
cent. Take the curser over the area you want to darken,
click and drag, and the area will darken while the lines
become more visible.
2
MISSING PARTS
Most of the corners have suffered
damage from being bent over or
having pins pushed through them.
New areas have to be created
using other parts of the image.
Look at the photograph and try to locate similar
pieces of the background that can be used to
replace damaged sections in other areas. This technique
will save time and it’s easier than trying to rebuild the
image. In this case a section of the wall is ideal as it would
continue on the other side of the notice board.
066
Click the Lasso Tool (short cut L) on the Tool
Bar. In the Option bar, set the Feather to 2px;
this will soften the edge and help with the blending.
Make a selection around the wall area, copy the selection
(Ctrl + C) and Paste (Ctrl + V). The selection is now on its
own layer and can be moved.
Flip the new section of wall using Free
Transform: Edit8Free Transform or (Ctrl + T).
This section can be used several times along this edge of
the print covering over most of the fine surface cracks.
Use the same technique to rebuild the other corners of
the photograph.
4
MORE TOOL
OPTIONS
STAGE 4
If the pattern is too coarse it can be softened using the
Gaussian Blur filter. Option Bar8Filter8Blur8Gaussian Blur.
Use the slider to adjust the amount of blur
2
REPAIRING TEXTURES
Finally we’re going to patch up the
woman’s zigzag coat – the most
complicated pattern on the
photograph. To give the image
clarity, you must make sure that
the textures you use as your
source are as sharp as possible.
19
PATCH UP THE IMAGE
Photoshop 7 has some slick new tools in its
arsenal and one of these is the Patch Tool. This
is perfect for the job we have here. It is located in the
same icon as the Healing Tool. To access it, simply select
the Patch Tool from the Tool Bar (short cut J) on the Option
Bar, then click Destination.
IN FOCUS
20
SELECT THE BEST SPOT
To retouch the coat using the Patch Tool,
choose an area that looks like it will fit over
the damage. Make a selection around that area, click
and drag the selection over the damage, position your
selection accurately to fit the pattern, release the mouse
and it will blend with the background image.
21
CLEAN LINES
23
THE TINT OPTION
24
ADOBE ACTION SEPIA
The finished result is really impressive. You can
see here how the new selections blend
themselves seamlessly over the damaged areas, leaving
no visible join or trace of the former damage. The best
thing about this effect is that the end result retains the
exact texture of the fabric.
Final presentation
To create a sepia tone print, change the colour.
Open Image8Adjustment8Hue/Saturation
(Ctrl + U). Click on the Colourize tick box, then move the
sliders to get the right colour.
@ SEND YOURS!
We want your faded, damaged
pictures today!
Send them in, we’ll fix them up for
free, show everyone how we did it
and send them back restored!
The sort of pictures we’re after
need to be decent photos which
have become damaged –
unfortunately we can’t make badly
composed/shot photos good.
■ Contact us via email, with a small
JPEG of the photo attached, and if
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Email the following address:
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22
COLOUR COORDINATED
Once all the retouching is
completed, the next step is to
decide on the final print. The options are
to leave it black & white or give it a
slightly warm tint. We also have to
choose the size and decide if it’s going to
be presented: in a frame, or mounted in
an album.
PERFECT FIT
The damage
sustained over the
years is invisible now,
thanks to some of
Photoshop’s tools
COLOUR
Once the essential
elements of the
photo are restored
you can choose the
colour tint you prefer
Click on the Actions Tab in Photoshop, then the
action marked Sepia Toning (layer). With the
action highlighted click on the arrow on the bottom to start
the action. When it has finished the print will be sepia toned.
TUTORIAL PHOTOSHOP & ELEMENTS TOOLS
YOUR GUIDE SIMON DANAHER
Simon Danaher is a digital artist specialising in Photoshop, compositing and 3D. He
is also a consultant, trainer and author. Simon has been working professionally in
the graphics industry for over six years, and is currently writing his second book on
professional graphics techniques
[email protected]
PORTFOLIO SIMON DANAHER
Using the right selection
tool for the job
Learn the basics of selections in Photoshop – Simon Danaher shows how they work and
how to make the most of them
L
earning how to use the selection techniques
is one of the most important skills you can
learn in Photoshop because it's required for
so many operations. If you need to apply a filter to a
portion of an image while leaving the rest of it intact, a
selection is the best way to do it. If you want to make
colour or brightness adjustments to parts of an image
independently from each other, then making a good
selection is the key.
TUTORIAL
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7 and try out this technique.
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Just like there are many different ways to adjust
colour and brightness (some obvious, some very
obscure) in Photoshop, there are many ways to make
selections. The key to being good at it is practice. And
this doesn't just mean learning how to hold the mouse
steady while drawing a line. After using Photoshop for a
while you become more intuitive at being able to
decide what tool, feature and workaround is best
for a given task.
It's also important to understand what's going on
beneath the surface and how Photoshop handles
selections, pixels and channels. They’re all related, so
once you get to grips with the concepts you'll find
working in Photoshop much easier.
In this Photoshop tutorial we'll show you how
Photoshop selections work and how they can be applied
in conjunction with other Photoshop features to improve
your digital photos.
TIME TO COMPLETE
20
MINS
BASIC SELECTION
When you make a selection in Photoshop, such as with the Rectangular
Marquee tool, you will see what's called the 'marching ants'
NEXT MONTH
Intermediate
Selection techniques.
? EXPLAINED
CHANNEL
Channel – a special 'layer' in the
Channel palette that stores
greyscale pixels. These can be used
to make selections and masks and
can be saved as alpha channels in
certain file formats.
068
01
MARCHING ANTS
This dotted line of ‘marching ants’ defines
the boarder of the selection you have
made. Pixels inside the shape are selected, whereas
pixels outside are known as unselected or ‘protected’.
All that’s happening is you’re basically telling the
program you only want the pixels inside the selection
to be affected by whatever effects you apply next
within Photoshop.
02
MOVE AND ZOOM
Note that only tools or features that change
the pixels in some way respect selections.
You can still use the Pan (hand) or Zoom (magnifying
glass) tools to move and zoom the whole image
irrespective of what you’ve selected. However if you
use the Move tool and drag you will actually be
picking up those selected pixels – thus changing the
image in some way.
03
FLOATING PIXELS
When you 'pick up' a selection like this,
using the Move tool, the selection 'floats'
above the pixels in the layer. It's free to move
anywhere you like so long as the selection is active.
As soon as you deselect it, the pixels in the selection
are 'dropped' onto the layer replacing those beneath it
for good. Notice that this technique is destructive to
the pixels in the image.
;
5
NEXT MONTH
INTERMEDIATE SELECTION
TECHNIQUES
* WEB LINKS
[w]www.winplanet.com/
winplanet/tips/4201/1/
[w]www.apogeephoto.com/
aug2000/PhotoshopTip3.shtml
[w] www.graphicdesign.com/
Photoshop/Tips/layers.html
04
CREATE A NEW LAYER
If you want to do the same thing nondestructively you need to copy the pixels in
the selection to a new layer. The command is
Layers8New8New Layer from Copy or command/
control-J. The original pixels are unchanged and you
are now dealing with layers rather than selections.
05
If we go back to the image as it was before,
as a single layer, and make a selection using
the rectangular Marquee tool again we can do
something else. If you click and drag the selection you
can move just the selection. This enables you to finetune the selection's position after you’ve created it.
QUICKMASK MODE
01
USE THE QUICKMASK MODE
04
SWAP THE COLOURS
The simplest way to make a selection using
paint is to use Photoshop's QuickMask
mode. To do this, simply open your file then press the
Q key to enter QuickMask mode. You are now ready to
start painting.
Now swap the foreground and background
colours by pressing the X key – white should
be at the top now. With the Brush tool begin painting
again. Now where you paint it will remove the
Rubylith to make a selection. Once finished press the Q
key again to convert the QuickMask into a selection.
MOVE THE SELECTION
06
THE TRANSFORM SELECTION
Even better, you can adjust the size and
angle of the selection too by using the
Transform Selection feature in the Select menu. With
this feature you can stretch and rotate the selection
only, just like you can with pixels and the Free
Transform tool.
You can also make selections by painting. This is useful if you want a less
precise, more artistic selection
02
MASK OUT PARTS
05
THE CHANNEL BUTTON
Choose the Brush tool and a large hard
brush. Now when you paint in the image
you see a translucent red colour appear called a
Rubylith. What you are doing is Deselecting areas by
painting in the image. You are literally masking out
parts of the image as you paint.
QuickMask shows that pixels and selections
are related. With the painted selection still
active, click on the Channels palette tab then click the
Save Selection as a Channel button. Click the channel
that is created to view it and drop the selection by
typing command/control-d.
03
SELECT BY PAINTING
06
ADD A DROP SHADOW
If you want to Select by painting you have
to start with everything already masked
out. Enter QuickMask mode with no selection active
then type alt-delete to fill the image with the
foreground colour (which should be black). The whole
image turns red to indicate it is masked out.
; READ ON
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP 7 FOR
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Published by
ISBN
Price
Website
Focal Press
0240516907
£29.99
www.amazon.co.uk
Aimed at intermediate users, this
handy book takes a close look at the
various tools in Photoshop 7 which
can help photographers get more
from their images. Written by Martin
Evening, it contains tons of tips, help
and advice on everything from
image editing to scanning and
colour correction.
It looks just like the original paint strokes. We
can apply filters now. Here the Sketch8Torn
Edges filter is applied. By clicking Make Selection from
Channel button, the modified channel is converted back
to a selection. We can now add a white background
and apply a drop shadow, or countless other effects
069
TUTORIAL
GET STARTED WITH PAINT SHOP PRO
YOUR GUIDE JOE APICE
Joe has been a keen amateur photographer for over 20 years and trains others in
basic camera techniques. His work has been exhibited in local galleries and he’s an
avid user of Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop
[email protected]
PORTFOLIO JOE APICE
Swapping colours in
selected areas of an image
If you need to make selective colour changes to objects in your photo, such as clothing or scenery, without
changing their texture then Joe Apice’s tutorial will show you how
TIPS GUIDE
KEY DETAILS
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TIME TO COMPLETE
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MINSPERSTAGE
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M
7TOOL SCHOOL
ore often than not, the idea of swapping
colours in a photograph brings on weird facial
expressions from photo enthusiasts. "Change
the colours? I took the picture because there was
something about it that begged me to photograph it.
Why would I want to change the colours?"
Well, for the most part, I would agree, and I’m not
suggesting that you start swapping colours in your
pictures to try and make them look better.
What I am suggesting, is that there are times when
colour swapping can add a new dimension to your
photos. It will probably be a subtle change – perhaps a
client you did a photo shoot for wants an article of
clothing to look a little different.
Or simply, you might want to see how changing the
colour of certain objects will impact the final image, out
of pure curiosity.
There are a multitude of reasons why you might
want to change colours in an image: those few outlined
above are just a few.
The important thing to know is that Paint Shop Pro 7
has all the tools you need to make the job quick and
GET STARTED
Before we actively change the colour of a photograph we must treat the selected
area in a certain way, leaving a base that’s suitable to work with
PSP7 TOOL PALETTE
The Selection tool, the Paintbrush
tool and the Eyedropper tool are
located here in the Tool Palette.
easy. It will also look totally professional – the naked eye
would never know the difference. Here’s how to go
about changing those colours.
Fixing Dark Photos.
3 IN DETAIL
CONTRAST ENHANCEMENT
8
The Auto Contrast Enhancement
feature is not available in versions
earlier than PSP7. To obtain
somewhat similar results, adjust the
contrast by using the Adjust
Brightness & Contrast command.
01
THE SAMPLE IMAGE
To illustrate the effects of selective colour
swapping, I will use the image above and
change the colour of the girl’s blouse from a maroon
colour to a mint green. The technique works best on
selections that have distinct edges and tones of even
colour. It is not meant to be used for changing people’s
hair colour, for example.
070
8
02
MAKE THE SELECTION
To select the area of interest use the Freehand
selection tool, sometimes referred to as the
Lasso tool. Choose the Freehand selection tool by clicking
the mouse pointer on the Lasso icon in the Tool Palette. In
the tool options window, set the feather value to 0. The
accuracy of your selection will determine the quality of
your results, so zoom in close on critical areas.
03
DESATURATE THE COLOURS
Before making colour changes, we want to
remove the existing colour from the selection
by desaturating it. To do this we go to the Main menu bar
and choose Colors8Adjust8Hues/Saturation/Lightness. In
the Hue/Saturation/Lightness dialog box, set the
Saturation to -100 and the Lightness value to 0 as shown.
You are now in a position to start making changes.
4
ONE-CLICK
FIX
MIXING IT UP
The Hue/Saturation/Lightness command may not
desaturate the image completely at first. Press Shift+H
and then Enter, until all the colour has been removed
You can change the colour of just one element in a photograph, with no loss to the
quality, contrast or sharpness of the image – it still looks completely natural
* WEB LINKS
TUTORIAL WEBSITE
http://psp7tutorials.homestead.
com/index.html
04
LOCATE A NEUTRAL STARTING POINT
This point should be a bit lighter than neutral
18 per cent Gray. Go to the Main menu and
select Colors8Adjust8Levels. In the Levels dialog box,
adjust the centre diamond-shaped slider to the left.
Check the preview window in the Levels dialog box.
05
CHOOSE A REPLACEMENT COLOUR
Place the mouse pointer on the Foreground
colour box where it changes to an eyedropper
icon. Click once for the colours and select one from the list.
We chose Mint Green. The luminosity can be adjusted by
moving the slider up or down in the bar on the right.
06
SET THE BRUSH SIZE
Click the Paintbrush icon. On the tool palette,
and in the Tool Options window set the brush
shape to Round, the Size to 250, the Hardness to 75, the
Opacity to 50, the Step to 20 and the Density to 100.
Make sure that the Build-up box is NOT checked.
? EXPLAINED
DESATURATION
Desaturation, as discussed in this
tutorial, refers to the removal of
colour from the selected area of
the image.
07
BRUSH IN THE COLOUR
Place the brush anywhere in the selection, click
and hold down the mouse button and drag the
paintbrush cursor in the selection until the area is filled
with the colour. A large brush size will work best – it won’t
go over as PSP will not paint outside of the selected area.
08
MIX TWO COLOURS
To mix colours, place the pointer on the
foreground color box in the Color Palette and
select a new colour. When mixing, reduce the opacity of
the brush to 15 per cent before adding the second color.
Here, pink over green produced a lavender effect.
09
LEVELS TO DARKEN
Now select the Levels command once again to
get the right tone. On the Main menu bar
select Colors8Adjust8Levels. In the levels dialog box
move the centre diamond slider to the right until tone is
right. The preview window above shows you the results.
0
EXPERT TIP
JOE APICE
PAINTSHOP PRO EXPERT
DESATURATION
10
ADJUST THE CONTRAST
To bring back the original texture of the blouse
select Effects8Enhance Photo8Automatic
Contrast Enhancement on the main menu. In the Auto
Contrast dialog box select Darker for Bias, Mild for Strength
and Bold for Appearance to bring out intricate detail.
11
SHARPEN UP THE IMAGE
I’ve applied some sharpening to make the
inherent shine of the material come through.
On the Main menu bar select Effects8Sharpen8Unsharp
Mask. In the Unsharp Mask dialog box set the Radius to
1.5, Strength to 100 and Clipping to 5.
12
THE ICING ON THE CAKE
For one final touch I’ve usied the Lasso tool. I
selected the back wall area behind the girl,
zooming in on the critical areas near the hair. The reddish
colour was applied using the paintbrush tool with the
brush opacity set at 50.
In some cases, the
Hue/Saturation/Lightness
command may not desaturate the
image completely the first time. If
that occurs, repeat the command
several times until all the colour
has been completely removed.
071
TUTORIAL GET STARTED WITH PAINT SHOP PRO
YOUR GUIDE JOE APICE
Joe has been a keen amateur photographer for over 20 years and trains others in basic
camera techniques. His work has been exhibited in local galleries and he’s an avid user of
Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop
[email protected]
PORTFOLIO JOE APICE
Enhancing your photos by
focusing on your subject
If your photos are washed out and the backgrounds are cluttered with distractions, Joe Apice’s tutorial will
show you how to bring back life into your images and focus the viewer’s attention on the main subject
TIPS GUIDE
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MINSPERIMAGE
NEXT MONTH
W
7TOOL SCHOOL
hether you’re using a digital camera, a
scanner or a photo processing lab, there are
times when your pictures will need a level of
enhancement and retouching.
More often than not, when the photo is taken at an
outdoor event, people in the background along with
other objects such as traffic lights, signs and so on,
act as distractions and take the focus away from the
main subject.
A background can often make or break a picture, and
there are two ways to deal with these situations. One
way, is to extract the main subject from the picture and
place the extracted image on a different background.
The second is to enhance the main subject and blur the
background – an effect similar to that produced by a
camera lens wide open.
The first approach can result in a photo that will
appear hopelessly unrealistic; the second method
focuses on enhancing the subject and reducing
the distractions in the background, to produces a more
natural look. By diffusing or blurring the distractions you
can safely remove the focus of attention on the
GET STARTED
Decide where you want to focus, the areas of distraction, and what can be removed
from the image without changing the balance of the colours and shapes…
TOOL PALETTE
The tools use in this tutorial are
found here in the Tool Palette.
background without actually removing it. Follow the
walkthrough below – we show you how to do it,
step-by-step.
Enhancing Images part 3.
8
0
EXPERT TIP
JOE APICE
WEATHER CONDITIONS
PHOTOGRAPHING SKY
Use your digital camera to
photograph the sky under various
weather conditions and at different
times of the day. Keep a file on your
computer with the various images
of the sky so they can be used to
replace washed-out backgrounds.
072
8
01
PREVIEW THE IMAGE
The image of this classic car was once a prime
candidate for the reject pile. Notice how the
colours are faded, the sky is washed out and the
background is cluttered with utility poles, traffic lights and
a bystander looking on. Don’t discard it yet. There is still
life left in it and PSP will bring it out.
02
SET THE BACKGROUND COLOUR
The Eraser tool helps to remove some of the
objects in the background. To set the
background colour for the Eraser tool, place the cursor on
the Background colour box in the Colour palette. Press and
hold the Ctrl key and drag the eyedropper to the area
near the objects you want to remove. Click the left mouse
button to set the colour.
03
ERASE ANY DISTRACTIONS
Using the Lasso tool in Freehand mode, make
a rough selection of the area surrounding the
unwanted objects. In this case, that means the utility pole,
traffic light, overhead power lines and loudspeaker. Then,
with the Eraser tool, erase the objects in the selection.
4
FURTHER
INFORMATION
ENHANCING DETAILS
Several camera manufacturers including Fuji and Minolta have sold soft focus lenses
that are primarily used in portrait photography. The advantage of photo-editing
software is its ability to select the areas where the blurring effect will take place
Maintaining a good balance is a case of arranging colours and shapes
in order to bring the viewer’s focus to your main subject
* WEB LINKS
TUTORIAL WEBSITE
http://psp7tutorials.homestead.
com/index.html
04
CLONE OUT THE CLUTTER
07
EXPAND THE SELECTION
Unwanted objects can be replaced with the
Clone tool. To use the Clone tool, click the Dual
Brush icon on the Tool palette. Position the Clone brush
cursor on the sampling area and click the right mouse
button to set the source point. Using the Clone brush, copy
the sample and click the left mouse button.
Use the Freehand selection tool to expand the
selection to the areas near the front-left and
right-rear sides of the subject as shown. To expand a
selection, press and hold the Shift key while outlining the
new area. To subtract from the selection, press and hold
the Ctrl key while outlining the new area.
05
MAKE THE SKY SELECTION
08
CHANGE THE DEPTH OF FIELD
When all the unwanted objects have been
erased, the Magic Wand tool can be used to
select the area of the sky. A tolerance setting of 5 with a
feather value of 2 will do the trick here. With areas having
a non-uniform colour it may be necessary to increase the
tolerance value before the Magic wand can be effective.
The Gaussian Blur filter applied to the
expanded selection will create an out of focus
look around the subject. The Gaussian Blur filter is applied
by selecting Effects from the Main menu and then
choosing Blur8Gaussian Blur in the drop-down window. A
Radius setting of 8 produces the desired effect.
06
TAKE OUT THE WASH
09
INVERT THE SELECTION
The washed-out sky can now be replaced with
a more vivid one from another image. To do
this, open the other image containing the sky you want to
use, select the area of the sky you want to copy and then
paste it into the selection using the Edit8Copy8Into
Selection command.
With the background out of focus we can
invert the selection and enhance the main
subject. On the main menu, click Selections8 Invert, to
make the car and the road the active selection area.
All enhancements that follow will now be restricted to
this selection.
3 IN DETAIL
SATURATE COLOURS
Auto Saturation Enhancement is not
available in earlier versions of PSP.
To saturate the colours in an image
and attain a somewhat similar
result, use the Hue8 Saturation/
Lightness command and adjust the
colour saturation as needed to
obtain the desired effect.
10
SATURATE THE COLOURS
The Auto Saturation Enhancement filter is used
to bring back the lost colour in the car. Select
Effects8Enhance Photo8Auto Saturation Enhancement and
enter a setting of Strong for Strength and More Colorful for
Bias to produce maximum colour saturation.
11
ENHANCE THE SUBJECT’S FEATURES
The Unsharp Mask is used to sharpen the
features of the car and make it stand out. On
the Main menu bar, select Effects8Sharpen8Unsharp
Mask. A setting of 150 proves effective while the Radius
and Clipping values are kept at their default setting.
12
THE END RESULT
With just some basic tools you can bring back
life to otherwise dull images. This tutorial
should help you understand the power available in PSP
and that it will help you develop some ideas on how to
enhance your photos.
073
TIPS ULEAD PHOTOIMPACT
YOUR GUIDE NICK MERRITT
Nick has edited, managed and launched some of the UK’s leading
technology magazines, and has been writing about and using computers
for longer than he wants to admit
[email protected]
WEBSITE www.futurenet.co.uk
20 ways to get more from
Ulead PhotoImpact
With its digital photo features, PhotoImpact is already a popular mid-range image-editing application. Use our 20
tips to get even more from it
TIPS GUIDE
KEY DETAILS
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ON OUR DISC
Use our trial of PhotoImpact 8 to
try some of the tips on this page.
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TIME TO COMPLETE
2
HOURS
2
NEXT MONTH
Look out for our selection of
ways to improve any photo.
T
he competition among the makers of image
editing software has been hotting up – all the
major players have just released their latest
versions amd even freeware programs are not bad.
PhotoImpact is one that has gained in popularity and
now has a thriving community of enthusiasts.
To celebrate the release of Version 8 we’ve included a
trial version on this month’s coverdisc and compiled this
selection of 20 top tips to help you get that little bit
extra from the software you have already.
Whether you’re looking to touch up digital
photographs, or prepare images for your website, this
excellent program has plenty to offer. We’ve come up
with a variety of hints and tips to ensure that you get
the most from whatever you’re doing.
If you’ve been used to using a different image-editing
program then the layout of PhotoImpact 7 may feel a
little unfamiliar. You can remedy this before you start
playing around with it by clicking the Layout button.
Select Options at the bottom of the list and check the
box next to each toolbar and choose the set of tools you
would like to use. Then click Customize and select the
By combining one or more images, you can add some
great special effects to an image. This is ideal for
creating the likes of birthday cards or postcards to send
to friends and family. Open your base image and ensure
that the Easy Palette is visible. Click Object Libraries and
select Image Library. Select the category you would like
to use and double-click an image to insert in your main
image. You can then resize it and put it into position.
03 GETTING MORE FROM COLOUR
01
GET MANUAL
PhotoImpact 7 doesn’t come with a filter that
gives a colour photo an aged appearance or
sepia tone so you’ll have to create the effect yourself by
manually adjusting the image’s colour settings. All you
have to do is follow steps two and three.
02 Add effects
01 Arrange the interface
8
074
buttons you would like displayed for the main toolbar.
Now you’re ready to add effects.
How to give your colour photos an
aged or sepia look in PhotoImpact 7
8
02
USE HUE/SATURATION
If your photo is already black and white skip to
step three. Otherwise, open the photo you
would like to age and click Format, Hue & Saturation.
Move the Saturation slider all the way to the left so that it
reads -100 and then click OK.
03
FINISH UP
Next click Format, Colour Balance and increase
the Thumbnail variation slider to between 15
and 20 for the effect you want. Click one of the
thumbnails in the top row of the Preset tab and then
click OK for the finished result.
4
ULEAD’s OWN There’s lots of strong integration between PhotoImpact and the web – visit www.ulead.com for details
STEPHANIE’S A great selection of beginner’s tips for PhotoImpact, at www.eastofthesun.com/pi6quicktips/quicktips.htm
ADVANCED TIPS Go to www.pircnet.com/tips.html for a selection of more technical advice
THREE USEFUL
WEBSITES
2 USING
PHOTOIMPACT 8
The interface in PhotoImpact makes it
easy to get to the main image tools
PHOTOIMPACT
01
02
03
04
05
06
TOOLBAR
07
Here’s a quick guide to
the tools mentioned on
these pages. You can
alter the overall view via
the Tile With... option
under Window.
08
09
01 File menu
Lots of options for importing from digital cameras or
exporting to the web
02 Edit
12
10
Fade, Stitch, Mask modes are accessed from here
13
03 View
Access the colour correction and image fixit controls
04 Selection
Select regions of the image and control how they are
affected, here
05 Object
Useful when adding elements to an image
06 Effect
The usual plug-in effects options here, like sharpen.
Also access some photo-only effects like Beautify Skin
07 Web
Design elements for use on the Web
08 Shortcuts
Quick access to commonly used menu items, like
Save, Print, Import from Camera
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
Pick tool
Selection tool
Merge
Text tool
Crop tool
Transform tool
Retouch/Dodge
Paint
Stamp tool
Eyedropper tool
11
09 Attributes
These change depending on what tool you have
selected from the toolbar below-left
10 Tools
Selection, text, paint, drawing, colour picker, flood fill
and so on – see sidebar
04 One click fix
Owners of scanners and digital cameras will be able to
import their images directly into PhotoImpact 7.
However, such images don’t always look as great as you
would like. A quick way of making them more
presentable is to click Format and select the Postprocessing wizard. Here you will be able to straighten,
crop and adjust the colour settings.
05 Easy montage
If you have a good selection of photos that you would
like to combine into a montage, the easiest way to do
this is using a multiple image print. Open one of the
images that you would like to include and click File, Print
Multiple. Select the layout that you would like to use and
then click Next. Choose the source of your images and
drag the thumbnail of each image to your layout. When
you’re done, click Next and you’ll be able to print.
06 Go faster
Unless you have a relatively high-spec PC with bucket
loads of RAM, you can sometimes wait what seems an
age while your image redraws after editing. You can
speed up this process by only loading the area of an
image you need to work on. Click File, Open and check
the box labelled Partial load. Your image will be split into
different segments, enabling you to choose the portion
that requires editing.
07 Turn mono to colour
Turn an ordinary photograph into something special
11 Colour controls
Use these controls to adjust the amount of
colour in a picture
12 Layer manager
Brings up palette to access separate
image layers
using the Colorize Pen. First of all take a colour photo
and turn it into a black and white picture by clicking
Effect, Special, Monochrome. Click the Retouch tool
button, select Colorize Pen on the tool attribute bar,
select a brush size and shape, and drag the cursor over
an area of your picture to add some spot colour.
08 Get drawing
When it comes to working in fine detail, you need to
have things exactly right to be able to create the best
image you can. Click File, Preferences and choose
General. From the list of Categories select Tools and
choose the type of cursor you would like to use. If you
are lucky enough to be using a graphics tablet, you can
adjust the sensitivity of pen pressure here as well.
09 Go online
You may want to include images of Web pages within
your site for reference purposes. The most obvious way
to do this is by grabbing a screenshot and then editing
the resulting image. PhotoImpact 7 has a better way
and by clicking File, Open From Web, Open Web Page as
Image you’ll be able to start editing an image of the
page straight away.
10 Convert images
If you have a selection of images that you need to
convert from one format to the other there’s no need to
do them one at a time using Save as. Instead, place all
the images in one folder and click File, Batch Convert
and not only will you be able to change the file type,
13 Colour controls
Use these controls to adjust the amount of
colour in a picture
but you’ll be able to change the colour properties of the
images as well.
11 Save time
Batch Manager under Window on the Toolbar enables
you to carry out the same process on multiple images. If
you have a number of images open at the same time,
select the category or process you require – say, Effect –
and you’ll be able to apply the same filter effect to all
the images you have open.
12 Go 3D
Those of us not blessed with natural artistic talent would
have a job making a navigation button for a Web page
from scratch. Embossed or 3D effects would be out of
the question. Fortunately, PhotoImpact 7 has a tool just
for the job in the Effects menu. Take any existing image
and you’ll be able to turn it into a button.
13 Fade away
A simple way of adding an effect to a plain-coloured
background image for your Web page is to click Edit and
use Fadeout. You can choose to fade in and out from
any angle using two or more colours. This tool is ideal
for creating layers to add to an existing image, too.
3 IN DETAIL
COLOURISE PEN
To colourise an old black and white
photo, use the Retouch Colorise
Pen Tool (click the Retouch/Dodge
icon – it’s the option at the bottom
of the list). Go to Preset and
choose the pen type. Then drag
the mouse over the regions you
wish to colourise.
14 Change dimensions
Click Format, Resolution and you’ll be able to change the
dimensions of your image without affecting file size or
colour depth. This process differs from resampling in that
the size and distance between the centre of each pixel is
075
TIPS ULEAD PHOTOIMPACT
ONE-CLICK FIX Hold Shift while you click on a path – this adds a node. Ctrl removes a node
? EXPLAINED
15
SELECTION
Use a Selection to choose an area
beyond which any changes you
make will not be applied. Think of it
as a boundary within which
changes are confined.
20 PHOTOIMPACT KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
Keep these shortcuts to hand next time you crack open PhotoImpact. You’ll save yourself time and energy...
SHORTCUT
RESULT
SHORTCUT
RESULT
Ctrl + Z
Ctrl + Y
Ctrl + T
+
Page Up/Down
Home
End
Cursor keys
Ctrl + X, C, V
Ctrl + R
Ctrl + A
Ctrl + F
Ctrl + D
Spacebar
`
Z
Undo/multiple undo depending on your preferences
Undoes the last undo
Repeat the last command.
Zoom in
Zoom out
Vertical scroll
Left scroll
Right scroll
Move an object a single pixel in the relevant direction
Cut, copy, paste an object
Crop to selection
Select All
Fill selection
Duplicate active image
Select base image
Display tools
Hold to quick-zoom. Left-click to zoom in, right-click to
zoom out
Hold down and left-click to select the foreground colour in
the eyedropper, right-click to select background colour
X
W
Toggle between foreground/background colour
Hold down to briefly switch to the Pick tool (which is used
for moving selections around)
Toggles on/off Toolbars and Panels
Sort all open compositions into order
Open Fadeout dialog box. Use it to reduce opacity of
selections and objects
Hide toolbars and panels. Maximise current composition.
Undos Ctrl + U above
Maximises current composition to 100%
Activates Mask mode
Resize image
Adjust brightness and contrast
Adjust colour balance
Open Preferences
Sharpen blurry images
Open Tone map
Snaps to guides
Hide or show grid
Snap to grid
C
8
The obvious way to improve the appearance of one of
your photographic subjects is to use the Beautify Skin
filter under Effects. Some subjects will require more work
than others, in which case you may wish to click Format,
Focus instead. What this effect does is enable you to add
a certain amount of blur to the photo, which will help to
disguise any wrinkles or blemishes on a person’s skin, or
any unflattering skin tones.
EXPERT TIP
NICK MERRIT
Editor
Ctrl + U
Esc
Ctrl + M
Ctrl + K
Ctrl + G
Ctrl + B
Ctrl + L
F6
Ctrl + Shift + F
Ctrl + Shift + T
Ctrl + Shift + L
Ctrl + Shift + R
Ctrl + Shift + N
17 Enhance your photos
altered and all other image information remains the
same as before.
16 Make portraits better
0
Tab
Shift + F5
Ctrl + H
Although there’s an extensive range of ready made filter
effects within PhotoImpact 7, that’s not the only way of
enhancing your image. For example, select an area
within your image and click Selection, Convert to Object.
That area of your image will then be selected as its own
image and you’ll be able to place it within your original
image for artistic effect. Alternatively, click Web, Shift
Image for a new perspective on things!
18 Optimise your images
To optimise an image for the Web, open it and click
20 CREATING ANIMATIONS
Web, Image Optimizer and you’ll be able to strike a
balance between quality and a small file size by
adjusting the colours and colour depth.
19 Remember it
If you find a tool that’s particularly useful for creating an
effect you like, you don’t have to remember its settings
until the next time you need it. You can save it within
PhotoImpact so you can use it over and over again. With
your tools settings defined, click the Add button on the
toolbar and you’ll be able to label it and save its details
for use in the future.
PhotoImpact can help you turn those still shots into
animations. Here’s how to do it
CHANGING THE
SHAPE OF A PATH
To quickly adjust the shape of a
path, select a drawing tool, then
from the attribute toolbar, select
the Horizontal Deform or Vertical
Deform mode. Then drag the
handles in the bounding box which
appears, to change the path shape.
8
8
IMPROVING SKIN
Use the Beautify skin filter to
improve skin tones: From Effect,
Photographic, select Beautify Skin.
Then use the Eyedropper to pick a
tone from the Before image.
Adjust the Level slider to soften the
tone, and use the Complexion
option from the Style menu to
improve quality. Click OK.
076
01
OPEN THE IMAGE
Open the image you would like to add an
animation effect to and then click
Effect8Creative8Animation Studio. You will then get a
preview of the 11 animation effects that are available to
you in PhotoImpact.
02
ADD MOTION BLUR
In this instance we are going to use the
Gaussian blur effect and reverse it to give
the animation effect. This will give the effect of our
image coming into view and gradually getting clearer
frame by frame.
03
FINISH UP
Click the Reverse key frame button and your
image will go blurred in the preview window.
You can increase the number of frames to lengthen the
animation, but this will result in a larger file. Click Save
when you’ve finished.
4
TUTORIAL TOOL SCHOOL
WHY YOU’LL LOVE
THIS TECHNIQUE
The usual way to get a soft-focus effect is either smear your camera lens with vaseline (not
recommended) or use a soft gauze material in front of the lens. However, why go to all that bother
when a bit of jiggery-pokery in Photoshop can do a similar thing?
YOUR GUIDE SIMON DANAHER
Simon is a digital artist specialising in Photoshop, compositing and 3D.
He has been working professionally in the graphics industry for over six
years, and is writing a book on professional graphics techniques
[email protected]
BEFORE & AFTER USE LAYERS TO FAKE SOFT-FOCUS
Easy soft focus effects
Want to add some soft focus effects to your images? No problem. Simon Danaher shows you how
to do it without having to smear grease over your nice new camera lens
TUTORIAL
KEY DETAILS
2
IMAGE EDITORS
Any image editor which
supports layers will enable you
to use this technique.
2
ocusing is usually the kind of thing that you want to get spot on, and
because of this all digital cameras can focus images automatically for you so
you get pin-sharp pictures (cheap ones may have fixed focus). Some more
expensive cameras will let you manually override the focusing to perform this yourself,
but it’s rare that you will want a picture that’s deliberately out of focus.
F
That said there are ways to selectively defocus a photo to make it softer-looking. In
the days before diffuser filters photographers would shoot through frosted glass, or
stretch nylon over the lens. Sometimes they would even smear vaseline or hairspray
on them – which can be applied to different parts of the glass to achieve softened
focus. These days, of course, we have Adobe Elements.
SKILL BOOSTER
6
2
TIME TO COMPLETE
20
0
MINUTES
EXPERT TIP
SIMON DANAHER
LAYERS
APPLY LEVELS
01
CROP THE IMAGE
05
DARK AND LIGHT
Here’s how to achieve the
simplest soft focus effect.
Open your image. The first thing to do
before altering the focus is to crop the
image to a more intimate aspect and
composition like so.
02
AVOID DIRECT BLUR
06
SCREEN MODE
Don’t blur the image directly.
A soft focus effect is actually
about partial diffusion not blur. You
can achieve this by duplicating the
background layer (by dragging it to the
new layer dialog) and blurring this.
03
OPACITY
07
FRAGMENT FILTER
Now all you need to do is
reduce the opacity of the
blurred layer until the normal sharp
layer begins to show through. A 50 per
cent opacity for the blurred layer results
in a good, basic soft focus effect.
04
CONTRAST
08
BLENDING STYLES
Another way to do this is to
set the opacity back to 100
per cent but use the Overlay blending
mode. This increases the contrast
considerably so adjust it by applying
levels to the blurred layer.
You can apply levels to the
blurred layer directly when in
Multiply or Screen mode to
different effects.
? EXPLAINED
GAMMA
The gamma slider in the Levels
dialog is the grey slider in the
centre of the Input sliders.
ADJUSTMENT LAYER
A special layer in Elements added
by clicking the button at the bottom
left of the layers palette. Different
adjustment layers have different
effects – editable at all times.
We can split the dark and
light portions of the image
and blur them individually. Set the
blurred layer to Multiply mode. This
causes only the dark parts of the image
to affect the layer below.
The opposite is achieved by
using Screen mode instead of
Multiply then moving the gamma slider
to the right in the levels adjustment
layer. A Hue/Saturation adjustment
layer can also reduce saturation.
To simulate the effect of a
coarse diffusing filter you can
apply the Fragment filter rather then
blurring it. Just apply the fragment filter
multiple times (by typing command-F
after the first application).
Reduce the opacity or try
different blending modes. The
result is often more natural than the
blur filter approach which can be too
smooth-looking, though you can also
mix the two if need be.
077
SECTION #03 YOUR CAMERA
TECHNIQUE
CAMERA PROGRAM MODES
Explore extra shooting modes that take care of
colour saturation, contrast and sharpening
PAGE
TECHNIQUE
SHOOTING IN NATURAL LIGHT
Natural light can vary hugely depending on the
elements. We show you how to work with it
PAGE
Q&A
ALL YOUR CAMERA QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Long time digital photographer Aidan O’Rourke
takes your problems to task and offers solutions
PAGE
82
85
88
TECHNIQUE
SHOOTING IN NATURAL LIGHT
SEE PAGE 85
PAGE
PAGE
82
PAGE
85
88
Your camera
Expert guides to taking better pictures
f
Our mission is to ensure that our tutorials bring you creative
ideas, expert techniques, tips and quick fixes you can use in
your own work. Authoritative A leading professional in their
field writes every tutorial. Value added Where possible, we
Contact our tutorials team
include image files, and full or trial software so you can try
the tutorial for yourself, delivering a complete package.
Clear Our large page size means we can add extra elements,
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TECHNIQUE USING YOUR CAMERA
YOUR GUIDE TIM DALY
Tim has written several books on photography including The Digital Photography Handbook, The
Digital Printing Handbook and The Desktop Photographer, and he continues to write for The
British Journal of Photography and AG. His photographs have been exhibited across Europe
[email protected]
PORTFOLIO TIM DALY WEBSITE WWW.PHOTOCOLLEGE.CO.UK
Camera program modes
If you’re baffled by the many different mode options on your digital
camera, Tim Daly shows you when and where to use them
ABOVE White plays havoc
with a camera’s metering
system and can result in some
disappointing results. This
example was deliberately
overexposed by one stop to
retain the bright whites
RIGHT Flash modes on a more
advanced digital camera are
capable of mixing natural and
artificial light together to
create this effect
082
B
oth film and digital compact cameras are
designed with extra shooting modes to cope
with different creative situations that cannot
be captured on plain old auto. Program modes work by
cleverly anticipating the kind of result you want without
making you shoot under fully manual controls.
Unlike the preset automatic modes found on film
cameras, where exposure is only controlled via shutter
speeds and aperture values, digital camera program
modes can also involve the clever enhancement of
colour saturation, contrast and sharpening. Most cameras
have one or more of the following mode options which
are set by choosing the corresponding symbol on the
mode dial or in the LCD preview menu. If you’ve just
recently bought a new camera, it’s a good idea to check
out the program modes first, so you can see exactly
what results they produce. Many modes will lock off
other controls, such as exposure compensation and
white balance, so it’s worth trying all of them to
see which suit your needs.
Auto mode
The general purpose Auto mode is the one we tend to
use at the exclusion of all others. In Auto mode, the
camera makes an exposure judgement based on the
light available and translates this into a shutter speed
that prevents camera shake, typically around 1/125 and
a mid-range aperture setting such as f8.
4
FURTHER
INSPIRATION
Get some tips on how to take great action shots and make the most of autumnal colours
in landscape photos from the Kodak Digital Learning Centre at
www.kodak.com/US/en/digital/dlc/techniques/archive/autumn.jhtml
The mode doesn’t give identical results each time as
the changing light levels on location will mean shutter
speeds are slowed down when the light falls or the
aperture value is set at its widest, such as f4. With Auto
mode selected, most of the menu settings that you
originally established, such as white balance, will still
influence the photographs. The downside to using Auto
mode is that your results will be entirely dependent on
the amount of available light rather than any creative
decision that you make.
However, Auto mode is without doubt the right
choice if you just want image files in a raw unprocessed
state for image editing at a later stage, as other modes
may apply corrections which would be impossible to
remove with computer software later on. These raw files
will undoubtedly need more work, but will ultimately
open the doors to more creative print and colour editing
while retaining maximum image quality.
0
NEXT MONTH
SHOOTING GRAPHIC
ELEMENTS
EXPERT TIP
TIM DALY
DIGITAL SLR MODES
APERTURE PRIORITY
Much less automatic but none the
less useful are the traditional
program modes found on digital
SLRs. Aperture priority mode
enables you to select the aperture
value of your choice to create a
depth of field effect, while the
camera sets the fastest available
shutter speed for you.
ABOVE In portrait mode, backgrounds are blurred
away to give more emphasis to the main subject
LEFT Fill flash is a great technique to use for arresting
movement and lighting up subjects that would
otherwise come out as silhouettes
Party, indoor or flash mode
When light levels drop too low for a successful exposure,
a good option is to use one of the indoor flash modes,
often referred to as ‘party’ modes. Unlike using flash
within Auto mode, (when the flash illuminates the first
object it hits and leaves anything beyond it darker than
you expected), this mode makes a much better job of it.
To accompany the rapid burst of flash light, the camera
sets a slow shutter speed so any ambient light in the
background of the image is recorded at the same time.
With this mode, you can expect less burn-outs and
results that don’t have the characteristic coldness
associated with flash photography. In fact, if you’re
;
5
shooting under orange domestic lighting, this will help
to warm things up even more. One disadvantage of
using this mode is that you may get slightly blurred
results due to the slow shutter speed setting, so use a
tripod to steady the camera or pull your elbows into
your body to prevent any movement.
Backlight or slow sync flash mode
One of the most useful modes to use if you’re not
confident about using exposure compensation or fill
flash technique is the backlight mode. This is great for
shooting subjects positioned in front of a bright window,
sky or light source which would inevitably turn out as a
silhouette. Backlight mode works by firing off a weak
burst of fill-flash to lighten would-be silhouette areas,
while maintaining the correct exposure for the
background. Compared with shots taken on the standard
auto mode, these will look more balanced and evenly
lit, despite their very different nature. Fill-flash is great
for shooting portraits on sunny days, particularly when
the midday sun overhead makes deeply shadowed eye
sockets and other unflattering errors.
On more advanced cameras, different fill flash
strengths can be selected such as 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 of
full power, so you can make the flash almost
imperceptible. The only disadvantage of using fill-flash is
that sometimes its colour will seem colder than the rest
of your photograph. Professional photographers use a
slight warm-up filter over their flashgun, but you can
achieve a similar effect by taping a small piece of weak
orange cellophane over your flash window.
SHUTTER PRIORITY
Shutter speed priority mode is
designed to let you select a specific
shutter speed for creating a
movement effect, while the
camera sets the highest available
aperture value.
3 IN DETAIL
MULTIMEDIA
MOVIE MODE
Most digital compacts have a
useful movie mode so you can
create small desktop movies in the
MPEG or MOV file format. Movies
are created for as long as there’s
available space on your camera
memory card and are typically
created in 300x180 pixel
dimensions or smaller, without
sound. Unlike digital video
camcorders, desktop movies are
shot with half the frames per
second and may look jittery if fast
moving action is recorded.
Portrait mode
The portrait mode is nothing more than a simple setting
designed to shoot at the widest aperture that available
light permits. To enable shooting at a wide aperture, the
camera will need to set a fast shutter speed to
counteract the extra light intensity created by f4 or f5.6.
When shooting at a wide aperture any background
details will be blurred out, providing your subject is not
standing too far away and you are using the telephoto
rather than the wide angle setting on your zoom lens.
This effect will create a shallow depth of field and
provides more emphasis on your portrait rather than the
background. With most digital compacts designed with a
reduced aperture and shutter speed range compared to
LEFT Landscape mode is the best way to capture the
dramatic sweep of an open space such as this
083
RIGHT Auto mode is fine for shooting general
photography where most of the subjects are beyond
five metres away
SLRs, very shallow depth of field effects may not be
available under very bright conditions. You’ll get more
blurred results by dropping your ISO speed to its lowest
value, such as ISO 100, and if sharply detailed
backgrounds still persist, move closer to your subject
and try again.
Landscape mode
* WEB LINKS
NIKON
www.nikon.co.uk
Click on the Exhibition button to
view two great exhibitions and find
out the secrets behind the shots.
EPSON
www.photoexpert.epson.co.uk/U
K/homepage.htm
Try the comprehensive Epson Photo
Expert site for tips on shooting
digital photographs.
@ SEND ’EM IN!
Try out the techniques in this article
then send us your photos. We’ll
print the best each month. Email us
at the following address:
@
[email protected]
084
If you’re planning to shoot the great outdoors, then the
landscape mode is well worth a try. Landscape
photography is all about showing the depth and scope of
a dramatic scene and apart from the difficulties in finding
the right viewpoint to capture this, you’re also faced with
a depth of field problem. How do you get the foreground
and background in focus?
The landscape mode is designed to enhance detail in
both nearby and far off elements, primarily based
around the setting of the narrowest aperture value
available such as f16.
The other classic problem associated with landscape
photography is the placement of the autofocus target. If
it focuses on an object far away, then the scenery close
up looks blurred and indecipherable. In fact, any loss of
sharpness within the entire image will be distracting and
reduce the effectiveness of your picture. To avoid this
problem, make sure you’re standing at least five metres
away from the nearest object, or if this is impractical, set
your zoom lens to its widest angle setting.
On advanced digital compacts, this mode also includes
additional image processing on the fly to improve both
contrast and colour saturation. With heat haze and UV
light providing a common barrier to making clear and
sharp photographs, additional auto contrast and colour
saturation processing, while you’re taking the photo, will
help to reduce these effects.
Beach or snow mode
Bright sunlight might be ideal for lounging on the beach,
but it can play havoc with your camera’s exposure
calculations. With this in mind, the beach or snow
shooting mode is designed to counteract problems
associated with too much light or shooting large white
objects or scenes. Light reflecting off the surface of water
and other shiny surfaces can present an identical
problem to the vast white highlights of a snow scene.
These two issues confuse a camera’s metering
systems into creating an exposure that turns white
highlights into a dull, mid-tone grey. Gone are the clean
bright whites of a snow scene, giving a very
disappointing result which bears little resemblance to the
original scene. The beach/snow mode solves this
problem by deliberately over-exposing by a typical value
of +1 stop. With this extra exposure, images will be
brighter and high key rather than flat and dull. Additional
editing in your image processing application may be
needed to correct any slight tendencies towards a bluer
or colder colour after this mode has been applied. In
addition to these two subjects, this mode is worth trying
when shooting photographs of people wearing white
clothing, or standing in front of white walls.
Sports action mode
If you’re an adrenaline sports enthusiast, then you need
a fast shutter speed to catch all the action without
blurring your shots. Sports mode offers a range of
presets which puts the fastest shutter speed available as
its top priority. Sports action mode will also make use of
your camera’s ability to quickly shoot, save and store
image files on the memory card, enabling a sequence of
shots to be made just like using a motorised film windon. The image resolution is set so that larger images
take longer to store, but smaller images take less time
and allow a longer shooting sequence. Many cameras
also offer a variation on this mode called best shot
selection, whereby ten or more shots are taken in rapid
succession and the best result based on exposure and
sharpness is selected automatically for you. On the very
fastest action sport such as F1 motor racing, most digital
compacts will not be equipped to capture frozen motion,
but you can still create great images if you find a
vantage point to shoot cars moving round a bend or any
other time they reduce speed.
LEFT Getting yourself in the right position for capturing
fast moving subjects is as crucial as setting the shutter
speed correctly
Shooting in natural light
Natural light is the most creative tool you can use, but Tim Daly explains why its skillful control
offers a challenge to the most alert of photographers
ABOVE Late afternoon light is
warmer and works best on
natural subject matter such as
flora and fauna
FAR RIGHT Low angle winter
light can describe a landscape
scene completely from
overhead summer light
D
aylight varies, both in brightness and colour,
throughout the day. When shooting in the
early morning, natural light has a bluish colour,
giving colder colours; at noon the overhead sunlight
produces a more neutral colour; and at the end of the
day and in early evening, daylight is redder and warmer.
The Auto White Balance function on a digital camera
will try to correct these differences, but it pays to
experiment with different settings because you don’t
want your camera to correct an atmospheric colour by
mistake. The colour of daylight can also be changed by a
subject’s immediate surroundings and light that bounces
off objects can cast unexpected colours on your results.
Colour casts can easily be removed using the Colour
Balance function in your digital-imaging application.
little difference between exposure readings taken from
sky and land, so you’ll have much less burning in and
dodging to do later on.
If your landscape subjects lack a strong sky, try
cropping the sky out by using your zoom lens on
its longest telephoto setting. Tight crops of distant
subjects are a well-established technique, especially
if they are surrounded by a sympathetic background.
Soft-contrast photographs lend themselves to single
colour toning and if you’re careful to exclude all
trappings of modern life from your compositions, they
can become timeless, too. If you want punchier contrast
in your photographs, use the highlight and shadow
Levels Input sliders to create a clean white and deep
black shadow points.
Shooting in flat light
Shooting in the summer
Mist, fog and early morning light soften both the
sharpness of your image, lower its contrast and make a
much more delicate end product. With cloud cover
acting like a giant studio lighting softbox, there will be
Bright and warm daylight of summer produces saturated
and richly-coloured photographs, but there are a few
pitfalls to look out for. With such extremes in contrast
between deep, black shadows and bright, white
085
* WEB LINKS
EDWARD WESTON
www.masters-ofphotography.com/W/weston/
weston.html
Weston uses natural light to shoot
nude, still-life and landscape subjects
with the same cool black and
white style.
JOEL MEYEROWITZ
www.joelmeyerowitz.com/index.
html?books/clI.html~main
Meyerowitz shoots colour like no
other contemporary photographer,
finding the most dramatic contrasts
in unusual situations.
MINOR WHITE
www.masters-ofphotography.com/W/white/
white.html
Whites work for the natural effects
of light and its effects on the natural
and urban landscape.
3 IN DETAIL
MONOCHROME
Monochrome (or bitmap) is just
another name for black-and-white.
In the bitmap mode, a pixel is
either black or white – shades of
grey are non-existent. Because the
eye is easily tricked, this mode can
achieve an almost photo-realistic
effect that is reminiscent of
newspaper print.
TOP Flat lighting can allow delicate colours and detail
to emerge. In this example, a bland white sky was
cropped out to make a stronger shot
ABOVE Deep pockets of shadows and ultra bright
highlights make this subject a challenge to shoot
highlights, be wary of extreme point light sources such
as highlights reflecting off water and shiny patches on
glass. Both will trick the exposure meter, and with such
apparent brightness, your camera will create a darker
result than you expect. Heat and heat haze can also
have an unwanted effect on the way your image sensor
records colours.
If your digital camera can accept screw-on lens filters,
try attaching a UV filter for better results, or rescue
strong colour by using the Saturation command in your
image-editing package. Keep an eye out for strong
direct sunlight as this will cause deep shadows empty of
any detail and if your subject is small and close enough,
try using your fill-flash to lighten these shadows. Best
results are usually shot either side of midday, as the
direction of the light will be much more descriptive,
showing texture and fine details.
A difficult prospect is shooting under strong,
directional sunlight. Natural subject matter such as flora
and fauna can look much more animated under bright
sunlight – as long as there are no pockets of deep
shadows that make sections of detail disappear.
Exposure measurement under these conditions need
careful attention and it’s good practice to use your
camera’s exposure lock to take a reading off the largest
mid-tone in your viewfinder.
Shooting in the winter
Despite the cold and sheer effort needed to get out into
the open, the winter months offer a great challenge to
086
Early morning light is crisper and slightly colder than noon daylight and can be a good time if you want to
shoot textured landscapes
the digital photographer. The biggest seasonal restriction
is the few hours of weak daylight good enough for
outdoor photography, which often disappear by 3pm at
the end of the year.
Yet, despite this, winter is a perfect time to shoot
architecture, historic monuments and cityscapes because
the low-angled winter light reveals textures and
shadows not seen in the summer months. Light is
predominantly colourless in the winter months, losing
its rich, warm reds and turning blue and cold to reflect
the season. Make an effort to get out if the weather
looks overcast and changeable for this could present
you with a great opportunity to capture dramatic light,
clouds and rainbows. The practicalities of shooting in
the cold with a power-hungry digital camera should
not be overestimated, though, because the drop in
temperature will cause your battery to run out quicker
than you expect.
If you can afford a second set of batteries, keep them
in a warm pocket to maintain their charge and reduce
the power demands on your camera by using the LCD
preview only when you need to and avoid using flash if
you can help it.
Thinking in monochrome
One of the easiest ways to approach photography in
natural light is to think in black and white terms.
Monochrome (bitmap) is a much more atmospheric
way of seeing the world around you and can also
improve an otherwise dull colour scene – particularly in
winter months. It’s a straightforward process to convert
colour RGB images into black and white in an imageediting program, but the most stylish results are made
from photographs that have a good range of different
tones and textures in the first place.
Many great landscape photographs are as much a
result of darkroom trickery as they are an accurate
portrayal of a real scene. The beauty of the black and
4
FURTHER
INFORMATION
A great addition to your camera kit bag is a portable reflector like the Lastolite series. Most Lastolite
reflectors are double sided with a bright white side and a metallic gold or silver for bouncing more light
back on to your subjects. View the products online at www.lastolite.com
;
5
0
NEXT MONTH
SEEING THE WORLD
IN MONOCHROME
EXPERT TIP
TIM DALY
HANDHELD FLASH
HOTSHOE FLASH
If your camera is fitted with a
hotshoe flash socket for attaching
a more powerful flash unit, you
can add a special device plugged
into this called a hotshoe adaptor.
This enables you to attach a
flexible flash cord so the unit can
be taken off the top of your
camera and held to one side.
ANGLED FLASH
Angled flash can mimic the look
of natural light and is great for
shooting flora and fauna subjects
when available light is bland.
Always preview your results on
the rear LCD monitor and try lots
of different flash positions until
you get the result you’re after.
TOP Many great subjects have little or no colour
anyway and can look even more interesting when
converted to greyscale mode
ABOVE Shooting into the light is a good technique
to use when light levels are lower than normal,
and is especially good if your subject has an
interesting shape
white process is the ability to make darker or lighter
areas of grey without looking overcooked and invented.
Shooting in low light
Faced with the daunting prospect of gradually decreasing
light levels, it’s still possible to shoot good quality
images if your camera has a variable ISO scale. ISO
determines the sensitivity of your sensor to light,
effectively allowing it to work properly under much
lower levels than normal.
At the top end of the scale such as ISO 800, you’ll be
able to capture much the same kind of subject matter as
before, except for fast-moving objects and it’s a good
idea to switch your flash off to preserve the atmospheric
natural light conditions. Try to exclude any point light
sources like streetlights from your composition, as these
will make your exposure darker than expected.
The unfortunate by-product of an increase in ISO is
the random-coloured pixel effect called noise. Noise
occurs when there’s not enough light for the sensor to
make an accurate colour pixel, so it creates a bright red
or bright green one by mistake. Just like grain on
traditional photographic film, noise will also reduce the
amount of fine detail captured in the end result. Noise is
only most noticeable if you try to make large-scale printouts from your files and will not be as apparent on
smaller scale prints such as 6 x 4.
ABOVE This location portrait was taken away from the strong glare of direct sunlight and shows the sitter in a
relaxed pose. With such soft lighting, fine facial details emerge to make the photograph more characterful
Location portraits using natural light
The most experienced wedding photographers always
arrive early to hunt out a likely patch of shade for portrait
photographs. Direct sunlight will make most portrait
subjects blink excessively and squint, distorting and
ruining their normal facial composure. You’ll never be
thanked for shooting an unflattering portrait photograph,
so you must be prepared to solve problems on the spot
and quickly.
Overhead light at midday is the main cause of
unflattering portraits, creating unnatural shadows under
eyebrows and chins, which will change a delicate beauty
into a rocky old-timer. This problem is best solved by
shooting under the canopy of any natural shade nearby,
such as a tree. Once out of the limelight, a sitter’s pupils
will open wider and their face will not be screwed up
into a frown. Portraits shot underneath a green canopy
will inevitably look greener than you expect, but this is
easily cured by increasing the amount of magenta in
your colour balance controls later on.
If you are really keen on shooting portraits, a fold up
Lastolite reflector is a good investment and will help you
to balance out any shadows still remaining. Fold-up
reflectors unravel into sizeable but lightweight disks of
white, usually backed by an extra silver or gold flipside.
Position the reflector under your sitter’s face until it is just
out of shot and experiment with the gold variation for a
warmer and more flattering result.
@ SEND ’EM IN!
Try out the techniques in this article
then send us your photos. We’ll
print the best each month. Email us
at the following address:
@
[email protected]
087
PHOTO HELP Q&A
YOUR GUIDE AIDAN O’ROURKE
Aidan O’Rourke is a freelance photographer who’s worked with digital imaging
and photography since 1994. He created ‘Eyewitness in Manchester’ (part of
Manchester Online, the Manchester Evening News website), the largest online
source of photo and info about Manchester. See the URL opposite for more
details on Aidan’s digital photography seminars around the country
[email protected] (camera queries only)
WEBSITE www.aidan.co.uk/seminars
All your camera
questions answered
Send all your technical questions to Aidan at [email protected] and he’ll do his best to help…
2
QUESTIONS
ANSWERED
IMAGE CAPTURE
CLOSE UP SUBJECTS . . . . . . . . . .91
ARTIFICIAL LIGHT SETTING . . . . .90
CAMERA USE
USING A BIRDING TELESCOPE . .88
SLIDESHOW THROUGH DVD . . .88
OLYMPUS PHOTO EDITING . . . . .89
SERIF PHOTOPLUS . . . . . . . . . . .89
IMAGE FILE COMPRESSION . . . .89
RESIZING FOR PRINT . . . . . . . . .89
RESIZING IMAGES . . . . . . . . . . .90
MEDIA
BOOKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91
WEBSITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91
OUR
COVERDISC
* ON
2
SLIDE SHOW THROUGH
DVD UNIT AND TV
PICTURE TRANSFER
■■ INTERMEDIATE
I use a Kodak DX3600 camera,
Q and have been very pleased
with the results. I’ve saved pictures on
my hard drive, and some back-ups on
Iomega zip disc and CD-R.
My problem is I wish to save in a
format that will enable me to play a
slide show using a DVD unit through a
TV. I haven’t purchased a DVD machine
as yet. What do I need to do?
Peter Corrigan
A DVD playing through a TV uses
a system designed primarily
for high bandwidth moving images,
and is entirely different from the
operating system on your PC, which
is designed for many purposes,
including the storage and transfer of
still images and playing mainly lower
bandwidth videoclips.
It's important to realise you can
already view your photos on TV very
easily. Most current personal
computers can be connected to a TV,
and you can view your desktop and
files in the same way as you view
them on your computer screen, using
the slide show function – I use this
facility all the time.
A
CONNECTING A
BIRDING TELESCOPE TO
A DIGITAL CAMERA
■ BEGINNER
Find this trial mentioned opposite,
on disc B
088
2
PHOTOGRAPHY
DVD PICTURE SHOW 1.0
Photo
Help
If you want to go the whole way
and save your photos as a selfcontained DVD there are a number of
packages which will do this – here
are two I found by doing an internet
search for ‘DVD slide show’:
1) Ulead DVD Picture Show
www.ulead.com/dps/ and
2) tvCD digital slide show software
www.tvcd.biz
Happy viewing!
I have just read the November
edition of Digital Camera
Magazine and have decided that I’m
ready to convert to digital. I hope to
stretch to a Canon SLR but may
consider the higher end of compacts
such as the Coolpix 5700, Minolta
Dimage and so on.
I note from the adverts in your
magazine, that it is possible to connect
a birding telescope to some cameras
at a reasonable cost.
When I first bought my Canon EOS
(some eight years ago), it was very
expensive to connect an SLR to a
telescope. I’m wondering what the
situation would be today if I did buy
an SLR with interchangeable lenses –
can you shed some light on this?
Q
A movie playing through a Mac Quicktime player (the HIndu temple at Whalley Range, Manchester)
If I did buy into the £1,000 range of
compacts what would be the best bet
for taking shots of birds? (P.S. I mean
the feathered variety!)
Peter Emsley
People moving from film to
digital photography are at a
disadvantage. While it's possible to pick
up a usable SLR film camera for under a
hundred pounds, you won't find a
digital SLR camera with interchangeable
lenses for much less than two grand. So
many people, such as myself, have
gone from SLR film to digital compact.
The digital compact is fine for the
type of work I do, but if you are
seriously interested in photographing
birds – of the feathered variety – I would
recommend spending some extra
money and buying a digital SLR.
There is an adapter you can buy to
connect your Kowa birding scope to a
Canon EOS D60 SLR. You can find more
details on this at www.aaabinoculars.
com/kowa_820_series_accessories.
html#photo
However, if you don't want to spend
two grand on the digital SLR, there are
other options available to you. You could
buy a universal adaptor which enables
you to connect the telescope to any
camera, including a digital compact.
Personally, I don't think that the results
from this method would be as good as
with a digital SLR. Go to astrovid.com
and look at the page on digital camera
adapters – then decide which route is
best for you.
A
4
FURTHER
INFORMATION
The JPEG was designed as a storage and display medium for
photographs. The GIF format is most suitable for characters,
simple logos and graphics
8
FANSITE REVIEW www.dpreview.com
Content This site is slick, dark and exciting, but well laid
out and quick to load. It contains every conceivable digital
photography resource you can think of, including news
updates, detailed and exhaustive camera reviews, forums,
technical explanations... you name it, it's there.
Verdict This remarkable website is largely the work of IT
whizzkid Phil Askey, who tells me it's a labour of love on
which he spends up to 100 hours a week. It shows. Try
dpreview.com and you'll soon be hooked!
2
INCREASING FILE SIZE
BETWEEN OLYMPUS AND
SERIF PHOTOPLUS
IMAGE EDITING
■ BEGINNER
I have just treated myself to your
gorgeously glossy magazine and
will be reading it bit by bit. I appreciate
your offer of help and will take you up
on it, if you don't mind!
I have three questions for you. Firstly,
will your examples always be with
Paint Shop Pro? I can just about
translate them to Serif so they are still
useful. I have an older computer which
is now half-full and I don't want to put
Paint Shop on as well as it groans a lot.
Secondly, I use the Olympus
programme which came with my
camera to do routine things with my
pix, and the file size I use quite a lot is
Jpeg 1,280 X 960, which gives me a file
for each pic of between about 170K
and 230K depending on complexity.
However if I transfer them to Serif
PhotoPlus and then send them back to
Olympus by either Save as Original or
Export Jpeg, they have increased to
621K – this without any work on them
– if I do work, they’re bigger. Can you
shed light on this? As I send them to
family I have to remember to reduce
the size to save time. How and why
does the size increase?
Thirdly, I have my best family pix
printed as the ink is so expensive. I
take them in on disk, but always loose
some of the edge as 6 x 4 paper is not
the same shape as my digital camera
pix. I have tried to get round this by
increasing the canvas size in Serif and
hoping it chops off the margin, but
tend to guess the size as it offers pixels.
Do you know how many pixels would
make a 6 x 4 print? My arithmetic is
dodgy! I look forward to hearing
from you and wish your magazine
every success.
Susan Premru
Q
To answer your first question,
the techniques I describe
should be applicable to both
A
A 1,280 x 960 image is JPG High, (moderate compression), quality 8
Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, as
well as many other image-editing
programs. They all run on basically
the same principles.
Next you have a problem
concerning outputting of JPEG files at
a large size. I think I know what the
problem is. Firstly, your file size for a
1280 by 960 image file equates to
JPG high, quality 8.
When we save an image file in
JPEG, the JPEG Options dialog box
gives us a choice of compression
At JPG Maximum, quality 12, the file size is now a whopping 604.33k
levels – JPEG High means moderate
compression, larger file size on disk
and better quality. JPEG Low means
severe compression, smaller file size
on disk and poorer quality. It looks
like your Olympus editing program is
set to JPEG high. When you open the
saved JPEGs in Serif, work on them
and save them a second time round,
you find the file size is 621k.
I’ve reproduced this effect and at
JPEG maximum, Quality level 12,
we see that the file size for my
Canary Wharf photo (above right) is
604.33k – three times its previous
size. This is because I’ve resaved
the file at the highest setting, saving
the picture info, as well as the
artifacts and jaggies from the earlier
JPEG compression.
There are two things to remember
here. First, you shouldn't be saving
and re-opening your JPEG files. Each
time you save, there is a degradation
of quality. You should work on the
images in one program only –
2 RESIZE FOR A 6 X 4 PRINT
Tweaking a photo for the optimum print result
?
EXPLAINED
GAMUT
Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope in
Cheshire is seen here during a snow
storm in December 2000. This is how
the image file looked with camera
output at the largest size – 2,048 pixels
wide and 1,536 pixels top to bottom.
At the standard setting of 200dpi, this
gives us a print size of slightly more
than ten inches wide and less than
eight inches top to bottom – A4 size.
To prepare this photo for printing at
6x4 we’ll reduce it down to 1200
pixels wide by resampling it. This
gives us a file which, at the standard
setting of 200dpi, will give a print 6
inches wide and four and a half
inches from top to bottom – half an
inch too much. We’ll have to crop it
down to four inches, cutting the
canvas size from 900 to 800 pixels.
At 1,200 x 800 pixels, the image file
will give a print six inches wide and 4
inches high, the same aspect ratio as
35mm film. In this photo there was
enough room to crop – in fact, it
probably looks better like this. Another
reason to resample and crop to fit the
intended print size is that we’ve
reduced the file size on disk by half,
making it quicker to transfer.
Gamut, often used in the term 'out
of gamut' refers to the range of
colours which a particular device is
able to reproduce. A computer
monitor is able to create millions of
colours, but many of these colours,
for instance the brighter reds, are not
printable – they are out of gamut.
HISTOGRAM
The graph which expresses
the number of pixels of a
particular colour in an image file,
ranging from 0 to 255. The Levels
control is a histogram which you
can manipulate.
089
PHOTO HELP Q&A
EMAIL AIDAN! Send your digital photography queries to Aidan at [email protected] Please note that this email address is for technical problems only. See page 3 page for others
V TECH FOCUS
iSAPS
What is it? Not the International
Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery,
but Intelligent Scene Analysis based
on photographic space, a
technology which features in the
latest Canon Powershot digital
cameras. It reportedly delivers more
accurate autofocus, auto exposure
and auto white balance.
How it works: The spec runs as
follows: "Canon has created a
'Photographic Space' that relates
the peripheral brightness and the
distance between camera and
subject according to the zoom
position of the lens when taking a
picture." What this means in simple
terms is that certain scenes
demand particular settings, and the
camera is able to detect the type of
scene by referring to focus and
zoom lens setting.
When to use it: If the camera is
focused on infinity and the
peripheral light levels are bright, it's
probably an outdoor landscape
photo, and the settings will be
adjusted accordingly (eg, narrower
aperture, slight under-exposure so
highlights don't burn out, daylight
white balance). If the camera is
focused on a subject close by, and
the light levels are lower, the
chances are it's a portrait shot, so
the camera adjusts itself for optimal
portrait shooting (eg. wider
aperture for out-of-focus
background, shorter shutter speed,
indoor or dull light white balance).
iSAPS appears to be another step
on the road to the ultimate 'smart'
camera, which knows how to take
the perfect photo in any light.
I’ve chosen the lowest JPEG setting here which
drastically reduces the file size, but also
produces a lot of image degradation
I’ve resampled the pic to a larger size and resaved it at max JPEG setting. You can’t get back
the quality you lost previously though…
Thank goodness I still have my original Canary
Wharf photo, which saved once and once only
at the JPEG maximum setting
whether it's Olympus or Serif, and
save once only. If you want to save
an image and open it in another
program, then it's important to save
the file in a 'lossless' file format such
as Tiff or Photoshop, so you don't lose
any picture information.
The second thing to look at is the
output settings of Serif – it appears
that it is set to JPEG maximum. Look
closely at the Save options and I think
you'll find that you can choose a
lower compression and file size.
To answer your third question, take
a look at the photos above. Actually, I
dealt with this in issue one, but this is
an important point so let's look at it
again. See what happens when you
choose the lowest JPEG setting? I've
resampled the picture down to a
smaller size to make the JPEG
artifacts visible. The picture is broken
up into a mosaic of squares, each one
containing an approximation of the
picture information in the set of
pixels grouped together in each
square – this gives a smaller file size
2
300 PHOTOS TAKEN ON
ARTIFICIAL LIGHT SETTING
– HOW TO CORRECT?
IMAGE EDITING
■■■ ADVANCED
Can you please help? I saw your
magazine (who could miss the
large format) and thought perhaps you
could help me with a problem I have.
I recently went to Turkey and took
some 300 photos. Imagine my horror
when I downloaded them and they all
had a cast on them. On checking my
camera (a Fuji 2000z) I discovered that I
had left it set on Artificial light, hence
the blue-ish cast.
I have Paint Shop Pro 5 and
Photoshop 6 on my computer. Is there a
way to save these photos, and if so, do
I have to do each one individually or
can I batch them? I have attached a
typical photo from these for you to see.
I picked one with people on to show
the skin tones.
By the way – an excellent magazine!
I look forward to them all.
Bob Wood
Q
Wouldn't it have been nice if the
camera had given you a
warning? See our closing feature…
First of all you’re going to have to
correct the colour imbalance. It will
probably be difficult to restore 100 per
cent natural colour, but we should be
able to improve it. In Photoshop the
easiest way to do this is to go into
A
Many of Canon’s newest models
use iSAPS
090
Levels and readjust the sliders for the
red, green and blue channels.
The blue channel shows the greatest
imbalance with the tones bunched up
towards the right hand end of the
histogram. We need to reduce the blue,
so I've dragged the slider to the right,
giving an input value of 0.7
I've dragged the red channel to 1.5
and the green to 1.2. You can also input
the values in the fields. It's not perfect,
and there will be some further
adjustment to do, but at least we have
reduced the heavy blue cast, and the
skin tones look better.
Having fine tuned the adjustments,
we now have to repeat the process
another 299 times. The good news is
we don't have to manually enter the
data each time, we can save a Levels
profile. Once you’ve made the
adjustments to the three channels, click
'Save' and this will save the values in a
small file which you can then access
next time by clicking 'Load'.
We have now reduced the process
down to six commands – open image
file, open Levels, Load profile, Click OK,
Click Save, Save as new file. Make sure
to use 'Save as' and save the altered
file into a separate directory, leaving
your originals untouched.
You can now automate this process
by creating a Photoshop action. An
action is simply a set of instructions you
can record and save, which Photoshop
can then play, carrying out identical
changes on any other image file.
Now we have reduced the process to
but poorer quality, like a runny
watercolour painting, with a
multitude of sins all glaringly visible.
You would think such cruelty to
photos ought to be outlawed in this
day and age, but on the internet, I
still see plenty of images like this.
I have now compounded the sin I
committed in the previous photo by
resampling the picture up to a larger
size (sin number 2) and re-saving (sin
number 3) it at JPEG maximum
setting, giving a much bigger file
size, which is sin number four!
Phew, thank goodness I still have
my original photo, an interesting
record of how Canary Wharf looked in
July 2000, which I saved once and
once only. As I take thousands of
photos, I generally use JPEG high
setting – otherwise I would need
terabytes of storage space.
By reducing the separate colour channels in Photoshop we can reduce the blue saturation
two commands – open image file, Run
action. As a precaution, I would omit
save file from the action so I can view
each image before saving it manually.
To speed up the process, open the
images up 10 at a time, run the action
and Save as. It shouldn't take too long
to get through all the photos and you'll
have the satisfaction of seeing each
one magically transformed from what
looks like a faded colour print to a
much more acceptable image.
A digital camera left on the Artificial light setting will produce this blue-ish tint (left). Photoshop
can’t restore the natural colour 100 per cent but it can do a fine job of reducing the blue haze!
4
TOP TIP
Each time you save and reopen a JPEG file there’s a
degradation of quality. The best policy is: save and close
a JPEG only when you’re totally happy with it
8
MANUFACTURER SITE
www.digitaldreamco.com
Content: A digital camera manufacturer based not in Tokyo
but Kent. The Digital Dream Company make incredibly cool,
compact and affordable miniature digital cameras, and
2
HOW TO GET THE RIGHT
APERTURE MANUALLY?
settings in the future? Can I use the
telephoto and close-up lenses to create
depth of field effects? Is there a book or
manual you could recommend?
Stephen Brook
CAMERA USE
■■ INTERMEDIATE
I read with great interest your
Q article on depth of field and use
of aperture control in photography. I
have a Kodak 3900 with additional
close up, telephoto and wide angle
lenses and am wondering if it’s possible
to manually adjust the aperture range
on my camera. How can I take a more
controlled approach with aperture
Looking at the specs for the
Kodak 3900 I see that it has/has
not got aperture control. Let's just
define what we mean by aperture – it’s
the size of the iris – the device similar
to the small hole in the human eye
that lets in light. When the aperture is
smaller, the whole picture is sharper
from close to the lens to infinity. When
the aperture is larger, the picture has a
A
related kit. Verdict The main pages are functional, with
centred text & elementary graphics. The pages are in five
European languages, though there are typos, even on the
English page. Fix the typos, improve the graphics and this
could be a site to match their 'wannahave' product range.
much shallower depth of field, putting
the subject in focus and the background
out of focus – or vice versa. The
aperture has to be balanced against the
shutter speed and the sensitivity rating
(film speed) of the CCD. Most automatic
cameras use a pre-set program to
select a suitable aperture and shutter
speed. In bright light the aperture will
probably be small, say F7, and in low
light it will probably be wide.
Sometimes it's good to have a wide
aperture even in bright light – when,
for instance, we're taking a portrait and
wish to throw the background out of
focus. This is when we use the aperture
priority setting – we fix the aperture to
a desired value, and let the camera
decide the shutter speed. If your
camera doesn't have this feature, you
can still coax it to a wider aperture by
shooting in low light. Portraits work in
low, diffuse light anyway.
The CCD in digital cameras is
relatively small, so the background is
never going to be very defocused. Only
when you use a medium or large
format camera do you get the out-offocus background of Hollywood portraits
of the 1930s. You can, of course,
simulate this effect at image
enhancement stage anyway.
?
EXPLAINED
APERTURE PRIORITY
This fixes the aperture and adjusts
the shutter speed around it. Find out
more on pages 85-87.
2 DEPTH OF FIELD
These animal portraits illustrate how best to photograph a subject close up
; READ ON
DIGITAL IMAGING
Unfortunately, when shooting Claudia
the sow from a few feet away at the
standard lens setting, our attention is
distracted by her less-than-glamourous
surroundings. For that paparazzi-style
shot for the front cover of that celebrity
magazine we need to get in close.
I'm testing the difference between a
narrow and wide aperture using the
aperture priority setting. This is wide –
F2.5 to be precise, giving a shutter
speed of one hundredth of a second.
See how the background is out of
focus, focusing attention the face.
Jane the Jersey Cow has a calm nature
and is used to close-up photos. I’ve
set the camera to the widest setting:
f2, to capture the fine detail of her
hair and eyelashes, while throwing
the railings in the background and
her left ear out of focus.
Now I’ve set the aperture to F7 giving
a shutter speed of just 1/15th of a
second. The narrow aperture has
made the background sharper – not as
effective for a portrait. Even at 1/15th
of a second there is no blur as I have
held the camera steady.
Georgina is prone to shaking her head
around. We’re shooting in low light so
the camera – set to auto – has given
us an aperture of f3.4. The shutter
speed is 1/21st of a second, so
Georgina's fit of pique has resulted
in a blurred image
This fellow’s been captured at a very
narrow aperture – F11, giving a
shutter speed of one fifth of a second
– I had to support the camera on the
wall. I’ve zoomed in to the fullest
extent to try to throw the background
out of focus, but it is still quite sharp.
Now she’s keeping still. The aperture
is f3.4 and the shutter speed is 1/25th
of a second – slow, but it’s still
possible to get a sharp image if
photographer and model hold still. It's
that magic moment – reminds you of
David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton, eh?
With the aperture at F4, the
background is a little more out of focus
but it’s only subtle, even at the fullest
zoom setting and widest possible
aperture. This functional aspect of
digital cameras needs to be addressed
by manufacturers in the future.
Published by
Focal Press
Price
£15.99
Written by Mark Galer & Les Horvat
Buy from
www.amazon.co.uk
Aimed at students of photography
and design who intend to use a
digital darkroom, this manual takes
a thoroughly educational approach
to digital imaging, with aims and
objectives, exercises and carefully
graded units. Photos are mostly
showcased in black and white with
some colour in the centre pages.
Excellent for use on courses in digital
imaging and for anyone who
requires a step by step guide
with self-testing.
Verdict Highly recommended.
SECTION #04
USING YOUR PC
ARCHIVE YOUR PHOTOS
SEE PAGE 94
PAGE
PAGE
94
YOUR PC
96
USING YOUR PC
HOW TO STORE AND ARCHIVE PHOTOS
Is your hard drive overloaded with pictures? Time to
bring some order to your digital collection
PAGE
ONLINE TUTORIAL
SHOWCASING YOUR PHOTOS ONLINE
Upload full size colour photos to the net using
compression techniques that retain quality
PAGE
PRINT TECHNIQUES PART 4
USING ONLINE PHOTO LABS
Getting your photos developed online couldn’t be
easier – and the quality matches the High Street
PAGE
PAGE
98
PC & Internet
Using a PC to make the most of your digital photos
f
Our aim is to bring you creative ideas, expert tips and
quick fixes you can use in your own work.
Authoritative A leading professional in his/her field
writes every tutorial. Value-added We try to include
Contact our Reviews team
image files, and full or trial software so you can try the
tutorial for yourself, delivering a complete package.
Clear Our large page size means we can add extra
elements, explanations and detail to each tutorial.
#
If you have a comment about our reviews, or a product
you would like us to test, please email us at
digitalcameramagazine.co.uk for reader verdicts
94
96
98
TUTORIAL USING YOUR PC
YOUR GUIDE JOE CASSELS
Joe Cassels writes regular tutorials for a wide range of computer magazines. He
is an enthusiastic digital photographer with a track record of helping many
people get more from their PCs
[email protected]
PORTFOLIO JOE CASSELS
Archiving and
indexing your photos
You’re probably building up quite a collection of digital photos by now. Joe Apice explains how to catalogue
them, back them up for protection and make them quick and easy to find
TUTORIAL
KEY DETAILS
2
ON OUR CD
See our trial of DVD PictureShow
1.0 plus freeware tool EasyFast
Viewer to help you browse and
index images quickly.
2
SKILL LEVEL
1
2
TIME TO COMPLETE
20
O
ne of the joys of digital photography is that
you can take hundreds more pictures than
you ever could by using conventional film.
Freed from the repeated cost of buying and developing,
your collection can grow to immense proportions
remarkably quickly.
There is a downside to this. A huge collection of
pictures can become quite unmanageable and while
most recent computer hard drives will hold a staggering
quantity of images, they aren’t infinite.
You need to bring some order to your collection,
which you can do by making sure your photos have
suitable names and are kept in appropriate folders. You
can make good use of some of Windows’ sorting
features to help you reach the right photos quickly
within a folder. It’s really quite simple to arrange folder
contents by name or file size or by the time the picture
was taken. The ability to group files by their initial letter
or the place they were taken, for example, is very
useful, as a mass of files gets broken down into
manageable chunks.
Archiving your pictures is important as PCs aren’t one
hundred per cent trouble-free. You might accidentally
delete some files or a virus could wipe part of your disk.
You can make sure you don’t lose any photos by
regularly archiving them to CD. Writeable CDs are really
cheap nowadays, coming in at well under a pound a
piece and they’ll hold over a thousand pictures.
Apart from the sense in making sure you have a
backup, burning images to CD is a great way to share
them with friends. Most computers carry CD drives and
a growing number of DVD players can read computer
CDs and display still images on a TV screen. CDs are
easily posted and less liable to get damaged than
printed photographs, so you can share all your photos
with friends and relatives far away.
MINUTES
Choose clear filenames so you can
easily identify your pictures
RENAMING FILES
8
01
CHOOSE THE PICTURE
Select Start, My Pictures, and open up the
folder that contains the images that you’d
like to rename. Select View, Thumbnails to see
miniature versions of the photos. Choose one of the
pictures and right click over it so that you get a drop
down menu. Choose Rename.
094 DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE
02
8
TYPE THE NEW NAME
The filename below the picture is now
highlighted. This was probably generated
when you transferred the pictures from your camera.
Press backspace on the keyboard to clear the name
and type the new one in. Choose a name that
describes the picture well.
03
DO IT AGAIN
Now click on a different picture and the
new filename will stay in place. Repeat this
for the rest of the pictures in your folder. It’s important
to give each picture a descriptive filename as it helps
Windows index your images later on and archive
similar locations/dates together.
0
Sort your files in several ways
and find images quickly
SORTING FILES
EXPERT TIP
JOE CASSELS
PHOTO ARCHIVING
NAME YOUR FILES
A good filename makes a
photo much easier to
find. Adopt a strategy of
naming your photos after
the main subject(s) and keep
them in folders named
after the location, event or
occasion featured.
01
SORT BY NAME
02
In the folder with your newly labelled
photos, right click some white space not
directly over any picture. From the drop down menu
choose Arrange Icons By, Name. This makes all the
pictures jump into alphabetical order by their names.
04
SHOW IN GROUPS
03
Now, right click once more over some open
space. Choose Arrange Icons By, Show in
Groups. Your thumbnail pictures will now show in
groups arranged by the initial letter of the filename.
This makes finding pictures much easier.
FILE PROPERTIES
05
This box shows key information about the
picture file. You can see its size in KB and
when it was taken, last modified or viewed. You
can also see the default program that the image
opens in. You can change this and the filename.
Your folder is now suitably indexed.
Experiment with sorting pictures by
different criteria. Again you can choose Show in
Groups based on these factors. It’s often useful to see
file details. Right click a photo and choose Properties.
SEARCH FOR PICTURES
06
Close the File Properties box and the
current folder. Click Start, Search, and
Pictures, Music or Video. Check the Pictures and Photos
box and type a word that’s part of the filename. Click
Search to start the utility searching for the photo.
BURNING TO CD
VIEW PROPERTIES
? EXPLAINED
KB, MB
These are both measurements of
Computer memory. KB stands for
kilobyte and MB for megabyte.
Both are multiples of the byte unit.
Nothing with computers is ever
simple; to prove this a kilobyte is
in fact 1,024 bytes and a megabyte
is 1,024 kilobytes. It’s often simpler
to think of the rough size a picture
would take up, which is around
300KB for a standard resolution
photo image.
PHOTOS FOUND
The Search utility scans your hard drive,
looking for files that contain that keyword.
As it finds them, you’ll see their icons or thumbnails
in the right pane. Click View, Thumbnails if you can
only see icons. Double click the file to launch it.
Archive your pictures to CD so you’ll
never accidentally delete them
* WEB LINKS
8
01
CHOOSE PICTURE TO BURN
Click Start, My Pictures and browse to the
folder you want to archive. Remember that
your folder can contain sub-folders. Each CD will hold
650-700MB, which is a lot of photos, so don’t worry
about overfilling it. In the left-hand pane click copy all
items to CD.
8
02
FILES WAITING
Windows XP then copies these files into a
waiting room folder before they can be
transferred. As these get copied, you’ll see a balloon
alert on the taskbar telling you that you have files
waiting to be burned. Once the copying is finished,
click the balloon.
Microsoft
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp
/digitalphotography/videos/ma
nagepics.asp
The official Microsoft Windows XP
site has a section specifically geared
towards digital photography,
including informative features and
forums offering help and advice.
03
CD WRITING WIZARD
You’ll see a folder containing these files.
Click Write these files to CD. The Wizard
starts, asking you for a name for the CD. Enter one and
click Next. Put a CD in the CDRW drive and click Next.
The pictures are burnt to your CD, which will take
several minutes.
TUTORIAL SHARING YOUR PHOTOS
YOUR GUIDE MATTHEW RICHARDS
Matthew Richards reviews digital cameras for worldwide specialist press, as well as being
a keen photographer, using both conventional 35mm outfits and digital systems. His main
areas of interest are sport, landscape and people photography
[email protected]
PORTFOLIO MATTHEW RICHARDS
Optimising image sizes
Full size, full colour photos don’t have to mean a long wait or hefty downloads.
Mathew Richards explains how to make more of your pictures online…
TUTORIAL
KEY DETAILS
2
ON OUR CD
Find Batch Thumbs 1.5 will help
you create thumbnail galleries
and HTML code for the web.
2
SKILL LEVEL
6
2
TIME TO COMPLETE
10
MINUTES
E
verybody wants their photos to be seen in
the best light. With conventional prints, this
literally means using a good light source,
choosing the right frame and even hanging them on a
suitable background. Showcasing your digital portfolio
online, however, involves a lot more planning.
Firstly, you need to find a good place to showcase
your virtual collection, either by choosing an online
photo gallery or community to host your pictures, or by
taking matters into your own hands and designing your
own website. You also need to think about how to get
your photos across as quickly as possible, without
impairing the image quality. This can turn out to be the
biggest challenge in the whole process.
Fat files
The standard Windows format for storing pictures is BMP
format. The letters stand for ‘bitmap’, which literally
means that the picture is broken down into individual
bits, or pixels, each of which has full colour and
brightness information recorded for it. In this way, the
complete picture is made up of single pixels of
information. The process is very accurate, but you end
up with huge data files. For example, a three megapixel
APPLYING JPEG COMPRESSION
8
3 IN DETAIL
image stored in BMP format will be around 10Mb.
That might not sound like much but if you’re
downloading a file of this size through a conventional
modem, it’ll take nearly an hour. Anybody wanting to
view your photos online will probably have given up
long before the first shot is even half way downloaded.
Downsizing
The trick is to reduce the size of the file, without
shrinking the size of the picture, while maintaining the
quality. It sounds like a tall order but with a little care,
and some trial and error, you can get great results.
How to compress in Paint Shop Pro (all good
image-editing software should be similar)
8
NIGHT-TIME
PHOTOGRAPHY
It’s a great time of year for night
time photography. And, with the
reduced palette of night scenes,
with less colours needed, you
might be able to get away with
compressing your photos as GIF
format files – the original Graphics
Interchange Format for the Internet,
which supports 256-colour use.
096
01
IMAGE QUALITY
The main thing about JPEG compression
is that you can use it on a sliding scale,
trading image quality against file size. As you move
the compression level slider, a preview window
shows the effect on photo quality.
02
FILE FORMAT
There are two types of JPEG file format.
With Standard encoding, your photo will be
displayed line by line as it’s downloaded. Progressive
encoding places a rough copy of the image on screen
and builds better quality renditions over the top.
03
DOWNLOAD TIMES
With a compression level of 80, we’ve
shrunk a 10Mb, 3-megapixel photo down to
101K. This means a fair amount of quality loss but the
download time has shrunk from 50 minutes to around
30 seconds on a standard modem.
4
FURTHER
INSPIRATION
The first thing to do is to choose the physical size of
the image you want to make available online. If your
idea is to let people print out your photos on their own
colour printers, in full A4 size with optimum quality,
you’ll need to keep those three megapixels. However, if
they’re just for online viewing, most people use a
maximum screen resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels, so
you can shrink your three megapixel photos by 50 per
cent both vertically and horizontally, which means the
resulting file size will only be a quarter of the original.
To see how compression works to best (or worst) effect in action,
compare the quality vs file size of a few shots in an online
photo gallery. We suggest Photobox (www.photobox.co.uk)
2 JPEG COMPRESSION RATES
We took a standard 3 megapixel photo and compressed it with a variety of JPEG compression levels.
Here’s how much we saved on files size and download time (for a standard 56k modem) at each level.
There’s also a small part of the original shown, so you can see the effect on quality at each level
Paint Shop Pro includes a handy
two-step wizard which can
optimise your photos for web use.
Choose a compression level and
see a sample of the resulting
image quality
Applying compression
Reducing the physical size of your photos is only the
start of the story. The real data size savings are made by
applying compression. These are mathematical
algorithms applied to the computer data in your digital
photos, so that complex strings of numbers are
represented by smaller, stored calculations. An example
of this at its best is the use of vector calculations for
‘draw’ type files. Here, lines, circles and shapes are
represented by simple mathematical operators, rather
than information for each ‘bit’ of the picture. You can
resize a vector-based image with negligible loss of
image quality, especially when it comes to avoiding
jagged edges on resized diagonal lines.
However, while vector drawing is ideal for clip-art,
photos need different information stored pixel by pixel,
in bitmap fashion, so this isn’t the best option. There are
two main choices available to you: lossless compression,
and lossy compression. Lossless compression is available
with Compressed TIF format, which can typically cut the
size of a BMP image by half. The advantage is that
when it’s uncompressed for viewing, there will be
absolutely no degradation of the original photo quality.
The downside is that, with only a 50 per cent file size
saving, your photos might still be too large for effective
web usage, with download times too long to tolerate.
Sliding scales
The preferred file format for online usage is JPEG,
created by the Joint Picture Experts Group. Using lossy
compression, you do lose some picture quality with
JPEGs, but you can save a lot more on file size. The most
important point, however, is that you can choose the
compression you want to use on a sliding scale, with a
compression factor of anything from 1 to 99.
As you trade off quality against file size, even at the
highest quality setting (with a compression factor of 1),
you can expect to shrink a photo down by over 80 per
cent, while maintaining near-perfect image quality.
However, as you slide up the compression scale, there
are massive file size savings to be made.
Quality matters
Naturally, you don’t get something for nothing with
compression. As you use greater degrees of file-size
slashing, something has to give and it always turns out
to be the picture quality. As you increase JPEG
SmartSaver Pro from Ulead is a
great program for optimising
your photos for web use. You
can get a 15-day free trial version
at www.ulead.co.uk – it’s a
6.4Mb download
compression levels, you’ll start to notice your images
becoming more pixellated, while fine detail will be lost
and other unwanted picture attributes will start to creep
in, like fine lines becoming blurred. However, you can
get away with different amounts of compression with
different images so, if you’re trying to maintain quality
while saving every ounce of file size that you can, it’s
best to experiment with compression settings for each
and every photo you put online.
Compression level: None
File size: 10Mb
Download time: 41m 40s
Compression level: 1
File size: 1.6Mb
File size: 831k
Standard or progressive?
One final point that’s often overlooked is that there are
actually two different forms of JPEG compression
available to you. There’s the standard form, which
requires the whole picture to be downloaded before
it can be displayed. With most browsers, this often
results in a frustrating line-by-line drawing of the
photo on-screen.
The second option is to save your JPEGs with
‘progressive encoding’, whereupon a rough image will
be displayed in its entirety, with better quality images
subsequently laid over the top as more information is
downloaded. The upside here is this gives a more
immediate result on screen, but the trade off is slightly
higher file sizes when you save your photos.
As a rule of thumb, we’d suggest using standard
encoding for small images, and progressive encoding for
the bigger picture.
The trick is to reduce the size of the file,
without shrinking the size of the picture
while still maintaining the quality
File size: 563k
File size: 432k
File size: 307k
File size: 189k
Download time: 47s
File size: 117k
Download time: 29s
File size: 31k
Download time: 8s
? EXPLAINED
PIXELLATED
Pixellation occurs when individual
pixels, or points of a photo are
blocked together to form jagged
edges or blocks of colour. This
occurs most commonly when
photos are enlarged or high levels
of compression are applied.
* WEB LINKS
TRIAL SOFTWARE ONLINE
With so much good image editing
software around, most of which is
ideal for optimising your photos for
online use, choosing the perfect
package for your needs can be a
tricky business. However, most
programs have free trial versions
which you can download from the
developers’ websites. Here’s a few
of our favourites…
Adobe Photoshop 7, £586,
www.adobe.co.uk
Adobe Photoshop Elements, £69
www.adobe.co.uk
Microsoft PictureIt!, £59
www.microsoft.com/uk
Paint Shop Pro 7, £93
www.digitalworkshop.com
Serif PhotoPlus 8, £69
www.serif.com
Ulead SmartSaver Pro, £39
www.ulead.co.uk
097
PRINT TECHNIQUES PART 4
4
TECHNIQUE
FURTHER
INFORMATION
WWW.PHOTOBOX.CO.UK I’m another one who thinks this the best
quality service around. Upload your files by 4.30pm and you’ll
get your prints back the next day
YOUR GUIDE TIM DALY
Tim has written several books on photography including The Digital Photography Handbook, The
Digital Printing Handbook and The Desktop Photographer, and he continues to write for The
British Journal of Photography and AG. His photographs have been exhibited across Europe
[email protected]
PORTFOLIO TIM DALY
WEBSITE WWW.PHOTOCOLLEGE.CO.UK
How photo labs work
To tie in with this month’s lab test, Tim Daly looks more closely at your printing options online
TUTORIAL
KEY DETAILS
2
ON OUR CD
InstaCropper 2.2 – crops your
pictures automatically.
2
SKILL LEVEL
5
2
2
TIME TO COMPLETE
30
MINUTES
NEXT MONTH
More on calibration.
I
f you’re a confident surfer you can make use
of the growing number of online digital
printing services. The process works by
uploading digital files to an online photolab website
such as Photobox, who will print your images out onto
conventional photographic paper and dispatch them
back to you the next day by first class post. The system
is so simple, speedy and cost effective, you’ll never
miss a deadline again.
How it works
After you’ve uploaded your digital image files, they’re
received at the other end by a high capacity server
linked to an automated digital mini-lab printer, identical
to the machines used in hgh street photolabs.
Photobox use the very best quality mini-labs like the
Fuji Frontier, which use a fine laser to ‘beam’ your
images onto conventional, silver-based, colour
photographic paper. This revolutionary process avoids
the use of a traditional enlarging lens, so common
mini-lab problems such as print scratches, dust or poor
focus never appear on the end
results. In fact the print quality is
3
1
2
so high and at such a low cost, this kind of service
matches professional High Street lab output for service.
File transfer
Many of these Internet photo labs are global rather
than local businesses and as such have built their
systems around two common web browsers, Microsoft
Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator. As such,
browser-based services are cross platform and will
work on both Windows PCs and Apple computers. The
act of uploading image files sounds much more
complex than it really is and is just like sending an
attachment with an email.
Other service providers use their own specially
devised transfer software such as the worldwide
ColorMailer lab and their own Photo Service software.
The Photo Service program is free and easy to
download and, unlike browser-based services, offers a
useful set of additional preview tools. The ColorMailer
Photo Service lets you crop, rotate and place borders
around your images and most usefully, tells you when
the print size you’ve ordered exceeds the resolution of
your digital image file.
Like the worldwide
network of Kodak
online labs, you can
upload to a ColorMailer
lab in Europe, US or
Australia and get the
lab to mail your prints
directly to your
overseas friends in a
couple of days.
Compressing
your files
4
5
The trade off with
online albums is
the time you spend logged on making the transfer. If
you’ve got a monthly fixed price internet connection
with unmetered access, then this is less of an issue.
Uploading large image files via a slow connection will
take a while, so compressing your images beforehand
is a necessity. This will sacrifice high print quality, so
the compression routine should only be undertaken
using the visual preview offered by Photoshop and
Photoshop Elements’ Save for Web command.
Most labs will only accept images saved in the
compressed JPEG format and Apple users will need to
ensure that their files are saved with the all important
.jpg three digit file extension. The modestly sized
3.4MB image you see below was compressed to just
195K using a JPEG compression routine at 80 per cent
without any visible deterioration.
Fotango
Fontango offers a great service for those photographers
still shooting with film. Simply send them your
exposed colour film and they’ll scan it, upload it to
their site and send you a password. After receiving
your original negatives back, you can log onto the site,
view your photos online and then place your print
orders. You can still upload digital files to Fotango like
any other online service and you can also email any
image in your album.
Online albums
Internet photo-labs also offer a password-protected
storage facility so you can create your own online
albums. Once uploaded to your server space, you can
also order t-shirts, posters and jigsaws of your prints.
You can even grant access to friends and family who
can order their own prints direct. Many labs provide
this for free or for a limited time and albums are
organised like slides on a lightbox with tiny thumbnail
images, leading to larger versions of your files.
The sort of features you should expect to find on a good online photo lab are:
1 Fast and easy file uploading facilities
2 The ability to share files with other users and friends
3 Security, and control over who can see your picture albums
4 Fast, efficient and cost-effective prints
5 Extra features like postcards and poster prints from your originals
TUTORIAL COLOUR CALIBRATION
YOUR GUIDE TIM DALY
Tim has written several books on photography, including The Digital
Photography Handbook, The Digital Printing Handbook and The Desktop
Photographer, and he continues to write for The British Journal of
Photography and AG. His photographs have been exhibited across Europe
[email protected]
PORTFOLIO TIM DALY
How to match colours
You can’t just switch a monitor on and hope for the best. Tim Daly explains why it needs careful
calibration so you can be sure the colours on-screen match the colours of your prints
TUTORIAL
KEY DETAILS
2
SKILL BOOSTER
7
2
2
TIME TO COMPLETE
20
MINUTES
NEXT MONTH
Defining colour settings
in Photoshop.
0
EXPERT TIP
TIM DALY
USING COLOUR
ven though the contrast and brightness of
most monitors can be manually adjusted
using dials and buttons, it’s much better to
use software-driven tools to drive your adjustments.
Calibration is all about making your monitor display a
neutral colour and is the first stage in establishing a
colour-controlled workflow. An uncorrected monitor will
always give you a false representation of your image
and make accurate colour printing virtually impossible.
Before we get to the this stage, let’s look at the
options involved when setting up your monitor for the
first time. Most monitors can be set to display colour at
three different levels: 256 colours (8-bit), thousands of
colours (16-bit) and millions of colours
(24-bit). All monitors have a control for setting a fixed
number of colours in a display regardless of the actual
colour depth of the image on show. It’s a bad idea to
view top quality digital images on anything less than
millions of colour mode, as lower settings will not show
the subtleties and tonal variations.
Some recent PCs are capable of working in billions of
colours mode, but this will be squeezed back into 16.7
million by all desktop printers. In addition to colour
E
display settings, there are usually several screen
resolutions to choose from, depending on the quality of
the graphics card installed on your PC. These resolutions
are measured in pixels and are commonly described as
640 x 480 or VGA, 800 x 600 or SVGA, or 1,024 x 768
and beyond. High-resolution settings let you see more
of your high resolution image onscreen and will prevent
less scrolling, yet menus and tool icons can become
small and difficult to see. A good compromise is to try a
mid-range resolution such as 1,024 x 768 to start with.
Software calibration
The best tool to use for calibrating your monitor is the
long established Adobe Gamma, supplied freely with
most OS and imaging applications. Adobe Gamma is a
tiny application that works by guiding you through a
simple step-by-step sequence where brightness,
contrast and colour balance is established then saved as
a special kind of file called a display profile. This profile
is then called into play each time your computer is
switched on and establishes a constant working display
and bypasses any change to the physical controls on the
outside of your monitor case. Profiles are a very useful
SETTING UP DIRECTIONS
■ Apple OS 8-9 Go to Apple menu8Control
Panels8Monitors
■ Apple OS X Go to Apple menu8System
Preferences8Displays
■ Windows PC Go to Start8Settings8Monitor
way to determine a fixed environment where colour
consistency can be managed and maintained when
inputting and outputting digital images.
Saving your results
Once complete, save the profile with a recognisable
name. This profile can then be accessed by a colour
management application such as Colorsync or the
Adobe (ACE). Both are known as colour management
modules (CMM) or engines, designed to establish and
manage profile information across different applications
on your workstation. Drag your monitor profile into the
CMM’s Profile folder and then load it as the default
display profile.
DESKTOP COLOURS
Set a neutral grey desktop colour
and you’ll be able to see casts
much better. Don’t use highly
patterned desktop designs and
position your monitor away from
colourful walls and bright lights,
especially fluorescent tubes.
? EXPLAINED
PROFILE
A profile determines actual pixel
colour appearance.
CMM
The tiny program that oversees
colour conversions. ColorSync,
Adobe ACE are both CMM.
01
FIRING UP
A Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
monitor, must be switched on
for half an hour before colour calibrating
it. Flatter TFT monitors can be set up
without delay. Launch your Adobe
Gamma application (do a Find File
command or use Sherlock). Then choose
the Step-by-step option as shown here.
02
HARDWARE CONTRAST
Next, set your monitor’s
hardware contrast control to
its maximum value and follow this by
adjusting the brightness. Keep a close
eye on the grey centre box in the
Adobe Gamma panel and aim to make
this the darkest perceptible grey you
can without turning it black.
03
COLOUR
After clicking into the next
stage, deselect the View
Single Gamma option until you have a
red, green and blue square. Move the
sliders under each square until the
centre box is merged with the outer
box. This will perfectly correct the
colour display of your monitor.
04
WHITE POINT
Finally, set the ‘white point’
of your monitor to ensure
that the white pigment in your screen is
truly white, and not tinged with any
other colour (which will in turn affect all
other colours it produces). To do this
press ‘measure’ and click on the most
neutral grey square.
SECTION #05 RETAILERS
5 steps to safe shopping
To prevent or handle the unlikely event of receiving faulty or
damaged goods, why not follow our checklist below – you’ll
reduce whatever slight chance there is of problems:
1
2
CHOOSE YOUR SITE OR RETAILER
3
NEVER PAY IN CASH
4
KEEP A RECORD
5
DON’T USE A DEBIT CARD
Overleaf, you’ll find pages of camera retailers who offer competing
prices and levels of service. Give them a look:
USE A CREDIT CARD
If you are buying goods worth more than £100 in total, use a credit
card. This is because in the event of any problems, you are entitled to
claim against the credit card company as well as the seller (you won’t
get your money back twice but the company is there to claim against if
the seller has gone bust.) You might also get extra insurance, so check
with your credit firm.
If you can’t pay by credit card, use a cheque or postal order instead.
Don’t send cash through the mail, even by registered post. Apart from
the risk of theft, you can’t stop payment if you need to, and it’s
impossible to prove how much you sent.
Keep records if you’re paying by credit card over the phone. Print off
web pages after you have entered your details on them. Keep notes of
exact times and the name of the person who took your order, if you’re
paying by phone. Always keep your receipts.
Many debit cards don’t have the protection or insurance options
afforded to credit cards, so avoid using one.
Dealerbank
18 pages of the UK’s camera retailers
Contact our team
#
We can’t make guarantees on quality of service from our
advertisers, but if you do have problem – or have had
praiseworthy service – we’d like to know. Email us at
[email protected]
To advertise in our Dealerbank section contact
our sales team on 01225 442244 or email
[email protected]
On your discs
This February…
>
Two CDs every month! Here’s what we’ve lined up for you this issue…
There’s a heap of software flooding the market right now. We’ve chosen a
comprehensive sample for the coverdisc, which Jeremy Ford talks us through
T
he digital camera industry is doing well.
This success means that software
companies are developing software for
digital camera users – and the choice is almost
overwhelming. We try to bring you a broad
selection of software, that’s suitable for both
beginners and experienced photographers.
As part of this objective each and every issue
we also give away full versions of leading brand
applications on the CD and and easy-to-follow
introductory tutorials. Flick through the next few
pages and you’ll see the complete line-up of full
free programs for you to keep
Going forward, we’ll endeavour to keep our
standards high, and from next issue you’ll have a
Cheez 1.0
FULL SOFTWARE
EasyFast Viewer 3.01
Canvas 6 (PC & Mac)
FilterSim 1.0
DEMO SOFTWARE
Image Enhance 3.2.2
Canvas 8 (PC & Mac)
InstaCropper 2.2
IProc32 1.0
DISC B
JAlbum 2.85
FULL SOFTWARE
PaintStudio Lite 1.2
PhotoAlbum 5b – as
xatshow 4.60
sold for $39.95
have a choice of either a CD-ROM or DVD version
of Digital Camera Magazine. Users lucky enough
to own a DVD drive will benefit from additional
software (including Mac software) and special
DVD-only content, such as an extra exclusive full
product that’s not included of the CDs. Don’t miss
out, it’s going to be a very special issue.
Jeremy Ford
Senior New Media Editor
[email protected]
Repligator 6.0 – as
PLUG-INS
sold for $34.95
AlphaWorks Deluxe
AmphiSoft Plug-in
■ Don’t forget issue 5! We’ll have two packed
discs full of essential resources, or a DVD issue
with extras for your digital camera. It’ll be in the
shops on Thursday 13th Feb.
VIRTUAL TOURS
DISC A
Our virtual tour enables you to get a proper feel for the five
digital cameras we’ve reviewed this issue
DEMO SOFTWARE
Filters 1.03
PhotoAlbum 6.0
Autochromatic 2.0
Repligator 9.0
Digital SHO Plug-in
Advanced JPEG
1.1.1
Compressor 4.1
Edgeworks Deluxe
ArcSoft Panorama
Plugin Commander
Maker 3.0
Light 1.52
BreezeBrowser 2.3
Virtual Painter 3.0
DVD Picture Show 1.0
Web Image Guru Plug-
Focus Magic 1.23
in 4.0
iMatch 3.1.0.111
nik Color Efex Pro!
Photo-Brush 2.01
Photo Classic Set
PhotoImpact 8.0
nik Color Efex Pro!
Photoshop 7.0
Photo Design Set
Picture Man 4.2
Web Image Guru 4.0
FREE SOFTWARE
DRIVERS
Batch Thumbs 1.5
Kodak Easyshare
How to run your CD
Simply place the CD in your PC’s CD drive.
The interface will run automatically. Please
read the user agreement carefully – if you
accept the terms, click ‘I agree’. Then use
the menu bar at the top of the screen to
browse your disc’s contents. Enjoy – any
problems, please see below:
Reader support
01
FLY AROUND
Use the pink arrows to the left and right
of each camera image to spin the
camera around. Rollover the outside arrows to autorotate the camera in that direction or click the inside
arrows to manually rotate the camera to the
position you want.
02
DETAIL SHOTS
We’ve provided nine detailed images of
each digital camera so you can have a
really thorough look at each of them. Zoom into the
required close-up shot by simply clicking the
relevant thumbnail image or pressing the number
key shown below each one.
03
TEST SHOTS
We’ve taken test shots in four different
lighting situations to enable you to view
the image quality of the individual cameras. These
include a detail picture, a skin shot, plus indoor and
outdoor shots. See a large version of each shot by
clicking the thumbnail or pressing the number key
displayed below each image.
We are careful to thoroughly test each
CD but in the event of a problem,
please call our reader support team on
01225 822743. In the event of your disc
being physically damaged, please see the
back of the disc case for details of how to
get a free replacement.
120
Repligator 6.0
Quickly and easily apply special effects to your digital photographs to really make them stand out
*
SOFTWARE
SPECIFICATIONS
PUBLISHER
PRODUCT STATUS
CONTACT INFORMATION
AS SOLD FOR
SERIAL NUMBER
RANSEN-SOFTWARE
FULL VERSION
WWW.RANSEN.COM
$34.95
None required
SPECIAL EFFECTS
You can use the special Xform filters in Repligator 6 to radically
change your image for some surreal effects
T
aking a good photograph is one thing,
but really making it stand out in a
striking fashion is quite another. Using
Repligator 6 you can use your own original
photographs to create impressive special effects
and surreal images in just a few easy steps.
Repligator uses special filters known as Xforms
to completely alter the appearance of your
images. You can randomly select an Xform to
apply using the built-in wizard or alternatively, you
can select an Xform you know you like from a
menu. Once you have applied an Xform you like
the general idea of, you can experiment further
with various settings to create a variation on the
original theme.
As applying special effects is so simple, it is
easy to get carried away and keep changing your
picture and then wish you’d stuck with an earlier
effect. Thankfully, Repligator includes a feature
called Sequence Overview which enables you to
view and select any of the effects you have
previously applied to an image.
All of the effects can be quickly cycled through
by simply pressing the F7 key until you find one
you like the look of. If you would like to modify it
slightly, pressing F8 will produce variations on the
same theme.
It may be that you do not want to apply an
effect to the whole of an image. This is where
mixing comes into play. Using this feature you can
fade an effect in from one side of an image or set
it or circle out from the centre. With a little
experimentation, you can create some very
interesting results.
01
CHOOSE A PHOTO
04
XFORM PROPERTIES
Load one of the photographs into
Repligator by clicking File8Open and
select the image you would like to use. Click OK to
select a random XForm effect.
The properties of individual XForms can
be altered before they are applied. After
finding an effect you like, click Properties8XForm
Settings to change effect options.
02
CHOOSE THE XFORM EFFECT
05
FADING EFFECTS
If you want to change the XForm effect
that’s been selected for you, you can
randomly cycle through others by pressing the F7
key (or F6 and selecting one from the list).
An effect doesn’t have to apply to a
whole image – it can be set to fade in or
out from anywhere. Choose your effect then click
Properties8Mix and choose your settings.
03
BACKTRACKING
06
VIGNETTES
You can use the Sequence Overview
feature to backtrack to a previously
selected effect. Click Sequence8Sequence Overview
and select the one you would like to use.
You can also use vignettes to frame your
images like old photos. You can cycle
through vignettes like XForms by pressing F11. Save
your image when you’re happy with the results.
Upgrade to Repligator 9
Readers of Digital Camera Magazine can upgrade to the
latest version of Repligator for a specially discounted price.
From within the program click Help8Ordering and click on
the Buy button that appears. You will then be taken to a
website from which you can buy Repligator 9 for just $23.95
– a saving of 28%!
Version 9 of the software includes an additional 30 special
effects, the option to generate up to 40 images at once, a
number of new mixing options and much more.
If you would like to try out this new version before you
buy, you can download a demo version from
www.ransen.com
Deneba Canvas 6
The multi-talented Canvas 6 is free with this month’s mag. Discover its incredible power here
*
SOFTWARE
SPECIFICATIONS
PUBLISHER
DENEBA
PRODUCT STATUS
FULL VERSION
CONTACT INFORMATION
WWW.DENEBA.COM
AS SOLD FOR
£386
SERIAL NUMBER
Register at www.deneba.com/cv6regukf
GETTING AROUND CANVAS 6
The interface and how
to use it…
6
1
9
C
ompared with bitmap editors, vector
illustration packages aren’t exactly thick
on the ground. Let’s see, there’s
Illustrator, FreeHand, Corel Draw and… well, that’s
about it, isn’t it? Not exactly. There’s a fourth
contender which may not get the press of the
others, but actually offers a whole lot more:
Canvas, from Deneba.
In fact, to call Canvas merely an illustration
package is a gross understatement. Yes, it enables
you to create vector shapes with gradient fills,
transparency and all the other tricks, but it also
happens to contain powerful bitmap editing tools,
too, along the lines of Photoshop or Paint Shop
Pro. And you can combine the two very easily. Oh,
and it also has great text-handling capabilities for
laying out and publishing newsletters or other
documents. And did we mention it can create and
publish web pages, too?
Indeed, there’s very little Canvas can’t do – and
even better, what it does, it does bloody well. But
you don’t need to take our word for it – we’ve
given you the full version of Canvas 6.0
Professional on this month’s disc.
3
2
5
7
8
4
1 THE DOCKING BAR
3 TOOL TABS
5 MAIN VIEW WINDOW
8 PRESETS
Drag any palette or sub-palette
here for quick reference.
Click a tab to see the tools
within, or drag off the
docking bar to put them in a
floating window.
Click any object with the arrow
tool to select it.
These arrows open further text
menus that enable you to load
and save presets.
2 THE TOOLBOX
Just about all of Canvas’ object
creation commands can be
accessed from here. Right-click
a button to see the alternative
forms of that tool.
122
6 THE MAIN TOOLBAR
4 ZOOM
You can customise this to add
or remove tools as needed.
Zoom in or out using these
controls or type in a zoom
level directly.
7 OPTIONS
This down-pointing arrow
enables you to display or hide
the more complex options.
9 TOOL OPTIONS
Some tools have various
options. Double-click to
display them.
APPLY A FILTER
01
CHOOSE AN IMAGE
Canvas 6 has loads of filters, and they’re
all fun to use. Load up a piccy in the usual
way. Activate the Selection tool in the toolbox then
click the image to select it.
Filters – the first part of image apps that everyone always plays with.
Prettify your pictures with some of these
02
FILTER TYPE
Hit Image8Filter. Select a filter type then
hit the one you want. Zoom in if you need
to. Lots of filters give you a dialog box, so complete
this too, then hit OK.
03
RIPPLE FILTER
This is the Ripple filter. Canvas 6 also has a
couple of rendering effects. Hit
Image8Filters8Render and then Clouds or Wheel.
There’s no dialog, so you get the effect straight away.
Upgrade to Canvas 8
anvas 6 gives you a lot, but version 8
offers even more. You get an Undo
palette to reverse multiple actions. Even
better, you can just click a bitmap to edit it and
paint with textures and gradients, and artistic
filters like Stained Glass have arrived. You can
create ‘sequences’ (macros) and exporting to web
pages is even more advanced – for instance, you
get support for CSS files. So what are you waiting
for? Visit www.deneba.com for ordering details.
C
Over 100 new enhancements including:
■ All paint tools now support all Canvas Ink types
not just plain colours. This means that you can
now airbrush gradients, textures, etc. as you
would a solid colour.
■ New option to anti-alias rotated bitmaps –
when rotating raster images (bitmaps), a new
Anti-alias image checkbox is now available
whenever Hard rotate for image option is
selected.
■ New Quick Mask command
■ New Gaussian Blur filter is 10 times faster
■ New Filters: Bevel Image, Lens flare, Crystallize
Image, Stained glass, Oil painting.
■ Clicking on an image with a paint tool selected
automatically assumes you want to paint and
enters paint mode.
■ Easier editing of multiple, separate paint object
areas – no need to exit or enter paint mode to go
from one to the other. This is now automatic as
long as a paint tool is selected.
■ More efficient auto-create mode – select a paint
tool and start painting anywhere. Canvas now
creates multiple paint objects if multiple brush
strokes are too far apart and it is needed.
■ Paint bucket now uses the fill colour for
consistency between vector and image mode.
■ New Lasso selection mode omits the colour of
the first click point (assumes it’s the background
colour) from the selection in one step.
■ Multiple Image Display interpolation options –
for improved display of images at magnifications
that aren’t an even multiple of the resolution or
that are scaled at odd multiples of the active
magnification. Options are: none, bilinear and
bicubic and auto. In auto mode Canvas chooses
what’s best for any given image.
GETTING
TO GRIPS
Top tips to help you get to grips with Canvas.
Canvas uses a custom paper size by default. If print
will be your final destination, change the default
document size by going to Layout8Document Setup...
and choose A4 – or whatever paper you want to use.
If your palettes are threatening to take over the world,
rein them in with two useful commands in the
Window8Palettes menu. Clean Up Palettes stacks
them neatly, while Put Away does just that.
Canvas’ Customise command (File8Customise...) is
incredibly powerful. Not only can you alter toolbars
and menus, but you can also set up custom strokes,
inks and other things – all with keyboard shortcuts.
For quick precise positioning, turn on the grid
(Layout8Display8Show Grids) and tick Layout8Snap
To8Grid. You can alter the size of the grid using the
Layout8Grids... menu.
FANCY A TIPPLE?
01
RESIZE THE PICS
04
GAMMA
These are the two pictures we’re going
to combine – both free stock images
from the web. We’ve already imported them using
the Image8Acquire menu and resized them from
their original huge dimensions.
QUICK ON
THE DRAW
Combining images is easy with Canvas’
bitmap editing tools
02
LEVELS
05
THE WAND TOOL
We’ll start with the wine glass. Just
about any image can be improved by
playing with the Levels command, so we’ll start
with this. Select the bitmap and choose Image8
Adjust8Levels.
03
THE HISTOGRAM
06
BACKGROUND
The Levels control shows a histogram
count of the colours in the image: darkest
colours are on the left, and the brightest are on the
right. Click Preview and drag the middle slider under
the histogram.
What you’re doing is changing the
gamma of the image, which lightens or
darkens the image. Usually you can click Auto for
best results, but in this case we’ll reduce the
gamma slightly to deepen the mid-tones.
Now we need to select and cut out the
cork from its background. Right-click the
image and select Edit to go to paint editing mode.
From the toolbox, right-click the top right icon and
choose the Wand tool.
Double-click the Wand tool icon and change
the tolerance to something much lower,
such as 10. Now click in the white background. Most
of the background will automatically be selected, but
not all of it.
To resize an image, select it and drag one of the
corner/side handles (hold [Shift] to keep the
proportions). Or use the ImageArea8 Resolution...
menu command for more precise control.
If you’re painting on transparency (as in the main
walkthrough), switching between the Mask view and
Mask/Image view combined can help you check the
outlines of your mask.
Another good tip for painting on transparency masks
is to temporarily lower the opacity of the entire
layer, using the slider, so you can see the underlying
layers a lot more easily.
More tips to help you get to grips with Canvas
If your computer isn’t too speedy and you’re working
with huge image files, use proxies (Image/Proxy).
This creates a faster, low-res ‘stand-in’ version of the
pic to work with.
0
EXPERT TIP
GET MORE FROM
CANVAS
On the front of the mag, you’ll
find 5 free tips cards. One of
the cards is the Canvas
Coverdisc companion – check it
out for some powerful tricks
07
SELECT THE CORK
10
TRANSPARENCY LAYER
Hold Shift (to add to the selection area),
then click in other parts of the
background. Keep doing this until just the cork
itself is outlined. A few stray pixels here and there
won’t hurt.
08
REMOVE BACKGROUND
11
PAINT THE TRANSPARENCY
Choose Image8Select8Inverse. Now the
cork itself is selected, rather than the
background. Do a Copy to the clipboard, hit Escape
to deselect everything, then Paste. And there you
have it – one cork without its background.
09
REDESIGN THE SHOT
12
PAINT ON THE MASK
Delete the original cork layer (but keep
the original bitmap file) and arrange the
wine glass and cork as in the screenshot. Of course,
we want to be able to see the cork through the
glass, so you’ll have to…
…right-click the cork image and select
Arrange Send to Back. The cork layer is
now behind the glass. Select Window8Palettes8
Show Transparency, then double-click the wine
glass image.
Doing this sets up a transparency layer
for the wine glass – this is important as
we can now actually paint on the areas of
transparency. Make sure Channel is selected for
Mask, then click Edit.
Use the airbrush and a grey colour to
paint on the mask. The darker the grey,
the more transparency is applied. Choose a fairly
light grey at first, and vary the transparency
depending on what you want to accentuate.
To move a selection marquee in Canvas, choose
Image8Select8Float, then in the Channels palette,
set the Floating Opacity to zero. You now have one
selection outline that can be moved around.
As in Photoshop and other programs, the options in
Image8Select8Modify are useful for subtly
expanding, contracting and changing an image
selection marquee. Use them often.
When you add text and other objects to an image in
bitmap editing mode, they’re converted to pixels
immediately – so add them as separate objects in
normal mode if you want to edit them later on.
You can add text that follows any path automatically
using the Path Text tool. Just create the path or any
other shape, select Path Text, move the cursor near
the path and start typing.
Photo Album 5b
Looking for a new way to display your pictures? Why not use this full program to create your own digital photograph albums?
*
SOFTWARE
SPECIFICATIONS
PUBLISHER
SHOWYOURPHOTOS.COM
PRODUCT STATUS
FULL VERSION
CONTACT INFORMATION
WWW.SHOWYOURPHOTOS.COM
AS SOLD FOR
$19
SERIAL NUMBER
www.showyourphotos.com/registration.html
for free registration
PHOTO ALBUMS
Present your digital pictures as a slideshow or as a still photo album –
and you can change the presentation at any time
O
nce you’ve spent a few months
snapping away with your digital camera,
you will find that you’ve amassed a
reasonably larger collection of images. While
traditional photographs can be handily displayed in
photo albums, deciding how to organise images
on your hard drive can be less simple.
Using Photo Album 5b from this month’s cover
disc you can quickly and easily organise all of your
photographs and other images into digital photo
albums which can be viewed and printed from
your computer. Collections of photographs can also
be added to a slideshow – perfect for showing off
your holiday pictures to visiting friends!
As well as displaying images, Photo Album also
enables you to edit your photographs before
adding them to an album or slideshow. There is a
range of special effects for you to choose from as
well as standard image tools such as adding text
and shapes. If any of your photos are suffering
from poor colour, this can be changed by adjusting
the brightness and contrast, hue, saturation and
luminosity and the RGB values.
As well as enabling you to display your digital
photos in albums and slideshows, Photo Album
can use any image file on your hard drive. If you
have standard printed photographs you would like
to use, you can use the accompanying
Acquire/Edit program to scan in photographs or
other images.
Please note that in order to use this program
you will need to register it free of charge. To
do so, visit www.showyourphotos.com/
registration.html, enter the required details and
an email will be sent to you containing
registration information.
01
START YOUR OWN ALBUM
04
SLIDESHOW
Click on a blank entry in the left hand list
and press the Show button. Right click
on a blank box, select an image to add, enter a
description and click Save and Exit.
Select a blank entry from the right hand
Slideshow list and click Edit Show. Go to
the pictures you want to include and click the Add
Photo button as you select each one in turn.
02
DESCRIBE IT
05
CHANGE THE ORDER
When you have added a number of
photos, you can add a description to help
you identify individual albums. Click on the Describe
button and enter a meaningful description.
You can change the order of the photos
on the list by clicking the up or down
arrows. The Quick Rotate button enables you to
change the orientation of individual pictures.
03
VIEW IT
06
EDITING
To view a completed photo album, click
on its entry in the left hand Photo Album
list and then click the Show button. You can view an
image full screen or right click to print it.
To alter an image before adding it to an
album, click on the Acquire/Edit button in
the main window. There are image editing tools and
range of special effects at your disposal.
Upgrade to PhotoAlbum 6
Upgrading to version 6.03 costs $26.99. Find out more by
visiting the Photo Album website at
www.showyourphotos.com New features include: Albums
and slide show combined, unlimited number of albums,
improved Photo manager, full feature printing ability (1-100
photos per page), make any photo collection a slide-show
screen saver, and much more. A trial version is included on
this issue’s CD-ROM for you to try out. And as a special Digital
Camera Magazine promotion, the developers are giving away
10 free copies of Photo Album 6.03. You can find the
competition posted at:
www.ShowYourPhotos.com/html/competition.html
NEXT STEPS
NEXT ISSUE On sale everywhere on 13th February
Digital camera heroically
catches criminals
Digital cameras are so versatile they can even catch thieves!
Is there no end to their talents?
A
couple of stories landed on our desks this
month that were so good, we had to share
them with you. Once again, they reveal
the humble digital camera as the unsung hero of the
hour, this time possessing hitherto unknown crimebusting talents.
Take the case of the burglars who broke into a school
in North Carolina, USA. Bored with the idea of nicking
blackboards, chalks and carving obscene messages into
desks, they started to take pictures of each other
committing the crime, with a camera found lying in one
of the classrooms.
After snapping off a few shots, they tried to remove
the film for safe keeping, but finding there wasn’t one,
they assumed the camera hadn’t been loaded and left
it behind.
Of course, it had no film because it was a digital
camera. The burglars were caught when the police
hooked the camera up to a PC and downloaded all the
crystal-sharp high-resolution
pictures of them committing
the crime. Why they didn’t
just steal the camera is
anyone’s guess…
Another story illustrates
the simple maxim that if
you’re going to nick
something, be sure to
remove all identifying marks
before you put it on display.
When Giovanni’s Pizzeria in
North Carolina had all its kitchen equipment stolen, the
owner must have thought he’d never see it again – until
the police found a South Carolina restaurant installing a
huge fridge with photos of the original restaurant owner’s
grandchildren still stuck to the side.
If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime, or at least
make sure the camera is switched off.
ADVERTISING
[t] 020 7317 2600
Michelle Blackwell Ad Manager
Ben Shoesmith Sales Executive
[t] 020 7317 0259
NEW MEDIA
James Brown Group New Media Manager
Jeremy Ford Senior Disc Editor
James Guest New Media Development
CIRCULATION AND MARKETING
Clare Tovey Production Manager
Diane Ross Production Coordinator
Mike Thorne Team Buyer
Jamie Malley Circulation Manager
Fiona Tully Marketing Manager
Marie Spicer Subscriptions Executive
START A
NEW JOB
IN 2003!
Digital Camera Magazine
is expanding and
increasing our team!
We liked Barry’s stuff so much, we’ve
asked him to do more. And we show you
how to duplicate his great results
■ 20 ways to improve
any photo
Top image-editing tips for every type of photo
■ Don’t forget to reserve a copy of
Digital Camera Magazine at your newsagent,
or subscribe See page 78 for full details!
130
2 PACKED CDs!
Plus 8 pages of events &
ideas, five new-format tips
cards and a DVD option!
EDITORIAL & ART
Nick Merritt Managing Editor
Dylan Channon Senior Art editor
Richard Llewellyn Art Editor
Elizabeth Raderecht Operations Editor
Vicky West Sub-editor
PHOTOGRAPHIC CONTRIBUTORS
(Where not credited inside)
Future Network Photo Studio, Getty Images UK.
Special thanks to Phil Sowels & Jessops Bath
■ Get ready for spring!
■ Create this!
Barry Jackson’s Egghead
Customer services [t] 01458 271 100
[w] www.digitalcameramagazine.co.uk
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS
Steve Bavister, Aidan O’Rourke, Pete Martin,
Mark Harris, Barry Jackson, Chris Stocker, Joe
Apice, Ed Davis, Tim Daly, Simon Danaher,
Joe Cassels, Matthew Richards
Next month – on sale 13th February
Thank goodness the end to the British winter is
in sight, and to celebrate we turn our
camera’s eye to the first signs of life
returning. Don’t miss our landscape guide!
Future Publishing,
30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW
■Are you a current or wannabe
editor, deputy editor, production
editor, art editor or designer
with photographic leanings?
Then come and work for us!
■Email the managing editor at
[email protected] in
confidence and let’s talk!
INTERNATIONAL LICENSING
Sarah Parton Licensing Executive
SENIOR MANAGEMENT
Dave Taylor Group Publisher
John Weir Publishing Director
Colin Morrison Managing Director
Greg Ingham CEO
Printed in England
© Future Publishing Ltd 2003
Disclaimer
Getup&go section, tear-out factsheets and gatefold covers
are published in UK editions of the magazine only. All
contributions to Digital Camera Magazine are accepted
on the basis of a non-exclusive worldwide licence to
publish or license others to do so, unless otherwise
agreed in advance in writing. We reserve the right to edit
letters. We cannot accept liability for mistakes or
misprints, or any damage to equipment or possessions
arising from use of this publication, its discs or software
■ Due to unforeseen circumstances, it may sometimes be
necessary to make last-minute changes to advertised
content, for mag and discs.

showyourpics

Transcription

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