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What's the best way to get digital images from my G camera?The best way is to use a dedicated high-resolution drum scanner, and to scan your images from the transparency or negative. However, drum scanners often cost in excess of US$10,000.00, so it's not something one of us mere mortals can usually afford. Typically a film scanner will give better results than a flat-bed scan from a print, primarily because you're working with the original image, and secondarily because the equipment usually works at a higher resolution than the flat-bed equipment. However, film scanners are more expensive (typically US$400-900) than flat-bed scanners (usually US$50-200; sometimes free with the purchase of a new PC). What resolution should I use when scanning?For publication on the internet or via email, you really should stick to around standard VGA format: 640x480 pixels. This will allow the image to be used on screen, and won't take up too much disk space. For printing, however, you'll need substantially more: estimate at least 150 pixels per inch of final image size. That means for a quality 8x10 print, you'll need 1200x1500 resolution. Many professionals recommend even higher resolutions than that; I've heard people suggest that anything less than 300 pixels per inch simply won't compete with a real photograph. Magazines and newspapers typically use even higher resolution scans, up to 1500x3000 pixels. Images this large consume 10-15 megabytes per image, and are usually well beyond what is needed for amateur/personal use. What file/image format should I use?If you're publishing on the internet, stick to JPEG (.JPG) format. This is the most common image format, and nearly every web browser can handle it. It also provides "lossy" compression, meaning that some image quality is lost in the compression process. However, most of us really can't notice it when we're viewing it on the web. For printing, try and keep your images in TIFF (tagged image file format, with a .TIF extension). TIFF files maintain every pixel, thus giving the highest quality. There are variations of TIFF that allow for "lossless" compression, meaning that the file is compressed, but no image quality is lost. This is fine for personal use, but won't be as portable as other formats. Of course, if you have PhotoShop or Corel Photo-Paint, you might choose to use the default file type for those applications. What application should I use to edit my digital images?The "industry standard" is Adobe PhotoShop. It costs about US$750, and provides nearly every image-editing feature you could ever need. A less expensive alternative is Corel Draw, which includes Corel Photo-Paint for image editing. It costs considerably less (about US$250), yet provides a nearly identical feature set to PhotoShop; it even has an interface that mimics Adobe's. Are there other ways of getting digital images from my G camera?Several companies are researching "digital film" packages. The idea is that you would drop the package into the back of your 35mm camera, and a CCD image sensor would replace the film. This would allow you to take digital photos with your existing equipment. However, no one has really brought a successful device to market yet, though a couple are promised soon. Which is better, digital or film?Film. Of course, that will probably change within the next couple of years. What image format do you use on this site?JPEG, with images typically VGA (640x480) resolution or less. See the Gallery submission guidelines for complete details. |
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Digital
