Capturing and Editing Images
Nick Gessler gessler@ucla.edu Nick's Web Portal
Revised 10 July 2001
index

Kodachrome - Paul Simon

Camera

Camera Obscura

The Magic Mirror of Life: a search for camera obscura rooms. Jack and Beverly Wilgus.

Exposure must be adjusted to the Recording Medium you will use.

  • Metering
  • Automatic
  • Manual
  • Automatic with Manual Override
  • False meter readings...
Film Speed - Equivalent Value (for photoelectronic sensors)
  • High Speed (ASA or DIN) - More Grain
  • Low Speed (ASA or DIN) - Less Grain

Lens

  • Pinhole
  • Focal Length (f.l.)
  • Uncorrected
  • Achromatic
  • Apochromatic
  • Speed (max aperture)

Shutter

  • Speed (seconds)
  • Mechanism
  • High - Stop Motion
  • Low - Blur Motion
  • Shutter Priority

Aperture

  • f-stop (diameter/f.l.)
  • Closed - greater depth of field
  • Open - less depth of field
  • Aperture Priority

 

Aesthetics
"Painting with light."

Composition:

  • "Accentuate the positive."
  • "Eliminate the negative."
  • K.I.S.S.
  • Get in close...

Lighting

  • False metering.
  • The 18% gray card.
  • Highlight and Shadow.

Digital FOTO

New York Institute of Photography - Digital Photography

Excellent Short Courses in Digital Photography...

Ansel Adams' "Zone System" of photography...

Visit "Photo Rules of Thumb" and "Gray Card Use" for excellent advice...

 

Image Capture Medium (5 minutes)

Kodak Image Sensors...

Texas Instruments: Digital Still Camera System Block Diagram...

Digital Camera Schematic

Animated System Block Diagram of the NEC V831 Chip...

How does a piece of photographic film form a picture?

Omnivision Image Sensors...

 

 

Adobe PhotoShop 6.0 and ImageReady
 The Prime Directive: "Play!"

All Computer Images are ultimately "Paint by the number!"
Open an image and zoom in as far as you can go.
What do you see? Colored squares called PIXELS.
Each PIXEL (PIXcture ELement) is designated by a Red, Green, and Blue value between 0 and 255.
PhotoShop offers TWO main methods of manipulating images with dozens of tools for each:

1 - Selecting PIXELS on a grid.
2 - Changing colors in a three-dimensional COLOR SOLID.

Images stored as PIXELS are called RASTER or BITMAPPED images.
An alternative way to store images is as a collection of geometric shapes called VECTORS.
PhotoShop began as a RASTER image editor, recently adding VECTOR image editing functionality.
Regardless of the storage format, ultimately virtually all images are displayed as RASTER images.

images to edit...
(click each for a larger version)