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BOOT CAMP 262 (11/02/03)
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY TOP TIPS part
2
Having dealt with the basics of buying a digital still camera
in part 1, this week we move on to some of the practicalities of transferring
images from the camera to the PC, file handling and viewing.
Most current digital still cameras (DSCs) come with a USB
high-speed serial data cable that connects the camera to the PC and for the most
part this method works well but there is a much more convenient method and
that’s to use a card reader. All you have to do is remove the memory card from
the camera and pop it into the reader. The PC treats the card as an extra hard
disc drive and you can simply copy and paste or drag and drop files from the
card into a folder on the PC’s hard disc drive.
This has a number of advantages; firstly it reduces wear and
tear on the camera’s USB socket, some of them can be quite delicate and the
mechanical strain of repeated use can make them intermittent after a relatively
short period. Secondly, it saves battery power because the camera has to be
switched on when downloading images. Thirdly, it’s much quicker than the USB
link, which can take several minutes on some models; copying files from a card
directly only takes a second or two per image and lastly, it makes it easier to
alternate between memory cards, keeping the camera available for use and
reducing the chances of failure.
Readers are available for all types of card but it’s worth
spending a little more on a multi-format card reader. These can handle two or
three different types, since it is quite likely that one day you’ll replace or
upgrade your DSC, it means you won’t be tied to a single format and it allows
you to read files or download images from other cameras and devices that use
memory cards. Card readers are fairly inexpensive, prices start at around £15
for single format models, multi-format readers cost around £30, but it’s money
well spent. Most card readers are small stand-alone modules that plug into your
PC’s USB port but you can also get PC-Card type readers for laptops.
Digital images take up a lot of room – reckon on between
500kb and 1Mb per picture – and they accumulate very quickly, so it pays to set
up some form of filing system on your PC as early as possible. There are plenty
of software packages for organising and archiving digital images, you may even
get one bundled with your camera, but these can be quite constricting and may
actually cause problems when you replace your PC so for that reason I suggest
adopting a simple manual system, that will also make it easier to access your
pictures over a home network.
Begin by creating a single master folder for all of your
pictures, you could use the default ‘My Pictures’ folder that Windows creates
but it’s buried inside ‘My Documents’, I prefer the Pictures folder to be easily
accessible on the root of the C drive. Open Windows Explorer, make sure it’s
showing the contents of the C: drive and the icon is highlighted then click New
> Folder on the File menu; give it a name (‘rickspix’ in my case) and hit the
Enter key.
Next double-click to open your new picture folder and create
a new sub folder. Again it’s a personal preference but I find it easier to
organise my photographs by years, then by subject matter. It might seem a bit
odd if you are just starting out but believe me, after a couple of years it
really starts to make sense when you want to find a particular image. Start by
creating a new sub folder inside Pictures and call it simply 2003; if you‘ve
already got some images on your PC you can create new ‘year’ sub folders for
them as well. Now it’s ready to use and whenever you download images from a
memory card or the camera simply create a new folder within the year sub folder
to put them in, and don’t forget to give it a suitable name, i.e. ‘Devon
Holiday’, ‘Zoo Visit’, ‘School Play’ and so on.
Most cameras assign a numeric file name to each image, which
makes them hard to tell apart so you might want to give some of them more
meaningful names, but be sure to leave the file extension unchanged (usually
*jpg). However, in order to do this you need to be able to see what each picture
is, so if you are using a later version of Windows (98SE/ME XP etc) enable
‘Thumbnail’ on the View menu.
Unfortunately thumbnail preview is not available in earlier
versions of Windows, in which case it is worth downloading a viewer program,
most of which have a ‘slideshow’ facility and some simple editing tools. There
are plenty to choose from, including the venerable ACDsee (a trial copy can be
downloaded from: http://www.acdsystems.com/English/index.htm),
or have a look at my current favourite, ThumbsPlus (a highly functional
evaluation version can be found at: http://www.cerious.com/download.shtml),
and both programs feature regularly on PC magazine cover mount discs. There’s
also an excellent freeware viewer called Irfanview; it can be downloaded from:
http://www.irfanview.com/.
Finally, if the only copies of your photographs are on your
PC’s hard disc drive you are risking loosing the lot if your PC develops a
fault. Because of the size of the files involved recordable CD is the only
practical option, if you haven’t yet got a CD-Writer get one and copy your
picture files to disc, and keep your backups up to date.
Next week – part 3, shooting tips
JARGON FILTER
JPEG (.jpg)
Joint Photographic Experts Group -- part of the International
Standards Organisations; ‘lossy’ file compression system used by most digital
cameras to store images
THUMBNAIL
VIEW
Postage
stamp sized images that allow you to quickly view many image files contained in
a folder
USB
Universal
Serial Bus, high-speed industry standard connection system for peripherals, such
as printers, scanners and cameras etc.
TIP OF THE WEEK
The image sensor in your digital camera is a fantastically
complicated device and if just a couple of the picture elements (pixels) are
faulty it can ruin your photographs. This simple little freeware utility checks
for dead or ‘hot’ (over sensitive) pixels by analysing images taken on your
camera. Simply leave the lens cap on, take a few photographs, download the files
to your PC and run Deadpixeltest. In just a second or two it displays a detailed
report on your camera’s image sensor performance. The zip file is only 191kb and
it can be downloaded from: http://www.starzen.com/imaging/deadpixeltest.htm
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