23-2201

Digital Imaging I (LEARNING OBJECTIVES)

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: The student  will learn to digitally scan, retouch and manipulate b/w and color photographs using Photoshop and to print them digitally in a professional manner.  This ability to utilize digital photographic controls is the prerequisite to all other digital imaging classes within the Photography Department.  Specifically, the student will learn the following:

Digital Vocabulary

•           Vocabulary contained within "Digital Jargon" handout will be integrated into lectures and demonstrations.

Digital theory

•           Theoretical concerns connected with the digital falsification of photographs will provide students with a working knowledge of when digital falsification might be legally and/or ethically wrong.

Legal Issues

•           Basic copyright issues in the age of appropriation, digital falsification and the Internet.

•           Work for hire versus employee versus freelance photographer.

Software Applications

•           Photoshop

•           iPhoto

Digital Basics

•           Understanding the Photoshop tool box and the function of each tool except the Slice and Annotate tools.

•           Mac OSX and how to navigate with it.

•           Naming conventions, saving, file extensions

•           Differences between RAM, ROM  and hard drive memory

•           Media storage space comparisons: floppy, Zip, CR-ROM  (650, 700, 800MB), Harddrive

•           Units of digital storage and measurement: Bit, Byte, Kilobyte, Gigabyte, etc.

•           Differences between "digital" and "analog".

File Preparation and Formats

•           psd

•           jpeg

•           tif

•           pdf (Adobe Photoshop PDF)

Computer Parts

•           Breakdown computer model located in classroom used to identify HD, peripherals, RAM, ROM, power supply, monitor, bus, etc.

Input Devices

•           Flatbed scanners: Epson and Imacon

•           Film scanners: Polaroid

Preferences

•           Types: General, File Handling, Display & Cursors, Transparency & gamut, Units & Measures, Guides Grids & Slices, Scratch Disks. 

Digital Imaging Workflow

            1.         Assess image with output in mind.

            2.         Scan image appropriate to output.

3.              Make project folders.

4.              Crop and adjust perspective, if needed.

5.              Duplicate background layer     

6.         Retouch any dust or defects.

            7.         (For grayscale output: convert to grayscale).

8.         Global: set black and white points, adjust contrast and tonal range using levels and curves adjustment layers. Globally adjust color casts.

9.              Local areas: adjust color and tone using layers, layer masks, and adjustment      layers.

10.       Save a layered file, Save a Copy (for e-publishing: flatten and convert to appropriate file format).

            11.       Make test prints, tone and color adjustments, and final print.

            12.       Backup files and archive.        

Resolution and Size

•           File Size

•           Image Size

•           Canvas Size

Selection Tools 

•           The use of Shift, Option keys and spacebar, Lasso options, Marquee options, Move options, Magic Wand, Replace Color, Quickmask, Layer Mask, aliasing, anti-aliasing, feathering, Magnifier, Handtool.

Cutting and Pasting

•           Layers, Paste Into, New Layer via Copy, Transform, Free Transform (including the use of the command key to alter individual sides), layer options (turning layer mask on and off, linking/unlinking layer mask), layer sets, masks (Quickmask and saving/loading selections, layer masks for images and adjustment layers).

Retouching Tools

•           Adjustment layers (Levels, Curves, Hue & Saturation, Color Balance), setting black and white points, Spot Healing Brush, Healing Brush, Patch Tool, Airbrush options, Eraser, Magic Eraser, History Brush and History Palette options, Pencil, Smudge, Blur, Sharpen, Burn, Sponge, Dodge, Channel mixer (for black and white prints: optional), throwing backgrounds in and out of focus, Gradient tool, Eyedropper, Navigation and Histogram palettes.

Text Tools

•           Rasterizing, special effects

Color

•           Color settings (as it applies to students setting up their home computers)

•           Additive / Subtractive color models

•           RGB, CMYK, Grayscale, 2,8,24,32 bit color.

•           Foreground/Background color, Color Picker, Hue, Saturation, Brightness.

•           Blending Modes: Normal, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Soft Light (50% auto dodge layer), Hue, Color, Luminosity

•           Info palette

Filters

•           Sharpen (Unsharp Mask)

•           Despeckle, Dust and Scratches

•           Noise (Add Noise, Despeckle)

•           Blur (Gaussian)

•           Fade Filter 

Printers

•           Phaser

•           Laserjet

•           Epson printer (with soft proofing)

Final Project

At the conclusion of this course each student will produce a final project. The final project will be a cohesive body of work incorporating digital techniques and problem-solving skills learned during the course.