Scanners and Photoshop
March 22, 2005
Today we will use Photoshop to process images. First we will see how photos, maps and other "hard copies" of images can be converted to digital format appropriate for inserting into reports, PowerPoint presentations and Web sites.
Do not log on in 3051 now – first we will be going to the scanner computer in the unnumbered room next to 3028, my office.
PHOTOSHOP
Photos, scanned or taken with a digital camera, are seldom precisely what you want. Today we will examine some of the features I use to get my mediocre photographs to look more or less decent when I post them on the Web or insert them into PowerPoint presentation.
Click on either photo to see the enlarged image, then right click on that image and "save as" to your usual location. If you prefer, locate another photo on the Web or open a photo from your own file of digital photos, and use that photo for your experimentation.
These digital images were taken with the Sony Mavica. In one, a geologist is looking for rocks in the bed of a mountain stream. In another, he is pointing at the San Andreas fault in a road cut near Palmdale, California. In the third, he is pointing at a fossil.
Open Photoshop and open a photo - any photo that includes at least one person. I will demonstrate some tools useful for modifying photographs.
Rotate image
Image - Adjust - Levels
Lighten or darkens entire image
Image - Crop
After selecting that part of image you wish to retain,
usually with Rectangle tool
Dodge and Burn tools
Lighten and darken selected parts of an image
Clone stamp (Alt-click)
Duplicates offset rasters into selected space.
Always "save as" under a different file name. You can never recover what has been thrown away during image processing, and you can never add resolution or colors to an image that were not there to begin with except by painting over things. Filters remove information. I keep my original scans and digital photos on file in case I need to redo my work.
Photo Editor
Demonstrate Effects
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Your assignment: find a photograph on the Web and download that photo. Use Photoshop or Photo Editor to improve it as you see fit (crop, color balance, sharpen, resize to fit screen nicely, etc.) and save the result. Then use Photo Editor to abuse it (stained glass effect, too sharp or smudged, paste a mustache on the cheerleader, be creative) and save the result.
Attach all 3 photos (original, improved, tortured, in .jpg format) to an e-mail message and them to me.
Due at noon on March 28, 2005.