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More,
a partial overview -
A few general points, aimed mostly at people with
prints and scanners, potential web sites that might
host pictures and a brief mention of digital cameras.
Much of this is dealt with in more detail in other
pages.
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Scanning general -
For the web, don't bother to scan at too high a resolution.
75 DPI will often suffice. Bear in mind though
that overcompression of this resolution into a JPG
file will quickly lose you edge definition. A scan at
200 DPI is about as far as you need go.
Keep image size to between 500 to 600
pixels across the max dimension if possible.... in this
way you can finish up with a fairly fast loading file
of between 40k to max 70k, with compression at about
15:1. It will look plenty large enough on screen. I
would suggest 600 pixels as absolute max - to
help avoid the need for horizontal scrolling when viewed
on a forum page viewed at lower screen res'. If really
needed, a higher resolution version could be offered
for those who wish it, as a separate download.
Try and get the size right at scanning stage but, if
you decide you want to crop or reduce image later, then
scan higher at 150 to 200 DPI and compress
the cropped/reduced pic fairly hard later (limit compression
to 15:1, max 20:1 if possible to avoid excessive degradation).
If you have a monochrome image to scan or only require
mono' ...... then scan as grayscale .. this will yield
a smaller file straight away.
Scanning
targets -
You will in most cases have to reduce size. If you can,
do this at scanning stage. Also, only include the relevant
area of shot holes, placing if you can a scale object
or ..... write the size of the black center dimension,
and shoot details.
Targets often come out as too dark and often ''muddy''.
You may be able to increase contrast and brightness
at scanning stage .... otherwise you may have software
that will help you do this later.
For those who may not have anything on hand, a very
good image viewer, with potential for making some simple
adjustments is IRFANVIEW
(freeware). This will allow you to make some corrections,
hopefully enough to help. It is freeware and does not
install itself heavily into your system.
One other small utility (freeware) you may also find
very handy too, is ''JRuler''
........ a very small stand-alone application which
when run puts a simple ruler on your screen. With it
you can measure image dimensions, window sizes etc.
Well worth a look .... just unzip and run from where
you want with a shortcut. htmL file included with usage
suggestions. |
Quick
printing rules -
If you want to print pics you have scanned, then a
number of things need to be remembered.
Do not use an image resolution much more than one
third of your printer's resolution - see page on scanning/printing
matters and remember that the higher the resolution
of your image, for a given pixel size, the SMALLER
it will print! (75 DPI for a 300 DPI
printer is fine).
If you are in doubt though when you start scanning
an image, err on the large size and maybe save (temporarily)
as a bitmap (BMP). This way you will have an
original which has all attributes, but, it WILL be
a large file. You can then play around with it and
save it as a JPG when you have finished and
are satisfied......... keeping a BMP copy though
to ''try again'' if you mess up!
Once you have processed that BMP and achieved
a suitable size for web or printing ..... you can
pitch it.
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Digital
cameras -
If you want to use your digital camera instead of
a scanner, or because you have no scanner, make sure
you use best resolution ....... shoot at ''best''
or whatever the camera calls it. This is because you
may not be able to get in close enough and will have
to crop the ''bit you want'' later. That then can
be downsized further if needed.
If you can, rest on something or use a tripod. The
biggest enemy of still photography is ''camera shake''
and even a small amount will mar perceived sharpness.
Always take more than one shot because invariably
one is better than another.
Try and always shoot in good available light ....
it gives better results than flash. Much more on this
in the ''Picture Taking''
section.
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