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You
have in front of you all the computer gear; you've turned
the power on and every thing appears to be OK? What do you
do next?
Your
Monitor, printer and scanner all have to be colour-calibrated,
the installation software has drivers to make things work,
but not the final "tweaks* that make all the difference.
One
of the hardest things about digital imaging is colour balance.
If your equipment is not set on the optimum settings, the
colours seen on the monitor's screen will definitely not be
the ones that are printed on the paper. Therefore, you will
find yourself adjusting the colour balance via the imaging
program and guessing what the printed image will turn out
like - A Nightmare! Not only will you waste precious ink and
paper, every image will take you about 10 times longer to
print successfully and you will not be using the creative
parts of the program. On some of the images you might never
get the colours as you want them printed and just give up
in sheer frustration.
Step
l. Find out the make and model of your monitor. If new, you
should have a handbook with all the monitor's specif ication.
Depending on the software program you use, there are different
ways to achieve the some goal e.g. Photoshop 4 has Gamma Correction.
Step
2. Your scanner has to be fine-tuned to work at its best e.g.
Nikon Scanners have Gamma Values. Set them as instructed to
compensate for your monitor.
Step
3. The printer settings are possibly the most frustrating.
a.
Printing out on plain paper, automatic settings will do, for
text or test prints.
b.
Photo paper needs more care e.g. on the Epson Stylus Photo
I use,
*
720 dpi
* Fine dithering
* Photo-Realistic
Save the settings so you can use them time after time. Start
with printer manufacture's paper (settings are in the handbook
for these). Then work on different papers, as you become more
experienced. I have found one paper that is waterproof: it
"locks" the printed image under a glossy finish
and passes for Hand Finished Slide Photographs when printed
correctly.
I
am not going to go through the processes of scanning in slides,
you will have to experiment and it depends on the scanner
you purchase - all have different software.
Here
are a few pointers:
Do
not scan the image in at full dpi - unless you want to work
on fine detaiI e.g. smaller pixel size, but bigger file sizes.
* Making too many adjustments to the images colours is a
waste of time.
* Hues and Saturation of the image can be 'tweaked' later
- via the software.
* As soon as you have done a final scan - save that image
to the Hard Disk.
Images
What
you do with images is up to you and the software program you
use. I would like to go into images and how to get the best
from them in more detai I next time.
There
is very little that digital imaging could do that very specialised
processing labs could not do, but instead of weeks, and sometimes
months, to obtain a final image, digital imaging can do the
some in a fraction of the time. As technology advances, so
does digital imaging and so the gap widens. Digital imaging
is not going to go away and it can only get better!
Thanks
for alI the feed back. Gordon.
See
also: COMPUTERS
: SCANNERS & PRINTERS
: GETTING TO GRIPS WITH CONCEPTS
by
Gordon Beddis
and
DIGITAL
SLIDE SCANNERS & SCANNING by Brian Pitkin |
