What hardware and software do you need to get started in digital imaging? Our whistle-stop tour of computers, peripherals and programs will put you on the right track.
by John Henshall
All aboard!
William Henry Fox Talbot's negative/positive method has seen a hundred
and sixty years of refinement. A frame of film is a superb, economical device
which both acquires and stores an image. In some cases - transparency in
a projector - it trebles as the output device. So why bother with digital
imaging?
If you want to manipulate, repair, restore or apply special effects to a
photograph it is much easier to do this in the digital domain. And images
are following typesetting and design onto the desktop. If you produce images
for reproduction they will all be digitised at some stage. No more use of
process cameras.
If you are a social photographer, taking images on film and producing large
prints by the long-established photographic methods is still better, easier
and cheaper. Yet many social photographers are already using digital imaging
to offer a service of restoration of old faded and torn photographs and
to experiment with creative new tools, winning for them coveted awards.
If there isn't enough of this kind of work to keep the equipment fully occupied,
no matter: the computer can also do the accounts, run a customer database,
print price lists and letters and keep them up to date and in touch through
the Internet. Your colour processor can't do all that. These days, multi-tasking
is the name of the game. Like it or not, there is a great buzz about digital
imaging, especially in the amateur photographic press. Your customers are
hearing about it in magazines and newspapers and on radio and television.
Offering new high-tech services is bound to promote the image of your company
at the leading edge of photography. You could even offer a design service
incorporating photographs - or maybe you'd prefer to wait for the local
copy shop to offer photography with their design service. It will not be
a long wait, so get in there - soon.
Bear in mind also that the worldwide trend is to distribute pictures and
sound as bits instead of atoms. For this it has to be digital.
When we are new to a subject, one of the major turn-offs is the jargon.
Those who are 'in' bandy buzz-words around with assured abandon. The rest
might as well be lost in Tokyo - everyone seems to be talking a language
we don't understand. If you haven't taken the plunge into computers they
might seem daunting. The important thing is, don't panic.
I well remember the first computer we bought. It was magic but really scared
me. I thought, "Oh, heck, I'm past it. I'll never understand this thing."
I bought a computer magazine to see if that would help. Was it written in
English? Well the gibberish was interspersed with words such as 'the', 'a',
'it', 'and', 'to' - maybe it was English, I thought, as I dropped it into
the bin. Then someone gave me the most useful piece of computer advice I
have ever received. Until then it was all I could do to turn the darned
thing on, type 'The cat sat on the mat' and watch in amazement as the printer
spewed those words out onto a piece of paper with green lines and lots of
holes down each side.
The advice I was given was, of course, extremely valuable. Yet, like so
much sensible advice, it was basic and 'obvious': "If you can switch
the computer on, save your work to disc and print it out, that's all you
need to know. After that you can experiment - you can't break it!"
This was enough to give me the confidence to try things out. And then the
fun really started. I could get to a safe point in my work, save it away
from harms way, then start to experiment. If I liked it, I could save it
again - a different version with a different name. Now I had two versions:
one the safe option, the other more adventurous. At this point that the
late nights started! There was no stopping me now.
If you are thinking of buying a computer for the first time, make yourself
familiar with just a few key words and heed my definition of a digital imaging
expert carefully:
Digital - Something represented by, or using, numbers - digits. In
the case of digital images this usually means an unbelievably long string
of millions of '0's and '1's. These days you can hardly go wrong describing
something as 'digital', it's synonymous with 'of today'.
Computer - 'Hardware' which makes calculations using all those digits.
Usually a rather boring box with a few slots to stick things into, lots
of plug holes and a fan which whirrs away. This box is the essential hub
of a digital photography system.
Monitor - A piece of hardware which displays pictures. It looks like
a television set, though the images it displays are usually of much higher
quality.
Program or Application - 'Software', the really clever bit which tells the
computer how to calculate and present the digits to us in a way we can understand,
such as words or pictures on the monitor.
RAM (Random Access Memory) - Memory used by the computer to hold
its calculations temporarily, until the power is shut off. Measured in megabytes
(about a million bytes), abbreviated to MB. The more the better - but watch
out for the cost.
Hard Disc - A memory device, usually fixed inside the computer, which
has a spinning disc used to record the strings of digits and store them,
even after the power is turned off. Also referred to as Hard Drive.
Floppy Disk - A memory device which can be removed from the computer.
Originally they were eight or ten inches across and bendy - hence the name.
Now they are three and a quarter inches across, with stiff cases - though
the disk inside is floppy. Spelled with a 'k' because 'disk' is a shortening
of 'diskette'.
File - A package of related digits, which may represent just one
digital image or document.
Scanner - An input device used to transmute pictures from a form we understand
into the form only computers can understand: digital.
CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory) - Another acronym which appears
to have been invented by an engineer. The 'seedy' part is the same as in
the discs which replaced 'LP' records (Long Playing - for those too young
to remember), 'ROM' means simply that you can't record on them.
Modem (MOdulator/DEModulator) - A device which enables your computer
to connect and talk to other computers all around the World for the price
of a local telephone call. Connects to your computer and plugs into a normal
telephone socket.
Those few words will empower you, so that you can bandy jargon around with
the confidence of a veteran. Oh, I almost forgot the definition of a Digital
Imaging Expert - someone who manages to convince you that they know just
one thing more about the subject than you do. You have been warned. Get
advice from a recognised expert or well-established company which specialises
in the field. Ask them for the names and phone numbers of clients they have
done work for. Ring up some of them and ask what the service was like.
If you already have a computer and are wondering about its suitability
for digital imaging, you may be in luck if you bought it in the last year
or two.
Does it have a CD-ROM drive? Enough RAM? Can it display 24-bit colour? Is
the hard drive big enough? Even if the answer to some of these questions
turns out to be 'no', you may be able to upgrade it.
The computer is the hub of your digital lightroom - yet it is the one thing
which no photographic manufacturer makes.
Whether buying new or upgrading, computer specifications can be bewildering.
Don't just go down to your friendly neighbourhood computer superstore. Go
to a supplier who understands the requirements for graphics and digital
imaging. Be prepared to pay just a little more for this advice - unless
you enjoy risk.
First you must decide which system to go for. Here brand (or system)
loyalty is at its best, prejudice at its worst.
Many DOS PC users can't stand the thought of Macintosh, delighting in Apple's
recent difficulties, conveniently forgetting IBM's past problems. Apple,
who make the Macintosh, kept their operating system to themselves until
recently. This helped maintain high prices and produced good margins for
Apple. IBM, on the other hand, invented the PC but allowed anyone and everyone
to produce clones. This competition resulted in lower prices. Today the
difference in price is minimal, if any, especially when you take into account
the 'extras', such as sound card, SCSI (linking for scanners and printers)
and Ethernet (networking - interconnecting computers) which Apple include
as standard. And, finally Apple have begun to license their operating system
to other manufacturers - including IBM!
For digital imaging the choice used to be simple. Macintosh. The Mac was
adopted by designers and pre-press folk over ten years ago, when the PC
gave you nothing more than a defiant 'C' prompt flashing away in the top
left of an otherwise blank screen. At that time, the Mac already offered
an intuitive interface. Understandably, this was loved by creative folk.
That's why the Mac dominates the graphics world.
Today you will rarely see the 'C' prompt on a PC. Almost everyone uses Windows
- or Windows 95, which makes a PC almost as graceful as a Mac. The difference
is that Windows 95 is still an interface sitting on top of DOS, which actually
drives the computer. The Mac interface, on the other hand, is the operating
system. One of the major limitations of DOS is the limitation of using eight
character filenames, plus three character extensions. Macintosh allows up
to 31 characters. Thus, 'Girl on beach in red hat' would have to be 'GOBIRH'
on a DOS machine. Not very descriptive. Windows 95, however, now beats Mac
at its own game, providing file names up to 256 characters long. You get
the idea, 'Girl on beach in red hat and yellow polka-dot bikini and a bright
blue beach ball' - and that's less than one third the maximum length.
There are other differences. Floppy disks - even from a PC - automatically
appear on the 'desktop', the screen, of a Mac. (The 'desktop' is your virtual
desktop - on the computer screen.) Exchanging files used to be a problem
but now it's easy in the Mac direction. Windows 95 has multi-tasking
abilities, enabling it to do more than one job at once. Sounds great but
you'd better buy plenty of expensive RAM or things slow down unbearably.
Perhaps as a result of its long dominance, imaging software tends to be
available for the Mac first. Superb applications such as Live Picture are
still only available for the Mac. A few years ago I had to change to Macintosh
to be able to use Adobe Photoshop. After years of editing DOS's AUTOEXEC.BAT
and CONFIG.SYS files the change to Mac was a rest cure. How could it be
so easy, I wondered? I still use both DOS and Mac, which puts me in a neutral
position, though I prefer the ease and elegance of the Mac. It's like the
difference between two makes of cars - they feel different but eventually
get you to the same place.
More important than which operating system you adopt are the facilities
the particular model has.
As a photographer you will be fussy about image quality. A 24-bit display
which gives you 'millions' of colours is the optimum for displaying photographic
quality. You can get away with 16-bit - 'thousands' of colour - at a pinch
but nothing less. Upgrading in this area may mean buying extra VRAM (Video
RAM), though this is not very expensive.
Go for as large and as high quality a monitor as possible. A fourteen
inch involves a great deal of moving things around the screen and finding
things which get covered up. Seventeen inch monitors are very reasonably
priced these days and a good compromise. Nineteen to twenty one inch monitors
are a good deal more expensive, though they save time and workflow interruptions
by virtue of their sheer screen acreage. Bear in mind that you may need
an extra graphics card to drive a large monitor. These can be more expensive
than the monitor itself.
A good tip is to use two monitors, feeding a second (smaller) monitor via
an additional video card. You can drag things from one monitor to the other,
as though their screens were joined. This way you could buy a cheap monitor
and eight bit (256 colour) card, using it to store all the Photoshop toolboxes,
leaving your main screen free for images. A black and white monitor would
suffice but, if you buy a small colour monitor, you can always substitute
it for your main monitor in an emergency. The main video card will drive
the monitor in at least as many colours as it drove the larger monitor.
Although we spend a great deal of time configuring our computers, it's a
sad fact that most computer monitors are not adjusted to view all the detail
in the images displayed upon them. This is hardly surprising when computer
manuals ignore this important area, leaving users to set Brightness and
Contrast using nothing more than guesstimation. Correct monitor adjustment
is a neglected area of computer setup. Be sure to line up your monitor carefully.
Two years ago we offered a 'Chip Shop Chip Charts' disk for £5, to
help you achieve this. Now the advice is freely available here
at our Website.
You must have a CD-ROM drive. A lot of software comes on CD these days
and you need to be able to take advantage of using Photo-CD - not to mention
all the 'free' discs stuck to magazine covers.
Get one which runs as fast as possible - 4x or 6x means that many times
faster than the basic speed. You will appreciate a fast drive as your life
slips away waiting for large images to load from CD.
Modems start at about £100. These days a modem and Internet access
account is essential. It's a convenient way to get new scanner or printer
driver software, information about new products and communicate with the
world via eMail. You can look at your own page at the BIPP Website and see
how it compares with that of other photographers. You can also send and
receive faxes. Get a 28,800bps fax/modem - nothing slower or you'll spend
the difference on higher telephone charges. I use a Global Village TelePort
Platinum. Remember, your biggest future clients could be looking for you
on the World Wide Web right now.
You need lots of RAM for digital imaging, in order to make applications
such as Adobe Photoshop work at an acceptable speed. How much RAM you need
depends on what kind of images you are dealing with.
I have used Macintosh LC475 machines (now obsolete but still good) running
Photoshop on just 8MB but would not recommend it. We have now upped the
RAM in these machines to 20MB and this should be regarded as the minimum.
Go for 32MB or 64MB if possible - up to 256MB if you will be dealing with
large image files. RAM has never been cheaper than now. Performance Direct
(01784 477 477) are currently offering 16MB of RAM at prices starting from
£139. These prices are a fraction of what RAM cost a year or two ago
- but they might not stay so low for very long.
Murphy's law of Hard Drives seems to say that, whatever size of hard
drive you buy, you'll soon be within 10% of its total capacity. Go for at
least a 1GB drive - up to 2GB if possible. You can easily expand, adding
an external drive later.
The industry standard is Adobe Photoshop. It is, after all, the program
that started the desktop imaging revolution, though worthy challengers such
as Macromedia's xRes and Live Picture are now hot on its tail. The full
version of Photoshop is now down to as low as £250. There is also Photoshop
LE, a slightly de-featured version, which is cheaper. You may get either
'bundled' 'free' when buying a scanner.
There are many types of scanner but flatbed scanners are inexpensive
and versatile and should be high on your list. I use Agfa and Nikon flatbed
scanners (note the photographic names) but there are plenty of inexpensive
scanners to chose from.
Ignore impressive sounding resolutions, such as 2400x2400, which are interpolated
up. Ask for the true optical resolution. MacLine (0181 401 1111) are offering
the Microtek ScanMaker E3 for £279, or £324 and £428 with
Photoshop LE, and full Photoshop respectively. The E3 has an optical resolution
of 300x600, which means that it analyses you images into 300 parts for every
inch, by up to 600 steps per inch as scans across a print. Spend another
£279 and you can get the transparency hood, enabling you to scan transparencies
too. But don't expect full repro quality from a low cost scanner.
Pay more and you will get a superb flatbed scanner. The Agfa DuoScan is
a 1000x2000 scanner with a density range of over 3.0 - 10 -stops or a 1024
to 1 contrast range - which has a street price of around £3,000 but
is in short supply at the moment. The DuoScan features a separate tray for
transparencies, which may be loaded while reflective material is being scanned.
Other scanners take transmissive material - negative or transparency, colour
or monochrome - and digitise it. These tend to do a better job of digitising
transparencies but be